EMELBI Creative Workshops

I am always open to discuss the tailoring of creative workshops to bolster curricular activities in terms of enrichment, technical focus in preparation for GCSE’s and other qualifications and of course in upping work volume in exam preparation.
If you would like to discuss the idea of building a creative workshop around activities that your school or college is currently involved with, then please do get in touch. I would love to talk to you about your establishment and building a fun, informative, positive and creative experience. Over the years I have found that some of the best workshops that I have been involved with have been born out of the necessity of fulfilling creative agendas, whether they are project-based, coursework linked or in celebration of meaningful aspects of your establishments’ history and the larger community. Or anything else for that matter!

Working either independently or alongside teachers, I tailor creative workshops to enhance curricular activities that enrich provision in all Key Stages. This can include preparation for GCSE and A-Level examinations and coursework.

Over the last 21 years, I have worked within local education authorities delivering workshops and projects to children and young people in schools teaching digital photography, digital illustration, drawing and painting projects, graphic and creative design throughout all key-stages.

The projects that I have been involved with have been a great amount of fun and have brought about a fantastic amount of creativity.

Key Stages 1 and 2  

The digital workshops for these key stages have entailed the exploration of image, deconstruction, and reconstruction of digital photography, then using the imagination to illustrate characters using various drawing techniques. Further to this, the students have explored the building of narratives based around the imagery as it is formed looking at repeat pattern making derived from individually constructed graphics, building monster faces from digital photography, basic animation techniques, and story building, illustrations derived from photographic elements, graphic design and text usage, image layering and much more.

Drawing and painting projects have looked at ways of forming characters and imagery based on different and unusual drawing techniques using a variety of pens and other mark making equipment. Further development takes young people on a journey of discovering how to transfer the designs from their ideas on paper to a bigger canvas. From here the designs that they have shaped can progress with the introduction of a variety of painting techniques and an assortment of mediums enabling the building up of more and more detail culminating in fabulous and striking artworks.

EMELBI Workshops Images Gallery

Key Stage 3

Within Key Stage 3 the projects have been very much based around hands-on skills exploring a combination of paper cutting and collage, use of newsprint for text elements, painting over collage and building on relief, the use of colour and black and white photography and the degradation of such imagery within the design process. Also, a look at hand-sketched material and lightbox work and the introduction of found materials when building up graphics.

Key Stage 4 

Within key stage 4 I have very much been working within current curriculum activities, working closely with young people in ‘GCSE’ Art Graphics and ‘A’ Level Photography groups.

With the ‘GCSE’ groups I have been teaching a large number of illustrative skills, focusing on unusual drawing techniques, light-box work and idea formulation. I have also covered Photoshop skills looking at aspects of graphic design concerning, typography, illustration, graphic placement, digital image manipulation, image degradation, and image correction techniques. I have also focussed on image preparation and optimisation looking at colour use, spatial awareness and layout, the scanning and preparation of hand-drawn and painted media for use in the digital design process, effective layer use, and key aspects of available tools, what they do, how they work both on their own or in conjunction with each other.

The illustration workshops that I run in secondary schools are a great way of learning the basics as well as some of the more technical elements of Adobe Photoshop. Especially the building up of multiple layers, the power of layer masks, multiple blend modes, detailed texture use, colouring techniques and a lot more.

When working with the ‘A’ Level Photography groups the attention has very much been placed on the importance of planning the photoshoot and knowing what you need to achieve before heading out to collect the raw material. Also establishing an emphasis on volume of material, consideration of light, framing, depth of field, colour consideration and more. Further to this much of my expertise has been imparted dealing with the post-production aspects of photography, focusing much more on the subtleties of image correction, tonal composition, use of light, effective framing, black & white/monochrome aspects, photographic manipulation, texture introduction and the teaching of how to use essential post-production tools that are available in within the digital software.

It has been lovely to witness many EUREKA moments when students realise what can be done within the available software. Acquiring a better understanding of the kit that they are using enables them to really start thinking a lot more boldly about the projects that they undertake and truly expand on the ideas that they form.

For more details and information about the projects that I have delivered, please visit my education blog page that has more in-depth examples of workshops and creativity. Link here: EMELBI – Creative Learning in Education

If you are looking at running creative educational workshops and would like me to get involved, please get in touch with me via the Contact Page