Art

In the artroom....

On Tuesday 12th November we were privileged to have Richard Galbraith, cartoonist, come to visit our school for an incursion. Richard developed an interest in drawing when he was a boy, and he has been drawing ever since. He has written and illustrated books,  drawn greeting cards for Simson cards, and illustrated jigsaw puzzles. His most famous character is the Koala. A number of the children recognised his books and were excited to see Richard in person. His website is https://richardgalbraith.com.au/

Richard shared his knowledge and expertise in the art of drawing cartoons while the students also had a go at drawing cartoons themselves, following his tutelage. Richard shared valuable insights - the first of which was there are no mistakes. Any 'mistakes' were to ve viewed as opportunities; what could it be turned into? Students were encouraged to make their cartoons have expression through the use of eyebrows, mouth, and eyes, to add movement through some 'wiggle' marks, to use a speech bubble, and to add expression to the speech bubble by adding an exclamation mark to their text.

Younger students gave the first alien cartoon that Richard drew a friendly wave, and then Richard drew some wiggle marks so that the alien waved back greetings to the students.

The students were very engaged as they observed him drawing and saw their own drawings come to life. They had the opportunity to draw about 3 or 4 pictures. 

Grades 3 and 4 have printed, drawn and painted a fireworks display as part of their unit on celebrations. The most iconic use of fireworks is linked with the celebration New Year's Eve and the students were keen to share their knowledge and experiences of fireworks. I think the most enjoyable part of this activity was the abundant adding of glitter to their printing of fireworks! The glitter really made their pictures pop with sparkle. They look amazing displayed on our art room wall.

Grades 1 and 2 have been looking at impressionism with artist Claude Monet. We looked at some images of Monet's Garden in France, and in particular the famous water lilies. They have constructed some beautiful lilies of their own.

Kim Miatke, from our beautiful and local Warrandyte Calla Collective store, has been in to workshop watercolour paintings with the grade 6s for their end-of-year framed artwork. She has taught the 6s a range of skills in using and blending watercolour paints. Students have enjoyed using this medium and designing something special of their own.  They are aiming to include a quote that they like in their artwork.

Some of Kim's work that she brought in to inspire the students are included here. If any students are interested in doing a workshop with Kim, she will be holding workshops in her store towards the end of the January holidays.