Saturday Art Club – Paolozzi’s patterns and shapes

Taking inspiration from the vibrant “Hamlet in a Japanese Manner” by Eduardo Paolozzi, on show in our Gallery 2 ‘TASTE!’ exhibition, make your own artworks of colourful patterns and shapes.

For this project you will need:

a pencil
paper
coloured pencils or paint

*Eduardo Paolozzi, “Hamlet in a Japanese Manner”, 1966, Glasgow Museums.*

Look around your house for different shapes in everyday objects. Triangles, squares, ovals, circles, rectangles… what can you see around you? And how about in Paolozzi’s sculpture above?

Now choose one of those objects you saw around you and place it on your paper. We found a sellotape and draw around it to get a circle. Have a go with different shapes and try drawing around them to get a basic 2D shape.

What about 3D shapes? Look at your object and try copying it on paper. Let’s try with a can! Start by drawing a squashed oval on top. Then draw two straight lines from the edges of your circle to make the sides of your cylinder. Finally, draw a curved line at the bottom of your sides. If you are drawing a cylinder that is see-through, as we did, draw another oval on the bottom, like the one we drew at the top.

Try and find as many shapes as you can in the objects around you and draw their basic 2D and then their 3D shapes.

Your 3D shapes will look even more realistic with some shade. Look at where the light hits your object and use your pencil to create your shade on the opposite side.

Once you have mastered drawing and shading different shapes have a go at painting or drawing bright and colourful patterns on them, as in Paolozzi’s sculpture. Use a combination of 2 or 3 different colours and mix them up in lines and colourful patterns.