Outside places
Art Making Activities

Activity 1: Memory and observation drawing
With your classmates and teacher choose a well known a particular built environment (building or object) in your area. First draw this from memory and then later on try to visit the place in person (maybe it is a post office, bridge or fountain?) armed with a pencil, sketchbook or paper and backing board and draw the same thing from real life observation. You should use good drawing pencils or charcoal for the drawings.

Follow on activity:
Using cardboard try to fold and cut shapes to create a 3D model of the same built environment.

Activity 2: A bird’s eye view
Search Google Maps on the internet using the computer and look at a satellite view of the houses, roads, parks and other features around your home or school. Try mapping the same view (in less detail) as though you were a bird looking down from above. Use colour felt pens to draw the lines and if possible you can also use coloured drawing inks or vegetable colours to paint the larger areas with a fine watercolour brush (if you wish). Another idea is to map the route that a car, bus or train might take from one place to another destination.

Activity 3: A worm’s or an ant’s eye view
Imagine you were an ant looking up at a person or a large tree. The things closest to you will appear very large and things will get smaller very quickly when they are more distant. A good idea is to start with lightly sketching a large triangle with the base of the triangle close to the bottom of your page (portrait page orientation) and the tip of the triangle at the top of page. The base of your tree trunk will be drawn at the base of the triangle (full width) and the canopy of the tree with leaves and branches will be drawn closer to the tip. If drawing a person you can also divide the triangle in equal horizontal thirds and in the top third will be the torso/shoulders/head and the bottom two thirds of the triangle will be the legs and feet (feet or shoes can fan out from base of triangle and almost fill the whole bottom third section of the triangle. The legs will look like tree trunks and the shoes or toes are enormous! Use oil crayons to colour the object (you can include patterns and colours for the person’s clothing or create texture by drawing the bark lines in the tree. Add an ant or worm at the very bottom of the page .