How an arts project between Skye and Edinburgh produced some remarkable results

• The charcoal representation of Skye which was drawn by 30 Edinburgh schoolchildren. Picture: Complimentary

Remarkably the drawing, currently on display at the Fruitmarket Gallery, is not the work of a single artist but a group of 30 children from an Edinburgh primary school who travelled to the island as part of an ambitious exchange project. On the adjacent wall is a depiction of Edinburgh drawn by children from Skye, a vista of towering buildings and sweeping bridges, the city's multi-level architecture seen through 30 pairs of fresh eyes.

The stunning large-scale drawings represent the culmination of Air Iomlaid (Gaelic for "On Exchange"), a 190,000, 18-month project run by artist Julie Brook and Johnny Gailey, the Fruitmarket's programme manager for children and young people. It linked pupils aged between eight and 11 from the Gaelic medium unit at Tollcross Primary School and Gaelic-speaking primary school, Bun-sgoil Shleite, on Skye.

Supported by the Scottish Arts Council's lottery-funded Inspire project, professional artists worked weekly with both groups of children during the spring and summer of last year, drawing and painting outdoors in their own environments. Then, in the autumn, each spent a week on exchange, trying out their new skills in a landscape dramatically different to their own.

At the heart of the project are the sketchbooks of the children, also included in the exhibition, which will transfer to the Gaelic College in Skye in June. Looking through them it's possible to see how, week on week, they grew more confident with their materials, first working in pencil, then in paint. The artists aimed to help individuals develop at their own pace, providing prompts and challenges at the right time for each child.

Gailey says: "You can see in their sketchbooks how they moved from drawing what they think is there to really observing. With that comes understanding of form, spatial awareness and composition. They observe very, very closely. In Tollcross there is a big clock which has four people on the top. I've passed it countless times and I'd never noticed that."

Brook says: "Initially they tend to regress a bit when they start working in colour. Then it all comes back and they begin to make paintings rather than coloured drawings. When they start realising things for themselves it's really brilliant. Every child went on to produce exceptional work."

From the sketchbooks, the children produced larger paintings individually, and worked together on the composite drawings, each group producing one of their home environment and one from the exchange. While the "home" drawings are packed with knowledge and information, the "exchange" drawings are more instinctive and expressive.

Brook says: "By the time the Skye children got to Edinburgh, they'd definitely had enough of landscapes, they were ready for a new challenge and Edinburgh was an incredible revelation of buildings and bridges. The Edinburgh children's version of Skye is wonderfully expressive, they didn't draw boats or sheep, just these incredibly massive forms of mountains and weather."

Gailey adds: "It's not just about depicting the environment. For the Edinburgh children to be sitting on the side of a mountain by a stream, drawing, they respond to that. It's not just the view, it's being there." Starting with the basic principle of drawing outdoors and observing, the young artists moved towards a more expressionist style, a synthesis of observation and personal vision.

A key result of the project was the growth in confidence the children exhibited, not just in drawing and painting, observation and concentration, but in making new friends, and going on exchange away from their families.

Both groups of children also collaborated with poets, animators and film-makers to widen their experience of other art forms.

Brook believes that anyone can learn to draw: "It's infuriating how, at school, you're often told you're good or bad at it from an early age. Actually, it's our first language – we all draw before we can even talk. It's not about being bad or good, it's about how you see something, and the fact that you see it differently from anyone else. It's like playing music – you don't have to be brilliant at it to really enjoy it.

"I always find it incredibly rewarding to see children developing that courage and confidence to be more themselves. Often at school it's the same people who do well in everything, and other children can get a bit disheartened. I see this as a chance for them to excel."

But there was also a lot of hard work along the way. Brook says: "There is so much technology around which actually shortens children's concentration, we were quietly advocating another way, saying, 'Let's stick at something and give it depth'. The children really rose to the challenge. There were days when you could hear a pin drop."

Since the exhibition opened in Edinburgh, Brook and Gailey have been working on ways to pass on the benefits to other schools in workshops and online teaching materials. Brook says: "It's all based on the simple idea of working outside in your own environment, the idea that you can step out of the front door of your school with a pencil and a drawing book: with that little you can do a lot."

Air Iomlaid is at the Fruitmarket Gallery until 9 May, and will be at Sabhal Mor Ostaig (Gaelic College), Skye, from 5 June until 25 July