Prince's Drawing School

On the 27th of February, myself and 4 other students from our Dimploma class were chosen to attend the Prince's Drawing School- a weekly programme that will help us to improve our drawing skills and use of different techniques. I was very excited about this as I feel that I need to work on my drawings and my use of proportion.

Once we arrived (45 minutes late due to the fact that we got lost) we were shown up to the 4th floor and introduced to Henry, who would be our teacher. We then sat in a circle with the other 5 students who were also there. Unlike us though, they were A level students who were there mainly to update their portfolio's. After we introduced ourselves and discussed why we were here, we set up oour easels and got to work. We had to draw a model who posed for us in the middle of the room. After attempting this task, I found that sometimes when drawing it is easier to just let go rather than trying to pay great attention to detail, that way the drawing is more likely to come out better. I also learnt that I need to work on my proportion a lot more if I want my pictures to get better. I hope to gain that skill out of this experience.

Clay Sculptures

Last week in Art we started to create our clay sculptures.

• First we took a wooden stand.
• Then we wrapped paper around it to create a head and neck shape. We then used tape to secure it.
• Once we had done that, we added peelets of clay to create a basic form of a head. The clay we used was red caly, otherwise known as Terracotta.
• Once the basic structure was formed, we were able to add in details such as chine, nose and eyes, whilst still thinking about proportion.

Once we finish this stage and are happy with the way it looks, we can the either cast or fire the finished sculpture.

Casting means that you make a plaster mould and then pouring bronze (a liquid metal) into it.

Firing involves placing the piece into a kiln. A kiln is basically an oven which goes up to 1000 degrees unlike household ones. The paper inside the sculpture is the burnt away and you are left with a strong piece of work.

But there are also saftey factors to consider when making clay sculptures:

You have to make sure that the clay is cleared away properly, as the dust from the clay can actually be very fatal and if inhaled can eventually cause lung cancer. Making a clay sculpture differs from making a 2D painting in that it is more realistic and you are able to pay more attention to detail.

Using Photoshop in Art

A few weeks ago in art we went to the media suite to recreate our photos that we recently took (using the 3 point lighting system), into a Francis Bacon style. We used various tools to blur our photos and to change the texture of them. Francis Bacon smudges his paintings so we used the duplicating tool to create the same effect. After we had experimented with a few different pictures, we created a final picture and printed it out. We also experimented with various types of Bacon paintings, such as triptychs, and used them to try and create our own. I found this particularly hard to do as it was difficult to create the smudged effect on a computerized programmed. I still feel that my photos came out quite well though, considering.

After we printed it out we had to stick them in our books and explain what effect we were going for.

Edward Scissorhands!

On the 14th of January 2009, our dilpoma class went to see the production 'Edward Scissorhands' at the venue Sadler's Wells. This was a dance production about a man who was created by a man who had lost his son 'Edward'. The only thing was, he gave him scissors for hands. Edward was soon discovered by a family who took him in and eventually, most of the town grew to like and accept him.

The show was performed through dance which I found interesting at first because I thought that it would be very hard to tell a story using dance only. Fortunately though, the story was portrayed in a very clear and interesting way by using big bold movements, and funky or calm music, depending on the mood. I think that this was effective because it meant that the audience had to think about what was going on rather than have all the information told to them. We had to listen to the music and interpret it into what we thought it meant.

As part of the course, we will need to write a review on the show using the skills that we learnt at our last trip to Sadler's Wells.