We have spent the last three art club sessions on a major groups project!
It originally started with an exercise in abstraction, with students getting five to six little circles, with diameter of roughly 5cm. We told them that these circles are to be filled with a view of the room, but a view of only a single piece of the room, as seen from the viewfinder of their own fingers forming a circle. The most important part of this however, was that this view was supposed to be wholly abstract and should very faintly, if at all, reassemble the actual thing they are drawing.
With these very specific, yet also purposefully vague instructions, they started work with the pencils and watercolour we gave them. As many of them had very hesitant brushwork, we encouraged them and gave them advice along the way. We also had some examples, courtesy of our supervisor, which were very useful when explaining this rather long-winded exercise, and with them they were able to get a clearer general idea of where they were going.
The idea was given to us by Ms. Platt, our supervisor, when we were struck down by a lack of ideas, and it proved very fun. It's main aim was not only to encourage them to think outside the box (although you could say they were thinking inside a circle instead) but to improve brush control and patience, both very important virtues both in art and the outside world. They were very frustrated at first at having to fill in tiny little segment of a tiny little circle, but with practice I think, or hope, they got used to it and started enjoying it.
We managed to complete the circles wholly in the first session, and were planning to pin them up straight away when Ms. Platt made the suggestion for a background composed of squares. During the following lunchtimes we discussed this idea further with her and she gave us a roll of wallpaper, on the reverse of which we could start this background.
The result was that we unrolled a very large sheet of wallpaper, and spent a whole session charting out the squared background and beginning to paint patterns similar to those of the circles. The idea was that in these little square cells, a single circle would live. The two would either harmonize or purposefully contrast, to create a very abstract yet very striking display for the art board.
The first session spent on the background was quite hectic, as explaining all this to a very energetic group of year sevens was quite the challenge. We had a very high attendance rate and everybody was very eager to get to work, although all we really managed to do in that session was chart out the square outlines and get them to work on a couple of them. I wish we had created a stronger organisation about this very uninspiring and mechanical process of working out measurements and charting straight pencil lines. The best thing to have done would probably been to prepare the grid in advance, but we had underestimated the scale and difficulty of the task with the naivety of enthusiastic art students.
The second session we realized just how time consuming every little square was, especially with everybody jostling for space on the three tables we had brought together. It seemed like our giant group project wasn't giant enough for growing group of around 10. So to make sure that we didn't spend an excessive amount of time on this, and bore our participants, we decided to fill some of the squares with pure colour, a group decision which was agreed upon and turned out quite effective as it made sure we didn't overwhelm the composition, and provide some relief from the painstaking work of small details. There were some people who enjoyed the pure blocking more than the patterns, and I think that providing this range meant that nobody was intimidated into doing something they felt uncomfortable with and there was an opportunity for all skill levels to have fun, be that with broad, airy washes, or filigree detail.
We had a couple of close calls with water spillage, but other than that everything went very smoothly. I think that although the issue of space was certainly present, being a little bit squished gave some comic relief from the work and gave us plenty of, sometimes awkward, opportunities to bond. The atmosphere was wonderful once more, with gentle ripples of chatter punctuated with swells laughter as everybody painted and had a good time.
I finished off the piece with a black marker contour after everybody had left and arranged the circles in what I considered appropriate places. The reason we had decided to do this ourselves rather harness the creativity of the group, was because this stage could really make or break the entire project, and disappointment after so much hard work would simply demotivate everybody. So I used own time during lunch times, accompanied by some friends, to make sure that the composition created would live up to the expectations of the hard-working group.
It does indeed. The biggest piece we've ever done, it stretches over a meter and is very upbeat, colourful and diverse. The coolest thing about it though, is that it is the result of a wonderful group effort, and was very fun to make.
It originally started with an exercise in abstraction, with students getting five to six little circles, with diameter of roughly 5cm. We told them that these circles are to be filled with a view of the room, but a view of only a single piece of the room, as seen from the viewfinder of their own fingers forming a circle. The most important part of this however, was that this view was supposed to be wholly abstract and should very faintly, if at all, reassemble the actual thing they are drawing.
With these very specific, yet also purposefully vague instructions, they started work with the pencils and watercolour we gave them. As many of them had very hesitant brushwork, we encouraged them and gave them advice along the way. We also had some examples, courtesy of our supervisor, which were very useful when explaining this rather long-winded exercise, and with them they were able to get a clearer general idea of where they were going.
The idea was given to us by Ms. Platt, our supervisor, when we were struck down by a lack of ideas, and it proved very fun. It's main aim was not only to encourage them to think outside the box (although you could say they were thinking inside a circle instead) but to improve brush control and patience, both very important virtues both in art and the outside world. They were very frustrated at first at having to fill in tiny little segment of a tiny little circle, but with practice I think, or hope, they got used to it and started enjoying it.
We managed to complete the circles wholly in the first session, and were planning to pin them up straight away when Ms. Platt made the suggestion for a background composed of squares. During the following lunchtimes we discussed this idea further with her and she gave us a roll of wallpaper, on the reverse of which we could start this background.
The result was that we unrolled a very large sheet of wallpaper, and spent a whole session charting out the squared background and beginning to paint patterns similar to those of the circles. The idea was that in these little square cells, a single circle would live. The two would either harmonize or purposefully contrast, to create a very abstract yet very striking display for the art board.
The first session spent on the background was quite hectic, as explaining all this to a very energetic group of year sevens was quite the challenge. We had a very high attendance rate and everybody was very eager to get to work, although all we really managed to do in that session was chart out the square outlines and get them to work on a couple of them. I wish we had created a stronger organisation about this very uninspiring and mechanical process of working out measurements and charting straight pencil lines. The best thing to have done would probably been to prepare the grid in advance, but we had underestimated the scale and difficulty of the task with the naivety of enthusiastic art students.
The second session we realized just how time consuming every little square was, especially with everybody jostling for space on the three tables we had brought together. It seemed like our giant group project wasn't giant enough for growing group of around 10. So to make sure that we didn't spend an excessive amount of time on this, and bore our participants, we decided to fill some of the squares with pure colour, a group decision which was agreed upon and turned out quite effective as it made sure we didn't overwhelm the composition, and provide some relief from the painstaking work of small details. There were some people who enjoyed the pure blocking more than the patterns, and I think that providing this range meant that nobody was intimidated into doing something they felt uncomfortable with and there was an opportunity for all skill levels to have fun, be that with broad, airy washes, or filigree detail.
We had a couple of close calls with water spillage, but other than that everything went very smoothly. I think that although the issue of space was certainly present, being a little bit squished gave some comic relief from the work and gave us plenty of, sometimes awkward, opportunities to bond. The atmosphere was wonderful once more, with gentle ripples of chatter punctuated with swells laughter as everybody painted and had a good time.
I finished off the piece with a black marker contour after everybody had left and arranged the circles in what I considered appropriate places. The reason we had decided to do this ourselves rather harness the creativity of the group, was because this stage could really make or break the entire project, and disappointment after so much hard work would simply demotivate everybody. So I used own time during lunch times, accompanied by some friends, to make sure that the composition created would live up to the expectations of the hard-working group.
It does indeed. The biggest piece we've ever done, it stretches over a meter and is very upbeat, colourful and diverse. The coolest thing about it though, is that it is the result of a wonderful group effort, and was very fun to make.
| The finished project |
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