Description:

Before starting the drawing, the student watched a 3 minute stimulus video recording which contained a spoken script accompanied by continuously moving, brightly coloured spirals and musical sound effects. The reader did not appear on the screen, and the spiralling colour images gave no suggestion of form that might resemble the subject of the drawing - a firebird! The script included the following instructions:

In this activity you are going to draw a picture of a make-believe creature called a firebird.

This is not an ordinary picture of ordinary things. It is a picture that comes from your imagination. An exciting, bright and colourful picture, using your own ideas and all of your imagination.

You have crayons and pastels to work with. Try to use them so that the colours and shapes are really strong, bright and exciting.

You will need to think which colours will make yhour firebird bright and exciting. You can mix your own special blend of colours on the paper by using different crayons and pastels over the top of each other. Use both the pastels and crayons for your picture.

Now let's think about the first bird. This is a time for thinking about your own ideas and getting ready to use your imagination.

Think of your firebird being a huge creature that lives in the night sky among the sparkling stars and planets.
Think about the shape of its body. Will it be round and fat, or long and sleek, or streamlined?

What shape will its wings be? And what will its feathers look like? Think specially about the bright colours and patterns of its feathers, and its wide wings as it swoops, glides and drifts through the twinkling darkness.

What about its eyes? Are they going to be wide and round, or narrow and penetrating? Will those eyes be alert or sleepy? Will they be bright and eager, or dull and tired?

Will it have a beak? Would the beak be long, sharp and pointed, or short and blunt. Would it be straight or curved? Long, or stubby?

And what are its legs and its claws or talons like as it swoops and dives brightly through the darkness. Do its claws help it to reach out and grab stars to stuff into its mouth?

Think about your beautifully bright and powerful fire bird. Fire birds are very patient. They wait - and then - when a shooting star appears - they zoom across the darkness - SNATCH with their talons and beak - and gobble up the fiery stars, sparkles, flashes, flames and all.

You've been thinking hard about your own special firebird and what it could look like. No one has every seen a real fire bird, so no one could ever say that your drawing is right or wrong. It is entirely up to your own imagination to show what it could be like.

To start, make your fire bird as big as you can, so that it fills the paper. Once you have drawn the bird, you can add the smaller bits and the decorations. You will have to work quickly to do as much as you can in 20 minutes.

You can start now - but remember: bright, exciting colours, and a big and beautiful firebird.

Instructions:

Apart from reminding students of the time available, the teacher administering the task did not give any further instructions.

View Firebird drawing exemplars

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detail