Charcoal Eyes

Oh dear!  The last time I put anything up on my blog was in December last year....7 months ago!  I've been a bit busy with settling into life in Australia and starting a new job you see, so please forgive me if you are a follower.

In February this year I started teaching Art and Textiles at a lovely all girls school. The students are very lovely and I've really enjoyed settling into the school and getting to know my classes over the last few months.  All in all, it has been extremely busy semester. 

These eye drawings were done by some students in my year 9 &10 class this semester.  They used charcoal and white chalk and looked at M.C.Escher's 'Eye of Death' (which they loved).  I think that they look fantastic on display together, as visually, a big wall of eyes is very impressive.

With two weeks off for school holidays, one of my goals is to share some more wonderful student work here, so here goes.................

Charcoal Portraits

These are some charcoal drawings done by my year 10 class.  They started by covering their page with charcoal and worked in reverse by rubbing away the lighter areas with a putty rubber, then using charcoal and chalk for details. 

Charcoal & Chalk Eyes

The large ey drawings done by my year 10 class.  I started the year off by doing these, as it is quite an easy drawing technique and the results are fantastic in my opinion.  It also gets them to consider detail very carefully.

I also did this drawing lesson when I was doing my teacher training placement in Glasgow.  This is the work from 2nd year students, I gave them the choice to draw any feature of their face. 

Charcoal Drawings of Karl Blossfeldt images

Using the beautiful photography of Karl Blossfeldt, the year 7s made these charcoal drawings.  I got them to work in reverse by covering their paper with charcoal first.  Using putty rubbers they took away the white areas and left the darker areas.  They used charcoal and white chalk for fine details, and to acheive a wide range of tone.  I love this technique as it is really fun, messy and if the students make a mistake, they just rub some charcoal over the top.     

Big Heads!

My year 8 classes have been working in groups to produce large collage portraits. Each student made a tonal charcoal and chalk drawing of a close up of their own face, using the mirrors.  I assigned them each a different part of the face to draw, working within their table groups.  I didn’t tell them what we were doing at the drawing stage – I told them it was a surprise.  They love a bit of mystery!

We looked at the work of contemporary artist, Yi Chen, who makes collages of faces and paints these.  I am a really big fan of his work.  The students had mixed feelings about Chen’s work – but it opened up lots of discussions in class.  His work questions the role of cosmetic surgery in our society and what true beauty is.  I really enjoy have class discussions with the studets, it's great to hear things from their perspective - often they give very insightful opinions.

I then explained that we would be making a large Yi Chen inspired collage within our groups.  I had taken photocopies of the students’ drawings (I didn’t want to destroy their drawings which were beautiful on their own), and they worked together in their groups to make these collages.  I love these lessons as it allows for some group work, which you don’t often get a chance to do in Art.  The students love making them too as they get a chance to be really messy, work on a large scale and they can make really funny faces.  I think the end results are great!

I’ve been working with the technician, Adam, to get the heads standing up and dotted around school.  This is our trial attempts and I think they look pretty good.  We have an Arts Festival coming up next month, and I’m hoping that all 12 of the heads will be on display.

I did this project a few years ago when I was on my probationer year in Cumbernauld, Scotland.  These heads were made using the students real drawings, rather than photocopies.  I displayed them on the walls at the entrance of my classroom and I think they looked great.