lesson idea: photographic collages

It's been a while since we've done a post so I thought I would share a recent photographic collage lesson from one of my A Level Photography classes. It was an enjoyable lesson to teach and the students all got high results from the various techniques and even recorded their creative process into stop animations!

With only 4 college weeks to go until my students exam (how quick does time go!) I needed to find a new photographic technique that would push their practice. I don't know about you but I find when your over the halfway point of projects some students have a tendency to want to 'stick' to one idea. I needed to break away from this quickly and the following activities did just that!

  

To start the lesson I gave each student a found photograph and told them they had 5 minutes to rip up the image into any shape or size. Once they had destroyed the original image they were then instructed to throw all pieces of the torn photograph into the air and let them land on the paper provided in front of them. All pieces of the photograph were to be glued in their 'fixed' state and upon completion all students were posed with the question 'What have you just made?' Luckily, all my students recognised that they had just made a collage but more importantly the starter activity really got my students thinking (whilst making) which resulted in strong, relevant discussions!

I then did a quick demonstration of each three activities above and placed the students into groups. Our lessons are an hour and a half each so I was fortunate to split each activity into a rotation of twenty minutes which in terms of timing was spot on for each task! The whole point of the lesson was to get students to see their photographs in a different light and I found 20 minutes enabled students to create an experimental outcome that let them just create and not worry about why they were doing it. At the end of each 20 minutes we stopped, looked at work and discussed briefly processes that were working well and what could the next group do differently to improve that task. Whilst each task was underway each group also had an iPad and used the app iMotionHD. iMotion HD is basically a stop-motion app for any ios based system and allows you to record video which is then made into timed stop motion animations. The app is fantastic and I love how it records students development as well as allowing them to start viewing their work as moving images!

This lesson will leave each student with a minimum of 4 photographic collages and 2 animated videos which shows that all students can make a number of strong imagery quickly, whilst exploring new, innovative technology that records and documents their process! You can view some of our students recordings here or for alternate photographic collage lesson ideas The Photographers' Gallery 'Perspectives on Collage' teacher exhibition pack is fab!

Do you use iMotion HD? If so we'd love to hear from you to share different approaches to the software and see your students photographic collages!

- Kirsty ❤

Review: INSET at The Photographers Gallery

Last Thursday I was fortunate enough to be able to attend an INSET workshop at The Photographers Gallery. The two-hour session was a workshop led session with designer/illustrator Karen Lacroix in response to their current exhibition Perspectives on Collage. The session aim was to introduce us to methods that would allow us to bring collage to the classroom. The session began with Karen Lacroix introducing her own incredible work and talking us through the different collage processes she uses within her own practise. We then moved on to creating our own work using the 'publication as process' technique (you can see my piece in the video below!). As if this wasn't inspiring enough Karen had also put together an additional worksheet with a range of different collage techniques to be tried - I won't go into detail but keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks as I'll be trying these with my own students and will be posting the results! As well as the workshop we were also given a wonderful, albeit brief, tour of the exhibits led by staff which took us through the key pieces in the exhibit, particularly those which related to the work we'd just been creating. If you get the chance to attend an INSET workshop at The Photographers Gallery I would jump at it! It was a brilliant event and I left feeling exciting and inspired about the prospects of using collage in the classroom!
- Claire ❤

3W: Marek Haiduk

who: Marek Haiduk

what: illustration/collage 

why: We love the vintage feel of these mixed media digital collages by German illustrator Marek Haiduk. The way she combines bright colours, geometric shapes and patterns and carefully selected imagery - they are simply stunning! 

Marek Haiduk // Flickr // Interview on the Artfuls 

3W: Erin Case

who: Erin Case

what: weird and wonderful photo-collages

why: because we're guilty addicts of any collage with a portrait in it! Erin Case skillfully pieces together old photographs and beautiful landscapes to create surreal juxtapositions that gets our heads in all of a spin. The images are either hand-cut and glued together or created in a digital collaboration with Andrew Tamlyn to form new, exciting yet strange enhanced compositions that we can't get enough of. There's just something about the combination of colour with a zillion textures that reminds us of old film posters from a bygone era. Erin if you ever read this we'd love to do an interview with you to find out more about your wonderful work!

