technique: monoprinting

A few months back Claire did a post about monoprinting with leaves and experimenting with using natural forms as resist. I've always loved monoprinting but for some reason my learners have never seemed to of engaged with the technique. For the past 6 weeks I have been teaching my AS Fine Art students a series of creative techniques before they take the plunge into their first project and the following technique captured their imaginations and enabled them to build and draw upon exciting layers!

Over the Summer myself and Claire were super lucky to find this idea on the NSEAD Online Facebook group. If you aren't a member then join - the wealth of resources shared with all levels of art educators is amazing. After a bit of a play with the technique I thought about how I could make it more advance for my students and this is where I experimented with masking tape layers and washes to build up the texture and tone within the print. This technique would work well for any initial responses or as a quick method of recording to change the direction of a project and more importantly all my students relished in getting messy, testing alternative drawing methods and combining medias!

Follow the below steps to give it a go with your classes this month...

What you need:

• Block Printing ink (water or oil based)
• Print rollers
• Acrylic paint
• Masking tape
• Newspaper / Magazines
• Cardboard or any mixed-media base
• Relevant imagery to monoprint / draw on top of

Method:

1) Take your base (cardboard works great as it enables your students to work on top of a new exciting media) and choose a light colour of acrylic paint to work on top of. It is important it is light so that the print and layers you are about to build up stay clear. I told my students to ensure the colour reflected the mood of the image they were studying or you could link it to colour theory. Dry with a hairdryer before proceeding to step 2.

2) Start to build up layers with masking tape - thinking about the direction and scale of strips applied. I taught my students a technique called 'masking tape transfer' to add more depth to their base. To create this technique, simply apply masking tape directly onto any printed image (magazines, newspapers, train tickets, etc work great due to the quality of the ink!). Once stuck firmly down to the image/text - simply peel straight off! You will be left with the ink on the tape and what's great is that the masking tape is still sticky and can be applied straight on top of your base.

3) Apply a thin wash of white acrylic paint on top of the masking tape layer to ensure your print will stand out.

4) Roll your ink on to the back of a printed image (make sure your image is mirrored so it comes out the right way!) and rub off the excess ink with spare newspaper. I used black ink so it made a real contrast to the yellow background layer but you could experiment with single/multiple colour ways! Once you have rubbed the excess ink off, place the inked image face down on top of your masking tape base and start tracing on top of your image with a biro or sharp pencil. Once you have completed your drawing remove the printed image and ta-dah! You have been left with a unique and experimental printed drawing like below.

Tip: Less ink is more and the sharper your drawing implement the better! Biro's are great. My students responded to a variety of mark making techniques and extended their learning by using creative drawing methods such as continuous line and adding tea/coffee into their prints for further use of layers/tone.

As always we'd love to see visual examples if you give this technique a try with your students and if you know any other creative printing techniques then contact us to make a guest blog appearance.

- Kirsty ❤

3W: Andy Warhol

who: Andy Warhol 

what: Cats 

why: having recently become a proud owner to two beautiful cats I wanted to celebrate by adding some artwork to my walls that was cat related and I stumbled upon Andy Warhol's cat series! You can read more about the 25 cats named Sam and one blue pussy, here. I was completely unaware of them before and they make a great link for any students looking at animals for a subject matter as well as being a bit away from the norm for an Andy Warhol reference! Also if you too are into cats and art and happen to be in Amsterdam I fully recommend the Cat Museum, The Cat Cabinet, that's there! 

the cats cats cats book // Andy Warhol Foundation // Another mag discussing the cats (and dogs)

3W: Crystal Wager

who: Crystal Wager

what: paper installations, drawing and printmaking 

why: neon colours! Her installations draw you in visually and then when you look deeper the connection between her drawn and print processes and the development into sculpture makes them perfect to show students how to evolve from a drawing in an exciting manner! 

Crystal Wager // Facebook // instagram // creative boom feature 

Digital: Fragment App

This academic year has flown by and like many of you in Further Ed I can't believe we're about to start the exam unit! With this in mind I realised my attention lately has been on the job and that it was about time I focused on sharing ideas that I've discovered on my journey.

