Skateboard Project - Own Creatures

During lockdown, the students in year 9 art have been asked to design their own characters for the skateboard/surfboard project they have been working on. 

These creatures were inspired by their chosen artist - either Jimbo Phillips, Chris Ryniak or John Kenn Mortensen. Below are some examples of excellent pieces of work by year 9 throughout lockdown. 

Year 11 Photography

During catch up sessions with year 11, I have been working 1:1 with a student to help them catch up on their coursework. 

The project they are currently engaging with is based on the theme 'Fragments'. When helping this student, I have supported them in creating different manual manipulations using their photographs. 

Below are some images from his work - where he has manipulated photographs by hand linked to three different artists (Abigail Reynolds, Jean Faucheur & Damien Blottierre). 

Editing photographs - Year 12

Following on from the year 12's lesson on lighting techniques, I assisted one of the students when editing her photographs. 

In doing this, I demonstrated basic editing such as using the adjustment layers - to alter the brightness & contrast. I also helped her to create a layered/double exposure style image using two of her photographs to develop her work further. 

Below is one of the edited images from her photoshoot. 

 

Year 7 - Texture Photoshoot

In the year 7's lessons, they have been looking at the formal elements within art & photography. Last lesson they went out and took photographs of different textures around the school site with another teacher - during their lesson with me they began to edit their photographs looking at adjustment layers & cropping within photoshop. Some students chose to be quite creative with their editing, using adjustment layers to alter the colour of their photographs. Where as others chose to make quite simple edits in Photoshop, only adjusting the cropping, exposure & saturation. 

Below are some examples of their work. 

 

Photography Classwork - Distort & Disguise

As part of the year 9 scheme of work, the photography students are required to take photographs in the style of Wes Newman. During these lessons the students use equipment including; elastic bands, string, sellotape & their hands to create distorted portraits of each other. 

Following this, the students then learn how to distort the imagery further by applying different adjustment layers in Photoshop & using the liquify tool. Below is an excellent example of classwork from a student in one of my photography classes. This student has physically manipulated the face by placing elastic bands around it. They have then distorted the portrait further, by altering the saturation of the photograph to make the portrait black & white. They have also used the liquify tool to further stretch and distort the photograph creating an interesting portrait. 

Selfie Project 'Colour' - Student Work

Last weeks theme for the Year 9 Selfie Project was 'Colour'. I sent out a PowerPoint with several different ideas/pictures for inspiration, along with my own examples. Below is one of the responses from a student who has experimented with coloured filters over lights & coloured powder in her self portraits. I think the images using powder are particularly successful as they are composed well & the use of primary colours is well considered.

Natural Forms - Patterns

Below are some more examples of patterns submitted to me by one of the year 10 students. This is part of their Natural Forms project - where they were asked to create repeated patterns inspired by William Morris & MC Escher.

Selfie Project - Student work

These pictures are from another response to the 'Selfie Project' completed by a year 9 student. They have created a stronger contrast between the light areas & the shadows in the portraits which make them particularly appealling.

Year 9 Selfie Project - Student work

In the weeks leading up to the end of term I have decided to set a 'Selfie Project' for year 9 students who have opted for GCSE Photography next year. This week the theme was shadows & below are some responses from one of the students in the group.

Year 10 Live Learning

Following on from a successful 'live lesson' last week, I have had a few student responses which are particularly high quality. The students were asked to use either the Pixlr app on their phone or the website to edit photographs that they had been given, using colour adjustments and blending modes.

I demonstrated these editing techniques by creating step by step tutorials and videos that I talked through during the live lesson. Below are examples of the work I have been sent.

Year 10 - Still Life

This week to begin the student's work on Still Life, they were asked to look at photographs by the artist Suzanne Saroff & respond by taking their own pictures. This involves the students composing a still life set up, distorting the original objects by placing them behind glasses of water.

The screenshot below depicts one of my student's responses to the task.

Colour theory - Student work

Over the weekend I had some lovely submissions for the Colour Theory task I set. This student composed an arrangement of red objects to photograph & drew a lovely pen illustration of lemons for the colour yellow. Below are the images of her work.

Year 7 - Colour Theory

This week year 7 have been introduced to Colour Theory. The two tasks they have been asked to complete involve looking at the primary colours & creating their own colour wheel. Within this task, they can use a medium of their choosing either drawing objects or photographing them.

Below are screenshots of my PowerPoint & a student example of the work they have created.

Year 11 - Identity

Below are two examples of year 11 physically manipulating images in response to the topic 'concealment'. The student has used tape initially to cover up the first portrait, inspired by the artist Sebastian Herzau and the second has been covered in paint, with the original face being concealed by other facial features inspired by Rankin's Destroy project.

Year 7 Portraits

As part of the year 7 portraits project, I asked them to draw a picture of a celebrity of their choice. This could have been one of the suggested images in the PowerPoint, or another image they found on the internet. Below is an example of a submission completed whilst distance learning, where the student has chosen to draw Ronaldo. 

Student work - Analysis

Below are two examples from a student's project on Manipulating Reality. They completed the analysis for Kyle Thompson & Logan Zillmer, who both create surreal photographs. 
This was a year 11 student, who was looking at this topic for part of their exam preparation. 

 

Student work - Shoot plans

Last week I set the year 10 photography groups the task to complete a shoot plan for their natural forms project. These are 3 examples of the shoot plans submitted by students whilst distance learning. 

 

Whole Class Feedback

Prior to the start of distance learning & lockdown due to Covid-19, I started to put together Whole Class Feedback PowerPoints. This was recommended by our CTL (Curriculum Team Leader) in one of our team meetings, as a quicker & effective way of providing feedback to our students. It allows us to champion successful work, alongside addressing any common misconceptions that have happened throughout a series of tasks. 

To complete the whole class feedback, I selected exampes of 'Star Work' that would evidence student work that is successful as well as identify any common mistakes made throughout the various tasks. Examples of the whole class feedback are below. I completed these for all classes that I taught in Key Stage 3 & my Year 10 photography class.