For the past eight years, supply teacher Emma Brown has spent her spare time sketching pupils at work and play.
Her illustrations, inspired by the classroom and playground, are drawn from memory after a hard day’s teaching and most of them have one thing in common - adult figures appear only from the waist-down.
The idea, says Ms Brown, is to make them as child-led as possible.
“I have tried to show the world from their perspective,” says the trained illustrator. “In the playground, there’s so much going on every day.”
After completing a degree in illustration, Ms Brown, 34, took a PGCE and began work as a primary teacher at Nantyffyllon School in Bridgend. She describes her experiences there, and at St David’s Church-in-Wales Primary in Colwinston, as inspirational.
“I hope to get something published. The illustrations are labour-intensive, but now I’ve decided to go for it.”
Ms Brown now works at HM Prison Parc in Bridgend three days a week, leading art classes with 16 to 18-year-olds. Her ultimate ambition is to write and illustrate her own children’s books.
Illustration: Emma Brown.