Some of you may have already heard of this App but it is literally amazing.. and I am a teeny bit jealous that it wasn't invented when I was studying art and design. Fragment App first came to my attention when it was iTunes 'App of the Month' and my colleague shared it with me. At first glance, I knew it would be some sort of photo editing software but I didn't realise the potential it had in the classroom!

Straight away I tested the software with some of my student's work (above image) and discovered that it was perfect for adding geometric patterns and shapes to images. I was instantly hooked and saw how it could revolutionize the development and experimentation of my student's work. 

My students have responded to the App really well and I would say that in some cases it has saved their project work. Some of my students have created entire projects using the App and it is a brilliant way of getting digital work into a project quickly without the hassle of Photoshop.

Here are some of my suggestions as to how you could use the software in your classroom:

• Initial Responses: Engaging students with different ways of how to view their images - especially those who are most suitable to abstraction!
• Experimentations: Drawing, painting, collaging, weaving, layering, double exposures, etc.
• Sculptures: Print, cut, images and turn into unique photographic sculptures.

Fragment App is available through the iTunes store and works on iPhones/iPads/Androids as well as desktops! The App does cost - but it's definitely worth the couple of pounds and if you have a department account then you only have to pay for it once.. yay!

So, what are you waiting for? Deliver it as an exciting new technique to your students over the next few weeks and make their exam project stand out!

- Kirsty ❤

technique: drawing with thread pva

Just a quick post to share my excitement with this technique! I love the idea of working with thread but not every student is going to be into the idea of sewing so if you've got any students like this get them to give this a go! 

Drawing with thread & pva

what you need: 

- embroidery floss (I used black but you can use any colour!)

- pva glue

- a flat plastic surface (I used a paint palette)

- glue stick or brush 

method:

1. Pour a layer of pva into your palette (approx. 5mm thick) - you can pour and tilt your palette or push the glue around to make a particular shape that suits your drawing or go right to the edges for an even shape

2. Cut stripes of thread to work with - if your using embroidery floss experiment with separating the 6 strands into different thicknesses so that you can get a range of line in your drawing

3. lay the strands thread into the pva to create your drawing - if you can't get them in the right position use your glue stick or brush to push them into place. You can also create loose threads around your drawing by hanging them outside of the glue area! 

note: the threads will start to sink into the pva and will look faint but the glue will dry clear so do not worry! 

4. Once you have completed your drawing leave to dry! This could take 24-48 hours depending on the thickness of the glue!

5. Once completely dry carefully peel your drawing away from the palette to reveal! 

extension: you could work into your drawing with machine or hand sewing OR cut away areas of glue to leave loose threads 

tip: I used a slightly dirty paint palette (you could paint the palette before hand if you wanted more control over this aspect) - the pva will pick up the paint from the surface which can add an interesting effect to your drawing, if you want it to dry clear use a super clean one! 

As always we'd love to see anything you create if you followed our instructions!

- Claire ❤

Lesson idea: Acrylic Transfer

My Fine Art students are currently transitioning into A2 and I have spent most of the past month introducing them new techniques that are easy and cheap to do! This post is going to introduce you to the wonderful world of acrylic transfers which are simply, a photographic transfer process that creates beautiful prints of your chosen image on to any acrylic painted surface. Across this week my students have tested the technique on paper, fabric, acetate and wood and all have produced some confident results! What I love about this technique is that any image is suitable - it works in both black and white / colour (inkjet or laser printed!) and it can be developed further as backgrounds or into interesting textural collages like the work of Rauschenberg or Sally Mankus. Follow my easy how to, to get started...

Once the transfer has been rubbed off to reveal your final result consider the following ideas:

1. Acrylic transfers with different coloured paints

2. Drawing / painting into acrylic transfers

3. Creating transfers on different materials other than paper e.g. wood, plastic, cardboard...

4. Experimenting with scale, repetition and layers to create a mixed-media collage!

Here are some of my student responses and as always if you have tried this technique then we would love to see some of your own/student examples!

