It was really beneficial to share the work with the children's parents and with other teachers and children from the school, even thought it was only a taste of the adventure that we have been on. The children and Mrs Wilson have been a joy to work with and I hope that they are very proud of their work. It has been great to be a part of this pioneering work and I would like to thank everyone who has supported the project since I have come on board.

In preparation for the sharing day I set up some samples of work from the Further Afield project in the assembly hall. This shows some of the showcase. In the background are the big pictures, and one of the list poems appears on the right hand side above the noticeboard and door. In the foreground are the evaluation pieces with photography, text and paintings arranged in sets of 3 to form a free-standing "totem pole" structure.
The class interpreted the work for the visitors and it was great to see their confidence grow as time progressed.

These are some of the shadow drawings made by the group. They drew around their projected shadows with black felt tips.

And that was then end of our creative work for the year. We didn't really want to stop. At that stage we hoped to see each other at the exhibition in Belfast but unfortunately that didn't work out.

Each person had a tall piece of white corrugated card and they laid out their work as they wanted it along a vertical line of symmetry. There was no time left to stick it all down so I photographed each person's work to record their desired layout and they carefully labelled their separate patterns with their name and a number from top to bottom.

I went up for an extra session to finish off these "totem poles" but some people had been absent for the session and were very keen to have a go, so the rest of the group got back into the work and trimmed and cut very contentedly.

This was a process that the class really grasped quickly and they had great fun creating all the elements. I had in my head the idea of a totem pole with all of these artefacts arranged upon it in a stack.

Once the group got the gist of it, they were able to experiment with patterns and layout the text as they wished.

Click to see full image.
Each person could make a mirror pattern using
1. Their own name
2. A word to describe their work during the project
3. A silhouette of their arms or hands or faces made by casting shadows against a piece of white card.
They were restricted to black card and white chalk or black paint and white paper.

Click on the image to see the full picture. Each person had a copy of their portrait and could choose to cut it out and/or paint on it using black paint to emphasise certain features.

I mirrored some of the source photos from the painted portraits and changed them to black and white to make the whole exercise more stylised and graphic.

Click on picture to view full image. If the word was written along the fold in contrasting chalk, then the paper was folded and pressed, the ghost word would appear in mirrored form and could be retraced and trimmed into an interesting form.

Click on the picture to see full image.As we were getting to the end of the road, I wanted to finish off with something that would allow the group to reflect on their overall experience. I have played with mirroring throughout my own work and was looking for some accessible ways in which to explore it with the group.
I was working with black card and text and thought about words related to creativity.

This was a really good day and an important opportunity for reviewing the experience while touring the sets. It was great to see them populated by the figures. The groups had to compose the scene and then compose the photograph. Sometimes this required some adjustment to the angle of the scene or the placement of the figures.

This view shows a view through the windows towards the swimming pool.

The shop at the swimming pool offered a chance to make little cakes and buns for the counter, a slush puppy machine and a cold drinks cabinet. Really well-observed and lots of fun.

Here the group are lighting the cafe/ shop at the swimming pool - one of their favourite places to be.

In the playground scene, the children even put rubbish in the model bins.

In the classroom, the group had strung miniature images from an educational catalogue on tiny clothes pegs to simulate the full scale images strung across their classroom. Really great attention to detail.

While some of the group held lights in the same direction as the floodlights to illuminate the scene, others helped to compose the image and the group took turns to photograph each set. We moved around the room, working on one set at a time and getting feedback from the group who had made the sets and models as well as those who were seeing it all put together for the first time.

In a touch of fantasy, one group had made floodlights for the football pitch, complete with bulbs wired to batteries. It was very impressive.

Once the sets were completed the groups placed their models and worked on lighting. They got quite excited when everything started to come together. So did the teacher and myself.

On my next real visit I finally got to see what had been going on. The groups had a bit of extra time to finish their sets. They had already spent extra time in between working on them and were very very proud of their work.

I had learned some lessons from the frenzy of the clay figures session and asked the group to take turns documenting the sessions throughout. They worked together to upload photos from the camera and Mrs Wilson sent them to me by e-mail when she could during the session. It meant I had a much better idea of the progress being made than for some other busy sessions.

The class didn't want to stop for break. To put it in context, in terms of energy: the Big Pictures took 2 weeks; painting the backdrops took 1 hour. Someone asked me: "Has anyone ever painted a house but painted a whole house inside it?"
It made me think of the Renaissance images with mirrors showing the invisible parts of an interior scene.

When painting the backdrops, the groups had all of the experience from the big pictures to draw upon. This meant that they could mix the right amount of the chosen shade. Most of them did several coats of paint on each part of the set.

Each person had a task to complete in order to make the plans come to life.

Making the sets meant that the groups checked the materials that were already there and ordered materials in advance that they thought they might need. So when they started to build the sets, they were well-prepared.

Results of planning work.

The idea was to create a set for the model figures to inhabit. We talked about places that the group felt at home, groups they felt they belonged to, locations that were important to them.
In groups they chose to create:
a classroom
a swimming pool
a football pitch
a school playground

We then spent a lot of time thinking about materials, planning, drawing and imagining the places.

