Badgers, and the rest of year 2, are REALLY lucky to have an artist agree to answer some questions about his art work! Dave Kirkwood is an artist who has a drawn a fantastic picture of the Micro-Mob, have a look at an earlier post for more info.
In literacy we talked about open and closed questions, we wrote them on sugar paper in pairs, then chose our best ones.
Dave - here are the three very best questions from Badger class (there are another six questions coming from the other two classes!)
1. What inspired you to draw the Micro-mob monsters? (Francesco)
2. Why did you want to be an artist? (Maddie)
3. Why are so good at drawing? (Barrie)
We can't wait to hear your answers!
Great question Francesco.
ReplyDeleteI know some people who are very ill with a disease called cancer. The way those people try very hard to get better inspires me. Also I know nurses who look after people who are poorly with cancer. They are very kind and patient and clever, they inspire me. I know scientists who are working very hard every day in laboratories finding better medicines to help cure people who are poorly with cancer; they inspire me.
I can't do any of those things to help. Because I draw pictures and tell stories I thought how can I help? I had an idea and that idea was Micro Mob. So I got my pencil out and started drawing.
By the way, there ARE monsters in the Mob, not many though, actually there are bears, penguins, cats, dogs, birds, weird people, ugly people, beautiful people an elephant (or two) a very friendly polar bear and hundreds and hundreds of other things!
Thank you Francesco
Hi Maddie.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to think a long way back in time now because I'm quite old --- just a minute ---- ah yes, got it!
When I was your age we used to go to Sunderland to visit my Gand and Grandad. My Grandad was a very brave man he had helped bring food in to the country in the middle of World War Two. We all thought he was a hero. Even so, the visits could be a bit boring because the adults would sit and talk about boring things. Grandad knew we would be bored so he kept a pencil and pad in a drawer in the front room (there was always a bag of sweets in there too). He would draw animals and we (my brother and I) would try to copy them (and eat sweets). Grandad was really good at drawing ducks, fish and sea monsters, but that's hardly surprising, he must have seen lots of all of those things when he was out in his ship. Great question. Thank you Maddie
Barrie! You are very kind. Everybody can draw. I don't think there is good and bad drawing so long as the person who draws the picture thinks their drawing tells their story or describes what they saw or looks like the idea they had I think any drawing is good. So make lots of drawings Barrie no matter what other people think about them.
ReplyDeleteBut I know what you mean and I would say that the more you LOOK really carefully at things and the more you THINK really hard about things and the more DREAMS you dream and the more pictures you DRAW - any pictures - the better you get at telling stories and showing ideas with your drawings. Thanks for your question and I'd love to see your drawings Barrie
Dave, thanks SO MUCH for your answers from myself and all the children in Badger Class (especially Fracesco, Maddie and Barrie!). We really enjoyed reading them - we loved hearing about the sweets your Grandad kept for you.
ReplyDeleteThe children in Otter and Owl class will be posting their three questions tomorrow - they can't wait!
You are more than welcome it was my pleasure. I must try harder to get my spelling and grammar right tomorrow. Being busy today was no excuse.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to reading the questions from the Otters and Owls. Please say a big thank you to the Badgers.
WOW! Badger Class, you have asked some terrific questions. You are very good writers and have thought carefully about what you would like to know. Well Done!
ReplyDeleteHi Dave - this is Miss Bassett and Owl class! We have loved looking very carefully at some of the Micro-Mob in your picture and we are very impressed with the tiny drawings. We have also drawn and made our own micro-monsters out of clay and we wrote excellent descriptions of them. We have some questions for you too.
ReplyDeleteHayden would like to know:
Where do you do your art work?
Lucas would like to know:
When did you start drawing the Micro-Mob picture?
Tanisha says:
I want to be an artist too; have you any tips for me please?
Miss Bassett would like to know if you have a favourite artist?
We are really looking forward to seeing your finished work!
Many thanks from Owl Class
Hello Owls.
ReplyDeleteHi Hayden. Mostly I work here at a desk in the front room of my house. I have taken over the room and call it my 'Studio' it's not really a proper studio, it's just a room but it sounds posher calling it a studio. I've got a computer in here with two massive screens (which I don't use to watch films when nobody is looking - honest). I've got lots of books in here too, mainly books on art, comics and poetry because I love poetry.
I have three dogs and they spend most of their time in my studio. They call it their den though so it's a studio den. I often ask them to sharpen my pencils but they're aways too busy doing other things like sleeping, eating and scratching behind their ears.
I also draw everywhere I go, in town, on the train, in the bath, up a tree (honestly). I like drawing things in real life as much as drawing make believe things and if you like drawing things in real life you have to be prepared to get your pad and pencil out all over the place.
Thank you for your question Hayden
Hello Lucas, great question. I started drawing the Micro Mob picture at quarter to three in the afternoon on July 26th this year. The first person I drew was me as a chicken wearing a woolly hat.
Hi Trisha. You want to be an artist - wow! Great. Well there are lots and lots of different things artists do, they paint, make sculptures, throw pots, draw, make videos, design things - loads and loads of things so the first thing to do is try as many different things as you can and while you do it HAVE FUN. Lots of artists have a notebook which they take with them everywhere ( well not swimming or in to tunnels obviously) but everywhere else. They stick things they find in their notebooks and they draw and paint in their notebooks. They keep them and often get them out to look at because things in their notebooks help them to have ideas. So keeping a notebook is a very easy thing you can do.
Reading lots gives you a library of thoughts in your head which you can use to help you make things up.
