Drawing Roses with Giles Deacon
If you missed our live rose drawing workshop with fashion designer Giles Deacon, you can now watch the recording with added BSL interpretation.
Digital Art School
Digital
Art School
Free Digital Art School workshop creative sessions to support mental health, led by world-class artists.
Watch our Latest Digital Art School Workshop
Description:
If you missed our live rose drawing workshop with fashion designer Giles Deacon, you can now watch the recording with added BSL interpretation. Join Giles as he guides you through his drawing process in real time from his studio. This incredible event connected over 50 participants from all over the world, many from mental health services, in one inspiring live streamed creative session. Experiment and lean into Giles’ expressive drawing style, and create beautiful rose illustrations that you can give to a friend or loved one.
Materials used:
• Paper
• Pencil or black pen
• Ink
• Watercolour paint
• A cup of water
• (Printed images of roses)
• (Watercolour sticks)
2025 Digital Art School boxes sent to every NHS mental health hospital in England
Designed by Michaela Yearwood-Dan
Michaela Yearwood-Dan (b. 1994, London, UK) creates paintings, works on paper, ceramics, and installations that endeavor to build spaces of community, joy, and abundance. Her work blends influences like Blackness, queerness, femininity, healing rituals, and carnival culture. Using various media, she incorporates botanical motifs and personal reflections within abstract forms and heavy paint drips. Whether in large paintings or smaller ceramics and works on paper, her art often reflects a welcoming, and inviting atmosphere. Rejecting rigid identities, Yearwood-Dan explores creating spaces that allow for unlimited and unbounded ways of being.
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DIGITAL ART SCHOOL SHORTS
We want to hear from you
After taking part in a Digital Art School workshop, we will prompt you to complete a short survey to tell us more about your experience and anything we can do better. We regularly evaluate Digital Art School and your feedback can help us improve our content and reach more mental health service users with accessible and meaningful creative workshops.
Resources & Guides
Download our risk assessment template to complete and share with colleagues on your ward or in your mental health service.
Here you can find a poster to print out with space for you to add in the date and time you’ll be hosting your workshop. Print this out and display it in and around your ward or hospital site to engage more service users.
Inside your box, you will find a set of customisable posters for each workshop. These posters make it easy to schedule and advertise your sessions. Here’s how to use them effectively:
1. Add Workshop Details:
– Fill in the date, time, and location for each session on the posters.
2. Display the Posters:
– Place the posters in high-traffic areas on the wards to ensure they are seen by as many people as possible.
3. Announce During Meetings:
– Mention the upcoming sessions during community meetings to spread the word.
4. Encourage Participation:
– Remind everyone that no prior experience is needed to join the workshops, making them accessible to all.
When hosting a Digital Art School session, feel free to adapt the format to best suit your environment and the participants you have invited.
Example Session Format
Welcome and Introduction:
- Greet everyone warmly and offer them a drink.
- Remind participants that the sessions are designed to be enjoyable and suitable for all skill levels.
- Encourage participants to take breaks whenever needed, or suggest a scheduled break where you can pause the video.
Setting Up the Room
Consider the following tips to create an ideal setting for your DAS session:
- Materials Preparation:
- Lay out all the necessary materials before participants arrive to ensure a smooth start.
- Equipment Setup:
- Decide on your display method. A projector is ideal, but a laptop or iPad can work just as well. Ensure the screen is visible to all participants.
Digital Art School Gallery
The Digital Art School Gallery showcases artworks created by our community members during our workshops. If you have participated and would like to share your creations, submit them here, and we will feature them in the gallery.
FAQs
Got a different question?
To join a Digital Art School workshop, just head to ‘Browse Our Collection’ and you’ll find our archive of 50+ creative sessions and tutorials. You can filter by which material you’re interested in working with, or hit ‘Surprise me!’ for something new.
Underneath each workshop video, you’ll find a full list of materials required. Also, at the beginning of each video, your host will introduce the materials you’ll need to complete the session. You can pause the video on the materials slide to make sure you have everything you need before you get started.
In 2024/25, we have a brand new cohort of 12 artists who will each be releasing new and varied creative sessions. Each of these sessions will be released on the last Thursday of each month. To get the specific dates in your diary, check out the ‘Upcoming events’ calendar.
Yes, all workshops will have a BSL (British Sign Language) interpreter. We’re dedicated to making sure our sessions are accessible and inclusive to Deaf participants who use BSL as their primary mode of communication. Each video will also have Closed Captions. If you have any specific needs or additional questions regarding accessibility, please feel free to reach out to: das@hospital-rooms.com.
No, not at all! Digital Art School is an accessible programme that aims to open source the skills and secrets of world-class artists and inspire you to try something new. Art is for everyone.
The content of the workshops is considered safe for children, but we would advise that a supervisor or guardian sense checks the content first, and ensures there are no triggers or risks for the specific group of children they are working with.
The Digital Art School Gallery is an online, interactive gallery space that centres and celebrates the creative work of a global community. The online gallery is an uplifting space where you can be inspired by the artwork of other participants. Upload your creations and see what they’d look like in your very own exhibition.
Welcome to the programme! Your Digital Art School Box contains everything you need to host 12 art sessions for mental health service users in an inpatient hospital setting. Use the workshop sheets provided to plan and schedule your first workshop.
You can use the Poster Template to let your service users know when and where the workshop is happening. Look out for each new workshop release on the last Thursday of the month. Filter the video library by ‘2024’ for all workshops related to the box of materials. If you have any questions or concerns about running the programme, please contact das@hospital-rooms.com.
“Being a national service, we have access to far less SLAM-provided services, and don’t have a locality. So having someone [HRDAS] coming in from outside is so valuable – this artist coming from outside is sharing their space, their work, it’s someone new and someone fresh. It brings such a unique level of experience.”