Illustration students collaborate with Mounts Bay Marine Group and Newlyn Art Gallery to lead creative workshops for children

Second year illustration students recently hosted a series of workshops for local primary school children focusing on drawing inspiration from the ocean. 

Partnering with Mounts Bay Marine Group, the students took a research trip to Morrab Library, Penzance’s much-loved independent library, to view their unique collection of pressed seaweed. Led by Linda Scott, Senior Lecturer for Illustration BA, the group got the chance to meet librarian Lisa Di Tommaso and learn more about the library’s history, contents, and exhibitions. 

The group then visited Newlyn Art Gallery, where Dr Elaine Swan of Sussex University delivered an engaging presentation on the Mounts Bay Marine Group, sharing information on marine life, rockpools, and sea grasses around the bay. 

This informative start to the day was accompanied by a creative exercise, led by members of the marine group, at a rock pooling event where students discovered a range of sea creatures such as crabs, starfish, and sea slugs. The group undertook their primary research, stopping to sketch and photograph the pools, creatures and the bay.  

Inspired by their learning, the students then delivered a range of creative workshops for pupils aged five to six years old from the nearby Newlyn School in late April and early May. Working closely with the illustration students, the children produced a range of 3D headdresses that incorporated seaweed, fish, crabs, and other marine life. They also created seal and crab puppets, 2D multi-coloured jellyfish and a collection of other sea creatures.