Viking Art

Here is a video of our finished sculptures, we think you will agree, year 5/6 did a great job! See below to find out how we made them.

5/6LT launched straight into a fantastic Viking art project, working with artist Soraya Phillips. Today has been spent creating designs and making relief sculptures out of cardboard. What a great way to spend the day!

It’s amazing how much gets achieved in 2 days at High View School thanks to all the lovely staff and classroom assistants who are so organised, helpful and supportive!  We are only on day 2 of an 8-day Arts Council funded project with High View School supported by Take A Part and the results are already looking absolutely stunning!  By the end of the project every student in year 5-6 will have designed and created a 30cm tall Viking God or Goddess to make a 90 strong army. 7 of the student’s designs will then be enlarged to construct a 4.5-meter-long Frieze showing the Viking Gods that the days of the week are named after. 

During the project the children have improved their mastery of art and design techniques including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials including pencil, fine line pens, watercolour paint, and cardboard.  They have created ideas for their sculpture using references and symbols to contextualise their designs but have also used their imagination to create new images.

The children have developed their artistic/visual vocabulary to discuss their work using terms such as design, motif, pattern, symmetry, two- and three-dimensional, sculpture, relief sculpture shape, form, colour, tone and proportion.

They have developed a number of specific skills including:

• Creating a design for a Viking sculpture using references and symbols to contextualise the design
• Designing a radial pattern using a grid as a guide
• Using carbon transfer techniques to create symmetrical motifs
• Creating patterns by repeating motifs
• Working up a 2-dimensional design into a 3-dimensional form using a cardboard relief sculpture technique
• Working in a variety of scales.
• Using a cardboard relief building technique to make a figurative sculpture
• Understanding the proportions of a face and applying this knowledge to draw the face on the Viking figure
• Exploring water colour painting techniques to mix colours and create light and dark tones to apply to the sculptures

They have also inadvertently enhanced their knowledge in other subjects such as; Maths , Science, English Vocabulary and History.  We have learnt so much while thoroughly enjoying the process. This is why art is so important!

Soraya Phillips
(Lead artist on the Centre Of Excellence In Creative Education with High View School and Take A Part)