Category Archives: Johanna Basford

Art and design, Biodiversity, Johanna Basford, Visual elements

The Great Glow Stampede

1 Comment

I hope you have had a lovely holiday Monday!  This week we won’t have a live Glow TV event because we want to give you time to begin to create a creature for the ‘Great Glow Stampede’!  

This is Johanna Basford’s idea and is inspired by her ‘Wonderbeast ‘ design! Johanna invited the general public to become co-creators by commisssioning her to draw a creature of their choice.  The final design included over 150 different creatures and is stunning. Take a look below at ‘Wonderbeasts’ and visit Johanna’s site to see the names of the co-creators and what they commissioned!  

The crocodile is my favourite!  

Johanna Basford 'Wonderbeasts'

 

We are now calling upon you to become a co-creator on a gigantic project that will be shared nationally!  We aim to create a ‘Great Glow Stampede’ of the flora, fauna and fish of Scotland to help others appreciate the beauty of our country. 

These are the instructions

Your creature can be real or imaginary.   

Your creature should  

(When uploading to Glow please include the artist’s first name and school in title of the saved file. First name School e.g AnnaEllon if there are two Anna’s in your class or school please include the initial of that persons surname)  

OR  

  • original artwork can be sent to Anna Rossvoll by Wednesday 5th June and it will be photographed and put into the final design.

I am sorry but we cannot return orignial artwork.  

And last but not least…..  

There will be a competition!!!!  

Three winning creatures will be selected from the stampede and the winning artists will receive a signed copy of Johanna’s latest book!  

So Co-creators lets Ready, steady INKKKKKKKK!!!!!

Creativity Challenge, Johanna Basford, Storytelling, Uncategorized, Wondertales

Storytelling with ‘Wonderlands’

Leave a comment
Wendy Woolfson Storytelling in Wonderlands

Click on the links to watch and listen to Wendy Woolfson bring Johanna Basford’s designs to life through stroytelling.

Storytelling within ‘Crazy Botanic’

Storytelling within ‘Peking’

Storytelling within ‘Macbeth’

Storytelling in the Supersized Forest

Please visit the Wondertale wiki to be astounded by the creativity and imagination of young writers across Scotland (Glow username and password required)

Wendy, Johanna – thank you sincerely – what an inspiration for all of us, Anna

Dundee Contemporary Arts, Inky adventures, InkyME adventures, Johanna Basford

Inky Adventures

Leave a comment

On Tuesday Johanna Basford joined us live on Glow TV from the DCA.

Johanna Basford at DCA - taken by Phil Wilkinson for The Scotsman
Johanna Basford at DCA - taken by Phil Wilkinson for The Scotsman

Sadly we faced serious technical issues and lost our wifi connection. Another camera was recording the session so we are editing those clips and aiming to share those as soon as possible.

During the interview Glow TV viewers asked lots of questions and we are working on a transcript of the answers. Watch this space 🙂

Johanna, thank you so much for your time on Tuesday! We can’t wait to share the Blue Peter moment you created for viewers after the live event. We will give you a clue – what does Glow begin with?…

In the meantime if you have access to YouTube – The DCA interviewed Johanna and the clip can be viewed here!

Johanna Basford Interview at the DCA on YouTube

Creativity Challenge, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Johanna Basford, Storytelling, Uncategorized, Wondertales

Wondertales – Watch again!

Leave a comment

Wendy Woolfson, a storyteller from Glasgow used Johanna Basford’s exhibtion to tell stories. She looked carefully at 3 of Johanna’s wallpaper designs. ‘Botanic Crazy’, ‘Peking’ and ‘Hamlet’. You can view these on Johanna’s website.

The three designs were combined to create an incredible ‘Wondertale’.

Learners across Scotland then explored the exhibtion and began to create a collaborative story with Wendy. Johanna’s boat inspired a flood of ideas and an octopus caused chaos reeking havoc below the boat! Many of the suggestions involved superhero animals, bees, penguins and mermaids. Wendy used ‘Wonderbeasts’ to help generate ideas. You can explore ‘Wonderbeasts’ here. Johanna has also created a PDF of Wonderbeasts which can be downloaded from her site and this could help to inspire your Wondertale. 

