first artists of the week!

In a fantastic way to launch the new Half Term, we are delighted to showcase the work of our talented Year 7 students, who have been selected by the Art Department as Artists of the Week: Crystal and Leah.

Year 7 have been studying Still Life and have been engaged on The Big Draw project, as Head of Department Mrs Nanvazadeh explains and contextualises: 

Still Life is the art of drawing or painting inanimate objects such as fruit, flowers and househld items which are usually attanged on a table or shelf. Artists create still life paintings for various reasons: to reflect the status of their owner, be it humble or haughty; for their symbolic meaning which reveals a hidden story or idea; to capture the transient beauty of natural objects like flowers or fruit; or as a controlled structure to express the abstract qualities of the visual element.

The practice of Still Life develops and strengthens your natural level of drawing ability. It improves observation and rendering of shape, tone, colour, pattern and texture in a range of different media. You also learn a great deal about composition: the interaction of positive shapes (the objects) and negative space (the area around the objects).  Year 7 students were tasked with drawing a pair of figs, demonstrating their ability to blend colours carefully together.

The Big Draw

Exploring a variety of media through their initial project 'The Big Draw', Year 7 were tutored in using coloured pencils - one of the most underutilised and misused materials within Art & Design. Coloured pencils are capable of rendering art styles that are expressive and abstract, or detailed and photorealistic. While they're slow to use compared to wet media like paint (in terms of laying down colour), they’re almost unparalleled when it comes to control and detail. Because coloured pencils are partially transparent (also known as "semi-opaque"), you generally start with a light application, gradually building up your colors to produce more vibrancy and shading through the layering of different colors. This process is called “glazing" or "burnishing". Coloured pencils, like watercolors, are famous for their translucent quality, which can give artwork a striking luminance, especially on textured paper. If you don't press too hard, tiny crevices or valleys in the grain of the paper are left untouched by pigment and allowed to shine through. 

Really well done both, and thank you to the students and our Art department for sharing these inspired pieces of work.

We look forward to showcasing more UGS artists next week, and as ever for rolling updates on the work produced by our fantastic students follow the department on:

Instagram: @urmston_grammar_art 

X:  @UGS_Art 

Pinterest: @urmstongrammar_art