Art
In Year 9 the Sea portraits project begins by exploring the human body for the first time in KS3. Students begin with life drawing (clothed) and discussing the proportions of the human body, before moving onto exploring the face. Sea portraits continues the theme of considering the relevance of art within the creative industries. Students are introduced to the work of key illustrators and character designers, who created the visual references for Pirates of the Caribbean. They also explore the CGI techniques that are used in the film.
Importantly this project is intended to reinforce the drawing skills of students as they will have spent the previous weeks working on their 3D sculptures. Consequently they spend time working with a range of media, drawing from sea life creatures and natural forms as well as revisiting the theme of portrait (last explored in Year 7), looking closely at detail and proportion of the face. Students will then be shown the work of a wide range of artists, working around this theme before creating their own compositional design considering guidelines that they were taught in their Kandinsky project in Year 7.
The students study Surrealism focusing on the work of Salvador Dali and the concept of metaphohosis and dream like imagery, and then touching on how surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I. Giuseppe Arcimboldo is best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books, this inspires the pupils to produce a portrait looking at sea life objects and creatures which transform through their face where they build their skills using mixed media (water colour paint and pencil crayon).
The second project in Year 9 explores the theme of Atmospheric Environment where students have the opportunity to look at the work of Van Gogh and David Hockney and begin to understand the connections between the ways in which these artists worked. They are taught the new skill of mono printing and how to make a collograph print - expanding this knowledge from Years 7 and 8.
