VISUAL ARTS

ART AND DESIGN WORKSHOPS

On Friday the 12th of March Katie Zhou, a former McKinnon student, returned to host a digital design skills workshop using Adobe Illustrator. Now a Communication Design student at RMIT, Katie met with a group of Year 9 to 12 students to talk about her life as a recent graduate and teach our students a few digital drawing tricks using Wacom tablets. This is all part of the Ex-Student Mentor Programme which has been developed this year within the Visual Arts Department.

The workshop gave a small group of design-minded students from all year levels the opportunity to learn and apply new skills used by a real life designer! The workshop was incredibly successful and even the teachers learnt a few new tricks!

There will be many future workshops by talented former students at MCK; ranging from painting, digital design and architectural model making. These workshops are not only for students studying design. All students are welcome to attend and participate! Keep an eye on Compass and the Arts Instagram for future sessions.

Peter Eglezos

Visual Communication Design + Art Teacher

McKINNER'S WINNERS; FEBRUARY WINNER AND MARCH-APRIL COMPETITION

The first ever McKinnon Visual Arts competition (McKinner’s Winners) has been announced! The theme for February's competition was ‘masks’. Many students submitted artworks inspired by the infamous protective accessory of 2020.

The winner for February’s competition is Delfin Tsalasi (Year 9)! Delfin created a photo-collage of the famous soccer player Lionel Messi. Delfin completed this artwork using Adobe Photoshop to collage and edit multiple images to create his composition. Congratulations Delfin! Job well done!

The March - April Arts competition is now open! The theme for the second art competition is ‘The Red Building’. Students are encouraged to create and submit artworks which are inspired by the work of Architect Bernard Tschumi (see images). Students can create illustrations, paintings, sculptures, or even architectural models for this month's competition.

Remember to check Compass and the Arts Instagram (@artsmatters_mck) for more information about competitions and prizes!

STUDIO ARTS 2020 VS NOW

This time last year, my Studio Arts 1/2 class was putting together art packs to take into lockdown. Our art packs consisted of etching materials and supplies for a gouache portrait. We also got to take home any supplies we wanted. Since most of the students' only access to materials is the school, and we did not know how long we wouldn’t have access for, we were given all the art supplies we needed.

For myself, Ms Sip created a charcoal pack which proved to be very useful in expressing some pent up lockdown rage.

The overall 2020 lockdown experience was far from the same atmosphere. Opposed to listening to a class music playlist, having the opportunity to simply talk to other people, or creating a physical visual diary, we were thrust into the seclusion of our rooms, staring at powerpoint presentations for several hours each day. However, the sheer amount of time we had posed as an opportunity to just make lots of art.

Not everyone had the motivation, but I personally documented a lot of my experience in drawings, sculptures and animations.

Although we have barely made it through this term, the class already has a lovely sense of creative ambience when we are all making art. The workload has definitely increased, as documentation in 3/4 is far more detailed, but just experiencing other artists and watching their progress has been extremely valuable. I am very much looking forward to continuing studio through 2021 and watching what my classmates create.

Although 2020 provided some great reflective examples of angsty artwork, 2021 will be much more enjoyable.

Liana Kelemen

Year 11 Student