St. Paul’s Annual Art Exhibition took place on Thursday June 10th. Parents and invited guests experienced the visual feast of artwork that was on display. The range of work exhibited included GCSE, AS and A2 coursework and examination work. St Paul’s scored a hat trick this year with work being nominated for the True Colours Art Exhibition by three students. The three students whose work was nominated were Tara O’Hare for GCSE, Meabh McAuley for AS and Rachael McQuade for A2. It is a great honour to have your work nominated for this exhibition, as it represents the best of all art and design work across the province. Work selected will be on display in the Waterfront Belfast.

Congratulations to Siofra McNulty from 08/006 who won our “Design a School Mascot Competition”.
The winning entry “Paulie the Parrot” will be made into a costume and then taken to games and events as our school mascot.

Mr McParland, Head of Art has made an initial sketch of what the mascot will eventually look like as a costume.
Thanks to all those who submitted entries as the final decision was a tough one.

Many high schools have a mascot that encapsulates a school’s spirit or highlights something regional.

Some have a mascot costume designed to be worn at sporting and other school events, particularly when the school is visiting another school for a game or participating in a parade, to help identify them and support them.

Now you’ve got the chance to design a school mascot for St Paul’s. The competition will run over the next few months and the closing date is 1st April 2010. The winning design will be used to promote the school at various different types of events so get your thinking caps on!

To help you get started here are a few tips:

Step 1 - Decide on the type of mascot you believe represents your school. While animals are good choices, consider staying away from obvious choices such as eagles or tigers. But your mascot doesn’t have to be an animal. You might want to consider creating an original human character or even an inanimate object. Ask members of the sports teams for their input.

Step 2 - Sketch your idea on paper. Think about caricature drawing and try to add some of those exaggerated elements to give your mascot a comic or satirical appearance. Or perhaps your mascot is serious and fierce. If so, use the drawing to convey this. Incorporate the name of your school or school initials into the design if possible.

Step 3 - Use coloured markers or pens to add colour, shading and depth to your mascot. You want to develop the final design at this point. Use good-quality paper. This will be your nearly finished design, so you want something that can be scanned and used as the basis for putting your mascot on shirts, school mugs, the yearbook and other school-related items.

For a few ideas to get you started, ‘google’ school mascots and see what comes up.

All entries should be returned to Mrs Morgan in the Library before 1st April.  Best of luck!

Click here for ‘Design A Mascot’ Entry Form

Click here for further information on How to Make a School Mascot Design

NB: Please note that this competition is not to design a new school crest but to design a school mascot to represent the school.