Tales from the Community Art Project with Stephen Bruce

Introduction Overview of the art project: We will be undertaking several drawing activities and building a papier-mâché pot that we will decorate with ideas from our drawings. We will be taking inspiration from the artist Grayson Perry. Day 1 - Drawing workshop and start the papier-mâché pot in groups Day 2 – Finish drawings and continue the papier-mâché pot in groups Day 3 – Building up layers of papier-mâché on the pot in groups Day 4 – Finishing the layers on the pot Day 5 - Once the pot is ready it will be prepared with a layer of paint ready for our final activity which will be decorating the pot with images linked to your stories. We will work in groups.

As we work through our art project we will be borrowing ideas and inspiration from different artists. Some from the past who are now dead and some who are living and still producing art today. Particularly we will looking at the work of: Wassily Kandinsky Marc Chagall Chris Riddell – Author, illustrator and artist Jane Ray – Author and illustrator. Grayson Perry – Potter and artist

Activity 1 Introduction to drawing

Mark Making Russian Artist Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky was born in 1866 in Moscow and he died in 1944. Although he was born in Russia he later became a French citizen and lived in France. He is very famous for being the first artist to make an abstract piece of art.

Activity 2 Drawing Portraits Key Learning: Head shapes Proportions of the face/ composition Drawing facial features Using line and mark making skills Part 1 - Draw on sketch book paper Part 2 – Draw on cartridge paper

Making a drawing of a face can be broken down into small steps. Drawing a head shape. Draw an oval slightly wider at the top than the bottom. This is the basic head shape.

Marking out key guidelines Draw a light vertical line down the centre, then draw a horizontal line halfway between the top and bottom of the oval. This line will give you the eye positions. Divide the remaining space below in half. This will be for the base of the average-nose. Divide the space below that into thirds. The mouth will be at the top of those thirds, the rest will be the chin.

Drawing eyes The basic eye shape is an almond shape with a slight downward point near the nose. The space between the eyes is one eye length. Five eye lengths fit across the average face.

Drawing the nose Half way between the eye line and bottom of the face is the bottom of the nose line. The basic nose shape is a slightly flattened U shape and a letter C shape and a backwards letter C shape. The width of the nose extends a little beyond the corners of the eyes. Noses do vary a lot between individuals so this is just a guide.

Drawing the ears The ears are drawn between the eye line and the nose line and consist of a letter C shape or backward C shape. Ears are wider at the top and come in towards the face at the lobe.

Drawing the mouth The mouth line is either drawn a third of the way down from the nose line to the chin or half way from the nose to the chin. This means the centre line between the lips sits on the “third” line with the top lip above and the bottom lip below. The corners of the mouth line up approximately with the pupils of the eye.

Drawing the neck and hairline The neck is usually as wide as the jaw line (approximately the bottom lip line). The hair line is approximately one quarter or one third from top of the head to the eye line. The hair itself usually extends above the top of the head depending on the hairstyle.

Features to practice

Part 2 - Produce your own finished drawing of a character from your tale/ imagination. Use mark making in the background. Look at the inspiration sheet to help you.

Inspiration sheet

Now complete your drawing using brush and ink technique Several famous artist have used this technique: Vincent Van Gogh Marc Chagall Chris Riddell

Exemplification of Brush and Ink/ Pen and Ink Technique Illustrator Chris Riddell

Brush/ Pen and Ink drawings by Vincent Van Gogh

Brush and Ink drawing by Vincent Van Gogh

Brush and Ink drawing plus colour wash by Marc Chagall

Example drawings using brush and ink Brush and Ink with gold highlights

Activity 3 Imaginative drawing to illustrate part of your tale. This can be a portrait or something else linked to your story. Look at the artist Marc Chagall and Grayson Perry for inspiration.

Class Papier-mâché Pot Inspired by Grayson Perry. Grayson Perry makes pots with a classical shape and decorates them with modern illustrations.

Grayson Perry CBE (for services to contemporary art) Born in 1960 he is an English artists known mainly for his ceramic vases. His vases have classical shapes and are coloured and illustrated with a variety of subjects, including people, places, buildings and objects. In 2003 he was awarded the Turner Prize.

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall was born in Russia to a Jewish family in 1887 and he died in France in 1985. He became a very famous artist during his lifetime. He is particularly famous for his dream like paintings illustrating Jewish daily and religious life and stories. He also produced many stained glass windows for buildings like Metz and Reims Cathedrals and the United Nations building. Chagall also illustrated a version of the Bible and he painted part of the ceiling at the Paris Opera Theatre. His father worked incredibly hard to support Marc and his 8 brothers and sister. He was a herring merchant (selling fish). Marc Chagall often painted fish motifs in his paintings out of respect and love for his father.

Class Papier-mâché Pot Inspired by Grayson Perry Classical shape