Drawing Activities

 Drawing Activities 

The start of the new semester has brought a strange start to the academic year. Same things needed to be taught but in a completely strange and different way. 

New Covid19 regulations meant we had to split the cohort up into groups of 6 or less. Thanks to the numbers being 36, this was easy to do and we were also able to put them into groups designated for their accommodation as well, which really helped the situation. 

Week 1 saw the students learning to draw perspective around the university Campus and from the top of the Flaxman Building. Teaching in smaller groups outside made the job really easy and fun. Luckily we also had the weather on our side as well!

Week 2 

Nature Reserve

Once again forcing us to change our initial ideas, we looked at other places where the students could drawing with in the safety of our university campus. Who would have know that there was a Nature Reserve around the back of the Campus where the student accommodation is. The students didn't know, and to be honest, working here for 16 odd years, neither did I.  The additional lesson on campus, enabled us to press home the group of 6 rule for students, so when they did leave the campus for the other drawing sessions this was more ingrained into their learning. 

The great thing about the nature reserve is that, last week we had drawn buildings and man made environments  and this week we were looking at natural landscapes 

Week 3 

Stoke Minster and the Town Hall

This week saw the 1st Years leaviong the safety of the university campus and venturing down the road and into Stoke Town Centre. At Stokes Heart in the Minster which is directly across from the Town Hall. This time we were looking for Establishing shots. Earlier we had done a drone fly past of the minster to look at possible locations 

Week 4 

A walk along the Canal

Final, venturing further a field and to check the students abilities to read a map, we sent them out into the heart of Stoke-on-Trent to look and draw along the canal to the marina in Festival Park. The point here was to get them drawing and observing life along the canal which took them past the Etruria Industrial Museum.  

Top Middle Bottom

Drawing Exercise 

Top, Middle, Bottom 

Once again the new 1st year were introduced to life drawing at Staffordshire University with a difference. We challenge the student to attempt to make a film noir style of comic using a basic script and a model in a room with props and lights. 

    

The idea is to get the students to physically move their bodies around the model, rather than, as what usually happens, where the students get an easel and they stay in the same location. Even if the students have a really bad view of the model they will rather draw a bad pose than to physically move themselves around the model. 

Film Noir is something that many of the students today have not really encountered and even though we spend a lot of time talking about shadow and the power of that and what it can add to a drawing, students still tend to stay away from it. 

Above the lighting and aim of the lesson is to explore how we can tell the story. In each shot the student had to make a decision of whether to drawn from above, at the same level or from the floor in a sitting position. 

The final scene where the model packs her bag to leave, gives the student to leave a really interesting climax to the story.

Below are some of the attempts that the first year did during the 3 hours session. What the story is, is completely up to the student.  We encourage them to make decisions about the character on the page, is she the victim, who has managed to get away from an attacker and needs to leave as soon as possible.  Or is she the evil person, a potential murder who has committed the crime and now has to get out as soon as possible.  

 

 

Cartoon and Comic Arts Motto DRAW DRAW DRAW!

Cartoon and Comic Arts Motto

DRAW!DRAW! DRAW!

Well its been a world wind couple of weeks and sometimes it is hard to believe how fast it has gone. Once again the 1st Year have been indoctrinated into the course motto DRAW!DRAW!DRAW!
We try to emphasis on the award that, in the same way as being a professional footballer, you have to have the same mentality. SO you don just go out one day a week to play a game of football, but you also have to do exercises to build your skills and sometimes it might not be what you expected. Even Footballers have to go the gym, where they don't get to kick a ball all the time!! 
It is this way that we try and explain what we are trying to do when we take them into the life drawing room or around the museum. What are we actually expecting the student to produce and why?
A lot of the students don't understand why, they do the things they do and in doing so have trouble correcting their mistakes. 
So we try and get them observe what they are drawing. We use the example of getting them to draw their bedrooms, a place where a lot say they spend a lot of time. But it's fascinating to notice that they can draw every DVD Blu Ray, but fail to notice the light switch or the skirting board.

 Above, cartoon and comic arts students head into town to draw around the Stoke Minster. With the help of the local ground staff they found quite a comfortable place to sit down and draw the surrounding area and the Gothic Minster itself.  

 Drawing parts of the Minster itself helps the student to observe what is going on and understand how buildings are made. 



 

 THE TOP OF FLAXMAN 

 From the top of the Flaxman building along College Road you can see the back of the Stafford Hotel and the train station. This is one of the 1st years piece of drawing of the architecture and also looking at the perspective. 

DRAWING THE TOWN HALL 

 Drawing around Stoke Town hall, produced some interesting results. Here the students are drawing the main building... until students from Leicester turn up and park their coaches in-front of the building.  It must be Stoke as a cultural city that brings everyone to it!!

THE TRAIN STATION 

The train station is always a popular destination when learning about perspective. Here is a particular good example of the drawings that can be produced