The diversity of the figures was obvious, even more so because everyone had managed to mix a really good shade of blue for the uniform.

Using photos and colour sampling the class decided on the colour of their skin. For some, this had been very difficult in the previous painted portraits, so it was good to have the chance to try again.

Again, the exact tone of skin became important.

When the figures were dry they needed to be painted. Each figure got two coats so that the colour would come through.

I got to see the results later in the day when they were pretty much finished and the group came up of their own accord to photograph their finished pieces for the whiteboard. By that time, the work had been done. It really made me think about my role in their creative work. Normally the group were very responsive and patient. On this occasion they just wanted the freedom to make and to enjoy the medium. It was a treat to use the clay. What was I encouraging/ inhibiting by interrupting the making process in normal sessions?

I had worked with clay in the past and revised some techniques in the run-up to this session. In my experiments I thought I could trouble shoot some issues for the group and although they were itching to get going, I persevered with a demonstration and tried to keep their approach fairly calm.

At the request of Mrs Wilson, We moved into 3-D work. This was a big challenge for me as I work in 2-D generally and I had a few misgivings. Despite these I thought that it was worth the experiment in order to see if the same attention to detail could be applied to 3-D forms. We had a chat about it and I recorded some thoughts and tips on the whiteboard.

The mood of this self-portrait is truly captured in the painting. See following image.

Camera held at arm's length, this image is really well-balanced. In the painting, the strip of black by the door was deliberately left out.

This lovely image wasn't chosen as the source for the painting.

A very daring close-up.

I didn't get to see the source photos until much later. Some of them were really stunning pieces of work.

Throughout this session, if someone wasn't sure about what colour to use, they would photograph the photographic source image and then sample the colour from that area using the sampling tool on the Marratech whiteboard. The we could talk about how to mix that colour. It was lovely to see shadows having tones of reflected colours from floors or walls and to see a real spectrum of flesh tones, where pink had been prevalent -even yellow in the style of the Simpsons!

Great attention to detail in the composition. The slant of the shoulders and the angle of the head are very well observed.

This image is very harmonious. The final addition of dry brush marks in the hair and skin really bring the painting to life.

I really liked the composition here. Again, I didn't know what had inspired it. The original images were too big to upload and I was left asking a lot of questions about the source photos. Sometimes I could see the printed versions but the amount of detail I saw depended how good the internet connection was at any given moment. My overall view of the classroom was about 10cm by 6cm. Depending on where the person was sitting, or how still they could hold an image, I could sometimes ask for a photo of the printed sheet. Details were often lost in translation!

Click on picture to see full image. This is another of the portrait images but this time the original photo was in landscape format. There is a difference in perception between what the camera sees and what the imagination chooses to paint.

This is in portrait format. Click on the image to see the full picture. Most of the portraits weren't in the traditional format. In this painting the black outline didn't make sense when I saw it online. I tried to get an explanation but couldn't grasp what the line was about. It looked really strong in the painting. Only when I saw the original photo did I see that the flash had created a shadow behind the head and this shadow was the strong black line. It was a real lesson for me about the difference in lens-based sight and the naked eye.

This is the finished painting. Striking composition. Notice the shadow of the glasses, again created by the camera flash.

The flash from the camera had created a highlight on the glasses and this was added into the painting. One medium influenced the other. Click on image to see the full picture.

Click on the image to see the full picture. Once the paintings seemed to be finished, some of the class had a final look at details of light and shade, adding highlights and subtle textures to make the image complete. Everyone had a different levels of attention to detail.

Click on the image to see the full photo, showing a portrait before and after the background colour was added. When the class took their photos, they thought about the background, about colour and contrast, lighting and about decluttering the image. This meant that the background colours of the painting were often very clear and strong. It was a quite powerful effect coming through on the instant photos.

Once the composition issues had been talked about, it was time to get back to colour mixing. It was great to see the paintings become so rich and vivid. The group kept in contact with me throughout this process, checking colours, checking details.

it was sometimes tricky to imagine a painting that didn't show the full face. We had quite a lot of discussion about which parts of the face could and couldn't be seen. It was still an abstract idea for some of the class. It went against the grain.

All 3 photos have interesting composition. This is the one chosen as the source for a painting.

Here is a different option.

Each person had 3 photographic self-portraits. From these they had to choose one as the composition for a painting. I didn't get to see all these images until much later so I couldn't influence their choice.

Decisions had to be made about whether the final painting should be portrait or landscape format. I was surprised at how many of the images were taken in landscape format. It didn't follow automatically that an individual would choose the corresponding format for their painting.

Placing the portrait within the rectangular page meant looking to see how much of the arms was included, where the body met the edge of the page. How far up the side? More than half-way? Less than half-way?
Was the head hitting the top of the frame: Was there a space?

Some of the composition drawings centred the person within the frame. It was good to look at the energy of the photo and see how the energy changed when the person was offset within the frame instead. Click on picture to view full image.

Each painted portrait was a wonderful interpretation of the original photo.

This image is an extreme close-up -one of the more adventurous compositions from the class.

