Street Art Workshop

Sixth form Art students spent a full day with Karim Samuels from Street Art London.

 The day began with an illustrated talk followed by practical workshop in the use of stencils.

Students started the process by using photo shop to convert a chosen image to a black and white outline. Choosing a suitable image that would work as a cut stencil was key to the success of the final artwork.
The cutting of each stencil needed accuracy and concentration before finally getting to the more fun spray painting part of the process. 

This was done outside with specialised spay paints which are made from sugar gum. The colours Karim had selected for the students to use were bright and tactile. Discussion's of how to create eye catching combinations helped students to make decisions and create funky bold images on a variety of surfaces. They used canvas, corrugated card board and coloured paper to work on and also painted their own backgrounds as the stencilled images were used to create multiple layers and textures.

The students were reluctant to stop working and many spent extra time working at lunch. It definitely got their creative juices flowing and the teaching, guidance and working knowledge of Karim left the students truly inspired.

Street Art London provide facinating walking tours of Graffiti in London. Click here to go to their website.

The BIG DRAW

A day long event when 400 students and staff kicked off their shoes and created over 60 metres of dynamic drawings on the theme of 'Its Our World'.

World music and atmospheric lighting in the main school hall helped to create 'drawing zones'. Three large circles of paper provided central worlds from which lengths of paper were rolled out across the floor and even up the walls. Each length had either the theme of plastic throwaway objects which are harmful to the environment; or natural forms, leaves and flowers collected from around our school. All art classes were merged throughout the day with, at times, ninety students working within the space. 

The opportunity to take drawing outside of a usual class room environment challenged classes to build on their previous practice of observational drawing. The success of this communal event is evident not only in the high standard of the participants' drawings but also in their obvious enjoyment of the task. The students' individual focus and absorption resulted in truly self guided work. The art teachers could also just join in and draw.

The Year 12 Art students became 'BIG DRAW Creatives' for the day and worked tirelessly, either on their own drawings, or to help other younger students. In particular they used black shoe polish as a drawing medium to break up the space and connect sections of smaller objects.

The BIG DRAW Creatives.

The Big Draw-Its Our World

The Big Draw is a national event run by The Campaign for Drawing. The Leventhorpe art department will be holding an event this year as part of the national scheme. 

Click here to go to The Big Draw Website.

In preparation we are getting the creative juices flowing by using the theme of It's Our World as our starting point across all year groups this term. Huge still life displays will be taking over the art rooms. The exciting task of sourcing, collecting and arranging objects for three art class rooms has already begun.

So how could this theme be interpreted? The following questions may provide some ideas for objects to draw and areas to investigate.

What objects and possessions do we have to shape our world?

How do we all view our environment?

How does this affect us?

Who creates the environment in which we live and work?

How do artists reflect or change the world around them?

What may happen to our world if we don't look after it?

During a windy beach walk this landscape caught my imagination and touches on some of these questions.

Driftwood. Brancaster Beach, Norfolk.

Click here to go to a website for more info on celebrating the environment through art.

Butterfly World

The whole of year seven visited Butterfly World in Hertfordshire.

  

On the 12th and 13th May, we took our Year 7's to Butterfly World in St Albans. We were very lucky with the weather and managed to enjoy both days without getting wet, with the students producing some beautiful study sketches.

We gave each student a piece of A3 paper and told them to fold the paper to create a constantine styled booklet. When opened up the students would be left with a full A3 page study sheet.

A students sketch of the Giant Ant!

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Miss White leading the observational drawing of the ant.

At the end of the students (and staff!) were lucky enough to be involved in insect handling. This involved stick insects, giant African snails and cockroaches!

During the insect handling we were able to see where the life of a butterfly begins. We were even lucky enough to see some breaking out of their chrysalis'

During our visit we also walked around the decorated, unsual, beautiful gardens, where the students could continue with their observational drawings.

Charlies Powerful Portraits

Derived from the theme of decay, Charlie's paintings are uncompromising in many ways. 

A current year 12 student Charlie's work challenges the viewer with faces which glare directly from the page. Behind the features the expressions are edgy and menacing, bringing us to question the mental state of of the people he portrays.

This A2 painting in acrylics developed over just a few days.

These photographs show pages from Charlie's sketchbook. An inspiring artist will often be a catalyst to explore a theme or media. The first page shows studies drawn from the work of Lee Jeffries whose style in terms of composition and texture goes on to influence Charlie's own self portraits.

Seventh Heaven

Year 7 - Colour explorations following the French Impressionist painters.

 Working in chalk pastel onto coloured paper these are A5 studies show how the use of marks and colour blend to create a beautiful section of work. Somehow however the process creates colour not only on the paper but across the students desks and blazers- definitely worth the mess.

The crazy vibrant colours of the Fauves were recreated in oil pastel. The Year 7 students have then used the techniques learnt in these smaller studies to complete an A3 final piece of school building.

Year 11 Coursework Day

A full day of painting, printing, refining, annotating and collating.

This week the two main art rooms were full to bursting with two large groups of GCSE Art students as they worked outside of their usual timetables on any elements of course work needing attention. As is apparent in the images below the students chose mostly to concentrate on their 'Portraiture' project. It's a diverse theme with personal and individual outcomes. The photos below show a selection (mainly found on the drying rack) of the endeavours of the day.

 



 

 

Screen printing is a fast and flexible way to add another technique into a student's portfolio. The A2 size of this student's Matisse style portrait brings a dramatic and bold element to her project.