Our friends over at Riverside Primary School and Nursery recently participated in the #FazzinoArtChallenge and it was a huge success to say the least. We came across one of their twitter posts that featured a variety of Fazzino-inspired artwork which prompted us to ask if they would like to join our list of schools who regularly participate in these exciting challenges. They happily accepted the challenge and the results of this project left us speechless! We expected to only receive artwork from just the Year 5 class but instead, the entire school participated! Each class was inspired by a different artistic style. Ranging from Nursery to Year Six, we asked each teacher to describe their thought process and inspiration behind each of these pieces.
The children in the Nursery class started off their project differently from the rest. First, the class did a taste-test. The fruit tasted sweet, which got them talking. By exploring their senses like touch, taste and sight, they had an idea of how they could interpret these magical fruits. The class decided to to go about this project in two ways, 2D and 3D. The children who decided to go the 2D route, used several techniques – sponge printing, a water wash in paint, and collaging, using tissue paper and glitter. The kids who went the 3D direction used pine-cones to represent their pineapples, painted in yellow, and topped them with green leaves to give them some real depth.
The children in the reception class loved the pineapple challenge! They started their process by looking closely at a pineapple and discussing the colour, smell, and texture. At first, they did some observational drawings in pencil and coloured pencils then, the kids made their way to watercolours. Some even used tissue paper and glitter to create individual or class collages! Finally they chopped up the “real” pineapple and wrote descriptions about how sweet it tasted!
Year 1 children were inspired by Charles Fazzino’s pineapple challenge to add a mathematical twist. The kids chopped up pineapple rings and investigated the halves and quarters. They loved looking closely at the pineapples texture. They adapted the feathering and winkling techniques that were featured in the Pineapple Art Challenge post and finished the pieces with bright and beautiful colours.
Year 2 class took on the fruity pineapple challenge using wax crayons and watercolour paints. They applied the white wax in a cross pattern (featured in the Crayon Resist blog post) and were amazed at what happened as they painted over it. The children really enjoyed the experience and certainly showed pineapple qualities: stand up tall, wear a crown and be sweet on the inside.
We chose to use watercolours as this was the artist’s style. The children learned that watercolours can blend together and how to use a fine paintbrush for detail. It took us 2 days to complete as the whole class took their time concentrating and the children really enjoyed the painting.
In Year 4, the children practised drawing pineapples, using a pencil to sketch the outline in detail. Once they were confident in drawing the shape and outline of a pineapple, they started to create their final pieces in paint using only watercolours. Some children experimented by adding colours on top of each other or more water if needed. The end results were amazing and all the children really enjoyed the challenge.
Year 5 thoroughly enjoyed the pineapple project. They loved looking at Fazzino’s new release ‘Kawaii in Hawaii’ and picked out different details within the piece that they liked the most. We began by experimenting with using wax as a barrier and tried box coloured crayon wax and candle wax to see which was most effective. We chose this method as this was something children had never done before. The kids found getting the correct shape of the pineapple, was tricky at first but, everyone persevered and we’re all very proud of our final pieces!
Year 6 children used Fazzino’s ‘Kawaii in Hawaii’ as their inspiration to explore different colour choices in watercolour paints. They started with sketches and observational drawings and then completed their final pieces using bright and vivid colours that really ‘POP’ – a bit like Fazzino’s original. The children added their own creative twist to this challenge (as you can see in the image above.)
A Big “Thank you” From Fazzino
“I remain so inspired by the way our Fazzino Art Challenge has taken off. These kids are so incredibly talented and their interest and the results of their projects just reaffirm how important the arts are in our kids’ educations. Not only are they learning how to be creative, but they are thinking about things in a new way and learning to adjust to, adapt to, and be a part of our world. I’m so proud of them.”
Thank you to the Riverside Primary School for participating in the Fazzino Art Challenge! If you would like to participate in any future art challenges remember to tag Fazzino on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook and hashtag #FazzinoArtChallenge.