Togetherness in art

The Joy of Working Together

By Ian Stilon

This year, one of our main focuses in Art was for the students to have the joy to work together again, after two years of not being able to because of the pandemic. In regard to this, I decided to come up with a project which they can work in groups, test themselves, as well as learn about one of the most famous artists in the 20th Century, Keith Haring. In the first part of this project, I explained who Keith Haring was and we discussing his style of art. Many students took a liking to his art as it is very comical and involves lots of colour. They were also very interested in the doodles he used to draw as they look very fun and amusing. After the discussion, the students were split up in groups and instructed that they will be doodling in the same style of Keith Haring, but with a twist, it will be a life size poster drawing. This got the students very excited, and they immediately started thinking of actions they can do as they had to trace themselves on a large piece of paper. They enjoyed this part as everyone was involved and were coming up with different poses to trace.

After tracing the figures, the students outlined their figures in marker and chose a single colour for their figure and started painting. They had to work together to paint the whole figure, which they enjoyed. When they eventually finished painting the figure, they were instructed to add their own unique doodles around the figure itself. This gave the students a chance to be creative and think outside the box, which is always encouraged during art. Each group worked brilliantly together in drawing the doodles, coming up with very different ideas and helping each other to better their artwork. As their teacher, I enjoy coming up with these types of projects as they show the importance of team work and ultimately, pushes the students to challenge themselves and strive to do their best.

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