Dinosaur art! I would never have imagined work as a wildlife artist would lead to exploring and sketching dinosaurs for children's art workshops at a prep school in a stunning countryside location. It was a joy to be back in a classroom the other week to run the art sessions courtesy of Berkeley Group for children who were enjoying their summer camp in Cranbrook.
The theme of the workshop was dinosaurs and a host of activities were planned for the sessions using various materials to create some colourful collaborative art amongst the groups.
Dinosaur art seems a million years away from the usual wildlife art - apart from having never met a dinosaur, it was surprisingly enjoyable painting them and their habitats from the imagination with just a few reference materials and natural props for inspiration - plus some artistic licence of course.
It was an incredibly hot day that turned into a dramatic thunderstorm with steamy rain and flooding - perfect weather for some swamp-loving dinos! We managed to get outside for one of the group activities but were rained off for another one - still, every cloud has a silver lining ... birthday cake delivered to the art studio classroom made up for the downpour!
The artwork produced by the student groups was super creative but my photos weren't so good as it was such a busy day! So here's one of the dinosaurs that I sketched, enlarged and used as the base for a large collage, with smaller copies for individual collage and/or colouring during the session or to take home along with their activity sheets, depending time and the students' preferences.
I quickly added some digital colours to brighten it up this post and I'm looking forward to progressing this baby ankylosaurus further, along with a few of the other dinosaurs that I sketched. Can't wait - they're so cute - that's my kind of dinosaur!
Cute or not - researching dinosaurs for the workshops was so interesting; from new names and anatomies to modern-day species - birds are living dinosaurs(!)...so there was a link to my usual wildlife art after all!
More information about running an art workshop is over on my blog www.clairemurthy.co.uk.
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