Year 6 become limners for a lesson

Pupils in Year 6 have been learning about English limner, Nicholas Hilliard, famous for his exquisitely detailed miniature portraits during the Tudor period.

They learned for themselves the incredible patience and eye for detail needed to paint a miniature of their own. Hilliard would have painted on vellum (calf skin) with a brush with only one or two hairs, but Year 6 used fine watercolour brushes, very sharp pencils and worked on tiny ovals of watercolour paper. They suggested the qualities of lace, silk and velvet with clever use of pencil and/or stippling of the brush.

The National Portrait Gallery has a superb collection of miniatures which I am sure the children would be interested in seeing if an opportunity arose over half term!