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‘The black pyramid in the sky, half hidden in unfriendly clouds’
THE PROJECT DAY BY DAY
Day 1
A visit to the gallery
Our first day consisted of a visit to the local art gallery (Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea). This allowed the children to experience the artist's work first hand; to come face to face with original art work. They were told of his history as a refugee from Poland during World War 2. About how he came to Wales and found a home for eleven years, and was inspired by the coal mining village of Ystradgynlais, its people and landscape.
The children observed the short, dark, square figures represented in Herman's work. They looked at African sculpture that Herman collected and made links between his drawn figures and the stylised wooden carvings. We talked of the artist's use of sketchbooks as a method of recording simple and immediate images. We drew in sketchbooks with charcoal, trying to imitate the marks that he used.
We looked at another artist Nicholas Evans, who used the same subject matter, but worked in completely different style and the children drew comparisons between both artists. Time was spent drawing sections of his work, looking for patterns and exploring the use of charcoal as a medium. Undoubtedly a gallery visit, if at all possible during a course of study, is invaluable for many reasons, but the gallery as an educational resource provides an opportunity for the pupil to see original art as a valued aspect of our culture.
Day 2
Drawing in Charcoal
Drawing, for Herman, and for many artists, is as important and as fundamental as handwriting.
Our second drawing session grew from Herman's interest in ethnic sculpture. First we experimented with stick charcoal, making marks, lines and tones in our sketch books, allowing the children an opportunity to discuss the merits of charcoal and compare this medium with others with which they were familiar. We drew with charcoal using varying degrees of pressure to produce different effects, and "blended" with our fingers to make interesting marks with our dirty fingers. We experimented with a pencil eraser, and then made a "tonal scale" with areas of tone moving from black to the white of the paper. This experience was discussed to further reinforce the merits of charcoal.
Next we set up still life compositions around which the children sat in groups. Small wooden carved animals were placed before them on white sheets of paper to provide both a contrast in
tonal value and to emphasise the space or environment in which the object was placed. We observed the subject and looked at the outline or silhouette of each object, from our individual view-point. We observed textures and marks and tried to describe them. We asked questions like
‘How much of the object do we see?’
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‘Are parts hidden from our view?’
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‘What range of tonal values can we see?’
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‘Where are the light parts and where are the dark areas?’
The children were asked to start to draw and to try to fill the paper with the image. If mistakes were made, they were encouraged to draw over the mistake, to be less "precious" about the drawing process and not to be intimidated or put off by a mistake. We encouraged them to use observational drawing as Herman used it, as a means, not only of recording, but of examination and exploration.
Problems, and finding ways of overcoming them were a part of the drawing process. As the children drew, their ‘eye’, or ability to perceive more accurately, improved.
Day 3
Tonal Collage
We wanted the children to draw on a large scale. To make gestures, marks and images beyond the A4 and A3 format familiar to them. Children, by nature, almost always draw on a small scale with great delicacy and emphasis on details. We encouraged the children to work more broadly, to take risks and to enjoy the process of problem solving and to resolve issues raised by working on a larger scale.
But before embarking on large scale drawing, we felt it was necessary to create an opportunity to allow the children to work without line - as line can be restrictive, and the children's drawing can revert to the small scale. We planned an activity to use blocks of tone. For this, the task was to make tonal collages, using black and grey paper on A1 sheets of white cartridge paper.
The children worked in pairs, this encouraged
discussion about aspects of picture making. They took a detail of a Herman's pen and ink drawing and looked at the blocks of tone and the line. They tore black paper to approximate the shapes they saw. If a shape was too small, more paper was added to expand the shape. If line had been used in the original drawing, we allowed the children, towards the end of the session, to use stick charcoal to draw in the line or to fill in areas of light grey tones.
By making images in this way we encouraged them to be less precious, to understand that mistakes are a part of the image making process.
The results were large scale and had a monumental feel to them.
The session ended with our usual feed back and appraisal session
Day 4
Tonal Drawing with Brush and Black Paint
B
uilding on the freer process of collage, and working on a larger scale, we next worked on A1 white cartridge paper, using 1, 2 and 3 inch (2.5, 5 and 7.5cm.) house painters brushes and black ready mixed water based paint.
Some of the children worked in pairs, deciding what size brushes to use to make certain marks and discussing where the mark should be placed. They decided which portion of the Herman drawing was most suitable, altering the original image as they desired. If mistakes were made that could not be rectified afterwards with white paint, the children were encouraged to start again on a fresh piece of paper.
One child, working independently, was concerned that he had made his initial marks too large and that he would not be able to fit the final image onto the paper. So we added and continued to add more white cartridge paper until the resulting drawing was larger the young artist!
It was felt that the previous large scale collage making session prepared the children for work on a bigger scale, and provided a safe, and non threatening transition from small scale to large. Drawing with large brushes also encouraged the children to scale up their drawings and stopped them from being side tracked by detail.
‘All colours and shapes so quiet’
Drawing in Colour
Herman used rich, strong colour in his work, sometimes emphasised by the contrasting use of black drawn line.
In this session the children worked individually using soft pastel. First, as with our charcoal drawing session, we enjoyed colour mixing as an independent activity - getting our hands messy and filling sheets of A3 paper with mixtures of primary colours. Children also used black and white to make tones and tints.
This initial session allowed them to experiment with, and understand the 'qualities' of pastel. We noted how many colours had been mixed, how easy or hard it was to make certain colours, which colours were easier to mix, and how many variations of one colour could be created.
The children then made their own versions of Herman's work with a freedom of gesture and a confidence that was heartening.
A group appraisal session took place.
Day 5
A village visit
On our final day we visited Ystradgynlais, the village in which the artist lived and worked. We continued to use our sketch books and to walk through the village making sketches of the built environment, just as he would have done, each child looking for images that caught
their eye. This activity reinforced the idea of 'visual note making' as a valued and important activity as well as an 'aide-memoire.'
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