Once the images were picked, the class took some time to sketch a basic outline. Their main task was to focus on composition for the final painting. Decisions had to be made about what to include and what to leave out of the painting. The children looked at some of the photos and tried to figure out a way of drawing what was there and not what they expected to see.

We talked about looking at things from different angles and some of the class decided to base their paintings on a less conventional angle. I haven't yet had the chance to see all of these self-portrait photos but I am keen to see the images that weren't chosen to find out if they have more unusual composition.

Mrs Wilson printed out the photos and each person chose one which they wanted to paint. Quite often the chosen image was face-on.

We compared the photo with a close-up of the painted portrait by Vermeer. This helped to reintroduce colour and tone along with composition, light and shade.

With the help of a partner, each person composed 3 self-portraits using a camera. This image reminded me of a Vermeer portrait. Very subtle colours and beautiful composition.

Two drawings from the same pose, from the same angle. Different visions. Click on this to see both images.

Some of the class found it easy to draw portraits form unusual angles, while others persisted in drawing face-on portraits. It didn't matter what they saw or what angle they were seeing their classmate from.
So I asked them to draw me and made sure that the lighting emphasized my profile. Even so, some of the drawings were still full face. I find this really fascinating. It shows that you can't take for granted what someone else sees and how they choose to communicate it.
There's something really challenging about this idea.

This image shows light and shade as well as line-drawing.

The first portraits the class made with charcoal were very small. They tried to draw different poses from different perspectives and this immediately moved them on to drawings which were less like caricatures.
We talked about smudging the charcoal to create shading. For this, the class needed to identify the lightest and darkest parts of the portrait. Some of the resulting images had real depth.

The batch of images here show quick-fire charcoal sketches that the class made of each other. One of the challenges for me is that I can't always see the detail of individual's work unless they come and take a photo of it. Taking a picture is a left-brained activity, a bit like trying to make a cross in the air with one hand and a circle with the other. Sometimes, especially with small drawings, it can be tricky to get the subject in focus.

One of the things we learnt in this exercise was that it would be good to try drawing slightly bigger pictures.

When communicating via Marratech, the group can see and be seen.

It was really exciting to see how the children form Florida instantly connected to the same topics that the children from Donaghey were exploring. Here, individuals from both classes are looking at objects which tell a story about them.

This was an experiment to see how many images the groups would need to take for an animation clip. We used the web cam to take step by step photos and everyone guessed how long they thought the clip would last once they had been put together. The class also learned what "Stand by" means when a recording is taking place.

We looked at different ways to photograph an object in order to make it look interesting, to show some details and to explain its use. This led us into thinking about how to make an animated clip to put with the sound recordings. Click on the image to see the full picture.

Getting ready to record stories about objects, the class had to think about how to tell their stories, what details were important and what information to leave out. In groups, they helped eachother to choose the facts and pieces of information which told a good story about the objects and about themselves.
Mrs Wilson started to record the stories using Garageband. Some of the children started to learn how to do the recordings themselves.

Some people found it easy to talk about their objects. One of the exercises was to try and talk about the object for 1 minute with no breaks. This helped to prepare for the recordings the following week.
The resulting statements start to give a picture of the individual, their likes and dislikes and their range of interests and experiences.

As well as drawing the objects, the class started to tell stories about them. On the top right is a photo taken through a magnifying glass. When the class looked closely at their objects they noticed some interesting details. They took time to explain their objects to eachother. It helped that they had practiced asking good questions in previous weeks.

The class drew close -up views of their objects. Sometimes the pencil drawings were quite faint in the photos we shared. Strong colours were easier for the web cam to record. the drawing of a drinking straw looks very stylised.

These are some drawings of the objects that the class brought in.
Some of them had time to begin to add colour to the work, which made a huge difference.

Each person in the class brought in an object to school. These objects had to tell some kind of story about that individual, what they liked to do for a hobby, an interest, a feeling or story.
These objects are the stimuli for the next phase of work.

The size of your personal space isn't necessarily related to your height.

Each person took turns to be the sitter, recorder, writer, artist, photographer and actor.
The sitter sat still for one minute during which each of the others watched them closely.
When the minute was up, the rest of the group gave feedback through movement, spoken and written words, drawings and photos.
It took a lot of concentration. The one minute portraits were difficult because they had to be done so quickly.

We spent some time discussing the previous session. This led us to talk about energy and physicality. We did a whole page of words describing our own energy.

Way back last term when I was working withe this class, some of them were quite timid about making big pictures and using a lot of movement as they worked. In this exercise they were working so freely and confidently that I could hardly keep up with the demand for more chalk.

Some of the class were tall and could easily stretch quite far but some of the smallest people drew the biggest shapes. Some drew more lines than others, producing a denser pattern.

While some stayed firmly within their circles, others reached out as far as they could. The size of the personal space didn't rely on the height of the individual.

This exercise shows the class starting to make their drawings with chalk. Each person needed to estimate how large their personal space might be so that that they could stand at a suitable distance from their classmates. Their rules were that one foot had to stay within the circle at all times.

Once they had stepped out of the line, everyone took turns to photograph eachother. The images added together will make an animation. You need to double click on this picture to see the full image.