Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

40 minutes – Part A: Don Colley, Artist in Profile
40 minutes – Part B: Improving your Vocabulary of Marks
50 minutes – Part C: Art Making Outdoors
10 minutes – Reflection

Part A: Don Colley, Artist in Profile

Preparation: Prior to this lesson, collect a variety of items with interesting textures for the students to draw, such as patterned fabrics or wooden objects. Natural objects from your school grounds will work very well for this activity.

Arrange your chairs/stools in a circle or semicircle around a central table, stool or plinth, where you can place the items you have collected. Be sure that all students will be able to see your data projector from their seats.

Step 1. As students enter the room, invite them to take a seat in the semicircle. From a central position, introduce the lesson by explaining that they will be investigating the practices of contemporary artist Don Colley and how Don creates his artworks in an outdoor setting. They will then practise some of Don’s techniques, using a range of artist pens to draw the items in the centre of the room. To finish this lesson, students will select a theme and go on a walking tour of the school, stopping to draw in places that they feel represent their chosen theme.

Step 2. Introduce three short clips about artist Don Colley. Don’s work is either created or drafted outside in his neighbourhood. Students may already be familiar with other artists who work outside if they have previously studied the impressionists. If this is the case, feel free to draw their attention back to this previous learning and question why these artists worked outside and what the results were.

While watching the following clips, invite students to consider the below questions (also available on the Student Worksheet). They will then have time to work individually or in pairs to respond to the questions.

Urban Sketching: Where will your sketchbook take you? (https://youtu.be/YzSt2Y7JrNI)

Step 3. Allow the class enough time to answer questions 1-2, giving them the option to work individually or in pairs.

What did you notice about the settings Don chooses to work in? Suggested answers – levels of light vary, some places are static others are actually in transit (e.g. on a bus), so Don sometimes has to walk as he draws to follow a subject!
What did you find interesting about the drawing techniques? Suggested answers – Don smudges, blends and feathers lines using his hands.

Step 4. Draw the class back together and watch the second clip:

Faber-Castell - Life of an Artist: Don Colley (https://vimeo.com/49032722)

Step 5. Allow the class another 5 minutes to answer questions 3-5.

3. What do you think would be the advantages of drawing in an outdoor environment?
1. What do you think would be the challenges of working outdoors?
2. If you practiced as Don does, do you think you could add an underlying message to your artworks?

Step 6. Draw the class together to discuss their answers. Pay particular attention to the class’ answers to question 5 focusing on the artist’s intentions, as this is what they will be attempting in part C of the lesson.

Part B: Improving your Vocabulary of Marks

Step 1. Set out the objects of varying textures that you collected in preparation for the lesson in the centre of the room. Ask students to use a graphite pencil ranging from 2B-2H to sketch the outline of the object in their visual art process diary (VAPD). Explain to students that they only need to attempt a rough sketch of the outside lines of each object. This will be used to build upon later. Give students no more than 5 minutes to complete this sketch.

Step 2. Now, draw the class together and watch the following clip. Invite students to pay special attention to Don’s pattern work:

Urban Sketching Techniques with Don Colley (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVIi1lqS5ZY)

Step 3. Invite students to select a variety of Pitt Artist Pens or Calligraphy Brush Pens and use them to build on their outline sketches, experimenting with the techniques that Don showcased. Remind the class that this is all a trial, and not to be worried about making mistakes in this drawing. Encourage students to have fun and be creative with how they create their marks.

As students draw, you can replay the Urban Sketching Techniques with Don Colley video on mute. Press the ‘settings’ button on the lower right-hand side of the screen, and reduce the speed of the clip. This will allow students to closely observe and replicate some of Don’s techniques.

Allow enough time to practise mark making, using the Pitt Artist Pens.

Step 4. Finish this exercise by allowing the class to circle the room and see each other’s experiments. Encourage students to talk to each other about how they made certain, interesting marks.

Part C: Art Making Outdoors

Step 1. Explain to the class that they will be heading outside to try the new mark making techniques that they have just been experimenting with. Before they do this they need to consider a theme or message that their works will capture. Just like the impressionists heading outdoors to capture fleeting moments to represent the transience of life, or Don Colley drawing in his neighbourhood to represent the importance of a connection to our community is, they too will be representing a message that they feel is important.

Step 2. Explain to the class that their work will be based on subject matter from the school grounds. Students should be guided by the question, ‘what positive things do you wish happened more often in our school?’ This artwork will represent a small act of social sustainability that everyone can get behind to make the school a better place for everyone.

Encourage the class to brainstorm ideas and discuss their ideas with each other. Students can work on a page of their visual arts process diaries to draft some options. If students need help starting their thinking process, you might prompt them with questions such as:

What do you like about our school culture?
What things might need improving that you could lead to change?

Step 3. Once students have found their message, invite them to consider the school grounds and what they might find in the outdoor setting that could capture their idea. For instance, there may be a garden or area of bushland within the school grounds that could represent the students getting outdoors more often. Have the class write down some areas to visit during their walk.

Hot tip: During this step you could project Google Earth so that students can visualise the school grounds.

Step 4. Draw the class together, and ask for suggestions of places to visit during your walking tour of the school. As a class, decide on a track through the school to walk through, and a few areas where you will collectively stop and draw. Make sure that your walk ends back at the classroom. Larger, open areas work best in this activity, as they will allow the class to spread out and capture a range of subject matter, while still remaining safe and observable. The class may plan to visit numerous areas and begin a number of sketches that can be finished later in class, or they may simply want to work on one drawing in greater detail while in a single area. Either of these two options will work well in this lesson, so long as you are able to form a consensus before departing.

Step 5. Invite students to collect Pitt Artist Pens or Calligraphy Brush Pens, some paper or a sketchbook, and something to lean on (if needed). Gather the class and begin your walk through the school, allowing students to stop and draw areas of interest, just like Don Colley does. Allow 30 minutes for students to work on their outdoor drawings, being sure to keep them updated of their remaining time as they progress.

Hot tip: If you plan to have the class complete these works either back in class or in a further lesson, you can allow them to take photos of the subject matter they are sketching for future reference.

Reflection

Once you have returned to the classroom, invite students to set up their works on tables, chairs or A-frames. Allow 10-15 minutes to walk through the classroom, art gallery-style and observe each other’s artworks.

Invite students to provide each other with feedback, and to discuss what they felt challenged by throughout the lesson.

Differentiated Learning

Extension – Students can take their works home and add further details to the sketches or finish any drawings that were started outdoors.

Provisions for Learning Support – Invite students to take their sketches from Part B of the lesson out with them when creating their final artworks. This will allow them to remember and refer back to the mark making techniques that they have just developed.

Teacher Reflection

Creative Sustainability - Creating Art Outdoors

Go to

Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will...

Success criteria:

Students can...

Lesson Guides and Printables

Lesson Details

Skills

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

Additional Info

In this lesson