Fleeting Images: Life Drawing and Animation

Artist Viyki Turnbull led day one of our Summer Art Course which focussed on drawing the human body in movement.

We know children love to draw cartoons, so taking this as a starting point we aim to give more depth to their drawings by focussing on looking at the human form in movement, whilst keeping it interesting and exciting for them.

After a warm up we got straight to work…Viyki asked the children to simply scribble with charcoal onto two large sheets of coloured paper. They then rubbed with tissue and added egg shapes using white chalk.

We hoped to free the children up before focussing on the drawing skills.

Viyki then did a quick demonstration on how to draw figures using ovals. The children could see how easy it was to get a good result.

They were happy to pose for her!

Then we announced the arrival of our special guest Esther, who was going to model for us and help us to draw. She was excellent at moving in interesting ways and standing still for a long time!

The children were captivated. Their drawings got better and we introduced some new drawing techniques.

The children picked up the new techniques well. And enjoyed getting a bit messy!

Some of the youngest children then went with Illustrator Millie Nice to work on some special activities. They made new drawing inventions and practiced drawing the figure using them.

Meanwhile others continued to observe Esther, but this time drew using pipe-cleaners to make stick people in different positions.

After lunch we started to think about how our figures could inhabit a narrative by building a landscape for them to perform in.

We started off with a simple building challenge to make a structure using paper and string – with prizes for the tallest, strongest and prettiest!

The children were very inventive.

Again the youngest children worked with Millie on an exciting collaborative drawing using their bodies to enact movements and overlaying them.

Can you see bodies running, diving, falling and cartwheeling?

The next step was to continue making a backdrop for our ‘stick people’. Children had the choice whether to paint a 2D backdrop or build a 3D environment.

They were busy making for a good hour – very focussed on their creations.

Look what they came up with.

This time the younger children worked with pipe cleaners and took them on a journey. Each little person was manipulated into various positions to make sequence of movements, then used to make a simple comic strip.