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THE RED NOSE DAy DOODLE
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IDEA #1 THE BIG RED NOSE DAY DOODLE MURAL
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What you need:
The idea is very simple: pick a nose and doodle a face of your choosing. This might be human, animal, alien - whatever! Participants might make a small donation to take part, or perhaps donate to have their own portrait completed by you or someone else! It's a great collaborative activity for classes, art clubs and lunchtime doodlers.
Additional suggestions:
- A large wall or display board
- Large sheets or rolls of plain paper (decorating rolls are fine and reasonably cheap)
- A range of art materials, based on your capacity or tolerance for mess. (Above, students were using ink and brushes. Felt tips, marker pens, crayons or collage are also suitable, and less messy!).
- Lots of red noses! To be added all across the wall using coloured paper, paint or red marker. Different shapes and sizes are best. Remember to leave enough space for doodles to fit around these.
The idea is very simple: pick a nose and doodle a face of your choosing. This might be human, animal, alien - whatever! Participants might make a small donation to take part, or perhaps donate to have their own portrait completed by you or someone else! It's a great collaborative activity for classes, art clubs and lunchtime doodlers.
Additional suggestions:
- Prepare a pot of character descriptions, real or imagined, or even photographs or illustrations. These prompts can be selected at random for inspiration or reference.
- Add nonsensical names, stories or speech bubbles to connect the characters together in playful or absurd ways.
- Set up a camera to produce a time-lapse film of the mural as it grows.
- Prepare a fun playlist and encourage participants to complete their doodled face within the length of a song.
IDEA #2 PAGET'S RED NOSES
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This chart on the left shows the results from G.W Paget's 1932 study of the various symbols children around the world use to draw noses. I'm not sure of it's present-day validity, but it's totally delightful - don't you think? It is taken from Maureen Cox's wonderful book, Children's Drawings. What you need:
How it works: Pick a nose from the selection and draw it out in red - be it pencil, paint, ink, lipstick, collage ... whatever! This could be on a tiny scrap of paper, in the margins of a very important document, or on the side of your neighbour's largest pet (but best check first). Or perhaps go with a4 paper. Then, simply doodle a face to fit the nose. This might be your own (a self-portrait, of sorts), or inspired by someone you know, such as a friend, family member or famous celebrity. Alternatively, take inspiration from an existing film, book or cartoon character, or invent your own - an animal, alien or strange hybrid-creature-face! Additional suggestions:
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DOWNLOAD PAGET'S NOSES
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A4-sized print-friendly noses
This pdf provides 100 different red noses taken from Paget's research - one per page, perfect for larger scale doodling, or even creating your own interactive wall. See the pictures and notes below for how this might be done. | ||
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10 x A4 print-friendly grid with 6 different noses
Perfect for an at-the-table class activity or even as a cover lesson resource. Simple instructions included. | ||
A Paget's Red Noses interactive wall. For this, A4-size designs were pre-preared and displayed (downloadable above). A range of tools and colours were available to select from, e.g. brushes, pens, ink and various paint colours, and students were invited to pick a nose and respond as they wish.
SUGGESTIONS FOR CREATING AN INTERACTIVE WALL
- There's nothing more inviting than a large space to doodle upon collaboratively! If you've the room for this, it's a great way of getting students to respond intuitively and expressively. Standing-up gets the arms moving and drawn marks can have more immediacy and energy.
- Invite students to make connections between responses and to re-curate the faces as they work - lots of fun to be had mixing and matching faces. Add speech bubbles for extra entertainment and/or profundity.
- Limit the materials available to keep some cohesiveness across responses. Brushes and ink, coloured paper for collage, marker pens or felt-tips all have the potential to encourage brave responses.
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IDEA #3 RED CIRCLE? - ROLL WITH IT!
A red circle has become the iconic symbol for Red Nose Day. The origins of this are the classic clown’s nose, but perhaps it also invites action comparable to a buzzer or alarm button.
But what other associations or possibilities might a red circle invite? How about a wheel, a spot, a sun or a ball? What happens if you've a multitude of red dots, how might this change invite new connections?This activity couldn’t be simpler, and with a pen and a little imagination the possibilities are endless!
What you need:
Paper (whatever size suits or appeals)
Red circles, which might be collaged, painted or readymade stickers (whatever size appeals, relative to the paper and space you have, obviously).
How it works:
Choose a red circle and doodle (or collage) within and/or around this. Make of it what you will! The circle might, of course, become a nose for an imaginative being, but the invitation here is to play further with the possibilities. Your response might be representational (look like something familiar), or it might be strange and surreal. Alternatively, you might explore pattern and design. There’s no rules, just a red circle for you to begin!
Additional suggestions:
- Work collaboratively to interconnect a series of red dot responses.
- Create a book or animation where a single, same-sized red dot remains a consistent element on each page or frame.
- Use red balls for a 3D version of the game that requires imaginative junk modelling and construction.
To help further, imagine your red circle is ...
a button that sets off a sequence of events, comparable to a Rube Goldberg invention.
a planet with a futuristic cityscape or a fantastic jungle protruding from this.
a dinner plate with the strangest meal you've ever encountered.
a deep hole.
a public sculpture.
a ball in a nonsensical game.
a porthole into another world.
To add a dash of art nerdy-ness, below are some examples of red circles featured in artworks. Roll over the images to see artist names.
