Author: Mrs Madden

Single Line Portrait Drawing

For this activity all you need is a sheet of A4 paper, a mirror (if you are drawing yourself) and a pencil or pen.

 

 

 

 

 

To do this activity properly, you are not allowed to lift your pencil off the paper once you have started.  However, you are allowed to draw over the top of lines you have already drawn – it is quite tricky!   I drew myself in the mirror and I drew my husband.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I challenge all the staff and pupils to do this.  Top tip:  start down the middle of your face (I started with my eyebrow).

 

 

 

 

 

Decorative and Useful Clip

Miss Dale told me that my Whistle Whittling blog was too long last week so I’m going to try to do a shorter one this week.

To make this clip you will need a fairly thick branch (this one is sycamore), a pruning saw or something similar, a whittling knife, a cut resistant glove, some sand paper and a sprung wooden peg.

Saw off two discs, about 1 cm thick, from the end of your branch.

 

 

 

 

Wear your cut resistant glove and use your whittling knife to remove the bark and to slightly round off the edges of your discs of wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sand your discs, first with coarse sand paper to remove all the rough bits and then use the finer sand paper to smooth the wooden discs.

 

 

 

 

 

Once you are satisfied that the discs are smooth, you can paint one of them with a design of your choice.  I chose a daisy and varnished it once it was dry.  Then I glued both discs to either side of a wooden peg, using wood glue and left it to dry.

 

 

 

 

 

I stuck my clip onto the inside of my kitchen sink cupboard door, using sticky fixers, so that I could hang my rubber gloves up.

I know that some of you wrote some tongue twisters a while ago.  Miss Dale inspired me to write this one after my whistle whittling post on here.

Whitney whittled whistles whilst whizzing on a whirligig.

I think you could write a better one than this – give it a go and post it on the blog – I’d enjoy reading them.

I adapted to my Lemon Cheesecake recipe to make a blackcurrant flavoured one instead.  I used blackcurrant jelly instead of lemon and a stewed a few blackcurrants from my freezer with a tablespoon of sugar (I grow blackcurrants in my garden and freeze them until I need them).  I added the blackcurrants to the jelly cubes along with a little boiling water to make it up to 1/2 pint.  All the rest of the instructions are the same.  It was very yummy.

I found a Violet Ground Beetle in my garden (at least I think that is what it is – it was very fast).  It is flightless and very common in woods hedgerows and gardens.  It hunts at night feeding on small worms, slugs and many other small creatures.

 

 

 

 

Down by the river I found, what I think is, caddisfly larvae stuck to a rock.  They build ‘cases’ to protect themselves from predator fish.  To build these cases, larvae use silk to stick gravel, sand and bits of plants together around themselves.  Mrs. Madden

I found some old wallpaper in my garage and I used the back of it to draw on, but any roll of paper will do – perhaps you could use the back of some Christmas wrapping paper if you have some left over.  I also used charcoal and chalk pastels but you can use felt tipped pens, crayons or coloured pencils if you like.  I chose some classical music to draw to because it doesn’t tend to have any lyrics ( it is better if you choose some music without words that could distract you from the sound of the music).

 

 

 

 

I stuck my piece of wallpaper up on my lounge window with some masking tape.  I got my piece of charcoal ready and switched on my music.  The first piece of music I chose was ‘The Flight of the Bumble-bee’ by Rimsky Korsakov.  It is a very fast piece of music so my lines quickly buzzed around the paper like a bumble-bee.  I added some colour afterwards to make it more interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed doing this so much that I decided to do another one but to much slower music – this time I chose ‘Aquarium’ from Carnival of The Animals by Saint-Saens.

 

 

 

 

There are quite a few famous artists who have made works of art to music- you could look up:  Wassily Kandinsky – ‘Compositions’ series, Piet Mondrian – ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’, Andre Masson – ‘Automatic Drawing’.

Give it a go, it’s fun and easy to do. Mrs. Madden. ( I tried to put this post on my page but it didn’t come out very well so I did it again on here.)

Whittling Whistles

To make a wooden whistle you will need a stick that is seasoned (i.e. completely dry) rather than the green wood that I recommend for other whittling projects.  You can use hazel, sycamore, silver birch or any fruit-wood (I used hazel).  The stick will need to be 15 – 20 mm in diameter and 100 – 150 mm long.

 

 

 

 

You will also need a work bench or vice and a drill for this project (we have got some hand drills at school but I forgot to bring one home with me so I’m using my electric drill).

 

 

 

 

Secure your stick in the work bench or vice and drill a hole at one end using an 8 mm drill bit.  Make the hole between 40 and 50 mm deep (I measured this on my drill bit before drilling and used a piece of masking tape to mark how deep I needed to go).

 

 

 

 

Measure about 15 mm from the drilled end and make a vertical cut across the side of the stick that just cuts into the side of the hole you have drilled.  I used a small pruning saw to do this but you can use your knife.

 

 

 

 

Now make a shallow, sloping wedge cut towards the vertical cut.  This second cut should be at around 45 degrees, to create a wedge shape and should break into the hole you drilled.  Always wear your cut resistant glove when using the knife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut another small stick (I used sycamore this time) and cut it into quarters, down the grain, using a small axe or hatchet (you can use a piece of ready made dowel but I didn’t have any).  Use your knife to whittle this sick into a roughly circular rod.  Check to see if it is just slightly larger than the hole you have drilled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trim one end of your small rod or dowel to make it square and flatten it off a little at one side.  This is called the fipple and determines the tone of your whistle.

 

 

 

 

Insert the fipple into the mouthpiece until the square end is level with the vertical cut.  It should fit tightly into the hole and there should be a narrow space (the windway) in between the flat side of the fipple and the hole.

 

 

 

 

 

You can now try your whistle, adjusting the fipple until you get the sound you want.  You may have to clean up any rough edges around the hole with sandpaper and fiddle about with the fipple before you get it right.  Once you are happy with the sound, carefully, trim off the end of the fipple so that it is level with the end of the whistle (I used my saw for this).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shape the mouthpiece so that it is comfortable, ensuring that you don’t break into the drilled hole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you like you can cut your whistle to the length you want, trim the end and drill a hole to fit a keyring.  Finish with a coat of olive oil or varnish.

 

 

 

 

I went for a walk down by the river and saw a heron again.

 

 

 

 

 

I saw a pair of mute swans.  I also saw some whooper swans flying over the river but I didn’t get a photo of them.

 

 

 

 

I saw some tiny fish in the river.  You can probably see their shadows better than the actual fish in this photo.

 

 

 

I saw some long beetles on a dandy-lion flower but I haven’t been able to identify them (perhaps Mr. Walker can help).

We have been talking a lot on the blog, recently, about cats and dogs and which one makes the best pet.  I think they are both great in their own ways.  I have a cat and I have done a few quick sketches of her sleeping on my lap.  Have you done any drawings or paintings of your pets recently?  I’d love to see them – post them on the blog.  Here are mine.  Mrs. Madden.

I went for a walk near my house and saw some small, shiny green beetles on some dock leaves.  I later found out that they are called Green Dock Beetles.  I think this one is about to lay some eggs. 

 

 

 

 

 

They lay their eggs on the underside of the dock leaf.  The larvae, that hatch from these eggs, are brown (I’ll have to wait to get a photo of them).  Mrs. Madden