These pieces began as rough sketches for a unit on printing. Whenever there is an activity that involves drawing, I find that there are usually a couple of Year 6 students who lack confidence in their drawing ability and compare their work unfavourably with that of their classmates.

The emphasis was on line for this activity. To help everyone start with confidence, the students were directed to begin their drawings by tracing around their forearm and hand. This outline was to be turned into an alien body part by extending it, or filling it in, with line patterns. An alien was chosen to fit in with the Level 4 Space theme and because, as an unknown quantity, all drawings of aliens are equally valid. The finished drawings provided inspiration for our printing unit that included activities with created stamps, relief prints and carved Zart Soft Cut blocks.

The initial drawings were too good to waste and the students loved them. So, they created a background with torn, fluorescent Tissue and mounted their drawings.

The fluorescent Tissue was chosen as the colours were associated with the alien factor.

Copyright 2008 Zart Art & Zart Education