Pupils create hundreds of portraits for ‘The Big Draw’ at Dunhurst

Nov. 26, 2010 - PRLog -- This week Dunhurst's assembly room more closely resembles the National Portrait Gallery following an ambitious initiative led by Dunhurst's Head of Creative Studies, Elaine Hewitt to support the national 'Big Draw' campaign by commissioning pupils to draw portraits of one another including teachers and staff.

The result features a display of hundreds of portraits created using line drawing techniques, showing an eclectic mix of drawing styles. Everyone from pupils to teachers to cleaning and catering staff have been immortalised in portrait sketches. Photographs of all 300 pupils, staff and teachers were taken and placed in a box and pupils selected their subject at random. Teaching staff and arty parents assisted the children to develop their line drawing techniques and enjoy the creative process of portraits.

So that staff and pupils could identify their portraits, each drawing was given an id number and they have enjoyed the process of searching for their face within the many portraits on display. Some pupils received a photo of their teacher to draw, while others drew portraits of pupils in the years above them or below them.

Commenting on the portrait display, Dunhurst Head, Penny Watkins said: "The drawings really capture the community here at Dunhurst and are truly inspiring. This initiative is all about making drawing possible for everyone, whether they are artistic or not, through learning techniques that are both effective and creative. Not only was the drawing process enjoyable but it was also fun for pupils and staff to search for their picture in the display. It really was a 'work of each for weal of all effort'.

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Bedales is an independent co-educational day and boarding school located in the Hampshire countryside which focuses on educating the whole person. The school consists of Bedales which is the senior school, Dunhurst (http://www.bedales.org.uk/dunhurst2.html) is the junior school and Dunannie is a pre-preparatory school.