- Kirsty ❤

Visual Literacy

I don't know about you but I always find myself continuously racking my brains for innovative ideas of how to successfully embed literacy and maths within the arts. Visual literacy is an area that has always interested me and believe it is a great, creative way to develop student's learning. Recently, for an observed lesson I chucked myself in the deep end and created a starter activity inspired by this fantastic resource from The Photographers' Gallery entitled: What do you see? The concept of the activity is that it is designed to develop learners visual literacy skills by asking them to describe and draw the subject and compositional elements of a photograph. This idea was perfect as I was fortunate enough that my students at the time were responding to primary photographs!

I'm even luckier that most of my classes have a perfect match to work in pairs but if not don't worry - three's can work too. Just double the drawer or the describer up. You can make the activity as long or short as you like - I gave mine two minutes each to describe/draw as I enjoy short and sharp activities!

 

Step 1. Find a partner 

Step 2. Swop your primary photographs with your partner and choose one image you would like your partner to draw - keep it hidden from your partner!

Step 3. Start describing the photograph to your partner without showing the image. The partner must try to draw the image based on your description. You may ask questions of each other, act out poses and look at the drawing together as long as the photograph is kept hidden.

Step 4. Now, swop and repeat the process.

Step 5. Lay out the drawings next to the photograph and compare them.

The students really engaged with the activity and it was great to see the drawer acting out poses to understand verbal descriptions/instructions! The responses after the activity were all positive and some were surprised at how quickly they could produce a detailed drawing through the use of language. At the end of the activity I got students to respond to three set questions:

1. How do the drawings compare with the original photographs?

2. Did your partner describe any details in the photograph you may not of originally noticed?

3. What descriptive words did you find most useful when listening to instructions?

Feedback from learners was positive and all were able to confidently answer the 3 questions above. Even better, students were able to comment that it enabled them to see parts of the image which they may of not noticed beforehand. For example: texture, line, elements within the back/foreground. After the activity I got my students to continue responding to their primary photographs - making sure they applied the skills they had learnt from the activity to notice every, tiny detail. Some were even repeating the descriptive words to remember how to draw marks! 

Overall, I found this activity ensured accurate observation and students understood what they were seeing/drawing which resulted in higher-level critical thinking! We think this activity is great for any art discipline and would work well with paintings/drawings etc as well as photographs. The feedback could even be changed into a critique!

As always let us know if you have tried this activity or have other fun ways of using visual literacy in your lessons. We'd love to hear them!

- Kirsty ❤

Lesson idea: Drawing

I love doing observational drawing lessons with students! I studied Drawing at degree level so I particularly enjoy the introduction lesson as I introduce drawing approaches that I have found work for me. I don't know about you but I always find I get a good portion of students who are fearful of drawing and who proclaim 'I can't draw' or something of the like, so I like to do this lesson to warm them up and build their confidence in their drawing skills. Instead of jumping in with a technical approach focusing on perspective I like to introduce a series of activities that focus on training their co-ordination between their hands and eyes. I feel it's a great way to introduce drawing that will lead to a better understanding when they move onto more technical approaches but I also feel there are some students (myself included) who will never use a technical approach because it just doesn't work for them - but they can learn perspective by eye instead! 

The image above is from a recent observational drawing lesson I did with students but is typical of the way I structure the session. I like to start with quick studies, I'm talking 30 seconds-2 minutes, before moving on to longer studies and I always use a range of approaches. I like to use contour drawing, continuous line, blind drawing, negative space and wrong hand drawing. I'll normally do quick demonstrations on the white board, smart board, flip chart, what ever I have access too but I also like to refer to artists who use these techniques so I put together the sheet below (available to download from our TES resources, HERE) which shows artists and the techniques used! I normally set students homework to make notes about the techniques in their sketchbooks following the drawing lesson and to do further research on one of the artists. 

As always we'd love to here from you if you use similar approaches or if you have a go using ours in the classroom!
- Claire  ❤

Review: CPD Teachers Life Drawing at the National Portrait Gallery London

Quick 2 minute warm up poses looking at the paper & not looking at the paper

Well I don't know about you but it has been a long time since I have done any life drawing so Claire and I jumped at the opportunity of a free twilight session at the National Portrait Gallery last week.  Feeling a bit rusty and slightly apprehensive we needn't have worried. The class was small, the teachers friendly and with a cup of free tea to steady the nerves we were soon on our way to loosening up our life drawing muscles. The two hour session was led by a seasoned artist called 'Karen' who took us through the usual quick warm up poses giving gentle support and direction and picking up on areas of good practise.

