Chalfonts 2nd visit

photographing 2d work with back lighting

Last week I visited year 12 and year 13 A Level groups at Chalfonts Community College led by Mr Hodgson. Some students I had met before in my last visit to the school and during online meetings. This visit would conclude my Virtual Residency Project work with Chalfonts. It was a chance to discuss their exam paper, the year 12 title; Links and Connections and year 13; Transitions.

The session with each group began with my own view of the exam paper. I offered some thoughts about how I might tackle the project, which artists I'd looking at, materials, subject matter, development ideas. Using a past sketchbook as work examples, I talked about the importance of being lose with the project. Not labouring over each page in the sketchbook, gathering quickly and widely a volume of visual information. Annotating, keeping notes next to images in the sketchbook, working on different papers outside the book and collating later, to break up the continuous white page.

To suggest some ideas of new and manageable image making, related to the student's project, I led a group activity of experimental drawing, to be used later within a photography exercise. Students had brought with them some objects to draw relating to their project. On A2 sheets of paper and with pencils, pens and black ink, we started to fill the page with line drawings of these objects, allowing a couple of minutes for each viewpoint of the item. A different drawing tool was then selected and more drawing continued over the same page, crossing over previous lines and marks.





This process was continued with pens and black ink, applying the ink with sticks and cardboard edges to achieve different qualities of mark on the page. As a final action, sunflower oil was the painted onto the page, being selective about how to paint the oil within the picture. I asked students to consider filling in negative spaces, bulky shapes, flat areas in the drawing as well as outlining dominant lines to accentuate the developing composition. The oil was applied to make the page translucent.

Students held their work against the light to check drawing progress.

This drawing activity was quite speedy, completed within 15 minutes, not being too precious with accuracy and arrangement of shapes on the page. It was a way to record a range of marks, inspired by the subject matter, which would be interesting to photograph.

The translucent areas of the drawing create a great filter/layer to photograph through. Drawings were attached to the edges of the desk, and light sources placed under the desk to back light the drawing surface. The light accentuated the marks on the page, particularly the areas of painted oil. The black ink providing a brilliant contrast the light oil areas.






Within the drawing, students selected interesting areas to zoom in, crop, compose, small marks becoming dominant within the camera composition. The items chosen to draw could be included in these compositions, by placing the object behind the drawing. The back lighting created effective silhouettes against the paper. Items like plants, glass, hats, keys were incorporated.

Other translucent layers/filters were added to these lit drawings. Surfaces like bubble wrap, netting, light fabrics and clingfilm. This provided further texture and mark to the overall surface.

net curtain layer

lightweight fabric layer

bubble wrap layer

Student's drawings could also be layered together to combine marks and shapes with which to photograph.


The last layer we concentrated on in this session was adding colour to the otherwise tonal compositions. This was achieved with tissue paper, scraps of plastic bags, coloured acetate and applying washes of diluted paint to the drawing itself.


This session was to help equip students with alternative ideas about creating new imagery, offer ways of making use of their gathered research, ways of combining their 2d and 3d interests, create original digital media to develop further, maybe within Flash or Photoshop. Some students began to film their drawing, while moving the light source behind the surface to accentuate different parts of the drawing.

The objective will be for these students to apply and develop some of these actions to suit their own project. Whether its creating new drawings with different tools, surfaces, light sources or finding new pathways for their project based on the outcomes of this activity.

Winslow 3rd Visit

Work by Will

My final visit to Picasso's Ipod group at Winslow Primary school this week, concluded the ongoing work created with students throughout the Virtual Residency Project.

In follow up to the digital photography workshop in December, this session focused on developing the imagery within Adobe Photoshop (Elements). I met with the whole group of 12 students in the IT room and using the Smart Board, worked through a few images trying out various steps within the software. We stopped to discuss what was happening to the image as each step took place. Realised defining words like Hue, Saturation, Lightness vs Brightness, Contrast, Opacity, Layers are all quite meaty and needed time to explore carefully. But these words can be related well to physical objects. Layers described as a stack of individual papers, each paper representing a different layer, each layer a different image.

Students directed me on the Smartboard, deciding what direction the image should take, colour, rotation, contrast. After looking at individual images, we talked through how to fuse two images together within one file. Familiar terms like Copy, Paste, were combined with changing opacity of individual layers, revealing the image of the bottom layer.

We created a new blank layer, added 100%colour to it and then used the rubber tool to reveal sections of layers underneath. Students experimented with the opacity of the rubber tool and the rubber diameter.

After this group demonstration, students were able to access the group's original imagery and select a range of images to develop on their own computer terminal. Students saved their own work as an image developed.