IDEA #4 RED NOSES AS ZEN ENSŌ CIRCLES
Here's a fun challenge and/or a step to wellbeing and enlightenment: Create a Zen Ensō circle. In Zen Buddhism, an Ensō is a hand-drawn circle created in one or two spontaneous brushstrokes. It is one of the most profound symbols in Zen art, representing absolute enlightenment, strength, the universe, and the concept of mu (the void or emptiness). Here's how to go about this:
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What you need:
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Additional suggestions:
- Run the activity as part of a mindfulness class.
- Compromise the enlightenment and make it a straightforward yet playful competition - who can paint a perfect circle?
- Once the circles have been painted, invite participants to add a hopeful or profound message inside - or a playful doodle.
iDEA #5 JOIN THE DOTS - COMPLETE THE MURAL
I'm looking forward to trying this - illustrating a playful mural in black and white and inviting participants to enrich this by adding red dots.
What you need:
A large imaginative doodled-mural in black and white - but with spaces and opportunities for red circles and/or dots to be added.
How it works:
Invite participants to playfully add red circles and/or dots to the mural to complete features, add patterns to clothes, wheels to vehicles, balls for jugglers, and so on. This could be coupled with idea #5 above, with each circle having to be completed in one zen-like stroke.
Additional suggestions:
Create the initial mural doodle with a celebratory message or theme. Enjoy considering how many potential circles and dots might be invited in via the gaps left. For, example, the parade below might be scaled up with certain circular features removed.
What you need:
A large imaginative doodled-mural in black and white - but with spaces and opportunities for red circles and/or dots to be added.
How it works:
Invite participants to playfully add red circles and/or dots to the mural to complete features, add patterns to clothes, wheels to vehicles, balls for jugglers, and so on. This could be coupled with idea #5 above, with each circle having to be completed in one zen-like stroke.
Additional suggestions:
Create the initial mural doodle with a celebratory message or theme. Enjoy considering how many potential circles and dots might be invited in via the gaps left. For, example, the parade below might be scaled up with certain circular features removed.
IDEA #6 NEXT-LEVEL NOSES! LESSON RESOURCEs FOR NOSE-NERDS AND ART-ADVENTURERS
This one-week challenge has been written with Year 12 students in mind but is suitable for all ages. It's an opportunity - an invitation! - to respond to a given starting point. Feel free to join in!
Click on the images to enlarge. Follow the links below for further info. Clockwise from top left:
- Statue of pharaoh Senwosret III, who ruled in the 2nd century BC
- Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) was a Russian novelist. His works often satirised Russian society and government. “The Nose” is one of his most well-known and surreal works.
- Nose covering, from Gasparo Tagliacozzi, De Curtorum Chirurgia per Insitionem, 1597
- Pinocchio, the story of a puppet, by “C. Collodi” (1900)
- John Baldessari, Nose, 2006
- Nose amputating knife. Woodcut from undated Peck & Snyder catalogue
There’s certainly something absurd - and consequently appealing (to me, at least) - about ‘Noses’ as a project title. It’s so specific. It’s surreal and limiting, and it’s definitely not ‘Natural Forms’ or ‘Structures’ (whilst of course, it's both those things). AND stereotypically, noses in art education often appear as isolated drawings in sketchbooks. It's a thing...
Helpful practice, not to be sniffed at - or stereotypical page filler?
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Delightfully weird, yet rarely intending to be so. These peculiar floating monoliths are often promoted as ‘portrait practice’, be it via dated teacher-exemplars or the Tik-Tok school of ‘how to get a Level 9’. As if individually cooking all the ingredients of a cake will help you get it baked. (IMPORTANT NOTE: other opinions available. I'm just stirring the pot).
So, as resources go, this is a potato not a pepper. It’s an invitation. A challenge. A deliberate pedagogical strategy to make things harder for art students. Or, as Gert Biesta, educational theorist sort-of puts it: to come to terms with the desirability of their desires. Because the world doesn't always give us what we want, and schools should help students to learn to navigate that - and to adapt, cope, collaborate and create in original and empowering ways. Plus, it might just be fun. So, Noses it is, then. Let’s run with it! |
ACTIVITY-CHALLENGE
- Make art in response to the broad (absurd, unusual, specific, fun, profound, surreal ...) theme 'Noses'.
- Conduct research, experiment, test and explore. Use any materials you wish; work in whatever style and format of your choice.
- Produce both sketchbook/development work and a more resolved outcome/set of explorations.
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Above, from left:
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TOP TIPS & POTENTIAL STARTING POINTS
Where to begin when given a seemingly random or absurd starting point - especially if it's one you didn't wish for? Well, the best starting point is an adventurous and positive mindset; a sense - awareness, determination, belief - that, via creative thinking, play and connection-making, EVERYTHING HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE INTERESTING! Yey! Here are some tips on how you might get going ...
- Collide the theme with your key creative interests and strengths. If you'd rather paint a landscape: re-image the nose as an element of that; if abstraction is more your thing: let shapes, microscopic details, sensory responses or associations influence your mark-making.
- Wider reading and research can definitely open-up new connections and possibilities. Try to avoid the obvious and stereotypical (and Pinterest). It's good to stay alert for lesser-known details, peculiar facts and unexpected 'invitations' to create.
- That said, it's often good to cut straight to making. You don't necessarily need a grand concept or idea. Let the materials lead the way, be it painting, printing, sculpture or, well, whatever materials you choose. Remember your response doesn't have to necessarily be easily understood, connected to, or recognisable as a the theme. Trust your creative intuition. Follow your nose!
GOOD LUCK AND ENJOY! REMEMBER TO DONATE HERE AND, IF YOU WISH, SHARE YOUR RESPONSES @artpedagogy