2 x15 minute drawings first from memory with no model & then with model in situ

We were then led through the basics, how to measure, how to look and see shapes such as areas of negative space, how to move from line to tone working with form and finally onto a longer pose using pastels on blue paper. Having read illustration at University I was well versed with these exercises and the session was a good refresher for me, but it would also be suitable for those who have never attended life drawing before as it was well structured and plenty of support was given.

Quick 5 min tonal pastel study & 15 min longer tonal pastel study

Claire and I came away feeling very glad that we had made the effort to go up to London and with a stash of drawings to show for our efforts it was a very enjoyable and rewarding opportunity which we highly recommend. Oh and all of the materials are free too so you don't even have to take so much of a pencil! Keep an eye out for other free events for teachers on the National Portrait Gallery CPD page here. 

- Jess ❤

exhibition: The Turner Prize 2012

As part of the teacher session at the Tate Portfolio Advice Day I was also able to visit the current exhibitions at the Tate, including the Turner Prize. I love visiting the Turner Prize, it's always interesting to see the mix of different work on display and mull over who you think might be selected as the winner. This year the nominees were Paul Noble; stunningly detailed drawings, Elizabeth Price; film artist who combines text/music/imagery (at an exceptionally loud volume I might add), Spartacus Chetwynd; a performance artist and Luke Fowler; also a film artist. I'm not a huge fan of film based art, I can't quite pinpoint what it is, perhaps its my attention span, so I was hopeful that Paul Noble or Spartacus Chetwynd might win. Paul Noble was purely because it would have been great for a drawer to be selected and Spartacus Chetwynd because of how incredible crazy the piece was. The picture above is of one of the performance rooms just before some humans came in dressed as what looked like Zebras and put on a puppet show for us, it was fabulous. There's a few different performances going on throughout the time the shows on, you can see a video preview HERE and it's worth checking the performance times so you can be sure to see one when you visit! 

This evening was the announcement and I was slightly saddened, though not surprised, that the winner was Elizabeth Price. One of the things I love most about the prize is how unpredictable it is, I can never fathom who is going to win! If you missed the announcement this evening you can catch up with it on 4OD, here. Another thing I love about the show is the pinboard at the end where members of the public can share their views on the show and some people really like to get those opinions out there, these are some of my favourite ones... 

The show is open till January 6th so if you haven't visited yet make sure you make it up there, if only to marvel at the performance piece! 

- Claire ❤

3W: Natalya Lobanova

who: Natalya Lobanova

what: humorous drawings that brighten up our day!

why: because her drawings remind us of David Shrigley and it is always refreshing to see this type of text, narrative work. Natalya Lobanova creates quirky drawings of things we're all thinking in our heads but are never quite brave enough to actually say it. We think their wonderful, hilarious and love the simple subject matter of them! Check out her Flickr page to see more images and become part of the daily life of Lobanova by following her on twitter.

Booooooom // Flavorwire

3W: Julia Pott

who: Julia Pott

what: illustration/animation

why: Beautifully detailed drawings with a touch of quirkiness - particularly these bears in knitwear which we love! Julia Potts is not only an incredible illustrator she also does fabulous animations and has worked for an array of cool clients including Bat For Lashes and The Decemberists.

Julia Pott // Animations on vimeo // blog // Flickr

3W: Carne Griffiths

who: Carne Griffiths

what: drawing/portraits

why: because these wonderful portraits have been created using some slightly unusual materials. Although primarily drawn using inks there's also some more offbeat liquids in there - tea, brandy, vodka and whisky! It's the tea that got us thinking we can't wait to have a go using his work as inspiration for the portrait project we're currently delivering, dripping inks & tea here we come! 

