WEEK 4 : COLLAGE

Tuesday 26^th March, ‘13

Future Artists Nottingham’s fourth workshop: COLLAGE.

Cutting and sticking, my EVERYONES favourite!

Normally when people think collage, they think messy cutting and sticking, lots of layers and a lot of glue. But we wanted to expose the girls to a new style of collage, the neat, minimalist and somewhat perfectionist approach..

We had them think back to the first drawing workshop and with a continuous line draw a natural form; a pomegranate or a shell for example. By drawing it in that way quite quickly they would have created numerous ‘opportunities’ within the drawing to collage; lots of individual sections. The more sections the better; with lots of different shapes to cut out and collage into with different colours and visual textures it would be a really simple and effective way of creating tone.

We collected a variety of resources from charity shops to cut up and work with such as road maps, and old novels, atlases and a fantastic wildlife book to name a few. There were lots of examples of colour and tone and an amazing assortment of visual textures to create depth and variety within the work.

It was a simple process, but time consuming, our aim was for each student to complete one collage during the afternoon.

The method:

1.       Draw out the object in continuous line

2.       Trace out an INDIVIDUAL section

3.       Stick the chosen material OVER the section (the side you drew on)

4.       Turn the tracing paper over and cut out the shape following the tracing lines on the other side

5.       The shape should fit perfectly into the area you traced, so stick it on down back onto the drawing and repeat

6.       Voila! You should end up with a fantastic collage

This session really went well, with it being the last workshop before the end of term, we anticipated resistance and lack of concentration to a particularly challenging task, so we felt this one would fit really nicely within the programme. The girls definitely appreciated being able to take their time for once, they were able to (for the most part) comfortably sink into the task and work at their own pace. It was interesting to see a change in attitude from certain girls who had not enjoyed particular sessions before but loved this one! A lot of lovely work was produced all round and they have now learnt a really simple but incredibly effective skill which they can use again and again.

 

 

WEEK 3 : PAINTING

So we are into the third week of Future Artists Nottingham and this week we decided to focus on painting.

Painting is one of the most common mediums within art, however we wanted to show the girls how diverse painting can be. To do this we had help from a local painter Ellis Sharpe, who gave the girls an insight into the basics; lighting, shape, composition and colour. 

Originally when we told the girls that we were doing painting they seemed to be excited, however as soon as we got the big paint brushes out and they realised that we were going to be working on a less detailed scale they seemed to be a bit apprehensive, but they manage to push through and we ended up with some great results.

Ellis showed us the process he goes through when painting; he doesn’t always work on white paper, but a coloured background, so we gave the girls painted paper to work with. The first step was to draw the object; map out the form and areas of shadow. The objects were placed onto a contrasting coloured piece of paper, to reflect an interesting hue onto the object, such as garlic on blue paper and already to create an interesting composition. The girls dived into this straight away which we were pleased with, seeing as in the first workshop they were a bit apprehensive about using charcoal.

The next stage was a little trickier; we explained how to give the fruit or vegetable form by painting in where the shadows are on the object. Ellis showed us how he does this using a brown tone for the shadows and then dilutes the colour for the mid tones leaving the areas clear where the light is being reflected. This is where the girls needed the most help; mapping out where the light was on their fruit or vegetable. Nevertheless the girls pursued with the task and manage to come up with the form and structure. 

The last stage was to use colour, to look really carefully and allow the blue tones reflected from the paper for example to be on the object. By adding a variety of colours instead of a solid block colour, the object becomes more vibrant and textural, and more real.  Some of the girls quickly grasped it and were really experimenting with the others, although a few were struggling to realise the different tones. However with our help, and Ellis’ expertise and enthusiasm they all were experimental and produced fantastic paintings. 

the alternative paint palette 

At the end of the lesson we made the girls all look at each other’s work and discussed what they thought of the style of painting, it was obvious that some of the girls felt hesitant at the start but most of them said that they enjoyed doing something different. As a member of F.A.N I felt extremely proud of the girls for sticking with the difficult task as the end results were excellent. Some of the paintings will probably be exhibited as part of the exhibition of their work in the Nottingham Trent Bonington Art Building Atrium in a couple of months time but as well as this, the girls gained important painting skills which they can reuse again and again. 

WEEK 2 : MONOPRINTING

Tuesday 5th March ‘13

For the 2^nd Future Artists Nottingham workshop we decided to work with technique that the girls had never tried before- MONO-PRINTING; a simple and very effective way of printing using inks and the act of mark marking, to create fantastic sketch like images. This process can be repeated many times which results in a multitude of images being produced very quickly; brilliant for their sketch books!

Using the drawings made during the workshop last week, we wanted to show the girls that once a drawing is completed it didn’t have to be put away and left, but could be used again by cutting it up, working into it or Mono-print for example! We began by showing the girls the techniques of mono-printing; rolling the ink out, layering newsprint on top and their photocopied drawing over the newsprint and then using a pencil or the opposite end of a paintbrush to carefully go over the lines of the drawing, reminding them to be careful not to lean on or touch the rest of the paper!

 The girls got straight into it! They were much braver than in the previous workshop; opting for the larger sized paper and using their initiative to mix colours appropriately of their own accord. It was exciting to see them produce so much work so quickly, to see the moment of truth when they lifted their print from the ink to see the result. It didn't always work out, but it was easy enough to pick them up and let them try again!

We talked the girls through various other techniques as the lesson went on, showing them how to producing a negative from the ink and also drawing directly into the ink and then printing from that. From talking to the class at the end of the session it was clear that some of them still felt a little out of their comfort zone, however many really enjoyed the session, and liked it because “it’s not the same, it’s unusual.” (actual quote!)

I think for F.A.N what was most enjoyable about the workshop was the knowledge that these girls would never have got to do a technique like mono-print without us. By bringing them out of their comfort zone we have allowed them to create abstract images a world away from the precise and detailed drawings in their original sketchbooks. The teacher remarked saying; “If I had asked any of them to draw only a small section of their object in such abstract way they would have never have produced anything like this.” I think the speed at which mono-prints can be produced, made the girls feel at ease to just have fun with the colours and the mark marking and began to care less about the detail. A success for us in changing their attitude in the way they see art!