Return To Littletown Early Years

After a long gap of 18 months I had the opportunity to return to Littletown School today for a 3 day project drawing with Nursery and Reception children. What a lovely productive day with a prolific and focussed group. Super fantastic! I can't wait until next week when the colour work begins......

Wild Thing Inspired Animation at Reinwood Juniors

Filming Max and the boat with iStopmotion on the iPad

Recently I had the pleasure of working with a wonderful Y3 class at Reinwood Junior School in Huddersfield for four days, making artwork in response to one of my all time favorite picture books, Where the Wild Things Are. The children made a series of amazing collaborative drawings using a range of drawing techniques, they used iPads to create digital drawings and storyboards,  and eventually created a short animated piece which was captured and edited using only an iPad and a selection of fantastic apps.


Wild Things from Fabric Lenny on Vimeo.

Drawings with pen and wash

Cardboard Characters drawn with Posca Pens

More replacement Characters

Animating with the iPad

Editing the film with Cute Cut on the iPad

Apps used during the project: iStopmotion for iPad, Cute Cut, Comic Life, Brushes, Puppet Pals HD and Over.

Crowlees Photography Project - Day 4

I have just completed the last day of the photography project at Crowlees J&I School and have had a great time. Throughout the week I have been working with Y5 pupils to explore their school through the lens' of mobile devices including iPhones, iPod Touchs and iPads. I have been encouraging the children to look very closely at their surroundings and seek out interesting and unusual shots which they have then processed using various apps. 

Along the way they have captured images focused on numbers, letters, people, textures, treasured possessions, the school building, reflections and nature, plus anything else that has captured their interest. They have worked extremely hard and have produced a library of images will feature in a limited edition book and a Montage Print to be displayed in school.

And here are some of the children's images focused on the theme of school, captured through reflections and interesting angles and processed through a range of apps.
 

Throughout the week the children have also used their images as inspiration for drawing and creative writing, which will also feature in the book along with their photographic images. Stories include "The Chocolate Dilemma", "The Magic keyboard" and "The Mystery of the Open Door."

The children have been a joy to work and have shared with me images they have taken at home following their time on the project. The children's work has impacted on the rest of the school and teachers have already begun to use creative photography in their classrooms. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and support on this project, and I hope you continue to create beautiful photography. YR

Habitats - Hyrstmount Animation Project - Day 6

Today has been the last day of the animation project at Hyrstmount Junior School. The children have recorded the narration for their film which they have delivered in a documentary style. They have also photographed the titles for the credit sequence and gathered together all the artwork they have created throughout the project, ready for a wonderful display in school.

Sound recording

This has been a fantastic project and the children have been a joy to work with. Here's a run down of everything they have been involved in throughout the creation of their Habitats Film...

Continuous Line Drawing

Designing characters

Exploring animals and their habitats through large drawings

Drawing animals in their habitats with berol pens and a water wash

Designing cardboard characters for the replacement animation technique

Creating the backgrounds

Animating the characters

Animating the characters on set

The children have also been involved in recording the narration, researching animals and their habitats, writing and sharing. What a fantastic project! Well done everyone!!

Habitats - Hyrstmount Animation Project - Day 5

The children at Hyrstmount Junior School have had another fantastic day working on their Habitats Animation Project. This morning saw the creation of a second owl character and ten replacement owls were made in less than 20 minutes by a group of enthusiastic pupils. The remainder of the day was filled with animating, animating and more animating! As a result of this the animation phase is now complete and tomorrow sees a day of sound recording, music creation and narration. Yay!

Pupil diary extracts:
"Today was a fabulous day with the artists because me and Noor had so much fun filming and playing. It was fun!"

"Today I went with Paul and did some pictures and swapped the badgers and owls. I broke the flower [which was part of the set], Paul got his glue gun and fixed it. And then we watched the clip. It looked like the badger was on a skateboard!"

Habitats - Hyrstmount Animation Project - Day 4

It was the first animating day at Hyrstmount Junior School today and the children produced some lovely animation for their Habitats Film. The animation process often takes a long time and can get quite complicated when lots of characters are moving at different speeds, but the children were very focused and they grasped it quickly. In and amongst the animating the children finished off the final two characters - the Squirrel and the Red Deer, and by the end of the day they had even managed to animate a close up of each of these characters.

"Today was a marvelous day with the artists because we were filming the animals. We took pictures and swapped the animals. It is called animation." A pupil diary extract