First School Visit of the Year

On Wednesday I got up early and took the train to Crewe, from where I travelled into Shropshire to spend the day at Longland Primary School: 4 small schools in the area had clubbed together to invite me to do a couple of workshops with their Y5 and Y6 children.

It was a really good day - the kids were great. We looked at creating characterisation. Sketching in conte, I showed them my 'starting-with-a-snowman' idea, then demonstrated how they could draw their character moving (by running round the perimeter of the classroom - keeps me fit!). Then they each created an illustration with a running character, adding elements to weave stories into their drawings, ready for a writing session in class.

On the way home I was lucky enough to be sitting opposite the wonderful old man at the top. Luckily he was mostly staring out of the window, so I was able to look properly and get a pretty accurate sketch. I'm finding the clandestine sketching more tricky these days: my varifocal specs give the game away as, to keep everything in focus, I have to move my head up and down, not just my eyes!

This was the last drawing of the journey. She curled up in her seat and fell asleep just as I finished the old man and I just got her done in time before we came into Sheffield.