Origami angel construction in previous workshop



Photographing the origami angels using lights and filters



Example of original photograph


Adobe Photoshop photography development:

Sam

James

Will

Zoe

Waddesdon 2nd Visit

I made my second visit to Waddesdon Year 12 group a couple of weeks ago. Having met the class as a group both online and on my first visit, this session I was able to talk to students individually about their current project. With self directed briefs such as urban environments, students have been building up sketchbooks and starting to move onto large scale work in paint, fabric, collage and photography.

I was able to follow up in depth and in person, a dialogue started online with two of the students from the group. Both have been looking at urban environments and researching a variety of 20th century artists such as Hopper and Blake. Research also includes their own documentation of urban life through photography and drawing. This is where a clear distinction takes place of interpretation and personal perspective of a theme, scattering sketchbooks styles far and wide.

One student was looking at how to fuse visually, urban and rural scenes, trying to suggest a gradual/subtle move between the two. This student had begun to work with fabric and paper and stitch, taking references from research from my own textile work. Looking at how to use a variety of surface, mixing hand dyed/washed fabric and painted fabric. We talked about using stitch to combine these layers as well adding detail to the surface to suggest shape and texture. Also being aware of the use of materials, maybe natural, rough fabrics like hessian and wool for rural depiction and lighter, shiner, smoother fabrics to suggest modern architectural details.

Another student taking a big influence from atmospheric painter Edward Hopper, had experimented with ink washes, flood lit city scenes, areas of light and dark, city perspectives and solitary figures. I liked how this student was using contrast in medium. Watery backdrops were combined with graphic, sketchy, outlined, illustrative figures.

Having the opportunity to support students in their work in progress, I become aware of the clear recall I have from my own tutorials while at art college. There are were a few, impacting comments made years ago, which always spring up when reviewing my own or other's work.

-the importance of unique, original use of colour, mix every time. Being careful where colour is sourced from, creating where possible my own coloured surfaces and combinations rather than relying on ready-mades, (from coloured paper to bottled paint). This can mean building up to decisions on colour rather than dictating from the start. Through the use of layers, (paint, ink, transparent papers, fabrics, types of fabric eg, synthetic dyes differently to natural), adding and removing colour, mask out areas, paste over the top, white wash and build up again.

-perfecting a new technique. Don't settle for first attempts at a new process. Learn through doing, over and over. For example, one of the students I met from the year 12 group was trying ink washes for the first time on a large scale. The results were great, bold and confident with some interesting effects. Even if this quality is achieved on first attempts, its essential to go back do more of the same. The learning curve is enormous as you teach yourself, and can begin to predict results rather than simply test.

And one thing of many I'm taking away with me from meeting all these students is annotating sketchbooks! Something I've relied on my memory for, looking back at old sketchbooks, I can recall methods but never in precise detail, This group explain themselves on every page and will have precious, lasting resources as a result.

Winslow School 2nd Visit

This visit enabled us to develop the ongoing experimental image making project with Piscasso's Ipod group. We looked at other low tech constructions that could be made and then photographed. In this part of the project, we had been looking at origami. Between my visits I had recorded a demonstration of print and origami process to build a box shape using Adobe Breeze software to record my own 'meeting'.

Origami demonstration

This resource was then viewed by the students at the school and used to build their own printed box shapes, which were very successful. Students had made several attempts with different sized paper and printed textures.

On this second visit, I was able to see their origami work and find out how easy the demo was to follow. Feedback seems to be, the format of videoed origami instructions are easier to follow as a group, being able to pause and catch up was helpful.

Building on these origami skills, we made paper angels in this session, linking the artwork with possible seasonal outcomes. Every student made their own angel, helping each other with each stage of the process. Using the same methods as in my last visit, students then experimented with ways to photograph these angels and also their origami original boxes.

What became apparent was the ease in which students combined both these shapes and developed their own narrative for the image making, helping creative decisions of colour and composition. I think the choice of a familiar, non-abstract origami shape influenced this response. Students happily invented the angel as a character, placing him in the origami box (now boat), on the water (white fabric), near a waterfall (bubble wrap), suggesting water current (printed textures on box/boat) and back lighting all these layers.

Student Photography from session

A possible next stage to the work will be to develop these origami images in Adobe Photoshop. Discussions with teacher Mrs Epps has brought up the usefulness of the previous recorded demonstrations. As a lead into my third and final visit of the term, I will produce a Photoshop demo, dedicated towards Picasso's Ipod, which can be viewed in the school's own time, but in preparation for further practical and digital work in the next visit.

Chalfonts 1st Visit

Intro talk with Year 12 students from Chalfonts Community College

Last month, my final intro school visit was to Chalfonts Community College, where I met with year groups 10-13. Chalfonts runs a GCSE Digital Art course along side the traditional art and design and graphics courses. It will be interesting to see how all these students relate to the virtual residency project.

