Lesson Plan Introduction This workshop celebrates drawing and will focus on encouraging young people to explore the possibilities of drawing and take part in a drawing competition, with eight to twelve candidates being selected to participate in a weekend master class at the Bluecoat during THE END OF THE LINE exhibition which runs from the 22nd of May to the 19th of July 2009.This workshop explores the question “what is drawing”, and draws inspiration from the work of David Haines a contemporary British artists who will be showing in THE END OF THE LINE exhibition at the Bluecoat.

DAVID HAINES

Background David Haines is a British artist, born in Nottingham and living in Amsterdam who makes videos and large scale pencil drawings on paper. Haines’s work, often dark and multi layered weaves together contemporary images of Northern youth culture and stories from myth and legend. He draws a world made up of photographic material collected from the web using iconic fashion brands, fast food chains and urban landscapes. Haines is interested in the personal mythologies people create in order to “control the chaos” of existence, he is fascinated by how people design an identity on the internet. Haines for example layers images, meanings and associations. In various drawings Osiris sneakers appear, referring both to contemporary trainer websites and Osiris the Egyptian god of the dead. Protruding from the surface of the drawing one can often see Chewing gum, blood, saliva and squashed mosquitoes as a way of leaving a personal mark at odds to the hyper real quality of his drawing that makes a statement about the basic human instinct to leave a mark for posterity. As a result his work seems to refer both to ancient myths and present day culture, in this way the virtual realities of both past and present are brought together.

The Lesson will explore: • • •

The work of David Haines within the context of approaches to drawing. The processes contemporary artists use to create an image. Collage.

The Lesson will aim to develop: • • • •

Creative thinking skills through the act of making. Practical drawing skills, through experimentation. New work that reflects an understanding of the conceptual possibilities of drawing. Research skills, sourcing, collecting and collaging images together to create a working composition.

Activity 1: (15mins) Class room set up: Pupils should be seated. Resources: Visual aids or power point presentation of David Haine’s work.

Approaches to Drawing: Thinking Skills The teacher will introduce the work of David Haines. The drawings of David Haines at first appear to be scenes of modern urban culture but when you look at the title, clues are given about other meanings and myths of the past. Haines arrives at his drawings by sourcing his images of modern urban culture from the internet. Can you think of other ways of sourcing images for your drawing? For example you might use newspapers, magazines and photographs you have taken yourself, documenting your personal experience of modern urban culture. The teacher will then initiate a short discussion about Haines’s approach to drawing. Suggested questions: • • • • • •

How do processes help develop an idea rather than trying to pluck one from thin air. Do Haines’s drawings look like they have been drawn from observation or drawn from photographs? What is a collage? What materials has Haines used to make the drawing? What unusual materials has Haines placed on the surface of his drawings and why? What images does Haines use in his drawings to reference modern day culture, e.g. branded training shoes, clothing and fast food packaging?

Activity 1

Sourcing the Image

(30min} Classroom set up: Each pupil will need a separate work space, Materials: Access to internet and printer where possible. Access to photocopier where possible. Selection of newspapers, magazines and photographs taken by pupils documenting personal experience of urban culture. Scissors.

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The teacher will make suggestions about the kinds of images that best describe the modern urban landscape. Suggestions might include the types of architecture that are familiar, the kinds of clothing and brands we identify with, lifestyle accessories such as mobile phones mp3 and I pod players and how we interact socially, individually and in groups. The class will then be asked to collect together a bank of images that best represent the above.

Activity 2

Making the collage

(60 min) Materials: Paper, scissors and glue. Access to photocopy machine where possible. •

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Pupils will arrange their source material into subsets, for example all images of architecture together, images of people together and all images of objects together. This will help students to organise their workspace effectively. It would be useful to work on more than one A4 collage at a time in order to explore a number of possibilities. Pupils will initially concentrate on compositional structure within their collages, these can be as simple or complex as they like. Look at the relationships between objects, how the act of moving images around on the page will change the reading of the final image. Look at the scale of images in relationship to one another. Will you create a realistic scale relationship or will you exaggerate scale to create dramatic effect, for example architecture dwarfed by people in the composition. Do your collages suggest a narrative or story as they develop? Is this narrative something you may wish to concentrate on and develop? David Haines talks about the relationship between groups of drawings, motifs or symbols that are repeated (training shoes) in a number of his drawings. Are any significant themes or images appearing in your collages that you have noticed and want to make greater use of? It would be useful to photocopy your collages at different stages of development. This way you will generate a number of images. You could also collage over these photocopies again to producing surprising multilayered images. Once you have arrived at a number of collages you need to take a few minutes to look at the work. It would also be useful to look at each other’s work in order to see how other people have interpreted this activity.

Activity 3 Making the Drawing (Time will vary depending on scale and ambition of drawing) Materials: Selection of drawing paper from A4 to A1. Selection of Pencils from hard to soft. Charcoal, Marker pens, Tracing paper. Overhead projection where possible. • • •

Select one collage to work from. You will begin the process of transferring your collage onto paper as a drawing. Think about the scale of your drawing. How big or small will your drawing be. I f your drawing is to be larger than your collage how will you scale up. Options for scaling up might include using an overhead projector where available. You may wish to use the grid method.

Using the grid method to scale up is quite straightforward. For example if you draw a grid with 1cm squares over your collage and then create a grid 2cm square on a blank piece of paper and match your drawing to the collage square by square your finished drawing will be exactly twice the size of your drawing. Rub out the grid once you have lightly sketched your image. • • • •

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If your drawing is to be the same size as your collage you can either copy straight from your collage freehand or use tracing paper. David Haines creates what might be described as photo realistic drawings. You might want to attempt to make a drawing in a photo realist style (as realistic as possible). Draw out the composition as accurately as you can using a light pencil (HB) Look at the tonal values (lightest or darkest) of your collage. How will you effectively represent the tonality using pencil? You might find it easier to start with a HB pencil and switch to a darker pencil as you move on to the darker tones. This is a particularly painstaking and time consuming process and will require a great deal of patience and attention to detail. If do not want to make a photo realistic drawing from your collage what other drawing approaches might you take? You may want to make a line drawing using other media including marker pens (of different thicknesses) or charcoal. Can you think of any other mark making techniques? A hall mark of Haines’s work is his use of strange substances that protrude from the surface of the drawing such as chewing gum that contrast with the painstaking pencil drawings. How might you choose to leave a different kind of signature mark on your drawing? Titles are very important in David Haines work as they offer a particular reading of the image. Consider how you might use a title to give clues to the hidden meaning in your drawing?

Evaluation

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The teacher will initiate a discussion about the work, pupils having had the time to look at all the work produced during the session. Do the drawings reflect or convey their original intention? Have processes been used successfully to generate ideas and images? How might you improve upon or develop the work in the future? What has been the most successful activity and why?

Evidence •

Each pupil should have a series of collages and one final drawing.

ICT Use the internet (if available) to source images and to research other artists who use collage or who work in a photorealist style. Examples: Chuck Close

Literacy Key Words Composition, collage, urban, photorealism, process, identity.

Numeracy Key Words Scale

Useful Links www.access.org.uk (great site giving helpful hints and tips on the practicalities of drawing) www.drawingroom.org.uk www.c4rd.org.uk