Portraiture & Expressionism: Self-Portraiture
Part 1: This term introduces students to the portraiture project that will cover a range of two-dimensional drawing and printing processes. Initially students will develop their observational drawing skills, learning to measure by sight and with the use of a grid. They will then utilise this grid method to distort their portraits on paper. Photography will inform sudents' outcomes and the use of pencil, biro, chalk and charcoal will assist students in developing exciting and unusual abstractions of their self-portrait. Appropriate links to artists are made with particular focus on the works of Chuck Close. Part 2: During this term, students will be introduced to emotive portraiture. Through the study of Kathe Kollwitz and the German Expressionists, students develop their work meaningfully, reducing their self-portrait to a positive/ negative image. They study the woodcut printing process and apply their understanding to their own lino-prints. Experimentation with colour and different paper qualities enables students to develop their own unique self-portrait. Part 3: Students now move towards a more fantastical interpretation of portraiture. Through the study of Medieval Gargoyles and caricatures, students design their own fantastical head and then model this from clay. THis project allows students to learn and develop their sculptural design and making skills using the modelling technique. |
Empathy & Migration; Illustration & Book-binding
Having considered narrative and emotion in Art and understanding its relevance to society and politics, students are invited to consider the topic of migration. Through class discussion and reading of the graphic novel by Shaun Tan - The Arrival, students are encouraged to feel empathy for migrants and their natural feelings of vulnerability, loneliness and sense of otherness. Students apply their learnt skills with mixed media - drawing, collage and printmaking - to the creation of their own book in which they also learn how to make their own pages and bind their book effectively. This project instils independence and unique creative application of learnt and new skills. |