Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to the final lesson in this unit on a new media.

My name is Simon and this lesson does build on what you experimented with in the last lesson.

You were creating algorithm experiments last lesson.

You're going to expand on that to create a much bigger art piece today.

So let's get stuck in.

Okay, the learning objective is develop one algorithm abstract experiment using negative space.

So again, this term, this unit is all about new media and we talked about algorithms and of course, how algorithms can be applied to technology and they can be applied to humans, too.

Of course, we can follow a certain set of instructions like a technology like a computer can, but if we follow the instructions, we can create different art pieces in different ways.

And an algorithm is something about setting instructions.

Following set instructions, similar to a recipe.

In today's lesson, we are going to recap new media algorithms and abstract art.

We're going to select an algorithm from last lesson and we're going to enlarge it.

We're going to paint the negative space with a colour scheme and then we're going to refine it with a black pen to finish.

So of course the final thing, refining it with a black pen.

That's something that we've done already in the third lesson when we were looking at Kandinsky.

Key words today, number one is algorithm, something that's been part of last week's lesson and this week's lesson, which is a set of rules that must be followed, negative space which is the black space that surrounds an image or is behind an art material.

So we're going to talk about that later when we develop your painting your work today.

And finally colour scheme.

And that is a select group of colours.

So not just random colours not just kind of rainbow selection of colours it's when you determine a colour scheme from the outset The equipment for this lesson is paper of course, you're going to be developing a piece from your work from last week.

So you may have a sketchbook with work from last week but this week we are developing this so it is something that might even be something you could frame at home.

You'll need a pencil.

You will need paint and paint brushes, and a paint pot.

And of course that's what I'll be using for my demonstration.

But of course, if you only have colouring pencils you can still create this art piece with colouring pencils.

A fine line pen is what you'll need to finish off your work and of course your experiments from the last lesson will be important for you to work with at the start of today's lesson.

Let's try and recap some of this information we've covered in last term.

What is new media in art? Is it art that is freshly created? So like something which is just, you just made it wet with like wet paint or is it art that uses new technology? For example, something like the using the internet.

What is new media in art? I hope you're right there, it is art that uses new technology.

New media is a contemporary work of art.

So again, it is about using new technology from 3D printers to pixels and computer generated images to biotechnology.

New media is all about new technology.

Next one, what is abstract art? We covered this for a few weeks now.

Is it art that is not non-representational using shapes patterns and forms or is it art that depicts a person or a group of people? I hope you got that right.

It is art that is non-representational.

Of course if it depicts a person or or a group of people, then it's not abstract art.

Abstract is often about colour and shape and form and the line.

And final one, what is an algorithm? Is it similar to a recipe? It is a list of instructions that must be followed or is it a style of music created by new media? Hope you got that one right as well.

It is similar to a recipe.

We've already covered that in today's lesson and it is just a list of instructions that must be followed.

And again, that can be very complicated as it is in digital technology, or it can be very simple and clear cut like a recipe or like the instructions we had in the last lesson.

Developing your algorithm.

Now, last lesson you created six experiments using predetermined algorithms. Now you now need to choose just one that you think is the most successful.

Consider how will it look when it is enlarged.

Can you comfortably recreate it? I mean you don't want to find one that you can't seem to recreate.

And is it an interesting algorithm? Some designs can appear a little dull or flat.

So choose the one that is most engaging.

So your activity, you are going to enlarge one of your drawings.

Remember that your drawing should not be busier and more detailed version of your smaller experiment.

Your drawing is physically bigger and therefore the spaces in between are bigger too.

You will be painting in between the gaps.

So remember not to make the gaps too small or that will make it very difficult to paint.

So I'll show you a demonstration as to how to do this initial drawing, but obviously think big.

That's how we do, that's how we are approaching this one.

Okay, so you should have this piece from the last lesson we're going to choose one of these to develop onto a larger piece of paper.

Now, of course you can see the shape of these are long shaped so to make that, to create such a thing we're going to get one of these pieces of paper.

We're going to fold it in half.

Now you can obviously use a pair of scissors if you have some to hand but if you look at how I'm going to do this you might be able to do it freehand.

