Unit 1. Development and Experimentation
Students will complete a number of drawings experimenting with different materials, including a variety of substrates to draw on. Through these activities, they will be exploring the concepts of creativity through surrealist practices and potential subject matter and compositions.
The final artworks, a drawing and an intaglio print, will be derived from this activity.
Students will explore the ideology of Surrealism through multiple drawing activities. These are listed below. They must be developed as instructed using relevant materials, equipment and techniques and documented in their visual diary for this unit with annotations.
Content:
Students must include personal annotates on their documentation discussing the task, materials and techniques, concepts and the effects created. Students should also acknowledge areas that need improvement or a change of direction.
- Free Association: individual illustration and group illustration accompanied by annotations of the activity and effects created.
- Composition: Inspiration from observation and imagination.
- Summary of the Surrealism Art movement of the 19th Century.
- Artist Research: Student selection of a pair of surrealist artists, one from 20th century Europe and the other from Australia. Research can be prepared and presented in the template provided or constructed directly in the Keynote/PowerPoint.
- Appropriated Surrealism: 2 different composition designs using at least four images from the selection of artworks provided.
- Brainstorming: Double page spread exploring your growing appreciation of Surrealism through facts and personal ideas, text, artworks, sketches and other sources of inspiration.
- Appropriated Surrealism: Preferred or refined composition from Task 5. illustrated with coloured pencil on black paper with annotations.
- Final Artwork: Refinement and Resolution of original pastel drawing.
- Photograph of the final artwork and Reflection and Evaluation. These should also be annotated through your visual diary with your creative process.
Practical Tasks
1. Exquisite Corpse/ Free Association
Collaborative class task with all students working on separate pages that will come together to make one large complex artwork. Below is the initial development of this artwork.
2. Composition – Observation and Imagination
Using graphite pencil only, create a composition of images relating to the lyrics and emotions that you relate to a song of you choose.
Student and Internet examples:
5. Visual Diary – Compositions Appropriated from Surrealism
Using images from the six artworks depicted on the images provided below, create two new different compositions. They must include a minimum of four images, each from a different artwork. Your aim is to create new messages or ideas through your compositions. These should be sketched in your main visual diary using graphite pencil, both on the same page. They are plans, not refined artworks.
Please try to do this in an open space rather than reverting to the traditional A5/A4 proportions.
7. Refined Surreal Composition – Coloured pencil on A5 black cartridge
Develop one of the compositions that you designed from the Surrealism inspiration into a more refined artwork. Your composition can be further developed by including more images of a personal choice. You may also need to work on a smaller, cropped section and enlarge it depending on the amount of detail in your initial composition.
This artwork should be done on an A3 piece of black cartridge paper. You should lightly sketch out your composition on the black paper with 2B lead pencil. You need to produce this artwork with pastel or prisma coloured pencils which will affect the amount of detail you can work into the piece. Work out from the centre of the paper.
Colour, tone and contrast should be used to create strong visual attributes in this artwork.
8. Details for the final artwork can be found on the Refinement and Resolution page.