3W: Douglas Alves

who: Douglas Alves

what: beautiful mixed-media illustrations

why: because it's about time he got featured as our 3W of the week! At I Heart Teaching Art we can't resist stunning illustrations on top of a photographic image and Douglas Alves does just that. You may recognise his mixture of bizarre realistic images and unique drawings of the world from known clients such as MTV, Coca Cola and the BBC (if you haven't then check them out!) His illustrations remind us of the front cover of Bjork's album 'Vespertine' where a similar technique of nature, forms and surreal collages has been used. If you have a darkroom in your school/college then try creating your own versions with your students. We get our students to draw up their own illustrations on tracing paper/acetate and then overlay the drawing on top of their photographic enlargement in the darkroom. The results are great and it makes a good contextual comparison for their books!

Behance// Who's Next Blog

3W: Jazmin Berakha

who: Jazmin Berakha

what: drawing & embroidery 

why: because we love the combination of delicate, simple lines and bold patterns achieved through incredible intricate embroidery, the detail of which must take hours to achieve. Jazmin Berakha's talents don't just stop at embroidered illustrations her drawings, design work and installation pieces are equally stunning. 

Jazmin Berakha // blog

Lesson idea: Life Drawing

Life Drawing is something that is important within every art department and I encourage all my students to attend our weekly course throughout the year. Most comply and it ends up being their Friday afternoon highlight, but many of them question the importance of an hour and half spent staring at a naked model. I needed to change students opinions and after hours of endless searching for 'contemporary' approaches to the subject I came up with this lesson idea. It went down brilliantly with my students and got them producing some of their best work yet - you can check out their work here!

Note: For this lesson I get students to sit on the floor in a circle format around the room and work on long and thins (half A2 cartridge or sugar paper). You can position the model in whatever way works for you and your environment - sitting, standing, props, etc. I find the model is best positioned sitting or standing in the centre of the group to provide equal viewpoints from each point of the room.  At the beginning of the lesson I provide students with an envelope. Inside the envelope is a key terminology card** e.g. proportion, weight, tone, etc. for the students to refer to later in the lesson activity. Read on to find out how it is used below...

Starter: Drawing with masking tape

(10-15 mins)*

This activity is all about translating what you see into a range of interesting marks and textures, loosening up and getting unexpected results with masking tape. The masking tape allows students to not erase mistakes like the pencil and instead cover their mistakes up with layers. There's something beautiful about seeing the process of an image build up and the masking tape allows students to see the transition from 2D to 3D. I love this starter as it helps students trust their judgements and you will get some great later responses from this!

* You need to judge how the students respond to drawing with masking tape as on some occasions less or more time is required.

Before you move to the next part of the lesson get your students to review their work in a discussion with peers. Using the key terminology cards** that were picked at the beginning of the lesson, pair students up and get them to write down on the long and thin how their drawing relates to the key terminology card.

Main: Three tone collage

(45-50 mins)

For this activity you will need two coloured pieces of sugar paper and masking tape. I tend to choose more natural colours for mine - one dark and one mid tone as the masking tape will act as the lighter tone. I always start by getting students to draw a 30 second - 1 minute continuous line outline of the figure as a quick map for their collage. Don't worry about it not being perfect as it is just a preliminary guideline. Now, start by observing the subject - get students to half close their eyes and they will see that tonal values are much simpler to read as this technique diminishes the colour. Next, choose a base colour for the main shape of the figure and once ready add highlight/low lights with the remaining colour and masking tape.

Remember: Lighter colour for areas carrying less weight, or a darker colour for the main shape or direction of the pose. Look at my examples above or click here to view my classes.

Plenary: Review and target setting (15 mins)

Get students to work in their pairs they were in at the beginning of the lesson and annotate each others work on post-its focusing on their key terminology card**. Get them to think about their personal opinion of the work - what is it they like about it?  What don't they like? Once answered get them to review the comments and set themselves a new target for the next lesson. An example target could be: "When making artwork and experimenting with materials I will persevere if it's not working straight away. If a technique works for me.. I will get out of it as much as I can without becoming stale and move on to the next challenge." Notes from the feedback can be attached to the long and thins and compiled into a book format later on! This is perfect for portfolios and universities love it as they get to see the students work in progress and how their skills/ideas develop. 

I hope you enjoyed reading my alternative take on a life drawing lesson and if you use any of these methods or teach similar techniques then let us know - we'd love to see how other students respond to drawing with paper. Watch out for some more life drawing lesson ideas coming soon!

