By Sabah S and Isabella M, Art Reps

Just before half term, our Art Department and Reps were delighted to be able to invite our young artists to get involved with this year’s Big Draw Festival, which calls itself the world’s biggest community of drawing enthusiasts.

The Big Draw encourages everyone to participate and enjoy the benefits of drawing, and has seen over 4 million artists take part since its inception 21 years ago.

This year the Big Draw’s theme was ‘Make the Change.’

In 2021, the Big Draw encouraged everyone to reconnect with each other, to collect their thoughts, and to reflect on themselves and the impact that we all have on the environment around us. The aim of this theme was to draw attention to adopting a more sustainable way of life and to make the right choices.

We planned three different activities on the theme. Our first activity was a post-it note doodle challenge where students were encouraged to write or doodle something they felt passionate about that they feel needs changing in the world. These were then displayed in letters put together to form the word ‘change.’

A large doodle wall encouraged students to create cartoons, patterns and unique doodles using thick black markers, creating a collage of drawings inspired by The Doodle Man.

Finally, the third activity allowed the students to use their creativity to paint a large globe on the floor of the main hall in a variety of coloured paints.

Overall, ‘The Big Draw’ turned out to be a very exciting way for junior and senior school students to use their imagination and creativity to express themselves while creating three very striking pieces of art inspired by this year’s theme of ‘Make the Change.’ 

You can see some of our artwork in our short video here.