Colour Collage

I am teaching Higher art on Saturday morning, it is killing me not having a full weekend, but my students are delightful and I am loving the work that they are doing. This weekend they worked with coloured tissue papers and some other pieces including colour charts for paint to make colleges.  

Teaching Colour Theory

Techniques that I use to teach, come from varied sources. Some were established in my initial foundation years at Great Yarmouth College of Art. This one is a classic, I hated it at the time but now remember and reuse it with great fondness, as it really makes people really look at the composite colours of what ever subject they are painting. 
You have to make a grid, this time I was gentle with my students and they had a 2cm grid when I did this it was a 1cm grid. You then gently sketch the scene you are working from and then as a student pointed out you 'pixelate it', trying to match each grid square as closely as you can to the corresponding square on your subject and choosing the colour that is dominant in that area.
The results can be stunning and what is great is it teaches very valuable lessons in colour and observation.

Work work work

I just wanted to share what has been happening to me in the last wee while. I am back at work, for those of you who do not know I teach at an Further Education College, it is a new term with new responsibilities and challenges, and I am just about to add to that, with another exciting new job teaching art online.

One of the early pleasures this year, is teaching a group from a local school figure drawing. I have never taught school pupils before. The students that I have been teaching of this age group previously have been the people that school and education has not worked well for. It has made me much happier about our education system to have such a eager, engaged group of young people who really want to learn.

Above: Mini Me self portraits with school group.

Despite being an ardent exponent of 'imagination', I am a strong believer in a solid foundation of drawing.

 'Mini Me' self portraits with NC Introduction to creative arts.

Due to the variety of students that I teach, I believe that the more creatively you can deliver these skills the easier and faster they will be acquired, and by more of them. So it has been fun, we have just been studying portraiture and self portraiture so far and I am trying to introduce elements of identity and broaden ideas of the self and others.