- Kirsty ❤

Photography: techniques we love, part I

It's getting to that time of year when the end of our Summer holidays are fast approaching and the new term will be upon us once again. Over the past few weeks I have been investigating the possibilities of photography and trying to think of new, exciting techniques that I could bring to my department (and students!) In this 2 part post I am going to share with you a few simple methods that are perfect for either introductory activities or more advanced lessons in the darkroom. So, to start with lets explore cameraless photography and extend those photogram lessons. Let us know if you use any of the methods in your lessons. We'd love to hear from you!

Ever wondered what to do with all that out of date photographic paper that you can't just throw away? Well now you've got an excuse to use it! Drawing with light is such a simple process and it allows students to have complete creative control over their choice of content, form and composition. I love this technique because subject matter can be non-objective, fantasy, abstract, realistic, scenic, still life, pattern, story telling - it is almost limitless in its possibilities and can be used for nearly all art and design subjects. Student's will love how fun it is and it will make a great part of your photogram lesson!

What do I need? a darkroom, photographic paper, torch or flash lamp, black paper/card & tape, a desire to create, patience and many trial and errors.

Instructions: Any lamp or torch can be used in this fun technique - just make sure you cover the end of it with a black mask, leaving only a pin hole in the centre for a narrow pencil of light to emerge. You can use black paper/card or even opaque adhesive tape for your mask... it's entirely up to you! The light can be used just like a pencil, and provided it is held close to the paper a fairly well-defined line is produced. You will need to get your students to do a  few trial and error tests to work out what speed they need to draw at to obtain a good image. But, once accomplished get them to draw on paper to their heart's content! The only downside to this method is that you cannot see the lines drawn until the print is developed. Admittedly, some artistic skill in drawing is an advantage at this stage but even if some students are not confident in drawing I find it really helps them trust their judgements and improve their overall drawing technique. Finally, once the drawing is complete... develop the print as normal and there it is! A wonderful charcoal like drawing.

TIP: To create darker tones draw lines close together as in a real pencil drawing or to create individual spots as in the image above (on the right hand side!) just flash your light where you want the spots.

These abstract prints may look complicated but in fact they are a lot easier to create than the drawing with light prints above! They do not require the use of any 'solid' objects or materials at all. The patterns achieved may not even resemble anything - or they may. But this is not the point, it's all about getting your students to realise that an abstract pattern can be a perfectly acceptable outcome for a project if they can explain the meaning of it. 

1) What do I need? darkroom, photographic paper, cellophane, water, vaseline and your hands!

Instructions: Cut a piece of cellophane so that it fits your enlarger carrier and apply vaseline and water to it. The cellophane is acting as a negative and your students will get messy as they smudge the vaseline and water around. Once satisfied with the print, put the cellophane into the negative carrier and expose as normal and develop. The next big step is to reverse the print. If you don't know how to reverse a print follow this simple tutorial here. Although this method is simpler than the standard photogram, the results are far less easy to predict, and offer virtually no scope for alteration of the print. Sadly, if the print doesn't work you just have to start again. I particularly like this method as it really teaches students to select part of a composition that works well rather than just selectively enlarging something. 

Finally, the last part of this post! How to create a negative made by force (see image 2).

2) What do I need? darkroom, photographic paper, acetate, black poster paint, paintbrush and a drying cabinet.

Instructions: Take a sheet of clear acetate and apply black poster paint all over the acetate and hang to dry in a drying cabinet. At this point make sure the temperature is set to the highest in order to quickly force dry the negative. The accelerated drying process will cause the emulsion to crack and peel away from the acetates surface. Once dry - select the most interesting part of the acetate and cut down to use as a negative for enlargement and develop as usual. As an extension you could get your students to create one print with the negative the correct way round, e.g. paint side downwards, and one with the negative turned upside down, e.g. paint side upwards. Consequently, the second print will create a mirror image of the first and your students can merge and mount the two prints together!

TIP: This method works best on a high contrast grade of paper.

