Project 121: Illustration

This project was prompted by a home education workshop at the local museum about the illustrator Nick Sharratt.

The workshop involved drawing pictures to illustrate a story they made up themselves, completing a workbook which encouraged the children to read and engage with the content of the exhibition, and making a pop-up elephant.

Nick Sharratt exhibition and workshop

We explored the role of illustration in a wide range of picture books, and classified them as symmetry (where illustrations mirror what is written in the text), augmentation (where illustrations add something extra to the text), or contradiction (where illustrations show something contradicting the text). The children then added their own symmetry, augmentation, and contradiction illustrations to an extract from a book of their choosing.

Symmetry, augmentation and contradiction

Finally we looked at the different styles and techniques different illustrators use for making their pictures, and we got the children to choose a Mr Man character to do in different styles: Hargreaves, Tenniel, Blake, and Child.

Mr Clever (Solomon) and Mr Happy (Monica)

Finally they had to choose their favourite illustrator and write about why they liked them. Solomon picked Quentin Blake, Monica picked Lauren Child.

Next project: Quiz.