Year 6
Chinese Landscapes Art and Design Autumn 1 2017
In Art and Design lessons this Autumn, we have studied the techniques used with watercolour paint, as part of the Y6 Literacy topic on The Willow Pattern story. Initially, we studied the features which make up traditional Chinese landscape paintings, such as pagodas, cherry blossom trees, water and mountain ranges, creating many annotated sketches. We then experimented with watercolour paint techniques, such as wet-on-wet (adding clear water to the paper and then brushing over with thin washes of paint), background washes using thick brushes, and building-up thin layers of paint. The most popular technique was definitely splattering paint with a toothbrush! We had to use a limited colour palette, inspired by The Willow Pattern design and our final paintings were excellent!
Watercolour paintings
Year 6 then edited their paintings to add finishing touches, using charcoal, white pencil and soft pastel! What a fabulous gallery!
Urban Landscapes of Shanghai's Skyline
Year 6 have explored Urban Landscapes, inspired by the paintings of Henderson Cisz and the focus has been on the skyline of Shanghai. Just take a look at the fabulous Oriental Pearl TV Tower! We have attempted to adapt and refine some of the skills we learned with watercolour paints and perspective, but this time using soft pastels.
Examples of Shanghai Skyline pastel pictures in the school's Art Gallery
Freedom quilts - Art and Design - Spring term 2018
As part of the topic work on slavery, Year 6 investigated the history behind the Freedom quilt code designs. We researched the Underground Railway and how sewing skills liberated thousands of African slaves in 19th century North America. The children each chose a symbol and experimented with designing in different colours and improving their tracing skills. The symbols were then transferred to fabric to make samplers, starting with a felt square for a base, on to which a variety of fabrics were appliqued for each part of their chosen symbol. Even though some children choose the same symbol, each sampler was unique and Year 6 made good use of a wide variety of textures and colours in their fabric choices. I am very proud to say that despite finding sewing difficult initially, each child persevered and made great progress with their skills! Now that the children's samplers are sewn together, the finished quilt looks stunning and will be displayed in the glass cabinet in the school gallery!
Super Sewn Samplers!
Summer 1 term Art and Design - Mayan Clay
This topic has involved researching the Mayan civilisation art and architecture, as part of the History work. We began by making line drawings of artwork examples, and adding notes in our sketchbooks. After experimenting with differently graded pencils to create a range of tones, Y6 were able to create superb shading drawings!
We then moved on to clay to sculpt and carve our chosen designs and the results speak for themselves!
Clay Day!
Fabulous Freedom Quilt with the children's samplers sewn together!
