Work hard early!

Success = if you want something in life,
you have to work for it!

This last week has seen many students not only work hard early (#Thefixupteam), but also achieve great personal successes in their work.  I  must start with one student who featured in a previous post entitled 'inspirational development of research observation'.  Claire had looked carefully at the work of Nikos Gyfaktis & had started to develop a pretty impressive stitch based portrait as a result of her observations.  This week saw Claire finally complete this study, along side other amazing painterly outcomes too (she has demonstrated great juggling & organisational skills, along with determination - all excellent studying skills).  The images below demonstrate an incredibly high level of technical & creative competency.  She has used a very clever & sophisticated blend of coloured threads to create an overall impression of an expressive & dynamic portrait, not to mention the painting skills demonstrated in the sketchbook studies below (if anyone wants to see 'rigour' - take a look inside a dedicated art students sketchbook).

Additionally through such focused & mature working methodology Claire has hit all four of her assessment criteria (but specifically the first three 'AO's' - see below - in a very confident manner).

AO1 Develop their ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

AO2 Experiment with and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining their ideas as their work develops.

AO3 Record in visual and/or other forms ideas, observations and insights relevant to their intentions, demonstrating an ability to reflect on their work and progress.

Portrait painting has been very alive in the studios this last week, with many students producing some amazing studies & taking some incredible photographs to support their research & future developments.  More from these students as their paintings progress over the coming weeks (here's a taster for what they have been creating).

The AS Art students also started to paint this week, after having spent several weeks exploring a range of contemporary drawing based practice.  Initially they looked like 'rabbits in head lights' (the students, not their paintings) & yet within two lessons the progress they had made was staggering - so well done all!  (Images below - which I think are incredible for such early days).  They really had listened & started to take mixing colour to a whole new level - depicting human skin with paint in an incredibly difficult & yet amazing skill to develop (Lucian Freud spent a life time honing these skills to almost perfection, Paul Wright is probably in his studio now painting that very subject matter over & over again in search of perfection - the list of portrait painters is endless, anyone who knows me will hear me real them off by the hundreds - but the one thing they are all trying desperately to do is to 'depict the human skin through paint'.

It's not all been about portraiture though, many of the A2 Art & Design students are exploring a wide range of personal investigations, several are working around the theme of 'Architecture' & have started to explore the pattern repeat opportunities found within this exciting subject matter.  They have explored a range of materials including paper cuts (inspired by the work of Artists like Rob Ryan etc), colour drop using line drawings scanned into Photo shop etc..  (You will notice the sewing machine is never far away & creeps into many of their studies, used as a drawing tool to enhance & define their images).  Their sketchbooks have started to get really exciting & reflect the personal journey they are all on.  I will be featuring these students in greater depth another time - so keep viewing the Blog.

A2 Textiles update:

This week saw the A2 Textiles students really explore some exciting ideas and push the boundaries of their 3D samples.  We had been looking at the wonderful book 'Pattern Magic' & the very clever creations by Tomoko Nakamichi.  Thursday mornings is always a 'hive of activity' in the Textiles studio & this last Thursday was certainly a classic example of this.  The students had transferred some of their architectural designs onto fabric & began manipulating these into their own 3D cube forms - the results were breathtaking (& although the outcomes have a simplicity to them, emphasised by the clean lines of the subject matter, this task was by no way simple or easy - this involved pattern cutting, transfer techniques, construction to name just a few skills acquired in just a mornings lesson). 

These samples are so exciting & I'm waiting with anticipation to see how they are to be developed further.  Watch this space, for future design ideas.  Once again they have hit specifically three of their four assessment objectives (AO1, AO2, AO3- criteria above).

There are many fabulous Textile/Fashion designers that have explored similar themes/processes with amazingly exciting outcomes - e.g.  Harrison Johnson (see images of his work below).

Harrison Johnson (c).

Remember the title of this post is 'Work hard early' - 10% of students work hard early.  Working hard early creates less stress, & produces higher quality work. 

Remember what 'Action Jackson' said (I have quoted his mantra in a previous post - so look it up).  He asked you to consider the following three points: 1.  Who are you? (You are amazing!), 2.  Why? (You have to answer this one)  3. How? (Work hard early).

I shall leave you with these thoughts...

...'Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognise them'.

...'Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful'.

(c) 2013 - As always all layouts & images on this blog are purely for the 'Moon on a stick' blog. I enjoy sharing information & ideas, however, I ask you not to use any of these images/layouts etc without permission or without noting its origins on your post. All rights reserved