Important Dates For The Summer Term

These are IMPORTANT dates for the next term, with regards to art:

Term starts: 13th April

AS Exams (Fine Art-5hrs): W/C 20th April

A2 Exams (Fine Art-15hrs): W/C 27th April
                                              (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. That gives you the Thursday  for last minute sketchbook finishing, as you need to bring  EVERYTHING with you on the Friday to HAND IN as your exam finishes. You are then done with Fine Art, congratulations)

AS Hand in: 11th May



Therefore AS students have 1 week after Easter before their exam, and then 2.5 weeks after their exam before hand in.

A2 students have 2 weeks after Easter, and then 1 week of exams where they HAND IN everything at the end of the exam.

Any questions? Leave a comment and I will try and get back to you asap.

Easter Holidays

Timetable Troubles?

Ease your mind in 20 mins

The Easter holidays are nearly upon us; two weeks of fun and games, right?

We want you to have a chance to relax over Easter, it is important you recharge your batteries and have a chance to be you. However we do not want you to forget about your work.

We have all been there (even teachers in the past when we were young, and yes, we were once young) where we get excited about the holidays and enjoy ourselves having a thoroughly fun time, when before you know it, Sunday evening before college starts again is upon you and nothing has been done. We have all sensed that panic at one time or another, and it isn't pleasant. What we want to do is to help you get the best of both worlds- Relaxing with your friends and keep on top of your work.

My suggestion? Bullet points. On the Friday you break up go through your art journals and write down a bullet point list of everything that needs to be done by hand in. Daunting? Do not be put off. There will probably be more on your list than you first thought, but do not worry. Better you know now than the day before deadline!

Next, take that list and put it in the order of what needs to be done. If there are things that can be done at any point, put them to one side on the list, written in a different colour if you so please. Once that is done, take 3 coloured highlighters, and being realistic, highlight the things you want to get done in the first week, in a different colour the things you want to get done in the second week, and then the final colour is what you can do back at college in the time you have before your exam/hand in. It is important that you are realistic with your choices, as there is nothing more off putting than a list that doesn't look achievable at the onset. Think carefully about what you can achieve at home and what you have to do in college because you need the resources. If you have to leave a stage until back in class, will that through the rest of your list off? Will there still be things you can do?

Giving yourself a list for the week is a less daunting "timetable" than doing a regimented day by day or even hour by hour one. This offers you the flexibility to be spontaneous with your friends, as well as reminding you of the tasks that need to be achieved. You might find you work best ticking one thing of the list everyday, or you might find that you prefer to have more intensive full days of art where you achieve half the list or more. Either way, enjoy what you are doing. Stick some music on, sing a long and have a happy time beavering away. I look forward to seeing your progress when you get back off holiday.

Happy Easter!

Drawing Exercise 3

Gestural Drawing

Time: 30 seconds- 2mins

Per drawing

The main purpose for this type of drawing is to help develop an artists ability to draw human/animals when in motion. The idea is not to take too long with the drawings, sometimes as little 30 seconds, sometimes 2 minutes. It can be done using a model, but often the artist will just draw people going about their day, in the street, at a venue, or even athletes.

For this task find a spot where you can watch other people. It could be a corner of the classroom, it could be a cafe in town or out in the street (my favourite is in an art gallery). Pick a person and try and draw their gesture/posture/movement before they leave your sight. Sometimes you will not have time to draw all of them, so you will need to make a snap decision about which aspect you want to focus upon- their arms, their posture/back positioning or their leg stance to name a few. These drawings are often studies that can be referred back to when creating a more finished piece of work, but you can also build upon them in your own time to turn them into finished pieces. You could even draw a detailed background first in one medium (perhaps a street in watercolour) and then go over the top with drawings from life (gesture drawings done in pen). What would that contrast say about the subject matter you are depicting? How else could you use gestural drawing?

Below is an example of gestural drawing done by Rembrandt. Here his quick sketching was trying to ascertain the posture of the two adults, their arm positions, and the size of the child.

(Rembrandt  1635-1637(no copyright))

Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock was an abstract expressionist who was active during the first half of the twentieth century. He is most famous for his drip style paintings, one of which is depicted below.

In Time magazine, in an article titled The Wild Ones, Pollock said the following about his art:

"My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.

I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impastowith sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added.

When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well."

                                      Jackson Pollock 1956 ("The Wild Ones", Time (magazine). 20/02/1956)

(One: 31, 1950  Oil and enamel paint on canvas, 8' 10" x 17' 5-5/8" (The Museum of Modern Art) © 2015 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

What do you think of this painting? What do you think the artist's intention is? What do you make of the colours he used? Why do you think this?

Drawing Exercise 2

Upside Down Drawing

Time: 20-30mins

Sometimes it is quite easy when you are drawing from a photograph, or even from life, to not look enough at what you are drawing and make the details up. The idea of this exercise is to focus more upon the shapes and lines that are actually there, than draw what you think you see.

This task is best tried if you are drawing from a photograph. The idea is quite simple, turn the photograph upside and draw it the wrong way. Start off with just a line drawing, and make sure you look back at the picture frequently. When you have finished, turn it around. What does it look like? Is it a true drawing?

If you want to take the task further, pick another picture and this time try and add tone or colour. Does this make the task easier or harder? How does the finished drawing look? Does it make you consider drawing in a different way?

Bruegel the Elder

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Dutch artist who was active during the 16th Century. His life spanned the rise of Protestantism and ended at the start of the Dutch Revolt.

Bruegel specialised in painting genre paintings depicting peasents. Quite often his paintings have hidden meanings and messages, indeed one of his paintings is called "Netherlandish Proverbs" with estimated 110 proverbs are depicted.

The piece pictured below, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus", is a good example of Bruegel's preference for depicting the life of peasants. Although the title suggests the fall of Icarus is the main focus, in fact Icarus' legs can just be seen in the bottom left corner. Instead the main focus is the man with the plough. The predominant colours are green and blue, which makes the orange shirt of the peasant stand out, making sure it is the first thing the viewer notices.

(Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, c. 1558, oil on canvas mounted on wood (no copyright))

What can you see in this picture? Do you think the title is misleading? What would your key focus be in this picture? Why?

Drawing Exercise 1

Negative Space                         

Time: 5-15mins

This exercise is predominantly for those of you drawing still life. The aim of this exercise is to encourage you to view your objects in a different way, and to become more familiar with their shapes. It is particularly good when drawing something with a complex shape, for example a plant or a pile of cutlery, but can be used for other subjects; for example hand gestures.

The idea is pretty simple. To start with, using a solid marking, you have to draw the negative space around the object, rather than the object itself. The image would look a little like this:

Ⓒ2015 Liz Rimmer

To take this task one step further, this time draw the background in detail, but leave the negative space blank. What does this do to your picture? Do you like the effect? Why?