Big Draw 2017 - Animated Paintings.

Before half term the Art department created a week of events as part of the international 'Big Draw' campaign to get everyone drawing. Click here to find out about the Big Draw Campaign.

Throughout the week, all art students had the opportunity to draw from models in a setting based on a famous painting, including the Pre-Raphaelites and Pop Art. There were also after-school workshops in animation, life drawing and an evening drawing event which hosted over 70 people from the school and local community.

We would like to thank everyone who took part and made the Big Draw such a success, and especially those students and staff who came and modelled for us. Here's a behind the scenes look at the week.

Friday Evening

The Art teachers make the five sets, based on these famous artists-Frida Kahlo, Pop Art, Pre Raephelite, Magritte and Degas.

Monday Evening

Signals Animation came in to introduce and teach some of the year 7 and 8 students how to make a stop frame animation. Victoria helped them to first create story boards before transforming their ideas into the animation below.

Leventhorpe Big Draw Animation 2017

Wednesday Evening

Manco and Carla from the Art Model Collective came from London to pose as pre-raphelites. The 2 hour life drawing was a real success, enjoyed by sixth form art students and local artists. 

 Thursday Evening-Late Night Opening-Community Big Draw.

Teachers and friends stepped forward as our models for our late night drawing sessions with amazing performances by the Degas dancers and atmospheric music play list created by Mrs White. The part drawing event part performance was greatly enjoyed by all who attended.

 A full Gallery of images can be viewed on our main school website click here to view- Big Draw Photos.

Art Teachers at RA Summer Exhibition.

On Saturday 17 June we made our way to an exclusive late night opening of the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. The event was part of their 'Summer Late's' and aside from all the usual food, drink, music and dancing we followed the signposts to the flamboyant world of the electric forest. It included life drawing, head-dress wearing and even a sing along. It was a memorable and inspiring evening which we all agreed should become an annual event.

Photographic  Images
Copyright  -RA Lates - The Electric Forest (c) Carolina Faruolo (1) _ Flickr.html
Click here for RA Flickr Link to more photos.

Big Draw STEAM

The STEAM Powered Big Draw Festival

Bringing together Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths, the 2016 theme of STEAM recalls our industrial past and the fusion of creative innovation, enterprise and the Arts.

From 10th to 14th October all art classes took part in the main school hall. With joined classes from year seven to sixth form students working alongside each other all participants had the opportunity to sketch from our dramatic displays of objects inspired by five elements of STEAM. They entered a fascinating world of isolating mathematical shapes, crazy mechanical inventions and medical research laboratories. 

One of our local primary schools took up our invitation to take part bringing their year six pupils. Following a brief introduction about the Big Draw the students concentrated on practising their skills of observation through drawing directly from the displays.

With the exception of A level photography students, all the participants  completed drawings in biro onto pre-cut coloured circles. These circles were then connected together to form a Dodecahedron, a collaborative 3D paper sculpture which are now displayed across the school.

The spectacular finale of the festival was the evening event which saw the displays and accompanying music open to the local community. The evening was a great success, it reflected the real spirit and purpose of the BIG Draw -as a celebration of the universal language of drawing. 

 20 circular drawings make a Dodecahedron to hang up for display.

Maths Themed Display

Marine Reserach Lab

Natural History- Miroscopes

Engineering-Steam punk

Medical research Lab

Marine Life Year 8

Mixed-media Year 8 Sketchbooks

Inspired by the artists Emma Dibben and Amy Holliday our year 8 students used a variety of media to experiment and explore the watery world of marine life. They had the opportunity to paint using watercolours directly from real fish and created relief prints on polystyrene board. Over the course of the term they adapted and refined their experiments across three interconnecting circles. The following  photographs show how the circles created a successful template which  developed  their  understanding of creative process within art and design.

 

 

 



Set Painting for Into The Woods

Over the past few weeks Ms Pickering and our talented art technician Marianne have worked every spare moment to complete this incredibly detailed and atmospheric backdrop for the current school production- Into the Woods. The dripping and splatted acrylic paint is built-up in layers. The muted colours saturate the back wall of the stage with creeping trees and silhouette of swirling crows. Working on a huge scale shows how the movement and action of the brush along with the thickness of the paint work together to create a foreboding and sinister woodland- perfect for the fantastic performances happening throughout this week.

 

 

Fantasy and the Surreal

Year 13 Art students are now finding their own sense of freedom to explore and venture into fantastical worlds of monsters and creatures. The following example shows how Jamie's studies have started to escape from his A1 study pages and are now becoming a 3D form.

Big Draw Week

Every day last week each of the timetabled art classes headed for the school hall to work together with as many as 90 students filling the space. They entered a darkened space and sat on chairs placed around four stunning theatre sets. Each set was designed and put together by the art teachers to reflect the themes of these classic children’s stories-Harry potter, The Secret Garden, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland.

Following a brief introduction about the Big Draw event the stage door opened to reveal four live ‘characters’ who then positioned themselves to be a model in each of the sets. The models (from all year groups) had volunteered to dress up as a character of their choice and sit in costume whilst the classes drew them. Over 80 students throughout the week sat as models and took their role very seriously, despite being told they could move if they need to.

To capture a portrait or sketch the objects on the set provided participants with a unique opportunity. They worked using black biros to drawing to fill one page of a collaborative book. The front covers of which had

been beautifully illustrated by GCSE and 6^th Form students. The atmosphere was that of pure concentration maintained with the use of music carefully chosen from film scores.he theatre lighting created drama and provided a challenge for sixth form photography classes. Many teachers also took the time to come in and enjoy the drawing experience including Mr Locke.

The legacy of the Leventhorpe Big Draw week is 90 incredible Big Draw books, full of mixed age and ability drawings. The work is fresh, delicate, original and funny. The week- long event was a huge success for all those who took part.