As always I hope you have enjoyed reading about these 3 exciting techniques and that they have given you some ideas to go explore for the new term. Watch out for part II next week where I'll be showing you some more complex methods to really enhance your student's compositions and presentation skills in the darkroom. 

- Kirsty ❤

3W: Erin Petson

who: Erin Petson

what: art/illustration

why: because we love our mixed media! Her work is great to share with students as it shows how the boundaries between art, illustration,fashion and design are often blurred, her illustrations aren't just used in books and magazines but have been used in fashion collections, an animation and she regularly exhibits her artwork too (the V&A even have some of her drawings in their permanent collection!) Her website is definitely worth checking out, it's inspiring stuff! 

Erin Petson // Erin Petson Interview with Vogue Italia

Review: Wreck This Journal

Last night whilst busily planning my lessons for the next academic year I suddenly thought of a book that I had got for christmas... 'Wreck This Journal' by Keri Smith. Wow, I wish I had looked at it sooner! Keri Smith dedicates the book to all of the perfectionists across the world. For those of you who aren't aware of it may think it's a bit of an odd title but the whole idea of the book is amazing. In fact, this book is so amazing that we have already used it's unique concept with our students by creating a great summer project last year that really gave the opportunity for students to face their fears and engage with the creative process. 

I was so excited when the book came back into my life yesterday that I immediately turned to the first page and began to read Keri Smith's warning to create is to destroy: 

"During the process of this book you will get dirty. You may find yourself covered in paint, or any other number of foreign substances. You will get wet. You may be asked to do things you question. You may grieve for the perfect state that you found the book in. You may begin to see creative destruction everywhere. You may begin to live more recklessly."

You might of figured out by now that this isn't your everyday journal where you pick up a pen and write down your daily thoughts after a bad day. It is a sketchbook. A sketchbook for you or/and your students to practice what is said across the pages. A book that you or/and your students are going to turn into a piece of art and I can't wait to follow the ruthless instructions! Some pages ask you to rip or tear out the white sheets, whilst others ask you to do humorous things like use a page as a napkin or make a sudden, destructive, unpredictable movement with the journal. I'm dreading the instruction that states: break the spine. Shudder.

I love this book and the playful way that Keri Smith teaches people the act of creating by putting yourself right on the spot. Her prompts are perfect for a fun, creative 5-10min starter activity and can be easily converted into any visual arts subject. I'm using mine in photography lessons from September and think the students are going to love it. Here are some of my planned starter tasks:

• In a compositional photogram lesson students will - trace the things in their bags (or pockets) and let the lines overlap. Great!

• In a Kari Herer inspired photographic drawing lesson students will - draw different lines with a pen or pencil, lick their finger and smear the lines. Even better!

The ideas are endless and I'm a little bit in love with this book already. Wreck This Journal gives yourself and your students the perfect opportunity to be playful, messy and creative. Something that in the chaos of teaching and learning is sometimes forgotten. Another fun idea that would be great for the classroom is to tie some string to your journal, attach it to your classroom wall or pinboard and let each student wreck whatever pages they wanted as they pleased. Not only does it burst a little bit of creativity onto your blank walls but it allows students to grasp the idea of collaborative practice. It will also subtly unlock students preconceptions about what a sketchbook page should look like and make it more interactive - hooray! 

Wreck This Journal delivers so what are you waiting for? I know it's going to be my teaching resource for the new academic year and if any of these results are anything to go by I know what I'm going to be doing over the summer holidays.

- Kirsty ❤

Tutorial: Paper Relief and Rubbing

Paper relief and rubbings are brilliant and fun techniques that I often use as part of observational studies at the start of a project - particularly for 3D/Sculptural projects. It's also a technique I've used outside of my usual sixth form teaching. The video below gives step by step instructions, I used it as a starter for a lesson observation with a year 9 class at an interview a few months ago - it went down really well and I think it's a cool technique that can be adapted and used with a variety of year groups.

Got access to a printing press? We've got a beautiful one in our department! If you have too you can also extend this task by creating an embossing. All you need to do is soak some paper (ideally something quite heavy or watercolour!), pat it off so it's damp not soaking, place your paper relief on the printing bed and the damp water on top then run it through the press! The end result is stunning!

- Claire ❤