A Fresh Start
We kept things simple in The Art Room this week and for our first session of 2026 we eased ourselves into an exciting new year of creativity by practising our drawing skills. Going back to basics, we explored how mark-making in its simplest form – dots and lines, be they big or small, straight or curved, long or short, thick or thin – can be arranged to form patterns and shapes. Providing us with a foundation for building an image, the combination of line and shape opens up endless creative possibilities for capturing the many things we see, experience and dream up in the world around us.
After several drawing exercises to practice forming different types of line – straight, curvy, zigzag and swirly – we all had fun making simple sketches of vegetables in just 15 seconds without worrying about the finished results. We talked about how quick sketches using the most basic shapes can still record and communicate lots of information about what we are trying to represent and that adding just a few small details can really elevate our finished drawings.
Next, we split into groups to practice our looking skills and, sticking with our plant-based theme, we studied a selection of vegetables to try to identify the shapes that best described the outline of our chosen piece of veg. Our youngest artists created a plate full of ‘plant pals’ to show the abundance of different shaped veggies we can eat during Veganuary. We were so impressed by how clearly and carefully they drew the outlines of so many different vegetables and loved their cheerful use of pastel crayons to display the rainbow of colours we can find in nature’s edible palette.
Our older artists were challenged to “see three shapes” in their first activity and, using just black pen and paint, they did a wonderful job adding realism to their vegetable studies by drawing the shapes for shadow and shade alongside their initial outline. All the while, the children were encouraged to look very carefully at the vegetable in front of them and to use what they could actually see to guide their drawing rather than what they already knew. Finally, having practised ‘seeing shapes’ in the different plant-based staples on display – carrots, peppers, broccoli, onions and potatoes – the children built on their drawing skills and made new art works of nature’s shapes with coloured oil pastels.
Their attention to detail is plain to see in their finished work as is the focus they used in choosing the right type of mark to try and give three-dimensional form to their drawings.
Happy New Year everyone, we are excited to see how your potential will grow this term and the creativity you can harvest!