By involving the young parents in the decision making process, Expecting Something gave participants a mechanism to express their views and needs as young adults who are faced with a range of barriers in achieving their life goals. Furthermore, the programme offered other benefits, including understanding the importance of play and creativity in early development and encouraging the young parents to try experiences they would not normally participate in.
Expecting Something
Do you live in, or around, Wester Hailes? Starcatchers Expecting Something offers free creative play sessions for wee ones aged birth to two years old and their families, led by artists Kerry Cleland and Katy Wilson.
Welcome to Starcatchers Expecting Something
In December, our Expecting Something group and their friends took a magical trip through the wardrobe into Narnia. Inspired by CS Lewis’ famous tale, and created by the Expecting Something group alongside some guest artists and musicians, Narnia in Wester Hailes was a magical journey full of light, colour, snow and storytelling for wee ones who discovered that ‘once a king or queen in Narnia — always a king or queen in narnia!’
Reports
Expecting Something Pilot Report
Evaluation of the Starcatchers project, Expecting Something, a creative engagement project for young parents and babies in Edinburgh.
Expecting Something report 2021-22 – 3.58 MB
A report on Starcatchers’ Expecting Something project in 2021-22, working with young parents and their young children aged 0-2 years.
Expecting Something report Apr-Oct 22 – 3.51 MB
Update report on Starcatchers’ Expecting Something project Apr-Oct 2022, working with young parents and their young children aged 0-2 years.
Babies and Young Children: Week 1
Over the next four weeks we’ll look at drawing and painting babies and young children, looking at infant heads the first week then whole baby forms and go on to consider toddlers and young children to about four years old for the second two sessions. With drawing and painting babies and children the structures and tones need the same attention as in other portrait studies but an additional challenge is the soft touch needed to convey the softness and delicacy of children’s skin both with the tones and the colour.
Pastel, pencil, charcoal and watercolour will be used for the demonstrations but you are welcome to work in your preferred medium.
Drawing baby heads.
The facial features and skulls of babies are not fully developed and their proportions are different from adult heads. The facial features are smaller in regard to the space they occupy and only the iris of the eye is fully developed giving many babies that cute large eyed look. The nose being of cartilage grows at a different rate to the bone of most of the skull and at the baby stage the nose is often slightly upturned. The eyebrows are relatively lower than for an adult and the chin is smaller and tucked in so that it protrudes rather less than the lips.
1. Find a photograph of a baby’s face that is looking straight toward the camera and work out the proportions of the face from the tip of the chin to the top of the head. If you can see them also note the position of the top and bottom of the ears.
2. Do the same for a baby’s head seen in profile and also work out how the ears are positioned.
3. Draw and/or paint a baby’s head from your own reference. Note whether the features lie on a curve if the head is looking up or down and pay special attention to how the proportions of the various elements change. For example if the head is viewed from slightly below, more of the chin will be seen compared to the forehead and top of the head.
As with adults the eyes will be about one eye width apart. Unlike adults the baby nose and chin are shorter. As with everything when you are making a representative drawing draw what you see not what you believe to be there.
Next week we will consider the whole baby figure. However babies often play with their hands, sucking thumbs and chewing fingers, so also try to have a look at baby hands for this week’s session.
Some useful references can be found on the following Pinterest boards.
The first board (below) has useful guides to the proportions of infant to adult figures and also to drawing baby and toddler heads, hands and feet.
The second board (below) has a large collection of paintings and drawings of babies and young children. Some of these are simply beautiful studies. Others as in the Leonardo references at the end give information on the foetus before birth, and the drawings by Kathe Kollwitz give an idea of the plight of mothers and young children dispossessed by war and deprivation. Think about the study you wish to make, the character and mood of the child and circumstance. This will lead you to create a very personal work.
First it is good to make as many drawings as you can from life and photographs to give you a good understanding of the structures and enable you to be more credibly creative. The blog posts will mainly feature drawing and colour will be demonstrated during the practical sessions. Do send a drawing or finished painting for review this week, and any work made during the session will be posted for review the following week.
Your finished drawings or paintings:
