Tyger Tyger, Burning Bright

Welcome back to Autumn Term at Children’s Art School at Pelham Primary School.

Leading the older group, textile Fine Artist Veena Scialo, started off by reading the 1794 William Blake poem “The Tyger” (The Tiger).  In parallel, we watched a video on contemporary children’s book author and illustrator Chris Haughton, in which he clearly demonstrates how he produces the collage elements for his engaging images. (See Tate Kids Website for more information).

Full of jungle spirit, the children were asked to express their response to the first line of the poem “Tiger, tiger burning bright” through illustration, based on the technique Chris explains on his film.

Time to get making.  The first session was spent making textured paper, using acrylic paint applied with a range of different tools.  A fork, comb, stick or brush etched into the paint resulted in some interesting patters: tiger fur, blades of grass, what can you see?   This burnt orange screams “TYGER”.

After the beautiful handmade papers were dry, it was time to decide how to express the glorious words of William Blake.  Before assembling the shapes for collage, they needed to be cut out.  The children built their illustrations from many words and shapes in their own special way using the patterned paper, pens, pastels, crayons, pencils and scissors to assemble their composition.

The results were dramatic, see below, but watch out…the Tyger’s about…

Some children went on to produce a second page, based on the second line from the poem, “in the forests of the night”, which resulted in some menacing, poised for attack, others like Sugar below, smiling whilst on the prowl.