Last month, a live brief for ‘Room 17’ (a space to create, make, invent, inspire, be entrepreneurial, use and share skills) was shared with Leeds Beckett Graphic design and illustration students. To evolve a strong brand for Room 17 and get it known and embedded in the local area is the remit. During their Arts Fortnight, 3A have also been involved in this remit. Utilising the PowerPoint presentation used at the live brief in the studio by Andy Edwards (retired lecturer at Leeds Beckett and still a graphic designer) they have embraced graphic design and explored logos, strap lines and branding. Through dance they have also explored what it means to be part of a community and to understand that they could be someone special.

To think about and record in their sketchbooks what inspires them as an individual provided the material for their paintings.

Together, we learnt how to create a self-portrait. It was really important that we looked at ourselves and so mirrors were to hand. Sketching lightly we drew the shape of our face. 3A discovered that their eyes are halfway down their face, the ear starts around where their eyes are and finish in line with the nostrils. Lips end where the iris is. Eyebrows lead into the nose. We then added hair.

Having grappled with the proportions, we then looked at skin tints and tones. We discovered so many colours. We created our own swatch of colours that we needed to use before applying the watercolour.

The A4 self-portraits were then enlarged on the photocopier to A3. These would be the heads from which our inspirations ‘escaped’ for all to see. Like our self-portraits, we needed to enlarge our inspirations.

Once our composition was complete, we added our background colour of red, blue, yellow or green. This was to share our house team- Sunningdale, Wentworth, Birkdale or Turnberry. We then continued using acrylic paint to bring our inspirations to life. I was so impressed with 3A’s brush control, concentration and perseverance.

In order to make the inspirations ‘pop’ we then added oil pastel and felt tip.

The end results were definitely inspirational.

Our last challenge in the studio was to create our own initial(s) using cardboard, corrugated card and masking tape. In sketchbooks we drew a large capital letter of our name using bubble writing. We then traced this letter onto another sheet of paper so that we could cut it out and make a template. This template we placed on cardboard, drew round and then cut out.

Because we wanted to add sides to our letters, we needed to find the perimeter. Therefore, we used wool to go around the outline of our letter shape. This gave us the correct length of the corrugated cardboard required. We then decided on the depth of the edge and adjusted accordingly. Then came the tricky part- attaching the edge to the letter. Dexterity of fingers as well as collaboration and perseverance was required in attaching with masking tape.

On completion there was definite pride.

Friday’s celebration was very special. Thank you to parents and grandparents, interested adults and Harleen, Ayesha and Charlie (role models) for being the audience as 3A performed their powerful dance and then accompanied them to the cafe, classroom and art studio to share in their learning.

The following comments share how special the afternoon was: