Introduction

This activity is inspired by artist Ithell Colquhoun's painting The Game of the Year (1953) – which shows an abstracted robot-like football player made from squares and rectangles.

Can you spot the football?
Can you spot the goalposts?

The painting may be a reference to the famous 1953 FA Cup Final between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers.

The activity is designed for KS1 / CfE Level 1 students but might also be useful for KS2 / CfE Level 2 students. The activity is voiced so that it can be used by students or by families being creative at home.

Who is Ithell Colquhoun?

Ithell Colquhoun (1906–1988) was a British painter, writer, and poet. She became interested in Surrealism after meeting Surrealist artist Paule Vézelay who had a studio next to hers in Paris. Colquhoun was especially interested in Surrealist ideas about automatism – the technique of tapping into our subconscious minds to create imagery.

Colquhoun's paintings often explored analogies between the body and landscape, but in this case, she uses geometric shapes to suggest the human figure.

Materials

You will need:

shape templates to draw around
pencil
paint and brushes or crayons
coloured paper (for collage)
plain paper to draw and paint on

Method

Step 1

Collect shape templates to draw around.

These could be cups, jar lids or anything else that has a square, rectangular, circular or triangular shape.
Or you could cut out shape templates from cardboard.

Step 2

Think about what sort of robot you are going to make. (It could look like a person or be an animal robot. It could be sitting, standing... or running!)

Look at your shape templates and think about which shapes would work best for the different bits of the robot (the head, the body, the arms, the legs).
Draw around your shape templates.

Step 3

Paint or colour the shapes in…

...Ta-dah – your robot is finished! (What are you going to call it?)

More ideas…

Robot variations

Have a go at making another robot figure. Try using different shapes for different bits of the robot.

Artist Ithell Colquhoun made a sporty robot... What about a robot in action?

... or a dog robot?

Be inventive, have fun and make your robot as surreal as possible!

Robot collage

Instead of drawing around and painting or colouring shapes to make your robot picture, cut them out of brightly coloured paper and make a robot collage.

Shape robot print

You could also use the shape templates to print your robot.

Paint one side of the template (or the edges of the template if it is a cup or jar lid).
Place the shapes paint-side-down on the paper to make your robot. (You may need to press hard to make sure the paint is transferred onto the paper.)

Giant shape robot collaboration

Make a giant robot as a group or class.

Draw some big 2D shapes on coloured paper and cut them out. (If you don't have coloured paper, draw the shapes on plain white paper or brown wrapping paper and paint them.)
Then have fun as a group arranging them in different ways to make your robot figure.