Fantasy Creatures

After a holiday, I always try to ignite student's enthusiasm for art making with a fun project that will capture their imaginations. As we've just come back to school after the February half term, I decided it was a good time to introduce a mixed media fantasy creatures project.

Initially students racked their brain thinking about the sort of fantasy creatures they've heard about in myths, ghost stories, fantasy novels and video games. This yielded a huge list of imaginary animals and monsters. Each student then sketched a rough design of their creature in pencil before going on to draw a larger version of it. When they were happy with their design, they set about painting their creature in tempera paint.

Whilst their painted creature was drying, students used tissue paper to create a collage background to mount their animals on to. Finally, the young people used an array of three dimensional materials (pom poms, pipe cleaners and string) to give their pieces some extra visual pop.