In following on from last week’s session, it seemed like a good idea to continue experimenting with different drawing styles. From the collected portraits the image of a boy by Colin Davidson was around the same age as people in the class and his work had inspired the class. We looked at it again, discussed the age of the subject, the fact that it was black and white. I had taken a photo of myself in a similar pose and encouraged the children to work in pairs to pose each other as closely as they could for a photograph. The class used chalk and charcoal on tea-coloured wax paper to play with smudging and blending. The work was really different from other portraits that the class had done. While they were working Mrs Wilson printed out their photo portraits. These became the basis for self-portraits in the style of Colin Davidson. I only saw them through the computer when everyone held them up but they looked incredible.

After break we moved on to a wholly different approach and made drawings after a Rembrandt self-portrait. The children had responded very positively to this work and it was remarkable how they adapted to this very different style. Again, they had the challenge of applying this style to their own original subject. The children picked some work to show me and it was really strong. Individual styles were coming through and the marks were energetic and free.

Feedback from the children noted that the Colin Davidson style was harder than last week but they thought that they had started to differentiate between line drawings and shaded or smudged drawings.  Also they had discovered that shading was different from colouring-in. That’s quite a big thing to get the head around.  Some of them are really getting to enjoy working with charcoal and they liked combining it with chalk. They thought that the pen drawings were messy and fun and really easy to draw, describing Rembrandt as ‘crazy’ and looking ‘like a lion’. They liked making all of the scribbly lines.

After the previous week I had contacted Eddie Rafferty to let him know that the children had made drawings after his work. He thought that it was fantastic that they could draw with such ease and confidence. I don’t think that they realise just how good they are.