Looking really carefully at things is really fun. Even the most ordinary things are fun to look at when you make yourself concentrate on how the light is making them look, what textures they are made from, the colours you can see when you look really carefully and the shapes things are made from. We often just look at things very quickly and get used to things. Lots of everyday things are amazing when you look at them in new ways.
Visiting places is great because you find new things - colours, textures and light can be very different in new places.
Galleries are great! Seeing what other artists have done and trying to work out how other artists look at the same things you are looking at but then make things that are very different to how you saw something is lots of fun.
Finally, try lots of different brushes, pencils, pens and making things. Sometimes people only have one or two brushes to paint with and those brushes make the same types of marks every time you use them which isn't as interesting as it could be. You can paint with almost anything - even the end of a stick! Making things with and out of lots of different things gives you lots of new ideas. Making mistakes is just as good for doing new things too - never throw something out straight away because you think it is a mistake it could be a brilliant new idea.
I hope that's helped Tanisha, good luck in becoming an artist whatever type of artist you end up being :-)
cont...
ReplyDeleteMiss Bassett. I like lots of artists and my choice of favourite changes almost every day. The artist I keep going back to is David Hockney I think he is a genius and a true innovator. in my humble opinion I think he's also doing the best work right now which is so exciting to have one of the world's greatest living artist making work right here in the English countryside.
I love Grayson Perry. His work is fantastic and so is he. I think he must be one of the most honest people working in the art world today and I love that about him just as much as the work he makes.
My favourite comic book artist is Frank Quitely. He has developed an incredible ability to tell stories. Through sheer hard work (up there in Scotland) Frank has made himself the finest of graphic artists
Thank you for all your questions Owl Class it's really nice to know you are all interested in The Mob. I can't wait to see some of your finished work too - especially Miss Bassett's monster - she is doing one isn't she? :-)
Dave - I like your drawing, it inspired me.I am very fond of your monsters.
ReplyDeleteHow long did it take you to draw one micro mob? How many monsters you created so far? Please can you show me your best favourite monster?
Thank You.
Arjun
Great questions Arjun - we'll talk about these next week! Hope you're enjoying sharing our blog.
DeleteHi Arjun. Thank you for your kind comments about the Mob. There are a few monsters in there and there are lots of other things too. I will be sending a print to Mr Davies very soon so you'll all be able to look at The Mob with a magnifying glass to find all the creatures and people in it.
ReplyDeleteThe Mob took me six weeks to draw. Every day I drew for about three or four hours and I made lists and I answered questions from people on Twitter and I asked people to join and when they did I said thank you. All the things I had to do that weren't drawing took longer than the drawing!
There are over 1,400 people in the drawing. I'm not exactly sure how many because the last day was pretty busy and it took all my energy to draw the mobsters so I didn't have any energy left to keep count.
I couldn't possibly tell you which my favourite mobster is Arjun! If I did, I think all 1399 other mobsters would tell me off. However there is very good looking chicken Mobster wearing a woolly hat right in the middle I particularly like :-)
Thank you for your great questions Arjun
Thank you Dave for answering my questions in such detail. I love reading every line.
DeleteHi Dave - this is Miss Reilly and Otter class! We have loved looking very carefully at some of the Micro-Mob in your picture and we are very impressed with the tiny drawings. We have some questions for you too.
ReplyDeleteHow many drawings do you complete in a week? Ella
How did you become an artist? Did you have to do Art at school everyday? Ayaan
What time of day is your favourite for drawing pictures? Divyanshi
Hello Miss Reilly and Otter class. Thank you for your kind comments about The Mob.
ReplyDeleteI draw every day. Sometimes I only draw about three things other times I can draw ten things so in a normal week anything from 21 to 70 things. When I was drawing The Mob I had to draw 200 mobsters a week - at least!
How many things do you draw in a week?
Hi Ayaan. We only did art once a week at school but then I went to art college for a year where we did art every day. It was great, I loved doing art every day. One of my teachers art art school said I would be a good designer, unfortunately I listened to what they said and went away and became a designer. It has been a good job for me but I always loved art and wanted to do it really - not design. Many years went by. Two years ago I had a bad accident to my eye which a very clever doctor made better. When I was being made better I had a lot of time to think about wanting to be an artist. Even though it had been a very long time since I went to art school I decided to give it a go and as soon as my eye got better I started drawing. So now I do lots of art AND I still do some design work too.
Hi Divyanshi. It's always best to work in daylight if you're using colours. That way yo get to see what the colours look like properly. Most light bulbs look like they make clean white light but if you look carefully you will see that most are actually quite yellow, or blue or even green and if you use lights while you are working with colours it can change how you mix them together. That's why I like doing colourful pictures during the day so I can use natural daylight. You can buy bulbs called daylight bulbs which try to look like daylight but they're not really as good as the real thing.
When I'm drawing with a pencil or a black ink pen I can work by the light from a lamp because I don't need to see if the colours look right so I like to work when the house is quiet which can be at different times of the day or night, sometimes very early in the morning too. I love to draw with the window open early in the morning in Spring and listen to the birds singing at the same time.
Of course the absolutely BEST time is when I have a fresh cup of tea and a cake - that's my favourite time to draw.
Thank you ALL for your questions. It's been a lot of fun. Draw every day and have fun :-)
Thank you for answering our questions Dave - We loved hearing all about your studio and your dogs! Miss Bassett has drawn a micro-mob image; it had a head like a rugby ball and a body like a football with curly hair and chicken legs!
ReplyDeleteThank you again
Owl Class