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One year at art school – what can you expect?

31 December 2022 by Louise

One year at art school - Artnitso.com

You’ve been thinking about it for a while.  You’ve always wanted to do it.  Perhaps you did start at some point back in the day but didn’t get to finish.

Or perhaps you did do some art classes here and there in the past.

But it’s been nagging.  You want to get more involved in visual arts.

You see.  I did.  I was all those things above. So, I signed up for art school.

I just completed a one-year Visual Arts Certificate. This post explains some of my experiences.

People of all ages attend art school

It seems that it was just yesterday when I walked into my art class at the beginning of the year.  I didn’t know what to expect.  Here I was a 60 something year old starting art school. 

I needn’t have been too worried. Amongst the students, there was another older student.  I was instantly relieved.

Then, as the classes went on, I found there were more and more students like me.  It seemed that as the year moved on, as younger ones dropped off, most of the mature students stayed.  We kept turning up.

I wondered about this.  Many years ago, I had been in the same situation as those young students.  I had started at art school, but because I couldn’t afford to live, I had to leave and get a job.

That’s how it stayed for 40 years. Until this year. This was an opportunity I had waited a long time for.

Perhaps those students will have the chance to get back into their art in the future.  Or perhaps its easier now to do art on the side without the study.  We have many online systems that can help us with our creative lives.  Who knows?

My experience is that you can do it at any age.

My one year at art school

This is a snapshot of my experience.  There was much more involved in my first year of art school, yet this will give you an overview of my experience.

So, what did I do at school during the year?  What did I study?

Visual Arts is a mixture of mediums. We studied art theory, drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, digital arts, video arts, along with studio practice, work health and safety, and copyright.

Art theory

At the outset, we learnt about art theory.  We learnt that art is a historic yet evolving discipline.  Artists came before us who tried new techniques.  They created work that communicated ideas counter to societal norms, or they used new or unusual mediums.  They may have created work reflecting their evolving environment.  We learnt to view our artwork in a historical context, and our place on the artistic continuum.

As with all the subjects, we researched artists, and completed assessments for each subject.  The assessments were both written and contained artwork examples.

Colour Theory

We were introduced to colour theory.

My artwork in the year was created using colour harmonies found on a red yellow blue colour wheel. Colour combinations used have been listed with some of the artwork examples below. Already, even after one year of study, I see I am developing preferred colour combinations.

Drawing

After my initial drawing classes, I was exhausted at the end of the day.  Not just mentally, but physically as well. Observing an object and replicating that object on a flat surface is hard work.

However, this tiredness subsides as you learn, and your muscle memory and skills improve.

In drawing, we learnt proportion, perspective, line, blind contour, amongst other techniques. We drew with charcoal, pencil, and ink.

Drawing has an element of control.  For example, you place the mark of your drawing instrument, and there the mark stays.  You can go on immediately to make another mark.  And in most cases, depending on your drawing medium, it stays there.

As well as learning to draw, we learnt about narrative.  We explored how to draw to communicate ideas.


One year at art school - Drawing Communication - Artnitso.com
Drawing showing communication and narrative. Josephine Baker’s life. Gouache paint, paint pens and black markers.

One year at art school - Drawing 1 - Artnitso.com
Graphite line drawing

One year at art school - Drawing 2 - Artnitso.com
Drawing with soft and compressed charcoal.

One year at art school - Drawing 4 - Artnitso.com
Mixed media drawing using paint, pastel, collage. This uses a double split complement colour palette. Number 81.
Colour Harmony DSC o y b v social - Artnitso.com
Click to find information about Colour Harmony Number 81 – Workbook

One year at art school - Drawing 5 - Artnitso.com
Drawing using coloured pencil, water soluble coloured graphite, inktense.

However, drawing, and drawing communication was different to the next subject – painting. 

Painting

We learnt to paint using acrylic paints, and watercolour paints.  As well, we explored collage, and expressionism.

The painting class was my first attempt at acrylic painting.  We drew realistic still life paintings.  As well, we drew expressionistic pieces with texture, and created collages from water colour experiments.

One year at art school - Painting 2 - Artnitso.com
Still life acylic painting. This painting uses triadic colour harmony number 88.
Colour Harmony Triad r y b social - Artnitso.com
Click to find information about Colour Harmony Number 88 – Workbook

Experimentation in visual arts

The one year of visual art course encouraged us to experiment.  In my experimenting, I made my own paint and paintings using a range of old items.  For example, I made paint with coffee grounds and glue.  I made a canvas from an old sheet.  I used old garden stakes as a picture frame.

As such, you will learn to create according to a brief of concept, or an idea.  You use your creativity to make something accordingly.  It is something you will do when you leave art school and take on your own professional creative practice.

