Drawing us together

Hello! I’m Emma Martin and I am an artist. Some of you might have worked with me before on BIG Art projects. 

I am the Schools Ambassador for the Big Draw and I have a project for you to do called ‘Drawing Us Together’. We can all work on it while we have to stay off school. When we reopen, your work can be displayed at school to celebrate us all getting back together. We will also be showing the work in some of Manchester’s galleries and museums when they open up again, so we can share our art with the city!  

So here is what I want you to do….

I have asked your school to give you some A4 paper. Fold it, then cut it in half, like in the picture below, so you have long strips. 

Each day, draw a picture on a strip of the paper. 

Your first picture is to be about how you feel missing school. 

Some of you might be excited to spend time with your family, others might already be missing their friends or be a bit worried. However you feel, it is fine to draw about it. 

It’s good to share feelings.  

When you have drawn your first picture, get a cardboard tube from inside a toilet roll. Wrap your first days work around the tube to store it. The next day add another drawing, sticking it onto the last one or just wrap it around. This way you will keep you work together and safe, but it will also keep it in order, almost like a diary. 

Over the weeks our rolls will build up and get fatter with art! When you are all back at school it will be great fun to unwind them all and share experiences of our time away from school. You can follow my drawings and ideas on YouTube or just draw whatever you want. You could draw pictures of friends, families, feeling, your favourite films, songs, foods or places. You can draw real or imaginary things. You could create comic strips or illustrate stories, design a dream car or home. As long as you draw something everyday it can not be wrong. 

You must have seen in the shops that toilet rolls are hard to find at the moment! This is because people got worried and bought lots. But we need to keep calm, laugh, share, care and be creative at this time. I thought it would be funny if we all make artwork that ends up looking like toilet rolls!  It is good to laugh!

I will start posting films on YouTube on Monday 23rd March, so you can see what me and my family are drawing. Just go to YouTube and type in ‘Building the Bridge – Drawing Us Together’. You can also send me photos of your artwork through Twitter. You can find me @BuildBridgeArt and you can use the hashtag #DrawingUsTogether.