Fleeting Images: Action and animation, course 2

Artist Viyki Turnbull led the second of out summer courses focussing on the body, which aims to help children think about how to work with the figure in 2D, 3D and create better animated drawings.

We began with free experimentation with chalk and charcoal on large sheets of paper.

Scribbling, mark making and rubbing.

Using chalk to make circular and tubular shapes – we were creating a background for further experiments.

Viyki showed us how easy it was to create figures quickly using a series of linking circles and ovals.

We tried it out for ourselves

Our life model Jackie arrived and she created interesting poses for us to draw from. She moved quickly so we had to catch her and draw speedily.

Our skills developed quickly.

Our collaborative drawing began to look amazing as we continuously rubbed and overlapped new drawings.

We then added colour to our existing drawings, which added a new dimension.

Some stunning work was created from the youngest…

…to the oldest participants.

We then worked with pipe cleaners to create 3D figures in different poses

Jackie modeled for us again, we had to look hard.

There was lots of talk of the current olympics as we moved our pipe-cleaner bodies into different poses

There was lots of concentration

Before lunch we all worked together to hang our giant picture so we could admire it all day for inspiration as we worked

After lunch we learnt about the proportions of the human body and how to draw more complicated stick men.

We then used our pipe-cleaner men to draw round and create a sequence of movements or short stories as the basis of an animation.

Our pipe-cleaner men were cartwheeling…

gymnasts…

tennis players

and skateboarders…

Our first animations were appearing. We used watercolours to add colour.

We ended the day with a group challenge to build a structure strong enough to hold a stack of books using paper and string…this got us working together again for the last part of the day we got the hang of some building skills that we will need tomorrow!