The children yearn for Illustration, and I’m here to make that happen!
I was getting a bit tired of saying no to kids when they asked if they could draw on my board whilst I was at work. So I got to work creating a super duper cool 3D structure that they could draw on instead. And of course, they got stuck right in!
As an a former artsy child, who is now the artsy adult, it brings a smile to my face to create spaces for children to be silly and express themselves through art. I love to see them draw their fave pony, doodle a silly doggy and have the craic colouring in.
I travelled all the way from Limerick up to Derry, aka Stroekstown, for this wonderful event in the Guildhall. Creative Connections is a cross border intitiative that has the goal of, you guessed it, building connections thorugh creativity! All year lovely children from both sides of the border had the opportuntity to try their hand at different forms of creativity, including stroytelling, dance, paper maché, pottery, painting and the list goes on. All of this creativity culminated in a massive showcase event at the Guildhall.
Now given that the kiddos had spent all year enjoying the creative arts, we weren’t about to make them sit down through 5 hours of panel discussions and speeches. However, the mayor and other delegates still had to speak. That’s where Visual Note-taking came in, while the adults in suits were talking, I was drawing what they were saying. Using simple words and playful images to make a short speech from an Irish Government Official relateable to a 7 year old from Limavaddy who only cares about dancing.
And it worked! The kids went mad for the live illustration, and I was excited to show them that creativity, silliness and doodling doesn’t have to end in childhood. Oh no, you can ride that wave straight into your 30s children.
Because I was in a hall full of highly trained creative children (they’d spent months honing their skills) I knew it would be entirely unfair to show them a huge piece of paper and loads of cool markers but not give them a go. So, my partner (who is a mechanical engineer) and I worked together to design what I’m currently calling a n ‘‘Illustration Tower’’. The Illustration tower is made from sheets Swedboard and held together with custom 3D printed brackets, to make a 3 -sided triangular tower. On each face of the tower I provided space for this kids to draw, colour in and respond to simple questions.
THEY LOVED IT.
They loved it so much that I had to start a queing system and ask the kids to share the markers because once they were at the tower with a marker in hand, they were locked in. When their turn was over, they walked straight back to end of the line, ready to go again. Once the provided spaces were filled in, the kids just kept going, and before I knew it, the entire 1m x 2m boards were completely filled. (Thats 6m² of colouring in!)
Once the event was over, and I had pried the markers out of their tiny hands, I photographed each side and digitised it so that my clients could include it in reports, social media and share with all the schools post-event.
