Art Lesson 7th of November

In this lesson we covered The Bronze Age in Irish Art History. We looked at the background of the people of that time and how the bronze age came to Ireland. Various objects from early, middle and late bronze age were discussed in detail. We also discussed the techniques used by goldsmiths to create these objects, such as repousse, incision, twisting and soldering. Students practiced the repousse technique by drawing designs into tin-foil which created a relief design on the reverse side.
Hand-outs from this lesson will be uploaded to the blog this week. I will bring spare hand-outs into tomorrows lesson.

We also discussed the Poster craft exam. We looked at different examples of famous posters and discussed their visual elements. Focal point, imagery, text and background.

Art lesson 11th November

The lesson began with gestural drawings of the figure, three short poses. Then one long 20 min pose. Focus - fitting the page, line, tone and form.

Poster headings were given to students. These are; Cork food festival, London fashion week, Careers fair, Computer games convention. Students must select one heading and create a poster that suits that concept. We discussed the main elements of posters; Text/lettering, image and background. We looked at leaving cert examples of preparation sheets, preliminary sheets and finished posters. We also looked at the ways these were made, some using collage, paint, markers etc...

Homework;
Bring in plenty of images for next lesson. Images must be relevant to poster theme. Also bring in examples of lettering/text/alphabet styles. Other materials that were suggested for next lesson; Coloured card A2, Black Marker, Ruler, and any other relevant materials (this is all dependent on the students individual ideas, some may want to use collage elements in their poster, all materials welcome.)

21st of October

In this lesson we began with an overview (PPT) of the history of still life painting. Important Elements- Composition, personal interpretation, line, and tone. The students completed a mono-chromatic still life painting using black, white and blue paint.

Homework for the midterm
Irish art history question- Newgrange question.

Describe and discuss Newgrange. Refer to background, structure, construction, function and decoration. Refer to one other Burial Tomb from this time. Use sketches to illustrate your answer.

and

Complete a finished still life drawing using objects that are meaningful to you. Use at least 3 objects in the drawing. Don't forget to think about the arrangement of the objects (make an interesting composition) and to add volume to the objects by using different lines and tonal values.

14th of October Art lesson

14th of October Art Lesson

Last weeks lesson began with gestural figurative drawing with charcoal. Gestural drawing is a great way to loosen up and free up your approach to sketching. After a number of these drawings the students completed a 15 minute pose (Pose 1 in life-drawing exam). Focus was on - filling the page with the figure, capturing the pose, stance and sense of the figure, accurate proportions (7-8 heads in the full figure, line and tone.

The second part of the lesson was art history based. A brief overview of the Irish art history course was described. We began at the beginning with Stone Age Irish Art and looked at the earliest burial tombs, Portal Dolmens and Court Cairns. A 20 minute documentary about the largest and most sophisticated burial chamber ( Newgrange) was shown. This gave a great insight into the construction, form, function, decoration and background information about those who built it. A detailed powerpoint was then shown to highlight the important features of Newgrange. Many hand-outs were given out about Newgrange and the important elements that need to be learned.

Newgrange and Pre-Christian art is a very popular question and comes up in the exam time and time again. Regularly study the hand-outs and research more about it yourself online. More information about Newgrange is available in the less stress more success revision book. Also most of the information you will need is on the Pre-Christian page on this blog.

Homework

For homework students were asked to sketch the important elements of Newgrange. The plan, exterior, entrance stone, passage, kerbstone 52 and the decoration found on the stones.

Welcome Students!

I hope that you find this blog helpful for preparing you all for your leaving cert art exam. I will be adding to it continuously so keep checking in with it. Also I will upload details of each art lesson, including homework, notes and revision.

Lesson One: 30th of September. Overview of Art Curriculum and Life drawing.

In this lesson the art curriculum was explained with relevant hand-outs. More information about all of the components of the curriculum is available on the blog. The breakdown of the marking scheme for Life Drawing was explained with hand-out. Life Drawing lesson - students practiced Pose 2 (30 minute pose). Focus placed on art elements: Proportion, Composition(filling the page and placement), Line (quality), Tone (light and shade) and Form (3Dimentionality). Hand-outs for homework; features of the face, eyes and nose.   

Lesson Two: 7th of October. Still Life Drawing

Still life drawing was the focus of this lesson. The powerpoint display gave a brief history of still life and explained the practical and important visual elements of a still life drawing/painting. Important elements explained were composition (the placement of the drawing and filling the page), outline and line quality and mark-making (stippling, hatching, crosshatching...), tone-light, medium and darker tones, volume and three-dimensionality, scale (size of objects drawn), proportion of objects. Students worked in groups and arranged their still life and completed a still life drawing using pencils.