2022 Illuminative Festival Piñatas 

In terms 3 & 4 our task for visual arts was to make a pinata in the form of a hybrid. Our influence was Roberto Benavidez who is a sculptor who specializes in pinatas. Roberto’s influence for his passion comes from ‘The Garden of Earthly delight by

“Robertos Influence”

Hieronymus bosh’. This is an ancient oil painting that displays mythical creatures. Our first task was to search for mythical creatures and to sketch some ones we liked. I and Alison then combined the mythical creatures that we wanted to create our design. We decided to combine a bunny, deer and snake. We had to choose a colour palette. Alison and I decided on a cool colour palette. We wanted to choose pastel colours and it was themed blue. We wanted to make the snake tail on our mythical creature look unique so we made it go in a loop to make our creature look more interesting and stand out even though it caused us a lot more work and effort with completing the other stages of the pinata.

“Roberto Benavidez pinata”

For creating our mythical pinata we first had to get inspiration from images of mythical creatures. From there we combined the aspects of each image together to create our own unique creature. We had to decide on a colour scheme for our pinata. Alison and I decided on pastel colours with a cool theme. One of the hardest parts of the project was forming the cardboard into the shape of our mythical creature. From there we had to make it

“Part of our inspiration”

secure by tapping it and then layering it with gesso. After securing it we were able to start cutting and sticking paper onto it which was the most time-consuming part. Now we had to paint the sides we didn’t stick the paper to a colour that would make our theme (we decided on turquoise). Now we could decorate it with pompoms and fairy lights which made it look pretty and complete the pinata.


Throughout the project, I and Alison worked well and efficiently together to produce a creative/pretty pinata. We were both always ahead of the class and while having fun doing the project we worked efficiently at a high standard.


In the project, we experienced some minor problems along the way. One of the main issues we faced was that when we wanted to start sticker paper on the other side of the pinata, we were missing a few colours because they had run out. Because of this, we had to problem-solve together and we decided to come up with a new colour scheme for the other side, which still looked

” Our colour palette “

pretty. We also come into a few problems when painting the pinata. Since our shape was complicated, there were many small gaps and crevasses we had to paint into which was quite a struggle. But, after finding a small paintbrush we were able to complete painting the pinata.


Yes, we were always ahead and had completed what we needed to do. We had successfully created a mythical creature that turned into a pinata. In a lot of the lessons which we finished early, we were able to help other groups with their pinatas.


” Our finished pinata”

Our final pinata turned out to look very nice. With the fairy lights on them, it made them look very mythical and pretty. Our colour scheme seemed to work very well with our creature and the lights.


“part of the festival

The pinatas we created were showcased at the illuminative festival. The pinatas we created in project X were an amazing contribution to the Illuminative festival. The pinatas looked amazing in pitch black with the fairy lights on. I felt happy to be showcasing the work that I and Alison had put a lot of effort and time into. The pinatas got a lot of good feedback and many parents said that it was one of the festival’s main highlights.

” Our showcase”

Collaboration/ Learner Agency

What collaboration means to me. Collaboration means positivity in interacting with others while building stronger connections with them and building teamwork. At the start of the year, our task was to form a group and produce a current affairs segment. With this task, we had to collaborate with others to complete the assessment at a high standard. It is important to collaborate with others because it improves your teamwork and to problem solve. Throughout the task, we had run into many small bumps along the way. For example, we couldn’t find the right outfit for the scene, but by being collaborative by messaging and organising we were able to work together and bring the clothes for each other. In this activity, I believe that I demonstrated good communication skills in the form of collaboration. Because of collaborating with each other, we were able to problem solve while working as a team.


What learner agency means to me. Learner agency means being more empowered with your learning and striving to improve by doing your best. In term 3 we had to write an essay about the Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. Building up to the assessment we had to practise our essay writing. In this process, we had peer marked each other essays to give feedback to each other in order to improve our work. This process has allowed me to improve my learner agency from the feedback I was given. I was able to relook over my essay and incorporate more keywords from the question to improve my work. This exercise has made me strive to improve my work, by improving my learner agency.