Hand Made Places annually celebrate “The Big Draw” by sharing our own ideas for the different themes which are presented each year.
The Big Draw is a month long event which celebrates creativity and promotes mental well-being by celebrating the freedom which comes from expressing yourself through art.
In addition to this, the aim of this event is to get even those that would not usually participate in art activities creating something new.
Because as they say… Anyone can draw.
Each year the big draw follows a creative theme and the theme for 2017 is “Living Lines”. This is an animation theme which aims to explore the art of motion!
Whether you create a simple stick figure flip book, or a full stop motion animation! You can get involved in this creative festival.
Why take part in the Big Draw?
The Big Draw is a great event which aims to encourage everyone to draw more often.
Drawing is not only lots of fun but it is also highly beneficial especially for developing children.
Though many people see ‘drawing’ as one specific skill set, it is linked to many other skills too.
Children who practice drawing regularly show vast improvement in their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are responsible for a child’s ability to tie their shoe laces, zip their coat, cut out, and even write. Therefore, it is essential that children, especially younger children, practice drawing regularly in order to develop important life skills.
The Big Draw aims to encourage children to improve their drawing and design skills. This should in turn provide them with a confidence boost.
Children who engage in regular drawing activities are much more likely to believe in their abilities. This comes from the encouragement that they receive when drawing an image, as opposed to answering questions which they may get wrong.
Subjects such as art and music where there is no specific right or wrong answer allow children to freely express themselves. Allowing children to show creativity without strict boundaries encourages them to express themselves. This gives them the confidence to try new things in their other subjects.
“Allowing children the freedom to draw and create, encourages them to explore their surroundings.”
Not included in the yearly theme of the day is the annual competition which encourages people of all ages to submit a series of small drawings. These drawings represented their day to day lives, for example ‘breakfast’ or ‘your street’.
Children of all ages could enter this competition. Even though the competition is only run for one month in the year, you can still encourage pupils to walk around, with a responsible adult, looking for these specific day to day objects. Encouraging exploration is great for child development! It makes them aware of their environment, promoting safety and understanding.
Creating Amazing Animations:
Following the theme we are looking into how to create some “crazy animations.”
Creating animations allows children to explore motion, they can look at how small movements combined can make one fluid motion, and they can do this by looking into the different ways of creating simple animations.
Firstly lets look at flip books!
Flip book:
A flip-book is a series of papers which are flicked through quickly to give the illusion that the object is moving.
Children can have fun with this one and bring their drawings to life simply by flicking through the pages.
Remember to encourage children to keep the image simple as they will have to create this image multiple times and they all have to be the same!
We suggest stick figures or simple silhouettes!
Take a look at our dancing ballerina for some fun inspiration!
Secondly, we’ll look at stop-motion:
Stop-motion:
Stop-motion is an animation process which involves the creator taking a series of images and then playing them at a high speed.
Playing them back like this will create one fluid motion and it isn’t difficult for children to do.
Get children to take lots of pictures of teddies, dolls, anything which they can move and then you can play the images back to them!
You don’t even need expensive software, you can simply flick through the images on the screen!
Finally, we’ll look at a Thaumatrope…
Thaumatrope:
A Thaumatrope isn’t so much an animation, as an illusion, but it involves creativity and movement, and such we’ve included it.
A Thaumatrope is a toy which was popular in Victorian England, and involves a spinning disk which has two different images on either side.
The images when spun come together to create one image – Great fun for children of all ages.
And whats more its so easy to create your own.
Just draw an image on each side of a cardboard disk, insert two holes and a piece of string and then SPIN!
Where does Hand Made Places Fit in?
Hand Made Places have a range of creative playground equipment.
This equipment encourages children to express themselves through the medium of drawing. Our Chalkboard, Dry Wipe Board and Tracing Board are all items which encourage creativity.
By placing these play items within a playground, pupils can combine physical play with imaginative play. They can even incorporate their drawing into their everyday lives. For example encouraging a child to map out a running track, or create a pirates map to find the buried treasure combines a multitude of skills. Thus demonstrating the importance of creativity amongst children.
The Big Draw gives children the opportunity to express themselves creatively.
It showcases a variety of different talents as well as allowing those who excel within artistic subjects to illustrate talents which are often overlooked within the typical school curriculum.