So you can see I've got that nice and straight, nice and flat, and I'm going to crease it in both ways and then of course I can go I can take that.

Now, when you're thinking about which one to develop you have to remember that because your second one the one you're doing now, the big one, is going to be a developed version of this.

You need to think to yourself about how it will fit onto this larger one.

You don't want just really, really tight patterns.

You want to enlarge this one so that it fills this one.

Now the design I'm going to go for is this one.

This is the one I think I liked the most.

So I'm going to try and do that.

So it's a swell and a curved line.

So I'm going to do that bigger this time so it's not.

Again remember, think of that algorithm that you've decided.

Whichever one you've decided and fill it as best as you can.

I'd like to join up at the end.

So there you go.

You can see that's the one I've chosen and I've developed it so it's enlarged so this is what I'll be working on today.

So now it's your term using a sheet of A4 or A3 paper, you are going to enlarge and experiment from last week.

Everything should be bigger and not necessarily more complicated.

Leave big spaces as we will need them to fill in later.

Well done.

Now the next stage requires two things.

It's going to require a colour scheme and it's going to require you to focus your attention on negative space.

So these two things are really important.

You can select three or four colours only.

Now by choosing three or four colours, this will be your colour scheme.

Now you can choose very similar colours so you can see on your screen all those different shades of red.

So if you like one colour you can vary the tones of that colour and that can be your colour scheme.

You could choose like established colours like hot or cold colours.

You could have autumnal colours or wintery colours or ocean colours or whatever you want.

There might be a set of colours you already have in mind.

And of course you can see on the screen again warm colours or cold that you could use.

So if you have an idea about the kind of feel that you want to create then by all means, choose that colour scheme.

Or you could just choose completely contrasting colours, colours that are bright and colourful and completely at odds with each other.

That's fine too.

The main thing is you choose only three or four colours.

Don't go overboard.

Don't choose lots of colours, limits your palette so that you've got a very strict use of colours as you do it.

The other thing is negative space.

You are going to paint the gaps in between the lines you have drawn.

This part, the area that you were painting that means that's the negative space and a good rule to stick to when you're doing this activity is to not touch the lines with your paintbrush.

So you've got to be very careful.

You can see the example on the screen, my paintbrush doesn't touch the lines, which I've drawn.

So you have to be as strict with yourself when you do your painting.

So you've got to leave a little gap next to every line and if by mistake you touch the line by mistake, don't worry about it, just ignore it and try and leave a little bit, a bit of a bigger gap as you continue.

Now, this activity can also be completed in colouring pencils if you don't have paint stand, the same rules apply.

You're still learning about colour schemes, you're still learning about negative space.

So don't feel like if you haven't got painted, can't do it.

You definitely can.

And you can see the example in front of you as to how it needs to look.

Okay, now we're going to paint this.

You need to think to yourself about which three colours you're going to use.

And again, this is called a colour scheme.

You need to stick to those three colours for your entire painting.

But remember the rule is you do not touch the pencil lines.

You have to be very careful to keep that space.

So you can see something like this here.

I'm going to go round as carefully as I can.

And again, you might need a small brush.

Now you can do this with this activity with colouring pencils as well but you can see I'm kind of going around and I'm going to fill this in, but again at no point and be very careful to make sure that I do not touch the pencil lines.

And there are going to be some spots that you can see much smaller down here, you have to be very, very careful about.

But let's try and make sure we leave that space as we move our way around.

Now, in some areas you might have a background for example where we want to make sure we fill the background too.

Now, of course, again, the same rules apply.

Make sure that you don't touch the don't touch the pencils at any pencil line at any point leave that nice space around it.

And you can see how I'm kind of filling up that space carefully using negative space to fill it in the positive space would effectively be the pencil line.

And I'm just painting in the negative space behind it.

What's nice about this activity is that as you fill it in as you actually go around filling in these colours because you're not going to ever touch the pencil line your paint should never touch each other.

So that means you can actually paint the sections quite close to it, knowing that you won't touch the paints.

Obviously if the paint types with one colour of paint touches another, it might bleed into it.

And that might obviously damage it.

That might just change the effect.

There probably won't be a massive problem but you want to just be careful.

Now it's your turn.

