PME Blog snr

This workshop revisited the importance of composition in a piece of art, and how the layout must be interesting for the viewer to "read" the painting. We started with thumbnail sketches and colour studies using gouache. I had forgotten how complex this process can be. Patience is once again a big part of the process. I myself had gotten frustrated in this process. I never thought of myself as a painter and found this workshop to be somewhat of a challenge. This puts me in the shoes of my pupils. Not the most confident in this particular medium but am willing to try and eager to learn. Instilling the patience with oneself and allowing for mistakes which gives more of an opportunity to learn. We worked together in small groups. With a collection of objects each member of the group had brought in, we agreed on how the composition should be laid out. Again the team work of myself and the fellow PMEs help to strengthen the support system that is available, but we also ...

In this workshop Life Drawing was reintroduced to us as a group. While I was much more confident than I was with the still life workshop, I was still apprehensive. A mistake in proportion is more easily noticed in the human figure and face, rather than in an object. So I decided to approach it as I did with my still life drawings, with drawing exercises such as continuous line drawing, blind drawing and gesture drawing.  Using a range of material such as pencils, markers and pens, we split into smaller groups. In these groups we agreed on times of poses and took turns being the model. It was not only a great drawing exercise but also gave us an opportunity to work as a group. I find that I feel as a teacher I should be in control, organised and independent. This served as a good reminder that there is a support system in my fellow student teachers and that it is a great place to go through ideas for classes. The drawing progressed well and it was interesting to see the ...

This workshop was the first we did. It almost felt like an reintroduction to drawing. It was a great experiencing as it helped to get into the mindset of the pupil. Speaking as a group (myself and my other PMEs) we agreed that first years expect a lot from themselves. That they are focused on wanting to get the "perfect drawing." Even reflecting on some of the classes I have had with the first years, there are a number of pupils that if they are unhappy with a drawing will attempt to rub it out entirely or even cross it out.  From their mistakes they can learn and for the pupils to be comfortable with making mistakes so they can properly learn from them. That it can be frustrating to not be able to accurately depict the object in front, or more so in my own case, to not have my hands and eye working to their best ability due to lack of practice. It was a strange experience, to remember producing much better quality works but to be out of practice. I started with bli...