A wonderful exhibition!

Congratulations Grade 12 artists! 

I can't do justice to all the work that was shown, but here are some highlights. So many students got 100%, but there were also some little gems hiding away that I have chosen to spotlight.

Anna Ballantine

Amy Bray

Courtney Weakley

Sabusiswa Mazebuka

.

Courtney Weakley

Khristen Bartleson

Kiara Butler

Natalie Wessels

Roanne Moodley

Sabusiswa Mazebuko

Tharunisa Reddy

Upasana Patel

Zama Zikhali

Carmen Hogan

Roanne Moodley

Roanne Moodley

Roanne Moodley

Upasana Patel

Zama Zikhali

Zama Zikhali

2013 Practical rubrics - Grade 12 exam

SECTION A: SOURCEBOOK/WORKBOOK/JOURNAL (LO1)

CRITERIA

• Concept development 10
• Research, investigation, experimentation, et cetera 15
• Process drawings 15
• Presentation and overall view 10
• TOTAL 50

Evaluate your sourcebook (LO1) HERE ....

SECTION B: THE ARTWORK (LO2)

CRITERIA

• Choice and use of materials/techniques 10 (this is on-going while you work)
• Use of formal art elements 10 (this is on-going while you work)
• Overall impression of work – originality, creativity, innovation 10 (this comes together towards the end)
• Interpretation and practical implementation of research 10 (this is on-going while you work)
• Completion and presentation of artwork 10 (this comes together at the end)
• TOTAL 50

Link to LO2 self-evaluation  - doing this will help you identify areas of strength and weakness

Infographic examples

For my Grade 10s .......

Have a look at these two examples of infographics - one on the painting Perseus and the other on the sculpture Evolution.

Links .....

Evolution

Artist: Elizabeth Balcomb

Medium: Paper clay

Size: 17cm x 17cm x 50cm

Title: Evolution


Balcomb's website


Interpretation
Balcomb explains on her website how, despite her aptitude in art, she studied nature conservation and worked in environmental education. She still lives and works in the rural KZN midlands. 

This love of Nature comes through in the sculpture.

The body language of the young girl suggests innocence and shyness with her her hands and feet in an almost ballet-like pose. Her old-fashioned dress emphasizes this innocence with its pretty pastel turquoise colour.

The cat-like features suggest the timid creature is one with Nature, and seems, to me, to question the evolutionary position of the human species.


Materials & Techniques
The sculpture is small (70cm hgh), and is finely modelled from paper clay.
This is made from paper pulp and white earthenware clay, and is a strong body which can be joined while quite dry. The paper burns out at about 200 degrees C, and the clay is bisqued until about 960 degrees C. The glaze colour is then applied when cold, and fired to its correct temperature. (1060 degrees C)

The hollow dress is draped and folded from a thin slab of textured (impressed) clay. The cat head, arms and legs seem to have been made separately and joined afterwards with a ‘scratch and slip’ method.

The figure balances on a base which seems to have been press moulded from an ice cream tub - a child-like structure.

Link ..... Perseus

Christiaan Diedericks 2013

Colour pencil, watercolour, metal leaf and stitching on 300gsm Fabriano Artistico paper 

75 x 55cm

“Hair makes the man. Hair, or its apparent lack, is the typical way in which we discern men from women, male from female, masculine from feminine, maturity from immaturity.”

Ron J Suresha


Interpretation:
Diedericks says (on the website - Velvet) that he is investigating the idea of ‘hair’ as a defining element of the concept of masculinity. 

The surface of the painting is so beautifully executed that it draws the viewers’ attention to the various textural ways in which Diedericks has depicted the male body. This attraction of the painted surface causes a subsequent attraction to the image - including the hair!

The central dominant vertical axis draws the viewers’ attention to the head of Perseus - a Greek historic mythological hero.His full head of hair and his facial hair are surrounded by chest hair and the armpit hair in a balanced symmetrical manner. The Greek helmet both conceals and emphasizes the idea of pubic hair, and the stitched outlines of the legs seem to hover above the figure in a strangely enticing way.

Materials & techniques: Mixed Media
Watercolour washes set up the fleshy colours in the background, and also create a convincing illusion of form on the body itself. Pencil crayons have been used to work into the fine detail of the eyes and face which creates a focal area. 

A fine brush has been used to paint the illusion of textured hair on the body. This illusion (or virtual texture) is enhanced by the use of stitched actual texture. Stiff black thread has been stitched and knotted onto the dark ground at the bottom of the work, and around the outlines of the legs.

Red thread is also stitched around the outline of the body which has the effect of flattening the body to work with the flatness of the metal leaf of the helmet, which is also stitched onto the painting. Silver thread subtly balances the legs on the top left and right of the painting.

The surface of the work (excluding the body) has been covered with an acrylic crackle glaze, and a burnt umber has been rubbed into the crackles. This technique differentiates the figure (body) from the ground, and also gives the painting an antique feel which refers to the historical context of Perseus.

