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 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! 

WEEK 1 : DRAWING

 Tuesday 26th February '13

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 1.     1. A picture or diagram made with a pencil, pen, or crayon rather than paint, esp. one drawn in monochrome. 2.     2. The art or skill or making such pictures or diagrams.

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!