volunteering – A DEAD LETTER

DMU Local Volunteering – Session 4 (life drawing)

5 February 202211 March 2022Dead Roses

volunteering

turned up at 9:30am to help set up, they had already set up the most of the work but we added some little bits to it. the set up was a table in the middle with loads of different materials and objects for the children to draw. we then places 30 chairs around the table.

in terms of teaching children i feel this was the most boring for them, but this is equally a really important technique in art to learn as it helps you to develop the basis of observations and drawing, within the session the parents also did not help as much so we really got to see how the children where thinking and seeing the objects we where showing them.

15 mins
5 mins
3 mins
1 mins
and more

the longer times made the children a bit bored but as they sped up the children started to enjoy it a lot as it got more exiting and they felt the need to do more.

when looking around at what the children’s have and where drawing, it became apparent that they all preferred the colorful objects like the rubix’s cube. as these were more exciting and drew their attention faster than the black objects or steps. this shows how in art people tend to be drawn closer to the fun colours and things that pop out rather than nature colours, even though used well these can work just as well.

i feel out of all the sessions this one really helped me in art sense, not directly to my work but more as a aid to show me art can be more than an illustration of a realistic object. As they have a move instinct to play with the materials without worry of error this could be a good project to look into of how artist should play with the materials more.

after a while i got more use to helping the children and really started to enjoy it, this really showed me how to help people from the very beginning. when drawing the set up in a bigger form a lot of them lost focus and drew what they wanted, even thought they were not ament to but if they had drew a good amount from the set up i let them draw what they wanted as they still gave the life drawing a try.

Local DMU Volunteering – Session 3 (recycling sculptor)

29 January 202211 March 2022Dead Roses

volunteering

I helped set up at 9:30am, this included bring in loads of bags of rubbish and dumping them in the middle of the room. once all children were seated and had their books the teachers started to show them the example sheets. the sheets for this week was different artist examples for the children to look at and help them understand how they could use the rubbish to make a sculpture. this was a very hands on session for both the children and us as we had to help them alot with the process of making the sculptors.

For this activity they had the rubbish, scissors and tape to us.

There was 5 groups making different animals.

Sea turtles
elephant (my group)
shark
show leopard
tiger

I decided to go sit with the elephants, this was a group of 4-5 girls. Before we started to make the elephant they had 15 mins to draw their own design in their sketchbook and then they all came together and had a A1 sheet to combine their ideas before they would start. Once the design was finalized and the children had given them selves a task each. Starting was a little slow but as they started talking they got more inventive and we started to make a river for the elephant to drink out of and grass around it.

i really enjoyed watching and helping the children with this task and they all worked together to create something and when there was a problem like it wouldn’t stand its self up, they would work together to find a way to make it stand this involved using a pot under its feet and then to fill it with blue objects to make it look like water. Below is a photo of the elephant.

Soon after this photo was taken the elephant sadly died due to a child’s foot apparently not liking it so it was kicked over swiftly. After all the mess way made the children helped us put all the rubbish back in to bags and then they went home. This was such a fun experience and really showed me how even thought they had some what limited materials they really did well and made structures with the materials, this helped me understand that you don’t have to make something so literal for the outcome to be what you want it to.

𝙳𝙼𝚄 Local Volunteering – Session 2 (colour wheel)

22 January 20227 March 2022Dead Roses

Volunteering

The classes start at 10am but the volunteers turn up at 9:30am to help set up, this time all it involves was putting chairs and table. When the children (30 children) turned up we helped give them name tags and their own sketchbook, so they can see all their work together. Once they where sat down the teacher started to explain what words we use to explain different aspects of colour and what the children would be doing that day.

The sheets below are the handouts for that day, we explained what the words mean on the sheet to the left. These sheets really helped the children as they got an example of the colour wheel they had to make.

The first task the children had to completer was to fill their own colour wheel with paint, for this we gave them a paint pallet with yellow, red and blue in and told them they have to make the colours and fill in each colour. This gave the a great experience of what primary colours ( primary colours are a set of colours that can be mixed to make all other colours) they would have to mix to make the ones they need for the colour wheel.

The other sheet we explained to the children is how colour can be used to express feelings, with the main two being how you can make a painting sad or happy. this lead to paint being thrown at the paper but in colour themes of how they where feeling at the time, once they had time to explore both of them sheets the next task was to draw themselves.

When drawing themselves they were given a sheet about proportions and showing how to draw a generic face. this was the hardest bit for them as they had to draw it and think about how they could do it as close as they could to reality, their parents helped them and it led to some very different outcomes. A lot of the older children did amazing with this part and stunted a lot of us on how well they managed to proportion the head. (one even doing a full body). Once they had done some drawing, some of the children decided to start doing backgrounds and this took form in beaches and living rooms with TVs.

This is not the original sheet they used, just an example I found on the internet

Volunteering with 𝙳𝙼𝚄 Local.

7 January 20223 May 2022Dead Roses

Professional Studies

Local DMU was asking for volunteers to help with an art club every Saturday for 10 weeks (9;30-11;30 from the 15th of January to the 26th of March 2022), i decided i wanted to help so i replied to the email (original email from Jamie Scott) then i had to do an online course and wait to hear if i got a place as a volunteer.

Once i got the place and I had completed the online-courses, a DBS check and attended the meeting about the volunteering. i could then help out with the club,

The job evolves one person teaching the children and the volunteers acting like helpers and give them supplies and cleaning up. There are 10 sessions and each session will be teaching different techniques to the children (their parents will come alone as well) so I will be making a post for each week, with what we taught the children and the sheet that where used to help them.

these are all the posts and sessions.

Session 1: portraits (15.01.2022)
session 2: colour wheels (22.01.2022)
session 3: recyclable sculptures (29.01.2022)
session 4: life drawing (05.02.2022)
session 5: session was not on (12.02.2022)
session 6: doing what ever media they want (19.02.2022)
session 7: missed session (26.02.2022)
session 8: female roll models (05.03.2022)
session 9: gallery ( 12.03.2022)
session 10: starting final pieces of works (19.03.2022)
session 11: finishing final pieces (26.03.2022)

when first applying I didn’t realize this was part of Cps, I really wanted to help to teach art to children, when talking to the organizers of this we got into a conversation about how art is not really taught within primary school therefore they started these sessions. I found this really interesting and gave me more of a reason I wanted to help out with these classes. Within the 10 session one week is dedicated to taking the children to a gallery, this is an amazing opportunity for them to start to see art and be more involved within the creative world. Witch is such an important part of being a child.

This volunteering opportunity not only helps with confidence but it always helps me to learn how to interact more easily with new people quickly, as a part of tattooing I will need to have this skill so the client feels more comfortable and at ease while I am tattooing them. It’s a really good skill to have in general life and makes people wants to come back more when they feel they have a good professional relationship with a person and it seems friendly. I am very happy I took on this opportunity even thought I will need to very carefully manage my time as I have a lot happening, but it can be done.

Below Are Photos From The Volunteering

These Are The Feedback Form From The Parents And Children

An Email Of Feedback For How I Did