Erin Case // Society 6 // Artdoxa

3W: Vasilisa Forbes

who: Vasilisa Forbes 

what: Photography/Collage

why: We're currently on the hunt for conceptual 'Journey' inspired stuff for a new photography project we're starting this term so when we saw Vasilisa Forbes 'You Were There, We Were All There' series we fell in love! The collection is made up of holiday looking snap shots obscured by geometric collage - we can't wait to try out this technique with our students to get them thinking about how masking & cropping can alter an image. 

Vasilisa Forbes // You Were There, We Were All There

Lesson idea: Life Drawing

Life Drawing is something that is important within every art department and I encourage all my students to attend our weekly course throughout the year. Most comply and it ends up being their Friday afternoon highlight, but many of them question the importance of an hour and half spent staring at a naked model. I needed to change students opinions and after hours of endless searching for 'contemporary' approaches to the subject I came up with this lesson idea. It went down brilliantly with my students and got them producing some of their best work yet - you can check out their work here!

Note: For this lesson I get students to sit on the floor in a circle format around the room and work on long and thins (half A2 cartridge or sugar paper). You can position the model in whatever way works for you and your environment - sitting, standing, props, etc. I find the model is best positioned sitting or standing in the centre of the group to provide equal viewpoints from each point of the room.  At the beginning of the lesson I provide students with an envelope. Inside the envelope is a key terminology card** e.g. proportion, weight, tone, etc. for the students to refer to later in the lesson activity. Read on to find out how it is used below...

Starter: Drawing with masking tape

(10-15 mins)*

This activity is all about translating what you see into a range of interesting marks and textures, loosening up and getting unexpected results with masking tape. The masking tape allows students to not erase mistakes like the pencil and instead cover their mistakes up with layers. There's something beautiful about seeing the process of an image build up and the masking tape allows students to see the transition from 2D to 3D. I love this starter as it helps students trust their judgements and you will get some great later responses from this!

* You need to judge how the students respond to drawing with masking tape as on some occasions less or more time is required.

Before you move to the next part of the lesson get your students to review their work in a discussion with peers. Using the key terminology cards** that were picked at the beginning of the lesson, pair students up and get them to write down on the long and thin how their drawing relates to the key terminology card.

Main: Three tone collage

(45-50 mins)

For this activity you will need two coloured pieces of sugar paper and masking tape. I tend to choose more natural colours for mine - one dark and one mid tone as the masking tape will act as the lighter tone. I always start by getting students to draw a 30 second - 1 minute continuous line outline of the figure as a quick map for their collage. Don't worry about it not being perfect as it is just a preliminary guideline. Now, start by observing the subject - get students to half close their eyes and they will see that tonal values are much simpler to read as this technique diminishes the colour. Next, choose a base colour for the main shape of the figure and once ready add highlight/low lights with the remaining colour and masking tape.

Remember: Lighter colour for areas carrying less weight, or a darker colour for the main shape or direction of the pose. Look at my examples above or click here to view my classes.

Plenary: Review and target setting (15 mins)

Get students to work in their pairs they were in at the beginning of the lesson and annotate each others work on post-its focusing on their key terminology card**. Get them to think about their personal opinion of the work - what is it they like about it?  What don't they like? Once answered get them to review the comments and set themselves a new target for the next lesson. An example target could be: "When making artwork and experimenting with materials I will persevere if it's not working straight away. If a technique works for me.. I will get out of it as much as I can without becoming stale and move on to the next challenge." Notes from the feedback can be attached to the long and thins and compiled into a book format later on! This is perfect for portfolios and universities love it as they get to see the students work in progress and how their skills/ideas develop. 

I hope you enjoyed reading my alternative take on a life drawing lesson and if you use any of these methods or teach similar techniques then let us know - we'd love to see how other students respond to drawing with paper. Watch out for some more life drawing lesson ideas coming soon!

