Visual Art Online  

The artists at The Lakes produced some amazing artworks over the last lockdown. Here are some of the projects we worked on.

DIGITAL LANDSCAPE PAINTING

Students learnt about the parts of a landscape painting to understand how artists can create the illusion of perspective. We also studied Vincent Van Gogh’s Impressionist style paintings and took note of the types of marks he applied and the texture this creates. The theme for the students’ artwork was inspired by our current restrictions – as we were unable to travel overseas, interstate or far from home – so students had to choose an image for inspiration, such as a family holiday photo or find a picture of a place they would like to travel to. Artworks depicted far away scenes such as; a Mediterranean town in Greece, a tropical island in Hawaii, stunning mountain scenes, or a snowy terrain with a backdrop of the Northern Lights. This was a digital project, so students had to edit brushes in an application to mimic painting texture and use layers to build up parts of the image.

CHARACTER ILLUSTRATION

For this task students could use whatever medium they wanted to draw with. Some stuck with digital drawing and produced images of characters from popular television shows, video games, or anime. A few students decided to go back to paper and use pencils or markers. Students did a great job of using line and tone to create texture and details in their drawings. There were some submissions that pushed the brief where students approached the task in their own creative way, such as personifying an animal video game character, designing and building a 3D model, or turning a pop band into super heroes.

CREATIVE FLAIR

The brief for this year 9 project was broadly to allow students to showcase their creative talents. There was a range of materials, techniques and skills on display, which highlights the individuality and creativity of students at The Lakes. Inspiration came from personal interests like photography and digital drawing, or even that moment of sunshine that came through the bedroom window. A couple of students had painting materials at home, one produced a fluid, subtle water colour painting, while another a textured acrylic painting with gradual blends. There was also a time-lapse video of a student building and rendering a treasure chest in a 3D construction program called Blender. It was both surprising and impressive to see some students submit work that revealed skillsets that were unknown.

REMOTE ART CLUB

We created another online Art Club that was open to students who would like to share artworks they have created at home. It was heart-warming to observe students posting their work and peers starting threads of compliments to encourage their Art practice. Despite being isolated in lockdown, this space felt like an online community where likeminded students across year levels engaged with each other and shared a common interest in appreciation for Art.