Wor Place is a portrait project I've been working on with a group of young people from Children North East, inspired by Daisy de Villeneuve's Run Colour Run exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery. The young people's work is on display in the windows of Newcastle City Library until 20 October.

Here (below) we have a felt tip pen sketch by the youngest member of the group (8 years old) who had drawn a storyteller at the Monument in Newcastle. All the children were given the challenge of drawing a variety of people on the spot. They had to work quickly and accurately to capture the pose and character of the person…and hope that they stayed still long enough!

Once back in the studio the group were asked to select a drawing and scale it up on to the sheet of paper.

After scaling up the group were introduced to sticky backed plastic and were asked to use a combination of felt tip and block colour to create a colourful portrait.

A completed portrait on paper.

Blue Clown.

The group were using a selected palette of sticky backed plastic and so I encouraged the group to experiment with colour and to remember how Daisy de Villeneuve uses colour in her portraits.

Here we have two studies in a sketchbook and a colourful magician portrait!

Using scissors to draw the group had to adapt how they created a picture and let the qualities of the materials inform the work. Here we have one young artist working on her final perspex portrait.

Permanent markers were used alongside sticky backed plastic to create different textures to the portraits.

Polka Dot Lady - Lauren Child meets Daisy De Villeneuve

Big Hair! As the young people got more confident with the materials so did their experimenting.

Finally the group transferred their experimental study on paper onto perspex…where they had to consider the transparent qualities of the materials and make decisions as to what material to use.

Children North East are delighted to have been involved in this project and the young people have had a fabulous time and learned so much. In the words of the young people who took part, "There is no right or wrong way (of drawing), it’s how you see things that matters.” "I like the colour in Daisy’s work, it’s different”

Comments from visitors to the exhibition include, "Really colourful! Outstanding exhibition at City Library.” and "Excellent display. The children worked really hard and produced some excellent results.”

Wor Place: portraits from the North East is on at Newcastle City Library until 20th October and Daisy de Villeneuve's Run Colour Run exhibition is on at the Laing Art Gallery (right next door to the library) until 3rd November.