Junior Cert Project deadline day coming up fast!!!! Its all hands to the pump with the pupils having to pull out the stops to get things done. Its a stressful time for everone and its hard to balance the finishing touches to the work with the organisation and labelling of stuff. I'm getting sleepness nights about it to be honest. Anyone else strung out yet?

Every year I get my pupil's to evaluate the work of well known local and international artists by distributing catalogues, postcards etc in class. The pupils pick an image and write about their views on the work and how it makes them feel. The text here was written by a 13 yr old and has always served as a reminder of how we should never underestimate the brilliance of a young mind and its capacity for higher order thinking. Don't think I was this perceptive when I was her age!!!

Also, I meant to put this up a while back. it is a gesture drawing

by a third year pupil. For years I had always got pupils to do gesture drawings in a very formal way with distinct sections of the sheet devoted to a separate pose. This year I invited the class to be a bit more experimental and overlap poses if they wanted. Don't know why I didn't try this before (most of you have probably done this before) as I feel allowing sections of the figure to merge and overlap is more dynamic and expressive. I will definitely keep this going in the future