Art in Years 7, 8 and 9.

WHAT IS ART?

Art deals with the sense of vision in a way that no other subject can, particularly with the processes of perception and its expression in a visible form.

Art and Design are essential elements in a sound general education and are necessary tools for every other subject, from the aesthetic look of a piece of written work to a scientific diagram. It is the Art Department's aim to ensure that your child has the necessary skills to help them in all areas of the curriculum.

Art is also capable of giving shape and form to the ineffable and there are strong links here with the sensual, mental and emotional life of the individual. Our world is affected by our visual culture and your child will be exposed to both historical and contemporary links to further their social development. It is the Department's aim to cover these areas across the age range.

YEARS 7 AND 8
At this stage of your child's development, image making is dominated by their need to use drawing, painting and 3-D modelling as the means to comprehend better how the world works, how it is put together, what it looks like, how different things compare. Through their work they can gain better understanding and control of complex factors that make up the natural and man-made world.

The teacher's role here is to support this need to make "real" images. The teacher will provide source materials and resources to help the student communicate their ideas and responses in a personal and imaginative way. The student will be taught the basic skills required to develop self-expression.

Listed below are some of the topics that we have used in Year 7.
These will change or be added to by individual teachers, but the different skills will all be covered.

Painted portraits of each other
· Observational drawing skills
· Mixing colours
· Social co-operation
· Learning how our art room functions

Imaginative Composition - Autumn Painting
· Drawing and painting skills
· Control of paint
· Colour mixing
· Development of imagination

Pottery Animals-developing 3-D skills
· Craft skills
· Learning to follow through a process

Pottery Boxes
· Re-enforcing skills learned above
· Learning slab making

Making wire insects

Outside observational drawing and painting

Collage making with found material

Learning about colour wheels
· Studying artists such as Albers, Seurat, Kandinsky
· Re-enforcing colour mixing and control
· Imaginative work based on the above

YEAR 9

Students in year 9 are encouraged to develop their own individual style. Drawing skills are reinforced and more complex processes are introduced. The students will continue working with a variety of different media, including 2 – dimensional and 3-dimensional work. An in depth artist study is required as part of their critical studies. Finally the year is rounded off with an independent study of the student’s own choice in their own preferred medium.

Perspective-Landscape painting
Atmospheric perspective
Aerial perspective
Colour mixing
Drawing and painting skills

Perspective – Theatre set
Linear, vanishing point perspective
Designing faux space
Developing three dimensional design.

Pottery gargoyles
Craft skills
Hollow build techniques
Modelling

Lino-printing
Reductive three colour techniques
Learning to follow through a proscriptive process
Colour

Artist study
In depth research from books/internet/gallery visits
Investigation of technique
Evaluation/critical judgements

Independent study
Composition
Drawing and painting skills
Control of medium
Power of the image