Thinking Outside the Canvas Spring '12 Day 4

On the fourth and final day of the Thinking Outside the Canvas workshop, the students dove right into their canvases, pulling together all of the studies and other painted, printed and drawn pieces they had done during the first 3 sessions, and using fragments from these to build a mixed-media collage on their large prepared surfaces.  

This series of photos shows the progression of Launi's piece from Day 1 to its final incarnation... 

Lots of cutting and ripping and gluing ensued, and then some more cutting as the pieces were turned and analyzed to create  better compositions.  The final pieces were each completely different from each other, but all quite spectacular...see for yourself!

Colouring Outside Your Mind Spring '12 Day 4

In the final session of the Colouring Outside Your Mind winter workshop, the students began with a warmup exercise to get the creative juices flowing.  They drew into styrofoam, and then used acrylic paint and gel medium to paint the "plate" and make quick prints onto black paper...so fun, and very addictive!

After this exercise, they dove right into the task of cutting and ripping and gluing together fragments of the many different painted surfaces that they had created over the previous 3 sessions...this final session is called "the art of putting things together."

Using gel medium as "glue," the students were encouraged to simply begin, and to evaluate their piece after they had something to critique.

It is helpful to look at the composition from different sides, to turn the piece, even as you work, to consider other angles that might work better compositionally.  Rather than thinking about the piece as a whole, it often works to "crop" the larger piece into smaller compositions, and to continue building on each piece independently.

Acrylic paint was added to develop areas further, to cover up parts that the students didn't like, and to tie the whole piece together.  The final "layer" of oil pastel and/or grease pencil was added to highlight certain shapes and areas of colour or texture.  The final products from this exercise are abstract and fabulous...see for yourself!

Thinking Outside the Canvas Spring '12 Day3

Here are the collograph prints made during the last class...

On Day3, "Mapping the Mind," the students did a warmup exercise using words, but in a visual way.  They created a stream-of-consciousness mind-map, beginning with one word inspired by the image they brought with them, and branching out into a network of words, thoughts and feelings.  

Then Sarah demonstrated how an idea for a piece of art can arise from looking at everyday objects in a slightly different way.  We zoomed in on a map, looking for a piece of cartography that when enlarged, becomes an abstract series of lines and symbols.  The students drew these lines on paper, and then painted with acrylic paint... 

The last exercise involved listening to a series of instructions on drawing a series of lines and shapes in a particular order, and then painting these in.  The "image" the students were drawing was an aerial view of (loosely) the Capilano watershed.

Despite the fact that the students were all following the same sequence, it is amazing how different their final products were...

And last, before leaving for the evening, the students added another layer to their ongoing piece of canvas, in this case torn or cut pieces of old maps.  These were adhered to the canvas with gel medium.