All the colours - in all media work together to enhance the overall integration of the work. This is often difficult to achieve using mixed media.

Painting exhibition - Homosapiens

Visit the gallery and look for the yellow stickers on the work I have selected. 
Choose ONE sculpture and ONE painting that you enjoyed, and create an infographic on each.

Include:-

• Information about the work (list of data - ONE chunk))
• Interpretation of the work (ONE chunk .... about 5 points .... about 100 words?)
• Discussion of the materials and technique involved (More than ONE chunk ... about 8 points ..... about 100 words + some sketching/diagrams)

KZNSA Gallery link

Evolution

Artist: Elizabeth Balcomb

Medium: Paper clay

Size: 17cm x 17cm x 50cm

PT Barnum, Charles Stratten and Lavinia Warren hosting small miracles

Artist: Sandra Hanekom

Price: R17,250.00

Medium: Oil on acid-free paint board

Size: 565mm x 820mm (framed

Pomegranate, Bottle, and Skull

Artist: Peter Rippon

Year: 2011

Price:  Not For Sale

Medium: Oil on linen canvas

Size: 224 x 370 mm (390 x 535 mm framed)

Good link for Christiaan Diedericks  - found by Ayanda

Read more here ......

Perseus by Christiaan Diedericks - Mixed media

Colour and painting

For my grade 10s....

Egg and croc skull by Jessica Alcock (Oil painting) - student work

Link to COLOUR presentation

Re-link to egg project

Re-link to composition

Re-link to egg painting

Re-link to surreal eggs

It's now time to put your sourcebook together:
[Collection of A3 posters]

• Cover page
• Experiments with collage cloud (+ notes)
• Experiments with watercolours (+ notes)
• Experiments with Hue; Intensity; Value (+ theory)
• Experiments with EGGs (+ notes)
• Investigations of other interesting art work (+ notes)
• Experiments with acrylics and oils (+ notes)
• Any drawings for your egg painting
• Gallery visit - oil painting
• Final egg painting

LINK to self-evaluation

Clay Carving

For my Grade 10s .....

The process of carving breaks down into two basic categories: low and high relief. You may choose to incorporate additive or subtractive techniques to create relief ranging from sgraffito to sculpture in the round.

Low-relief describes carving into non-freestanding clay. That leaves the design visually attached to the background area. Clay is removed or added to strategic areas which play with light and shadows, thus creating an illusion of superficial depth across the clay surface. High-relief carving describes undercutting design elements so they appear to detach from the background space. Further, it may also incorporate sculpted clay added to certain areas on top of the background to create added depth. (By Jennifer Harnetty)

Carving demo

Carving demo 2 (See extract & pics above....)

Foreshortening and chiaroscuro

Caravaggio

Late Renaissance (Mannerism)

Italy

The Entombment of Christ

Drawing a form in a foreshortened position will create a strong illusion of space, and is an important strategy to master.
Foreshortened images LINK

Using the strategy of 'chiaroscuro' will emphasize the illusion of 3-D form, and will also seem to put the form into a deep 'psychological' space.
Note: the background must be very dark for maximum impact.
Chiaroscuro drawing LINK

Activity

Use the printed transparency grid to draw a foreshortened part of the human body. 
Draw the squares on your paper as big as you can.

Use graphite powder and a 6B to set up the darks around the form and only then start working into the form with a 2B pencil. 

Remember to maintain the huge contrast between the darks and lights which is the hallmark of CHIAROSCURO.

Survey

For my Grades 10,11 & 12

Please help us get better by doing this survey in class .....

Click on the survey form HERE

or use your phone on the tag below.

Adobe Premiere Tutorials

For my Grade 11s and 12s ..........

Many of you did exceptional videos and animations for the Inside/Out project. Well done! I will post some of them to look at.

If you enjoyed using Premiere, and would like to use it for the Nursery Rhymes project, then have a look at these free tutorials provided by Adobe.

Illusions of space

For all my grades ......
Knowing how other artists create illusions of space in their work, helps us to improve this aspect in our painting and drawing.

Link to 'Illusions of Space' infographic.

Look at the works below, and - using the knowledge you have gained from studying the above presentation - list and discuss strategies used in each work to create an illusion of space.

Venus of Urbino by Titian

Student drawing

Perspective exercise

Dali - Cross of St John

By Thor Lineneg

Renaissance drawing

Kentridge drawing

Magwood-Fraser drawing

Munch - The Scream

Student underpainting

Activity 1:

Make an A3 teaching aid - 'infographic' - to put up in the studio on ONE of the works above. 

• Name the work and the artist.
• Stick in a photo of the work OR make a diagram.
• Using arrows and text chunks, explain the strategies used.

Activity 2:

Using one of your own photos, create an A4 landscape in graphite OR watercolour. Don't forget to show your understanding of the strategies of space creation.

Capture this code to save this page in your phone's browser - 'saved pages' - to work offline.