Useful Resources from Camp #2

Week two of my little summer camp is over, and what a blast it was! The week was all about illustration and typography, with a hefty dollop of Celtic fairytales and mythology thrown into the mix. The campers love anything to do with fantasy and books, and so do I. More about that, and the list of resources later. First, have a look at some of the things the kids made….

We looked at the history of books, learnt about illuminated manuscripts and how they were made. We illuminated our initials, read stories about mythological creatures, and made illustrations of them. Some of us developed a fascination with Selkies (seal people) and bored everyone else stiff for days. Others were bitterly disappointed that there weren’t any Sauron illustrations.

Then we delved into the fascinating subject of typography, and tried drawing words that conveyed moods and concepts. Things got a little blurry and messy, the kids got a lesson on the difference between nouns and adjectives, and also the difference between the table and their paper.
The kids got crazy excited about having their silhouettes drawn for word portraits, and stood still for longer than I would have expected without fidgeting. We ended the week by looking at artist Christian Jackson’s minimalist illustrations, and created our own versions, which prompted a long discussion about the origins of fairytales, happy endings, and fractured fairy tales. The kids gave a big thumbs up to gruesome endings, gold paint markers, and evil characters. Thumbs down to cleaning up gold paint marker, weak princesses, and musicals. So there you go.

After each camp, I always compile a list of resources for parents of my campers. This time I thought I would share these on my blog, so here are some cool resources I used…..