Wendy took us on an incredible storytelling adventure yesterday. To listen to her stories, undertake the warm up activity and begin to breakdown how she created her stories you can watch the Glow TV event again by clicking here. (Glow username and password required)

Wendy, thank you so much!

Before and after the live event we recorded Wendy telling more stories in the gallery and we will share these and behind the scene photographs from the event later this week.

Dundee Contemporary Arts, Johanna Basford, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Welcome to Wonderlands

Leave a comment

On Monday 13th May at 10 am Dundee Contemporary Arts will open their Gallery doors to Glow TV viewers and we will step into Johanna Basford’s exhibtion ‘Wonderlands’! Wendy Woolfson will be our storyteller and she will help us to learn to look carefully for detail in Johanna’s exhibtion, capture the detail in words and create a Wondertale!

To join the Glow TV event click here (Glow username and password required)

Creativity Challenge, Johanna Basford, pattern, Storytelling, Wondertales

Create a Wondertale

2 Comments

Creativity challenge 1 – Create a Wondertale!

Visit Johanna Basford’s Gallery of work.

Look carefully at a design that ‘catches your eye’.  Why does the design appeal to you? Look carefully at the detail.

Capture – Describe the design in words. Describe the design as a whole and then describe sections and details within those.

Create a ‘Wondertale’ by imagining you have shrunk and are small enough to walk around the design.  Describe what you might see, hear, feel, smell and even dare to taste.  Your ‘Wondertale’ might be a poem, story, rap or song.

SHARE – You will earn the ‘Wondertales’ badge if you upload your Wondertale and any wordbanks you have created to the Look, Capture, Create Wiki. Please leave comments and feedback for each other on the wiki. 

Art and design, B is for biodiversity, Biodiversity, Biodiversity design, Creativity Challenge, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Inky adventures, Johanna Basford, sciences, Wondertales

First 10 schools to sign up for 2 or more Creativity Challenges receive REWARDS!

Leave a comment

Please visit the Glow TV schedule to sign up for

Look, Capture, Create Creativity Challenges.

The first 10 schools to sign up for 2 or more Creativity Challenges will receive rewards!

Incentives for participation in the 'Look, Capture, Create' Creativity Challenges

Creativity Challenge 1

Monday 13th May at 10am, live from Dundee Contemporary Arts

Learners will have the opportunity to tour Johanna Basford’s exhibition ‘Wonderlands’ at Dundee Contemporary Arts through storytelling.  Johanna draws intricate designs and the storyteller will model how to look carefully for detail, capture those details in words and create a Wondertale!

Creativity Challenge 2

Week 2 of the Look, Capture, Create project coincides with ‘Walk to School Week’ and ‘Scotland’s Nature Festival’. This Glow TV broadcast gives learners the opportunity to journey on an inky adventure with the Scottish illustrator/designer Johanna Basford to learn about her art techniques, what inspires her designs and her success commercially.

Johanna will share how she looks for detail and inspiration in nature, how she captures this and creates beautiful hand drawn inky designs.

She will share her

  • influences and sources of inspiration.
  • sketchbooks, techniques and choice of media.
  • approach to collaboration
  • ability to be observant, use her eyes to spot natural treasure

Johanna will invite the young people of Scotland to become a Co-Creator by drawing their own inky picture of a creature which lives on land or in water to create a Glow stampede of fish, flora or fauna which reflects the beauty and diversity of wildlife in Scotland. The creature could be real or imaginary.

Creativity Challenge 3

During week 3 of the ‘Look, capture, create’ interdisciplinary learning experience we will be joined by a scientist/mathematician from Dundee University live in the Dundee Botanic Gardens  to learn more about the importance of Scottish Biodiversity and how we can do simple things to help nature survive and grow.  We will look in particular at the types and purposes of the beautiful patterns nature creates.

Creativity Challenge 4

For the final ‘Look, capture, create’ Glow TV broadcast join the learning team at Dundee Contemporary Arts to explore the visual elements – line, shape, form, colour, tone, pattern and texture  to create a design to promote Scottish biodiversity. And watch as we reveal and celebrate the Glow Stampede of Scottish fish, flora and fauna, your collaborative artwork.