- Kirsty ❤

Tutorial: Vintage Collage

I've been having so much fun learning new Photoshop techniques lately that I thought I would share this quick little technique with you. In this tutorial you will learn how to create a vintage collage using images such as pin ups, old adverts, patterns and much more. I even used our own i heart teaching art contributor's knitted birds! I hope you enjoy my take on a vintage collage, let's go...

step one: Open up Photoshop > New (document) > and set the size to 600x800 pixels. step two: Find some old paper for your background image. You could either scan something that looks old or go onto Flickr like I did and search for 'old paper'. Once your happy with your background design, open it up in Photoshop, create a new layer and copy it into your 600x800 document. Re-size your image to fit the whole of your background and change the opacity to 60%. Finally, make sure your background layer is set to white. step three: Select the 'Rounded Rectangle Tool' and create a rounded rectangle with your choice of colour. I decided I wanted a vintage woman flying high in the sky so I set my rectangle colour to blue. Make sure the radius of your shape is set to about 100 pixels to give your corners a nice curve! step four: You now need to create a layer mask on your layer from step three. You can do this by simply clicking Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. After, that, select the brush tool - set the colour to black and use some brushes to erase parts of your coloured triangle. I downloaded some free watercolour brushes for mine and decided to create some clouds for my sky effect. I also added a 'Noise Filter' to my design to make it look that little bit more vintage! If you want to do this, just simply select the rectangle layer - go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and then play around with the amount of noise you want within your image. Once happy, press OK. 

step five: Next, it's time to search for your iconic lady. I searched for 'vintage adverts' or 'vintage pin ups' to find the perfect woman for my design. Once you've found your image, cut out your lady using the 'Magnetic Lasso Tool' and paste her into your design as a new layer. 

step six: Convert the lady's layer to 'Smart Objects' and apply a 'Smart Sharpen'.

step seven: Now, using the 'Pen Tool' create three triangles (or more!) Once you have your black triangles you can change the layer styles:

1. In 'Advanced Blending', set the 'Fill Opacity' to 0%

2. In 'Colour Overlay', choose a colour you want your triangles to be and set the 'Blend Mode' to 'Colour Burn'. Make sure you do this to each triangle. 

3. Repeat step 4 and use your brushes again to erase some parts of the shapes to make it look worn out and old. 

step eight: Your vintage collage is nearly complete - yay! Add any other pictures that you think it might need such as text, scribbles, planes, buildings, etc. Remember to add them in as new layers - you could even delete parts of your new image like step four. I added some birds to mine and repeated step 7 again by adding a magenta colour overlay to really complete my collage. 

step nine: It's now time to show off your image to the world! Print it out, make cards, put it in a frame and hang it up... the results are endless and I'm sure you'll become slightly addicted to creating more collages like me. You could even use this tutorial in your graphics or photography lessons with student's own imagery to create something fun, unique and personal. Check out Brazilian Eduardo Recife's fantastic collages for a great contextual link who will provide some inspiration to get you and your students started. We'd really like to see any collages that you create so please comment and leave a link for us to view it! We will also be creating a video tutorial for this technique soon so watch this space!

- Kirsty ❤

3W: Niki Pilkington

who: Niki Pilkington
what: illustration/mixed media
why: we first saw Niki's work at Pick Me Up and fell instantly in love! What's not to like? Beautifully detailed pencil drawings combined with playful collage/mixed media pieces which literally come out of the drawings - wonderful!

Niki Pilkington // Niki's Blog

3W: Erwin Blumenfeld

who: Erwin Blumenfeld
what: photography
why: we love the idea that his collage work can be compared to contemporary pieces (like this piece by Jazzi McGilbert or this work by Rankin ) and that the only trickery involved in some other shots are mirrors

Trendland // Modernism // Photography Office // Weimar

3W: Matt Wisniewski

who: Matt Wisniewski

what: digital collage 

why: beautiful and surreal and we love that he uses tumblr as a key source for inspiration

Matt Wisniewski // Matt's Tumblr // interview (my modern met)