Day 1 Self-Portrait

Me and my mirror!

I decided to to do my #30drawingTUI this morning before showering and getting dressed for the day. My hair all bed-head in an unflattering way but I did get it done, in an inspired moment. I think it's the best way to take on any challenge like this, being aware that it needs to be done but acting on inspiration, unless of course, the day is coming to an end and you have no other excuse but to just do it. 

Today it felt good in fact it seemed "easy" I used the gadget my mum bought me for christmas too. An easy button. For tasks that seemed challenging before starting but on reflexion were easy and enjoyable.

This is a personal journey for me while I share it with another 138 students all of which I hope feel good about what they are achieving. As they countdown the days and build a sketchbook of beauty that they will treasure for many years to come and remember it as one of their first challenges in life. 

Roll on day 2!

#30day drawing challenge

Get those pencils sharpened!

Join me and my students in our 30 day drawing challenge. 

There are 138 students and some very brave teachers taking part in this months drawing challenge. At our school we emphasize and work with the children on values, the focus during February is Effort and Perseverance. By starting a personal challenge in which the students have to learn personal commitment and self-discipline it ties in perfectly, especially when you add a creative element into the mix.

The students will use a sketchbook or notebook and draw a specific thing everyday for the next 30 days, I have pinned the list outside the artroom door. The younger students have a purposely designed sketchbook with the day and the subject-matter for that day on each page.

The picture for tomorrow is self-portrait. You can find some ideas to get you started here: Portraits board

Good luck and most importantly ENJOY!

Peace day for my daughter!

Her hands & My heart

As is often the case I didn't read the letter home on the day it was sent, so therefore being creative had to be pulled straight out of a hat. This time instead of a rabbit I needed a dove!

We were asked to make something at home for Peace day. M.(3) was as usual full of eagerness to be wildly creative, I on the other hand, had other ideas. Well one idea to be exact, which gradually got reduced to a quarter of the whole(due to time constraints)!

Tomorrow she sings her song and enjoys seeing the work of her classmates. I love showing her how you can make beautiful things from very little.

New Year - New Mural

The Cathedral has been Zentangled!

This mural was inspired by the work we have done in class on St.Basil's Cathedral, where the focus was on Line and pattern. I enlarged the outline of our local monument the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela to roughly 2 meters and drew sections for the students to draw their zentangles inside the space.

It took a couple of weeks to get the Cathedral complete alongside working on other projects in class. I would send small groups of 4-5 to work on a section while continuing with the regular class.

You can find a similar lesson to my St.Basil's Cathedral at Deep Space Sparkle, a fabulous website full of all kinds of ideas and inspiration. 

Picasso Portraits

Cubism/Portraits and Picasso 

My guide on this was very simple, amost like a dictation (Class 3 ESL students):

Using a black felt-tip/sharpie on A3 white card

Draw a large oval in the middle of the paper.
           a wavy or profile line down the middle.
           3 eyes (1 of which a profile) anywhere within the oval
           2 noses
           3 ears
           2 mouths
           a neck and shoulders going off the paper. 
           In the background straight lines and Picasso 1881-1973 in the top left corner
The rest was pretty much left up to them. They coloured it carefully with Oil Pastels.

I did my example with them but removed it soon after showing them as I like them to feel the freedom of drawing in their own way. Often I find they want to copy exactly like me if  I leave it up.

This is a lesson I found years ago and always find room for it during my unit on Portraits as they learn about Picasso and feel confident with the results of their own work.

In the Art room this week

One of my many hats that I wear is as an art teacher to class 3 & 4 students in a wonderful independent school here in Galicia. I figured it would be nice to share  with you some of what my talented students have been up to throughout the week, so each Friday I shall  post about one or two of the creative projects that have been happening in the art room.

Autumn has arrived and here at school I'm very fortunate to work surrounded by the stunning landscape and the changing weather and seasons.

My classroom looks out across to the Pico Sacro but what I love most is the amount of Sky we see and the moving clouds throughout the day, It is wonderful to just sit and watch the clouds go by or the rain pelt it down, although it can be a little distracting at times!

While that's a view of the outside, inside the art room we have updated our entrance mural to something atmospherically "halloween-like", the idea was taken from my pinterest board art projects which I decided to enlarge and up-cycle what was previously there.

The spring mural started like this:

We created some birds Birds cut out of magazines and wrapping papers sat them on felt tip lines to represent the wires and as part of the theme "Colour" we painted some large colour wheel umbrellas. The students posed and we took photos to create some "photo montages" to (more-or-less) scale.

The flowers were added, as class three were also working on the same theme, making colour wheel flowers, some of which I added to the Mural.

As the seasons change, the mural  also changes. I don't always do a mural based on the seasons or particular celebrations, in fact we are currently working on a large Zentangle mural(soon to be posted here), but as it's taking a little longer than expected I decided to improvise and turned the birds into another scene. A haunting halloweeny spooky full moon!!

Class three students coloured the birds with oil pastels and for the sky the students got an opportunity to get dirty with charcoal, following that they painted the tree with temperas. The make over was done in a day with the collaboration of 3A and my colleague Suqui, who is fantastic, Thank you!

Oh happy hunting we go!

As has become tradition over the last few years for me and S during the middle of October we go and collect pine cones for my mother-in-law, who loves to have the real fire lit during the winter months. This is a wonderful excuse to escape the city, even in the drizzle we wrap up in wellies and raincoats and head to the pine forests.This year M and E were of great help gathering up the cones they found.

The liberation I feel on leaving the city is magical, I live in a beautiful city, relatively small in size and as I work in a large local school it can sometimes feel like I'm living inside a goldfish bowl. The City of Santiago de Compostela is at the heart of Galicia in the north west of Spain, it is a stunning region with the most amazing beaches and lots of green all around. As we are in the centre of the city we have to remind ourselves during the colder months to get out of the town and JUST be in nature, especially now E. doesn't rely on a pushchair. 

M was really excited about the pine trees and the reasons we were collecting the cones - they make amazing fire starters, by the way. We also found  M.'s favourite snack of the season, the humble chestnut. We were able to show her where they came from and how to open them without getting pricked. It took some convincing that they had to be roasted before she could eat them though!

We first found this forest a few years ago as we had gone for lunch to a quirky restaurant/shed right next door called Fogar do Santiso. The restaurant was famous for it's cobwebs more than anything but over the years they have evolved into serving only organic dishes. They have a great children's play area outside when the weather permits and scattered around the "cave" inside they have small log fires burning, which makes it a really fun place to go with kids during all seasons. The food is typically Galician with some added extras my favourite dish was the patatas a la brasa con romero - roast potato wedges with olive oil and rosemary.

Had I been able to save some of the chestnuts from the beggars at my feet I would have given this  recipe a go Chestnut Brownies from my favourite food blogger at Savoring the Spice

As always getting out of the city lifted me and made me connect with the girls in a fun and calming way. We actually managed to sit and enjoy our meal with both girls eating really well. It was one of the first meals we've had as a family where S didn't repeatedly say "this was a bad idea", in fact the whole day was his idea and it was a great one!