Dovercourt pupils had the opportunity to contribute to a massive piece of artwork last week thanks to Illustration students from the University of Portsmouth.

Two teams of students studying the BA (Hons) Illustration degree course spent the day with the pupils as part of one of their course units called “Gallery Exposure”. The students had been given the brief to promote their degree, their work and that of the University and the City – and they chose Portsmouth High School pupils as their audience.

The pupils had the opportunity to work with the two groups during the course of the day on two very different projects. One group helped pupils create a large mural in which each pupil painted her own self portrait, whilst the other group of students chose the Dockyard as their theme, having created an educational resource pack which helped the pupils create a dockyard timeline and  Tudor Roses, and paint different flags.

Karen Fricker, who liaised with the University students, said, “The pupils had a great time, they enjoyed the projects that the students had created and it was clear that the University students got just as much out of the experience as the girls did.”