Out of the Ordinary - An Arts Award Bronze Course in Fantasy Figure Drawing with Astrom Chang

Fantasy Figure Drawing 

Astrom Chang is a graduate of the University of Salford School of Art and Design.  His work at the University was of a more traditional kind, though, from an early age, he was learning the art of fantasy and superhero figures.

Astrom has been a professional illustrator during the past ten years and has collaborated recently with an established author on one of his picture novels, as well as inventing his own superhero.

He  has also delivered drawing workshops to youth groups and school pupils, however, at present he is concentrating on his figure drawing, mainly out and about around the  local city centre.

Website: http://astromchang.deviantart.com/

TV interview with That's Manchester:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry3lNfgUr4A&feature=share

In the Oasis Academy workshops he distributed diagrams from which the pupils could copy,  in order for them to "flex their artistic muscles" before creating their own drawings.  One was of a young woman's face and the other was of a figure.  It was recommended that these two diagrams be copied on a daily basis before attempting any drawing.

A rudimentary lesson in perspective was offered to the pupils, some of whom had heard of it but found it a difficult concept at first.  Astrom showed them the two point perspective and explained why it could be useful in drawing the figure three-quarters on, within some kind of a setting, such as a city-scape.

Astrom then demonstrated the basic skills of drawing a superhero's figure using, in the first instance, geometrical shapes such as oblongs, circles and cylinders to make the skeleton and then gradually building on this to achieve a more resolved figure.

The pupils then invented their own characters, and some even wrote a story.  The importance of these workshops was to stress the necessity for an artist to practice drawing every day, if possible.

Вчителя герой - Stan Lee. Stan Lee придумали відомого коміксів Marvel Супер-герой. Чи знаєте ви, що Супер-герой?

Les élèves de l'Académie Oasis aiment connaître les techniques de dessin et de perspective avec Astrom Chang.

Es ist wunderbar zu sehen, wie leicht und schnell Astrom zeichnen kann, nachdem er so viele Jahren seine Faehigkeiten praktiziert hat.

Según Astrom, ahora hay algunos brillantes ilustradores hembra usando sus habilidades para cambiar nuestra perspectiva sobre la fantasía narraciones en comic book art.

Out of the Ordinary - An Arts Award Bronze Course in Needlecraft - Claire Hignett

Needlecraft with Claire Hignett

I had booked a recent graduate, Lauren Heakin to teach model-making in this mid-session, which was to collide with the half-term holidays.  Fortunately for Lauren, she had landed a post in commercial television, but unfortunately for us, she was unable to join us.

We were extremely fortunate, however, at very short notice, to engage the services of a very fine needle craft tutor, Claire Hignett.  The following is a snippet from her professional CV:

"My work fits very well into the heritage sector. Recent residencies at Islington Mill and Ordsall Hall Tudor Manor House have used the fabric of these buildings, their contents and stories to create a permanent piece at the hall and and an Installation - Secret and Sacred- in the gallery at the mill. I have also worked on a project with DIY Theatre Company "Picking up the threads" and with St.Clement's Church in Ordsall both funded through the Heritage Lottery Fund As part of the Happy Museums project I was involved in running a small art project at the Imperial War Museum in the North and I currently work for Retracing Salford on their recently acquired archive of glass plate negatives from the 1950's, again funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, "

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/claire-hignett-a2a15736

For the project which Claire had devised for the course, the pupils were asked to draw ordinary objects of their choice.  

 Next they were given five squares of felt 300 x 300 mm in different colours.  The pupils were allowed to choose the colours to use, except that one layer had to be black.  Each felt piece was layered on top with the black square on the bottom.  The pupils were asked to stitch around the edge of the square through to the bottom layer, in order to keep the layers together.  Each individual design was transferred to the top layer of the felt sandwich.  The pupils were asked to stitch around the outlines of thier objects and then to cut part of the design away so as to reveal a different colour and a part of the design as a whole.  One young person, Olivia,  was asked if she wanted to embroider a design on to reverse applique piece.

One or two pupils took their work home over the half-term holiday in order to work a little more on the felt designs.


There was a range of very different designs, all brightly coloured. and the results were stunning!

Destiny cutting out her design

by Olivia

 by Fanni

 by Destiny

By Naomi

Français: Les élèves ont essayé leurs mains à la couture. Certains d'entre eux n'avaient jamais fait ça avant et trouvé difficile même pour enfiler une aiguille. Toutefois, ils ont persévéré et sont allés de l'avant pour créer de superbes oeuvres d'art. L'un d'eux, la verseuse, a été transformé en un petit coussin.

Deutsch: Die Schülerinnen versuchten ihre Hände zu nähen. Einige von ihnen hatten noch nie getan und fand es schwierig, selbst an Gewinde eine Nadel. Nähen braucht viel Geduld und Entschlossenheit, und es ist ihnen zu verdanken, dass die Schüler nicht aufgeben, und alle haben ihre eigenen kleinen Meisterwerke

Polski: Uczniów spróbowało swoich rąk podczas szycia. Niektóre z nich nigdy nie zrobił tego przed i okazało się, że trudna nawet do nici igły. Sewing trwa dużo cierpliwości i determinacji i nie ma już na swoim koncie, że uczniowie nie poddawac i wszystkie utworzone własne małe arcydzieła

Español: Los alumnos trataron sus manos en la costura. Algunos de ellos nunca había hecho esto antes y le resultaba difícil incluso para enhebrar una aguja. Costura toma mucha paciencia y determinación, y es a su crédito en el que los alumnos no se dio por vencido y todos crean sus propias pequeñas obras maestras

Arts Council of England funded Wire Sculpture Project based on the Out of the Ordinary Exhibition

During the months of September to end of November, 2015, an Arts Council funded arts project, using National Lottery monies, was arranged to take place at Oasis Academy Media City in Salford.  The idea was that the pupils would be working towards an Arts Award Bronze qualification, which is roughly equivalent to a G.C.S.E. grade C-D.

The project was intended initially for year 10 pupils, although several year 9 pupils also took part.  The pupils followed a twice weekly course over two weeks in five disciplines: sculpture with wire, painting techniques, drawing cartoon characters, textiles with felt, and jewelry.

Each of the selected pupils, together with their art teacher and community liaison officer, visited the Out of the Ordinary exhibition at Salford Museum and Art Gallery, where they gathered leaflets and postcards and took photographs of the paintings and drawings by Colin Rodney Burrows.  There was also some biogrraphical information in two display cabinets to which the pupils also had access for research.

Wire Workshop with Lorna Fellas

Lorna Fellas is a former Art and Design tutor at the University of Salford.  Lorna is a multi-discipline artist, with an interest in glass, lighting design, ceramics, together with painting and drawing.  She has been in several group exhibitions recently, and delivers workshops in wire sculpture and other disciplines.  

http://www.lornafellas.com/

Following their visit to the Colin Burrows' exhibition at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery, the pupils began drawing from ordinary objects which the tutor, Lorna Fellas, had brought into school. The pupils began constructing 2D wire sculptures from their initial drawings, and, in the second week they set to work on 3D sculptures.

                                                                                              

The final pieces were mounted and displayed in the Langworthy Gallery in Salford Museum and Art Gallery, alongside the Out of the Ordinary exhibition and also in Eccles Community Art Gallery,Greater Manchester..