First workshop for FUTURE ARTISTS NOTTINGHAM
On Tuesday we went to the school with our materials with the
aim to change the way these Year 10 GCSE
ART students felt about DRAWING.
draw·ing
Noun
|
In this definition there is no mention of accuracy or
detail or tone; all the techniques that are taught at school. Drawing is mark
making and we wanted to remind the pupils of that, by working through a number
of exercises with them.
The students are currently studying for their GCSE in art, with
a project on Natural Forms. A classic
School project, one full of possibilities that DOESN’T have to be boring! So
keeping this in mind we wanted the students to draw from still life objects
that (no doubt) they’d drawn before as beautiful detailed studies, but because we
wanted them to rethink how they saw drawing, we made them do it in a quick continuous
line drawing.
When we ask the pupils how they felt about that method of
drawing, a lot of them initially really didn’t enjoy it, feeling completely out
of their comfort zone; not being able to take their time with the drawing how
they were used to. But after a number of goes (most of them) started to enjoy
it!
The second activity was a blind drawing where the girls
could only look at the object, not at the paper, so being ‘blind’ to what they’re
drawing. This activity produced some interesting results.
 |
| looking very intently at their objects! |
The final quick activity that we did with the girls was a line
drawing in charcoal. Drawing in charcoal is a bit of an art, while it
may be aesthetically beautiful, it’s quite hard a substance to manipulate
without it going everywhere. But because we were allowing the girls to look at
both the object and the paper and it didn’t have to be continuous, they were a
little more comfortable and despite the time limit produced some brilliant
drawings.
The last activity we did with the pupils was a collaborative
drawing, where we had given each of them a small piece of a Karl Blossfeltd
botanical drawing.
The aim was for the girls
to enlarge the drawing a recreate it in the various mediums and styles we had taught
them.
The finished pieces,
They look pretty cool really.
Successful first session!
