So no sooner than we step through the looking glass at the end of Ofsted Wonderland than BTEC EV follows, swiftly followed by the A level EVs on Monday.

Saturday the 13th June then...what a fabulous day. Six of my wonderful students and I took over the Three Discovery zone in Maidenhead as part of Art On The Street 15.

Not one of my students, above. That's Marie: the brains behind AOTS. She was the guinea pig for us doing Muppet art using ArtRage app.

One of my students showing Muppet solidarity and one of his iPad art pieces.

We had a pretty large spread of ages joining us and everyone took a print out of their drawn Muppet with them...

And we painted a lot of muppets. We were a little off the front line and could have worked with many more people than those who joined us. That not saying we weren't busy through the day...but we have got this honed to a pretty fine art now, teaching people to draw on screens... To work with hundreds of people would have been well within our capabilities.

Since then I've also led a very lovely evening iPad art class. On chatting to the students it seemed a muppet would be more fun to do as their very first picture (as opposed to the more traditional snail) in ArtRage and so it was. This, painted upside down (and then finished on the train home), was mine :)

...and at the end of the day? A little bit of chill out drawing and pint, this time using Adobe Sketch app.

Art On The Street is a fab thing to be a part of. Long may it continue, whether that's in Maidenhead or beyond...

No, that's not a typo :)

Were I an American wrestling commentator I would likely shout “When World’s Collide!! Digital Art meets Traditional in a Fight. To. The. FINISH!!! Paul Kercal! Marie Anne Leonard!!! BRING IT!!"

I'm not, and it's not (a fight*). I love traditional art and I love Art on the Street in Maidenhead. But Maidenhead is the home of Adobe in the UK, it was (until recently) the home of Promethean IWB. It’s also the home of one of (if not) the most extraordinary open air art markets in the UK.

And I'm there for the third time demonstrating digital art techniques on touch screen at the Three discovery zone. Very exciting place to be working from on and extremely cool day to be associated with.

So I shall, as my fabulous students are wont to say, still “bring it”.


*and there ain't no way I'd ever fight Marie :) a: she's ace and b: I'd never pick a fight there's no chance l'd win...

I may have mentioned it's been a Long year. Oh boy...it's been a year.

Often an excellent one. We did BETT, the Apple Store, Chin Chins, JISC, LSCC and more. And the students have nearly all met their full promise which is fab.

But the Ofsted was hugely draining. And the EV is next week. And the exhibition. And Art On The Stret. And more.

...so sometimes you just have to chill. For the most part I walk to work. I use it as final planning time, I go through the classes of the day in my head and work out if I should make any changes to my carefully orchestrated scheme of work (which is deliberately flexible. I let the kids drive the content when I can).

And, of course, there's cost. My local bus company is doing all it can to financially drive people away :( although that's not fully their fault. I live in an area where public transport is a very low consideration.

But I've been on the number 34 bus a high few thousands of times over the past few decades. I've worked in Woking, Knaphill, Camberley - all on the same bus route - and I find it a wonderfully chilling, distracting zone to think and work in.

...and occasionally almost sleep on. Which is another reason why I draw or write on busses. While I worked at Knaphill I frequently caught the last bus home. Sometimes it was pretty tricksome to stay awake.

But I love drawing on a bus...

...unless a bit of the bus falls on me...

And sometimes I wonder if I'll still be getting the bus when I'm 89. I hope I will be, who knows. I certainly hope I'm still drawing at that age...

The College I work at has just been through an Ofsted inspection. Which is, as every teacher in the country will tell you, a very stressful experience. MPs will tell you that it's a necessary one, which is fine, but I'd also like to see them exist on the same pay, criteria and scrutiny as a teacher.

It turns out though, that there is such a thing as too much coffee. Which I found out by Thursday. Who knew, right?

On two of the nights of the week I finished the day at a local paperwork venue over a cool drink of something to calm down by. In both cases I drew the aforementioned beverage, just to force myself not to question every dot, comma and syllable of the 7 pieces of paperwork associated with each class (four a day).

...and on the final day I treated myself to a single, solitary Maredsous. Definitely my favourite tipple but not one I can afford to quaff frequently.

All pictures drawn on OneNote: a work and journalling application from Microsoft. It works seamlessly on Surface Pro 3 and is a relaxing antidote to boxes, ratios, fractions, SPAG, E and D, and a million other obfuscatory acronyms. I'm sure it can do such things, I just choose to use it for fun stuff instead.

Which, in a way, is a microcosm of my teaching style I guess (ignore the beer in this allegory of course). Using the application at hand but in the most positive, fun and playful way possible.

Because I teach graphics. And that has to, somewhere along the line, come from the heart.

Even when that can't be evidenced, ratio'd or data analysed. Especially so, in this case.

Oh it's been a day.

I'm aware this could come off as critical (the image above). That's very much not the case.

But my day first. I was Oftsed inspected. I had a drop in class of 8. One was autistic, two Asperger. One ADHD tendencies. One ESOL. All absolutely fabulous; I honestly am hugely fond of each and every one. All knew exactly what they were doing, all working brilliantly to the best of their ability (and then some).

On a Tuesday I teach 9-10.30, 11-12.30, 1-2.30, 3-5.30. Teachings an easy job, right?

No. This is Cameron's water colour of Thatcher's Britain. Teachers are underpaid, vilified, criticised, paper worked to death and, no, we don't get the school holidays off - we get as little holiday as everyone else, just fewer times in the year to take the days we're allowed.

Anyhow. I was caught for a drop in at the end of the day. I made one mistake (forgot to rub off the previous classes aims written on the whiteboard). Tomorrow, well, today (it's 4am and I can't sleep), I'll be castigated (read that how you will).

Mainly am cross with myself. Have a feedback meeting in 11 hours. Will see how it goes.

But... To refer back to a prior blog, sometimes I think I know how to draw at least. Pic above was drawn in two sittings today on iPad Mini 2 using Brushes app v2.

Ahh Brushes v2. I could go into the history of iPhone art. I could talk about Columbo and the New Yorker and Sprang electrifying an Apple keynote. The two Steves, together on stage at last.

And, in fact, I often do on stage when I'm talking about art on tablet devices. The iPod touch. That and Brushes. That was the first inkling I had about how extraordinarily powerful touch screen art might become. If you get a group of touch screen artists together at some point the talk will move to Brushes v 1 and 2. And then we'll talk about v3 ( :( ) and if anyone still cared by that point; Brushes XP. And, in fact, I did. The above image was drawn with friends at the end of the UK first meet up of tablet artists which I organised. It was a LOVELY week.

But Brushes on iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone? Oh, that was a high point. Other apps might have taken over as best on screen (hallo ArtRage and Sketchbook) but there was something wonderfully therapeutic about going back to Brushes today (the first time in a long time). It still has a 'best in class' UI for example.

But... To go back to the beginning of this post (see what I did there?? :) ) the Apple Watch. I'm (vey sadly) off some of the Apple bandwagon at the moment. Basically; can't afford it. Would love a Watch and, yes, would LOVE an Edition watch which looks heartbreakingly beautiful and not as blingy or ostentatious as some would suggest.

That, in my picture, I pair it with a green fluoro band is just me being a jealous bozo I guess :) (although I like the pairing. Think it would look cool, but obvs I'd be interested to see an orange fluoro band).

But hey, kicks where I can. After all there will be kicks today I'm sure.