My afternoon began with an introduction talk with year 12, about my work and use of processes. This incorporated student and staff questions. On discussions of light activated work, (fabric imagery I back light and photograph), one student inquired about using photo sensitive paper to make abstract marks onto, literally, drawing with light, which was a highly relevant connection to make between my own process and that of the student's. I look froward to seeing those experiments.

I also met with year 10 and a group of year 13s soon to be deciding on art college applications. It was encouraging to see the number of students thinking about taking art into higher education.

Activities carried on after school, with an open to all art group. The session on this day was to try out some experimental digital photography. I demonstrated some light installation ideas with which to take photographs and offered a selection of fabric, plastic and lights. I encouraged students to prepare their surfaces (to be used as filters) before taking photographs, for example, cutting into acetate sheets, painting onto plastic folders and melting wax onto fabric. These surfaces would then be placed with objects and further layers to be photographed with back lighting. By preparing surfaces by hand to as a first step, students will beable sure of achieving unique and personal imagery, not to mention extraordinary results. It was a very inclusive activity, with staff and students experimenting together in creating the imagery.

Some images of the session:

The Grange School visits

I've visited the year 10 group from The Grange on two occasions now. A class of about 18 students at the beginning of their art and design GCSE course. I've joined them a little way into their first project which is self directed. They have the opportunity to create and develop a range of imagery through photography, printmaking, painting, drawing, digital media and fabric work. The outcome to this open project is a constructed fabric/paper piece or a series of manipulated digital images.

My first visit with the group involved an introduction to my work, a talk through one of my project sketchbooks, focusing on the use of materials, experimenting with surfaces and approach to photography. The students had already completed a practical session on experimental photography and produced an impressive selection of sophisticated, abstract images. Using similar methods in my own work, students had photographed objects and surfaces with directed lighting and filters. For example, one student had drawn/indented into a sheet of tin foil, marking the surface and creating a new texture. This foil was sculpted into shape and photographed with controlled lighting directed at the new surface. The results I'll post up as soon as I can. But this work is a good example of the transformation of material which can take place and most importantly, doccumented by the students.

Image of indented tin foil

I think the high level of photography has created a new challenge for these students as they have to develop and build on their imagery. Many have started by using the photography as a reference in mono type printing. Lines, shapes, colours found in the image are extracted and mimicked on paper, acetate and fabric through one off prints. The students used a printing board, coated in paint/ink, scratched through with a mixture of mark making tools eg pencil, stick, bottle top, pen lid, cork etc. I've previously recorded a mono type print demo using Adobe Breeze software, here's a link to this which is covering the same techniques the year 10s have been practicing.

Mono type print demonstration

A further stage in development, means this printed material becomes new subject matter to be photographed using the similar lighting and arranging experiments as before. The prints can also be layered up together to be photographed or scanned so work becomes digitalised. Further editing can take place using Adobe Photoshop. The students are reaching this stage when I meet them for a second time last week.

The final stages of the project include bringing all this experimental work together. How to fuse digital imagery with fabric and paper, how to deal with changing scales, making decisions on successful imagery to be developed.

We began the lesson looking at the group's sketchbooks on a central table. Reviewing together areas of interest, explanations of technique, successful and contrasting work. I had the chance to speak individually with students, looking more closely at sketchbooks, which are revealing a range of interests and styles.

One particular student had maintained a very consistent approach to her subject matter, which was a grandfather's clock. Its a positive aspect of the project I think, that students have the freedom to choose objects of personal interest and significance. This student had photographed the clock face at various angles, focusing strongly on the decorative hands of the clock, cropping the image closely around the hands, altering the understanding of the subject matter, beginning to abstract the information from its source. The resulting images were referenced in mono printing, drawing and paperwork. The next stage saw paper cut-outs of the hands, suspended on string and photographed, capturing the shadows and delicate paper edges. These hands have taken on a new dimension in this group of images, that of unusual, irregular and sculptural shapes.

I will meet some of these students online tomorrow, who have prepared questions relating to their own work and the technical issues that are arising as they conclude their project.

Waddesdon School 1st Visit

My next visit was a return to Waddesdon Church of England Secondary School. This school had been the home to my first studio space since leaving college, as part of the Arts Council South East Setting Up Scheme. I arrived at the start of a year 13 art lesson with Head of Art, Mr Berrett. Listening at the back of the class I was struck by the air of calm and professionalism about the room. The 20 or so students listening intently to a talk about researching artists and relating information towards individual work, finding links, inspiration, ideas to try. Actively delving into an artist's work selected by students themselves, to aid own visual responses, taking responsibility for their own art learning.

With this introduction, I came over to the class with my sketchbooks, fabric samples and slides to explain my own approach as an artist. I talked through my journey from college to now, examples of finished work, for commission, exhibition and for ongoing development. The students were keen to look through sketchbooks and ask questions about method and use of material. I shared experimental techniques, using back lighting, continuous surface embellishment, using low tech materials, encouraging a sense of play with these familiar materials, eg newspaper, clingfilm, bubble wrap. Creating own subject matter, from scratch, to photograph, to scan, to draw from, to deconstruct.

