Art Day

As I am studying to become a teacher, I have to learn all the subjects and how to teach them. That means that every Thursday for a while I have an entire day of doing one subject and today was the turn of art.

I have been dreading this day since I knew it was going to happen. Actually less dreading, more fearing. My artistic talent is limited to say the least. Take the artistic skills of an average person, half them, half them again and take away a bit more artistic skill and you are getting towards my own artistic talent.

It began with the tutor teaching us some stuff but I was miles across the room from her plus she wasn’t exactly Miss Exciting so I didn’t really pay much attention to that bit. We then did a few arty things involving pattern. The first of these was placing a load of objects onto a piece of paper to make a pattern. These objects included the likes of cotton reels, paper clips, straws and lollipop sticks. I got quite enthusiastic about this and arranged some stuff to make some patterns.

We then did a bit more pattern making where we stuck sequins to the shiny bits of CDs. I found this a little frustrating as the sequins are very small and my hands and therefore fingers are pretty big, making actually sticking them down to be quite a task. Still, eventually I managed to finish it, making a gluey sticky mess in the process. Here is my lovely looking CD:

After this we did some experimenting with various printing techniques. I did some printing with Lego bricks and also attempted to do some with leaves. Eventually though we came to the project for the day. Basically the idea was to create a fairy tale or other story based house. I made the executive decision that the two guys in our usual work group should split from the two girls and shortly after I wondered whether this was a good idea what with neither of us being very good at art. But we succeeded in making a decent enough house based on my childhood favourite, The Jungle Book which I shall now talk you through.

 

For the first storey of the house we did a background that looks like a tree. We did this by going outside and doing a tree rubbing, something that looks very weird in a university. The windows are both wolf-shaped and the first one here has Mowgli in it.

The second storey has a tiger stripe background which obviously we did with paint. The second window is here with Baloo looking out of it.

The third storey has a sort of snake-ish like background which isn’t quite perfect but it’s not too bad. We did this by making a print and then printing it over a painted background. Kaa is stuck on the edge of the building here. The roof is a tree canopy, made with lots of screwed up bits of tissue paper.

And here is the finished project:

For two people who have limited art ability it is pretty good. I feel like I have more confidence in art and maybe even have the confidence to teach it, but we will have to see about that. I had a lovely day doing this which was unexpected really.

Straight after art I went to the gym for my toughest session yet. I did a bit of rowing, which I find really enjoyable and I also did some weight stuff which I have never ever done before. My arms got a really good work out and the rest of me didn’t do too badly either. The good news is that in just over a week I have managed to loose 4 pounds (nearly 2 kilogrammes). Everything is going rather well at the moment, I just wish I didn’t have so many assignment to do. I’m going to try and get them all done before I go home for a few days next Thursday.Two and a bit assignments to do in a week? No problem…