Crescent Art Centre: Drawing and Painting for Teenagers: Term 2

Second term has finished in the Crescent Art Centre with the teenager group. They have practiced a range of drawing principles including line, tone, value and proportion over 12 weeks. 

We began by working on simple still life compositions including draped cloth. The group worked together to choose and position objects to form a balanced composition. They used small boxes to raise some objects to the desired position. 

They had to focus on proportions first. Using charcoal and putty rubbers they then showed three clear tones; light, mid and dark. Compositions were challenging as students had to deal with solid and structured objects alongside soft folds of fabric. 

Over the weeks, they were introduced to objects with shiny surfaces. The compositions used a mixture of textures and surfaces that challenged their skills.

Continuing on with our 'object with fabric' theme, we studied draped clothing on furniture. Some students 'zoomed in' on the composition, filling the page with strong and dynamic tones of light and dark. The mass of fabric looks great beside the thinner spindles of the wooden chair it is hanging on. 

I asked the students to use two types of drawing in one study. A simple contour drawing for the chair and tonal drawing showing value for the coat. The contour drawing should have a variety of line thickness and weight to suggest lighter and darker areas. 

The quality of line is more clear is the example below. 

When using acrylic paint, I encourage the students to work with thin washes of paint instead of thick application. If the paint is applied in translucent layers, overlapped colours will work together rather than cover eachother up. This also works well when there is a subtle pattern on the fruit skin. 

The pomegranate painting below shows a balance of thin and thick paint application. It works well as the thin washes were used to identify areas of light and dark. The thicker parts were added on after to suggest the textured pulp and seeds inside.

They also painted onto coloured sugar paper instead of white. I asked them to choose a colour of paper that was complementary to the object they will draw. In some paintings, the purple background radiates through the paint. The students learnt how having a background colour can heighten colours in the object painted. 

Screenprinting at Ulster American Folk Park

A wonderful exhibition, Warriors of the Plains, in the Ulster American Folk Park was recently on loan from the British Museum. It was used as inspiration for a screenprinting day with groups of children, teenagers, and adults. They made stencils of objects from the collection such as beaded moccasins, painted animal hide, axes, feathered head dresses, and many more beautiful artifacts. 

The results speak for themselves!

Story making with Cinemagic at Island Art Centre

Cinemagic asked me to deliver a story making workshop based around Dr Seuss's books, with 15 children aged 7-10 in Lisburn's Island Art Centre. We all worked together to make a spin-off story about a turtle called Mack from Dr Seuss' book Yurtle the Turtle. 

Our new story was draw on a huge roll of paper first and then transformed into individual books. Some participants included writing, whilst others opted for illustrated books. Everyone made a front cover using colourful foam sheets. 

So our story begins...

Here is Mack, the turtle who won his freedom from the controlling, power hungry, Yurtle the Turtle. 

With Mack's new found freedom, he made his way along the sweetie path and arrived at Sweetie Land. There are all sorts of characters there to greet him; lolly ladies, liquorice lads and jelly angels. 

He makes his way up ice cream mountain, gathers speed as he swirls towards the top and zooms off into outer space!

He passes many planets, galaxies, shooting stars and... aliens who start attacking him! A battle between turtle and alien continues until... Mack uses Cola to make the aliens burp and pass out. (Random!)

He spots a time machine and heads straight for it. The time machine transports him back in time, just in time for dinner. And what a feast it is! 

Here is the full story with its creators. 

The group work on their individual story books, making sure to title their story!

 

Masks Around the World

During Cedar Lodge School's after school art program, we are investigating masks from around the world. 

The group investigated African masks first. There are so many different styles across the continent! We draped clay over small pots to give a 3D shape. Some are wide and round, others are long and thin. Pupils then added features such as eyes, noses, mouths and other surface details. Colourful acrylic paint brings them to life!

The pupil's also looked at Balinese Masks. These are still being carved from wood today in Bali and are used in theatre performances. The facial features are exaggerated to get as much expression as possible. Pupil's made their own inspired Balinese masks from coloured paper. 

Indian Elephant Design

A fun and simple workshop which allows pupils to investigate Indian festival traditions and elephant decoration. Pupils get crafty with sequins, glitter foam, coloured paper and sparkly gems!