So you've got to develop your piece by using a colour scheme and filling the negative space.

Be slow and careful with your control.

Though this is abstract, the care needs to be taken and don't worry about little errors or the same colour being next to each other.

Just try your best and see how it looks.

Pause the video.

Good luck.

I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Well done.

This last bit is the bit which is really the icing on the top.

It really makes all the difference.

This is your fine line finish.

Now what pens you use will affect the finish that you can create.

So if you have a very kind of thin kind of scratchy little pen, you might not want to use that one.

You want a nice, clear, neat, bold pen.

If you've got colour and pencil, if you've got black colouring pencil, for example that will work too sometimes, you've got to be careful, but you can do it.

And of course if you let your work dry and you use black paint you can do that too but again you have to be very careful.

If you've got the choice, get a fine line pen and that can sometimes be a little bit thicker than your usual pen.

First, you just go over your pencil lines carefully, sharp, neat, bold lines.

So again, it's really easy part of it just going over the lines that you've already drawn in pencil.

Then you need to select some of them to be thicker and others that remain thin.

So you've got a variety of thick and thin lines.

There's a much higher contrast there.

It almost hints at a sense of shadow, but of course that variety of line will make your painting or your picture more interesting.

Finally, if you do have a thin pen then you can add patterns in a few of the blank spaces.

That sometimes really does make all the difference.

Okay, so you can see I have a few different types of fine lines here.

You just need to choose one, or if you have any other ones that would be great, but you don't to do all of them.

The first thing you do is just go round the line.

Just go on top of the line that was originally in pencil.

Okay, and now I need to choose to fit and thin lines make some lines thicker, make others thin.

Now of course, if you've got the same pen you can of course use that to just actually just physically make it thicker so you can see here I can literally just make it thicker like that.

Or I can, if I've got a thicker pen, so some of you might have nice, fine line pen sets.

You can obviously use those as well.

And you can see this slightly broader pen says broad on the sides you see, I can actually use that.

The next thing you can do is choose a thin pen, something like this, or like this, where you can actually create some intricate patterns within it.

So you can see if I pull this camera down for a moment somewhere like this spot here, I can obviously do a very kind of thin that's and so now I'm trying to be really really careful with my work there.

I'd say that's about finished.

Now it's your turn.

You need to carefully add fine line pen to finish your algorithm arts piece.

If you don't have a fine line pen you could use a black felt tip pen, a black colouring pencil or if you're very careful black paint and a thin paintbrush, don't rush it take your time.

And of course, pause the video to complete your task.

Well done.

Now you can see on the screen in front of you all the different art pieces that we've created in this unit from the pixel piece we started with through to the sound inspired paintings, where we touched on Kandinsky and then the algorithm art pieces where we looked at the work of Bob and Roberta Smith.

Now there are endless algorithms and ideas that you could use to create your artwork.

Remember the theme of the unit, new media and how new technology and digital processes are now all over art galleries.

When you go to art galleries you'll see technological screens, flat screens, televisions showing different ideas that way.

So again, remember these are new media art pieces.

They're very exciting when you see them.

Sometimes they're kind of out of this world strange and that's what makes them so engaging.

And of course, thinking about the programmes we discussed, the pixel art or Udacity, these are programmes which you could touch upon and you can use yourself.

So of course, if you go access to them play around with them, see what they do and of course digitising your work by photographing it and then adapting it on a programme is obviously a lot fun too.

Don't feel like your art pieces end when they are painted.

You can obviously do something more to them by digitising them and then looking at them on a laptop and adapting them you might be able to create something even more wonderful.

Okay, so other than that I can't wait to see your arts pieces coming through.

I'm looking forward to seeing the work that you create.

We do have those key words from this lesson, algorithm, which is a set of rules that must be followed.

Negative space is the blank space that surrounds an image or is behind an art material.

Colour scheme is a select group of colours, right? Well done.

You've reached the end of this unit.

Again, I can't wait to see what you produce.

Okay, I've created a lot of, lots of algorithm art pieces with my students and there's some great stuff that you can produce.

This is something which I do for an example a while ago.

They're great fun and again, they're kind of interesting and they play with forms. So again, I look forward to seeing the work that you produce.