The story of the Room of Wonder
The Brief
My children’s school, Salusbury Primary School in London NW6, advertised an opportunity to create a mural and door sign for a new room which was dedicated to teaching science in all its facets. I was keen to contribute, with some fun, original and inspiring drawings, so I submitted a selection of my previous work and a few ideas.
The room already had a name, the ‘Room of Wonder’, but it needed images to illustrate that wonder and represent the room’s purpose.
Mr Cleary, the school’s science lead, explained that this purpose was to be a place where teachers could instil a wonder and interest in science by showing how it is all around us - from falling leaves, to new technology, computing, medicine, the plant and animal worlds, our senses, the effects of the climate crisis, and so on. Science isn’t just another lesson to go to like all the others… it’s everywhere, it’s inside us, and it surrounds us all. In the Room of Wonder, the kids would do actual experiments, and hopefully be filled with curiosity, and inspiration to learn more about the world.
My submission stood out from a handful of others (all in photographic advertising campaign styles) which the school had received, and with its fun, cartoony, colourful, hand drawn energy, I won the commission.
I was asked to avoid stereotypical imagery such as Bunsen burners and fizzing flasks, and I didn’t want to attempt ‘scientific’ diagrams or infographics, or to draw portraits of famous scientists or inventions. I wanted to capture the joy, curiosity and wonder that science can inspire (whether you know it’s ‘science’ or not) and to do it in a way that was fun and creative (and not necessarily 100% accurate!)
Anyway, I’ve never been a particularly ‘scientific’ person, I don’t have the patience, or the knowledge - but I could ‘take my line for a walk’ and see where it took me.
First sketches
I decided to spend a day strolling around North West London, stopping off in cafes and, fuelled by strong black coffee, doing some rapid sketching - ideas, topics and possible themes scribbled and doodled as quickly as possible. I came back with lots of sheets of filled A5 paper (the picture shows just a few of them).
Initial ideas
Next, I used these to come up with more developed ideas for a set of large colour illustrations to be displayed in the Room of Wonder. I looked for the best elements from my sketches, and brought these together in new compositions. I wanted them to be free-flowing drawings that the kids might want to ‘read’ and interpret, and which as a group represented many (if not all) aspects of science. I drew the ideas out, knowing I’d need to re-work the dimensions and compositions once I’d properly measured the available space in the room.
Getting the compositions right
Mr Cleary loved my initial ideas, and we visited the room to decide which to use and where to put them. We measured the best available spaces and agreed the image sizes, and it soon became clear that these would be the biggest illustrations I’d have ever worked on! There would be five drawings:
Three landscape images, two at 2m x 1m, and one at 4m x 75cm
One portrait image, 80cm x 1.2m
A sign for the door, 35cm x 18cm
Now I knew which images I’d use and their actual sizes, I re-worked the layouts on A4 paper, this time at the correct ratios for their intended dimensions.
Line artwork in Illustrator, at full size
The plan was to scan and place those new layout drawings within Adobe Illustrator files. The digital files would be set up from the start as full-size images to make sure that the final artwork would print at the highest possible quality. On the digital file, I’d have to ‘scale up’ the scans to the intended size, and use this layer as a reference for the clean line artwork, which I’d re-draw on the layer above using a pressure sensitive digital pen on a Wacom tablet. It would be the first time I’d used this technique.
There was much trial and error before I managed to get the hang of the digital tech. I’d never really mastered using vector graphics before (it had always been Photoshop rather than Illustrator for me), and I was using a digital pen and graphics tablet for the very first time.
It was easily the hardest part of the project, but once I got used to it I was able to draw freely and naturally, and it was a case of getting on with it. Eventually, after carefully drawing (and along the way revising, correcting and improving) each image, I had a full set of finished black and white illustrations.
The themes
What are the drawings’ different themes? One is all about design and technology, taking in junk modelling, architecture, construction, engineering, creativity. Another depicts the five senses, and human biology. Another shows micro-organisms, animal and plant biology, insects, flowers.. and children’s natural curiosity. And the fourth represents how science is used to help address serious global problems (eg the impact of severe droughts!) and also depicts study and research, computing, maths, education and virtual reality, with Artificial Intelligence somewhere in there too.
I hope the illustrations communicate how playing, and using our skills and imaginations when we’re young are all connected to and similar to more ‘grown-up’ scientific endeavours, and how imagination, exploring nature, and ‘no-tech’ / low-tech fun, games and activities can then lead to real, serious, futuristic and visionary science in action.
From junk modelling, pond dipping and getting lost in the woods.. to designing and constructing real bridges, creating virtual reality educational tools, or embarking on advanced studies of marine biology. It’s all possible for the pupils in the Room of Wonder!
Time for colour
I was ready for the next step - colour! I tried to do this in Illustrator at first, but to be honest, it was a bit of a nightmare. So, I accepted defeat and decided to re-format the vector files as high-resolution bit-map images to use in Photoshop (still at actual size, so there would be no reduction in quality). I was in my comfort zone now, and I started by using the Fill tool to block out areas of colour, and then I used a range of brushes and many other tools to bring in more nuanced linework, colour, texture, light and shade - with the freedom that the pen and Wacom tablet (which I was now used to) allowed. Now, the illustrations really started coming to life.
And to print
While I was working on the colour artwork I wondered if my beautiful on-screen oranges would print as brown, the greens as grey, and the yellows as green. I was choosing the colours freely, so would I get a nasty shock once the prints came out?
Our printer reassured me that with modern computers and software, you could pretty much expect to get what you see on screen, which was definitely not how I remembered it being like in the old days!
Luckily, colour proofs of each image (printed at a fraction of their real size) reassured me that the colours would translate perfectly from the CMYK images on my laptop screen to the final printed images. It was a relief!
The next step was to carefully check the proofs and give the ‘ok’ to print the full size artwork. And soon, one Friday afternoon in February, I was sent these photos of the installation: after much work and effort, the project had reached its final stage!
The Room of Wonder
Soon afterwards, my family and I arranged to visit the classroom and I was able to see the results.
I’m incredibly proud of my work on this project, which initially seemed very ambitious and daunting to say the least, and which took many days and hours. But wow, was it worth it! Seeing my work on the walls in the Room of Wonder has filled me with pride - especially as my younger daughter will start to have lessons in the room soon.
I’m also proud to have ‘done my bit’ for the school (a brilliant school which both my kids have loved going to) in a unique, personal and creative way, and I hope the pupils continue to be inspired by the wonder of science in this room, amongst my artwork, for many years!