One year at art school - Painting 1 - Artnitso.com
Experimental painting. Large (180cm x 900cm). This follows and analoguous 4 colour scheme. Colour harmony number 39.
Colour Harmony A4 o oy y yg social - Artnitso.com
Click to find information about Colour Harmony Number 39 – Workbook

Printmaking

Screen printing, photo emulsion, cut templates were part of our introduction to printmaking.  Where drawing and painting is considered in putting a mark on a surface, the preparation in printmaking is done prior to any paint or ink application.

Sculpture

Apparently, artists can have a preference for being 2-dimensional (ie drawing or painting on a flat surface), or 3-dimensional (ie sculpture).  Some artists could enjoy a mix of the two.

On my journey at art school, I found my preference is 2-dimensional. That said, by doing sculpture, it was evident that it helped me to observe.  For example, when creating sculpture, you feel objects, you view their shape, and angles.  This helps you to observe objects that may be part of a 2-dimensional work, such as still life.

As well, learning sculptural techniques can help you add structure, or texture to a 2-dimensional work. 

It is important of keeping an open mind about other art mediums. Learning is found in areas you may not expect.

One year at art school - Sculpture 1 - Artnitso.com
Sculpture using cardboard, fabric, buttons and beads. This uses colour harmony number 59.
Colour Harmony A5 v Vr r ro o social - Artnitso.com
Click here to find out more about Colour Harmony Number 59 – Workbook

One year at art school - Sculpture 2 - Artnitso.com
Sculpture made from stiffened hand dyed fabric. This sculpture uses colour harmony number 86.
Colour Harmoy TS ro y gb v social - Artnitso.com
Click to find information about Colour Harmony Number 86 – Workbook

One year at art school - Sculpture 3 - Artnitso.com
Slip cast sculpture. Painted with acrylic paint and varnish. This sculpture uses colour harmony number 11.
Colour Harmony Monochromatic vr social - Artnitso.com
Click here to find out about Colour Harmony Number 11 – Workbook

Digital art

Do you love the smell of paint, pencils, chalk, the physical feel of art implements, and the play of pigmented colours on a surface?

Digital art is none of these things.  It is sitting at a computer, using software to create artwork, or to manipulate artwork.  It is challenging for a beginner. Yet you need to know it to work online, to show your work, or even as part of your creative workflow.

One year at art school - Digital Art - Artnitso.com
Digital image

Video art

Our next subject, video art was like digital art in that we needed software to create final videos.  We used our phones or cameras to capture initial video and used software to edit and manipulate that video into a final product.  We learnt you could create video or animation with stop-motion.

Click here if you can’t see this video. This video animation was created from multiple drawn images. This video was inspired by an earlier drawing communication exercise and was expanded to show exercising thumbs. To see the article that inspired these characters, you can find it in the link ‘Doomscrolling’ gives pain in thumb as physiotherapist warns overusing devices causes RSI – ABC News . This animation uses colour harmony number 86.
Colour Harmoy TS ro y gb v social - Artnitso.com
Click here to find out more information about Colour Harmony Number 86 – Workbook

Work Health and Safety

Throughout the year, we consistently considered the work health and safety when creating our artwork.  We considered risk assessments, risk management, material safety, posture, environment, protective equipment, and other elements when creating artwork.  

Copyright

As well, in every artwork we created – we considered ours and other’s copyright. This is an important issue that will travel with us throughout our artistic lives.

Studio Workshop

Finally, at the end of the year, we had to bring all our learning together.

We needed to consider why were we doing visual art?  What did we want to say?  What was our artistic style?

This was difficult.  However, after what seemed like weeks and writing hundreds of notes about what I want to show visually, I noted a theme running through them.

It was from our own in-depth analysis that we started to identify our art styles and voices – ready for the next stage in our visual arts journey.


Visual Studio 3 - Artnitso.com
Acrylic painting.
Visual Studio 2 Artnitso.com
Acrylic Painting
One year at art school - Visual Studio 1 - Artnitso.com
Acrylic painting – Final Exhibition. This follows colour harmony number 81.
Colour Harmony DSC o y b v social - Artnitso.com
Click to find more information about Colour Harmony Number 81 – Workbook

In conclusion, what can you expect in one year of art school?

In the first few weeks of a new subject, be prepared to be mentally (and you may be physically) tired.  You will be learning new subject, new skills, new techniques, and learning to think and observe life differently.

Expect to finish the year with a greater knowledge of art history, other artists work, and your own art style and techniques.

However, you need to prepare to play and have fun with materials.  As well, you will need to have an open mind.  You may not prefer some subjects, or mediums, however, you will find that you will learn skills and techniques from one medium can translate to another.

You will have a greater understanding of yourself, and what you want to say visually.


One year at art school - Artnitso.com

Originally published on 31 December 2022. Updated on 3 January 2023.

Filed Under: Learn

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