This was a whole school project based on the idea of The Big Draw but rather loosely since it took place in March 2016.  The idea was to involve the whole school in making a cityscape for the back wall of the main hall.  Each year group made either houses, people, birds or sky to fill the wall.  Two other artists, Will Clarke and Sarah Simmonds, worked with me to help the pupils design and make both of the two backgrounds (sky and greenery) as well as the drawing and printing that makes up the majority of the houses.

We based our cityscape on the work of Hundertwasser and his idea that ‘a straight line is the devil’s work’ so that all our houses are fluid and curving.  We asked the pupils to design a city which had all kinds of buildings from mosques and churches to shops and castles in the sky.  Our sky is based on Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’.

Year 6 started our two day Big Draw by making the sky with a combination of wax crayon resist and paint.

The other year groups concentrated on the houses, people and birds.  The birds are 3D paper sculpture which fly from fishing line in front of the houses.  Once we had a good stack of houses, we decided on their placement.

The background was one huge sheet of paper painted in an Impressionist style by the younger year groups.  Here are some images of the finished Big Draw in detail:

This is what it looks like in situ – pretty impressive for two days work by everyone involved!