Perry created this map of a walled city as a self-portrait for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. He said ‘I thought the walled city was a good metaphor – the wall, I suppose, can roughly be interpreted as your skin. But like any city, it’s dependent on the landscape it sits in as well.’

Using this theme, our students created portraits of ourselves via the medium of maps. Maps offered a creative tool to get students to think about how the parts of themselves interrelate. Which parts are bigger, and which parts are smaller? Which parts exist in a similar place? What symbols could we use to represent certain parts of ourselves?

We drew around grains of rice to create the outline of our maps, which was a fun and sensory way to get the ball rolling. Then, it was time map ourselves! There were no rules: if you wanted to fill your map with Xbox games, that was fine. If you wanted it to feature foods you liked, that was fine too. As long as it represented yourself, or an area of yourself, it was a success!

Sybil the Backpack Fairy

I have researched the story of Sybil the Backpack Fairy, a graphic novel written by Michel Rodrigue and drawn by Antonello Danela, Manuela Razzi and Cecilia Giumento.

This was a good story with a pretty nice storyline. The book I read was episode two and I would have liked to read episode one first. The story is about a girl called Nina who has a servant fairy who is supposed to protect her. She messed up during the morning by saying thank you which fairies are not supposed to do and then Nina nearly drowned because of Laurie but was saved by the water fairy. Nina later gets turned into a mermaid and goes on some underwater adventures.

I liked the storyline and and the friendly, colourful drawing style. I didn’t like some of the facial expressions of some of the characters. I have been inspired by the fairy story and it would be nice to write my own story in this style.

Gacha Club

Most weeks I have also created characters in the game ‘Gacha Club’ and here are a few examples of my work.

Thank you for having a look at my art!

We challenged our students to consider environmental issues facing Torbay, including litter and plastic pollution. They created some fantastic stop-motion animations, raising awareness about the effect that litter has on our local environment and our planet! Please give them a watch below.

Litter and plastic pollution are significant environmental issues that affect our planet. Every year, around eight million tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean, causing harm to marine life and ecosystems. This is a problem that affects us all, and it is essential that we take action to reduce our use of single-use plastics and dispose of waste responsibly.

By participating in Earth Hour, we can show our support for the planet and raise awareness about the environmental issues that affect us all. Small changes, such as switching off the lights for an hour, can make a big difference and remind us of the importance of taking action to protect the environment.

Earth Hour is an opportunity for us all to come together and make a positive impact on the planet. Whether it’s by switching off the lights, reducing our use of single-use plastics, or making other small changes, we can all play a part in protecting the environment and building a more sustainable future. So, let’s take action and make every hour Earth Hour! Turn off your lights and join Tonic Creatives this evening at the Spanish Barn (Torre Abbey) for light jugglers and artists, drumming (and your chance to have a go), stilt walkers, and their Disco in the Dark.

To begin our module, we began making Thaumatropes, a toy from the Victorian period that, when spun, gave the illusion of movement. We also made some flipbooks to create our own ‘moving picture’ in the classroom.

Our students then watched a few stop-motion animations online as inspiration and were challenged to come up with their own ideas. What, or who would the main character be? What would the set design look like? What materials would they use?

Our students made prototype films to experiment with using the Stop Motion Studio app.

Then our students were tasked with creating their final set piece and characters. Our students made some really creative and fun final films – here is one called The Girl and the Whale!

Our students learned how to use different tools, make marks and create beautiful designs that could be printed again and again. We practiced first on small stamp designs, and then moved onto making greeting cards and larger prints.

We also had a visit from local artist and printmaker, Charlotte Tyne. Charlotte showed us how she experiments with layering different colours to produce beautiful prints of landscapes in Devon that many of us know and love.

We’ve been off on a road trip this week, exploring Tidal Arts in Kingsbridge with our Arts Award students.

The students spent about an hour looking around the gallery and noticing the different styles and learning about the process behind some of those styles, as well as the journey from studio to gallery and life as an artist in Devon.

A big thank you to Lucy for taking the time to chat with us about her practice and the gallery; we left feeling inspired!

We asked our students to create self portraits using Arcimboldo’s style, based on the things that they were interested in.

Using a printed image of a skull, we set to work hammering some nails into wood — the hammering was a really good stress release — although the nails were a little fiddly!

Next, we wove our string around our looms to recreate the features of a skull. This project required a lot of patience and our students did a brilliant job staying on task and creating a unique piece to take home.

Using acrylic paint pens, our students then painted meaningful, personal positive messages onto rocks, before sealing. We then hid them in Torre Abbey park for people to find. We left the hashtag #TaleblazersRocks on the back so that people could share it on social media if they found one.

The students were really engaged with this project and loved finding hiding places for their messages.