CREATE

back

In this section you will find some activities to help you begin making art, together with a selection of ideas and images to inspire you that could be used as source materials.
We have made the activity sheets so you can create your own artwork at your own pace. These can be done in your bed on the ward, on a break from caring for patients or in your living room at home. They are for anyone with five minutes to spare - all you need to get started is a pencil and some paper. There are also many downloadable drawing apps that can be used on your phone or tablet. Artists such as David Hockney have experimented with this new medium, creating and exhibiting works made using his IPhone and IPad. (click here to see examples of Hockney's recent IPad drawings of the Normandy countryside, and here to view his IPhone works. )

We've grouped the activities, inspiration and demonstration videos together by subject; find what you're interested in below to get started.

NEW!

Click on the image below for recently added activities and inspiration.

INTRODUCTION

& TIPS

drawing and watercolour

Click on the image below for a page of activities and inspiration to get you started.

Still frame from video demonstration on watercolour painting showing brush and paper with watercolour painting of flower forms.

STILL LIFE & THE WORLD AROUND US

Click on the image below for a page of activities and inspiration related to making artwork from your immediate surroundings.

Ideas Sheet with written suggestions of how to speed draw focuisng on line and tone alongside illustrative images.

ANIMALS & NATURE

Click on the image below for a page of activities and inspiration related to animals and the natural world.

Ideas sheet with written suggestions on drawing from nature such as leaves, trees and insects. Illustrations to go with the text.

LANDSCAPES & GARDENS

Click on the image below for a page of activities and inspiration related to the great outdoors.

Tall thin trees and woodland at Pollok Park in Glasgow Scotland.

Photograph courtesy of Lotte Gertz, Pollok Park.

IMAGINATION

& MEMORY

Click on the image below for a page of activities and inspiration related to making artwork from your imagination and memory.

ABSTRACT & LANGUAGE

Click on the image below for a page of activities and inspiration for making art that is expressive and playful.

Video still of Abstract Watercolour painting demonstration. Hand with brush and gestural coloured marks on paper.

PEOPLE

Click on the image below for a page of activities and inspiration related to making artwork based on the human form, including portraits, sketching and painting.