I can’t tell you how much I adore this lesson! Any artwork that is celebrated for being ‘uniquely messy’ is something that I’m often drawn to, so it’s no surprise my junior high school students loved this too. I often hear the comment “but Miss, I can’t draw!”. This task is another opportunity for students to experience success quickly and build their confidence in approaching drawing. By the end of the project students’ wanted to repeat the whole process for round 2!I will often introduce a version of blotted ink task, before any kind of observational or more complex drawing projects. Students are provided an image prompt, in this case Cathedrals, and trace any important lines and details. They use this as their guide to apply ink and ‘blot’. Throughout this project students quickly see their creativity take shape in a big way! I’ll show you how I go about teaching this lesson. You can find a video of this technique to share with your class here.What You Need:

• Ink Nibs
• Black Ink
• Paper – we used 180gsm (A5)
• Tracing Paper
• Grey lead
• Masking Tape

Steps:1. Pre-cut tracing paper and paper to A5. Have students create a booklet by taping tracing to paper together down the side to create a spine. Two small pieces of tape is enough, too much will mean the paper will tear when removed.2. Slip image prompt inside the booklet and trace. Every detail of the image isn't necessary. Students can omit any very close lines as these will only blot together in a 'blob' when ink is applied. If you like the idea of using cathedrals, download Imags for Ink Nib Task3. Using  the ink nib. Introduce the ink nib and have students create a trial and testing page of different markings. Experiment with the correct quantity of ink in the nib, often students will dip their nib too too far into the ink well spilling everywhere. Practice good technique by creating fine lines, dashes, squiggles, stippling, thicker lines, shapes.4. Open booklet and begin to draw with ink on the back of the traced image. Draw a few lines at time then turn the tracing page on top of the paper and press. Experiment with blotting ink by applying hard and soft pressure. Continue drawing with ink nib and blotting. Let artwork dry and write student names the back.5. Discard the tracing paper by cutting with knife or scissors. I found trying to pull of the masking tape often tore the artwork.6. If you'd like students to create multiple colour versions of their blotted ink artwork this is when I make some photocopies. About 3 -4 copies per student.7. Using watercolour paints or coloured ink let students apply colour to their artworks. Some colour scheme guidelines I used included: warm colours, cool colours, primary , secondary and complementary colour schemes. This is also a good opportunity to introduce the colour where and colour vocabulary.