These discussions continued into the afternoon as I was able to meet students individually, and talk through their current work. This term sees the start of their self directed project, a daunting task allowing a freedom of subject matter, medium and scale. The students individuality was already very clear, demonstrating influences form a whole range of styles and techniques. What struck me most was the ease at which these students were merging ideas from new media artists and old masters.

It's an area which stimulates my own practice greatly. This merging of new and traditional media, combining painting, drawing, photography with digital imaging, animation and sound. The scope which exists for students to visualise their ideas is enormous. Because of this great choice, the level of research and development must run deep to secure a strong and consistent visual identity.

Winslow Primary School 1st Visit

The first round of my school visits takes me to Winslow Combined Primary School on 28th September. Winslow is a quiet, gentle village, just south of Buckingham. Here I am working with Mrs Epps, the Deputy Head and AST in art. I meet the Year 5 and 6 digital art group called 'Picasso's Ipod'. This is an extension project for these students, showing a particular interest and strength in art and design and digital media.

I have brought my bag of tricks, sketchbooks, fabric samples and slide show to introduce myself and my work to this enthusiastic, bright group. My plan was to present examples of finished work and also the beginnings of a new body of work, in which these students might be contributing. The session would aid the students in creating their own unique and exciting imagery using digital cameras.

To do this, I set up lights and filters in the darkened IT room. Lamps were placed under desks to create a mini studio and translucent fabric attached to door frames and lit one side, acting a s a large light canvas. I pinned into the fabric (our light canvas) a range of objects and materials, which became illuminated and diffused by the use of lamps and filters. The resulting affect can be captured with photography. An atmospheric and never ending exercise I wanted the students experiment with.

The first steps were to create subject matter with which to photograph. As an ice breaker, I handed out sandwich bags to each of the 12 students in the group. Clear, disposable sandwich bags, easy to manipulate and sculpt with. I use the word sculpt to encourage a sense of value and reverence to the material. The students took to this really well, first manipulating the plastic with fingers, tying knots, stretching and poking. Some blew air into the bag, some trapped plastic and fabric scraps inside, used string to tie in different ways and suspend their new object, lots of action words, investigating the material by touch in the way one might explore by sight in the form of drawing.

These new objects were pinned and hung around the temporary dark room using the classroom furniture, movable lamps and a range of translucent fabrics and papers. Students were very calm and considerate of each other's space, sharing cameras, helping each other out to hold things in place. There was a very particular scientific air about the room. Low voices and an urgency to see something work.

I really enjoy creating imagery this way and have developed habits, styles and definite understanding about fusing light and object together. Its always interesting to observe somebody new interpreting the exercise differently. With limited resources ( an important creative restriction) an infinite range of imagery can be created. For example, photographing an object placed behind fabric and back lit will create a very different effect from an object placed in front of fabric and front lit. The results are surely objective to what's most successful. I had to consciously hold back from stepping into a students experiment, suggesting alternatives. I did try to encourage as much experimentation as possible, so students would observe for themselves what methods they deemed successful.

As an extension to the exercise, students delved into the resources and began selecting their own materials and constructed new objects to continue photographing.

I have been fortunate enough to work with Mrs Epps on a number of occasions on sessions like this. Its great to see how the Winslow digital photography kit has grown. We used about 6 or 7 digital cameras, easy to use and with a large storage capacity on the memory cards. The students had used these cameras before and were confident. The sort of imagery being captured really gained from getting close to the subject matter, zooming in and cropping the picture by eye. This was quite demanding of the students and again a tricky one not to over influence a student's own judgment.

To end the session, all imagery was uploaded onto a computer and using the smart board, the group reviewed their imagery as a slide show on Windows. This encouraged a sharing of ideas from the activity and a chance to view their own work in a completley different scale from the camera's display. We discussed what was successful and what other options there might be to try for next time. I think the group left feeling slightly surprised and I hope encouraged by what they were able to accomplish.

Student Photography from session

Experimental Photography Kit:

- a range of translucent fabrics, cottons, netting, packaging material, bubble wrap, tracing paper, acetate sheets, greaseproof paper, net curtains! Any material which light can shine through and be used as a layer to photograph (once suspended)

-apparatus to hang fabric from, eg door frames, desks, chairs, easels, door handles (use a washing line to cross the room)

- pins, saftey pins, masking tape, string, blu tak

- a selection of lamps and torches, overhead projectors (offer a great light source and acetates placed on top can vary imagery further.)

- extension leads

-computer access to upload images from cameras. Good size storage space allocated on school computer.

-optional, for students to have their own memory sticks to save and access their own work.

Winslow Combined School Website