Dorothy Wordsworth School Pixel Portrait | ArtFly Projects

This was a great mass-participation Pixel Portrait with Fairfield Primary School in Cockermouth.

It was commissioned by Kirkgate Arts & Heritage as part its Heritage Lottery-funded programme I Am Dorothy, marking 250 years since the birth of Dorothy Wordsworth.

The children were so excited to see the picture come together, square by little sticky-square, there was even football-style whooping and dancing from Y6 Team Purple!

As we were working with fours classes separately, we decided to create four separate versions of the portrait, each a different base colour. The four pictures combined to form a giant Warhol-style artwork.

man holding board in warehouse — All great pictures start with a canvas, in this case a massive bit of plyboard, cut to size at B&Q.

Boards on floor with weights and lamp on top — All four boards needed a little persuasion to lie flat.

Fan of cards and sheets — Stacks of cards printed on the left, stacks of stickers on the right. Each has a watermark featuring native wildlife, with nature being Dorothy's inspiration.

30 cards on a board — Here are all the template cards laid out on the board before the stickers are added.

sticky pile of sticker surrounds — We removed all the sticker backings to make peeling quicker in the classroom.

Four combined pics of Dorothy Wordsworth in pixel form — The Pixel Portrait design with each class's Dorothy joined together.

Chris and Jennie in classroom — Setting out the Sticker Bar for the class. Pupils finding & helping themelves to the right stickers was part of the challenge, especially avoiding mix-ups between '6 (Owl)' and '9 (Pike)'!

Jennie dressed as Dorothy and Chris holding up portraits of her — We started each session with an introduction about Dorothy and the inspirations for the artwork, including a nod to Pointillism and 60s Pop Art.

Two children sticking stickers onto card — All the pupils took to the task quickly & enthusiastically and were incredibly neat.

Chris standing by two completed pixel protraits — Year 4's Dorothys are complete!

Child sticking a card to a board to complete the picture of Dorothy — The whole class cheer as each and every completed card is added to the board.

Five children and two adults around a framed picture — One of the four finished Dorothy portraits with some of the happy sticker-ers who made it.