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.