Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today about maps to explore identity, journeys, and imagination.

We're going to do lots of thinking, talking, and exploring together in this lesson.

So, shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to use colour and shape expressively to show people moving and places changing.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords we'll be using today are movement, abstract, expression.

I'm going to say those again and I would like you to repeat them after me.

Movement, abstract, expression.

Good job.

Now let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean by taking a look at their definitions.

Movement is a particular action or way of changing place or position.

Abstract refers to the shapes, colours, and lines to show ideas or feelings.

And expression is showing how you feel through art with colours, lines, and shapes.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson, movement in art and abstract expression.

In this first learning cycle, we're going to explore movement in art.

How has this artist expressed movement in this artwork? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, Lucas says, "The figures look like they are moving upwards." And Laura says, "The black lines are smudged to make them look like they are moving." Did you think anything similar? What lines and shapes can you see in this artwork? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? What can you see? Well, Lucas says, "On one side there are straight lines." And Laura says, "On the other side, there are curved lines and shapes." Can you see those? We've got those straight lines that are almost creating some cubes or rectangular shapes.

And then on the other side, we've got these curved lines, rounder shapes.

Artists use different lines, shapes, and artistic techniques to express movement and change in their artwork.

You can see some smudged straight lines and geometric shapes here on the left, and overlapping shapes, and we've got organic flowing shapes here on the right.

We can see some layering of ideas.

An example of an artist that uses techniques to show movement and change is Julie Mehretu.

Julia Mehretu was born in Ethiopia in 1970.

When she was young, her family migrated to America, and this journey and change has influenced her artwork.

Her art is expressive, full of energy, history, and global stories.

She uses abstract marks in her art to share the big ideas.

Migration means moving from one place to another to live.

Animals often migrate.

Birds also migrate, and so do people.

People migrate for different reasons, and some of these reasons might include things changing in their old home, such as war, flood, or difficulty finding food or clean water.

Maybe they have a new job, so they're finding work or finding better opportunities.

Maybe they want or need a better life, maybe more safety, better schools or better hospitals.

Or maybe they would just like a new home, maybe living closer to family, maybe exploring a different city or a new country.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Julie Mehretu's art is expressive full of, history, and global stories.

Which word is missing here? Is it collage, paint, energy, or charcoal? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about the answer to this question and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said energy, you're absolutely right.

Julie Mehretu's art is expressive, full of energy, history, and global stories.

Lucas is thinking about which materials have been used to create this artwork.

He says, "I remember that charcoal is easy to smudge and blend," so maybe that might be a good part to use for these geometric shapes here on the left.

Charcoal is a black, lightweight material made by burning wood.

Artists use charcoal to make bold, dark lines and soft shading in their drawings.

Smudging charcoal can make your drawing look like something is moving.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Is this statement true or false? Smudging charcoal can make your drawing look like something is moving.

Is this statement true or false? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that's true, you're absolutely right.

Artists use smudging to make their artwork feel more alive and exciting.

What movement can you see in this image? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What could you see? Well, perhaps you could see these moving shadows here, or maybe these people moving, walking through the streets, or maybe you spotted the different moving lights.

There is lots of movement happening in this image.

Lucas is thinking about charcoal.

He says, "How do artists show movement with charcoal?" Well, artists show movement using charcoal in different ways, pressing firmly with quick strokes in different directions or pressing lightly with soft, sweeping strokes.

So here I might use different strokes with charcoal to show how something is moving.

So I might use quick, sweeping strokes with charcoal, like a bird flying or maybe a person running, or I might press lightly for soft movement and harder for fast or strong movement.

So have a go now at experimenting with different strokes with charcoal to show how something is moving.

Pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at that and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you get on? Well, hopefully you were able to use those different strokes with charcoal to show something is moving, using those quick, sweeping strokes and then using maybe a softer, lighter press for some soft movement instead.

Artists sometimes express a passing of time or movement in one place by changing in colour or repeated shapes, smudging lines and shapes, or maybe overlapping line and shapes.

Artists may use the smudging technique when drawing or painting to express movement and change.

They firstly draw the lines and shapes like so.

Here's the artist drawing three separate lines.

Then they smudge them with their finger.

You can see this artist here is doing the smudging, pressing lightly, sweeping across to smudge those lines.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

The artist is.

the lines.

What is the missing word here? Scratching, stamping, smudging, or smudging and scratching? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said the artist is smudging the lines, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Here, I'm going to have a go at creating straight lines and geometric shapes and then smudging them to show movement and change.

So here are the lines and shapes that I'm gonna have a go at drawing with charcoal and then smudging them with my finger.

So pause the video here and have a go at doing that yourself and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Well, hopefully you were able to create lines in geometric shape like the ones shown here, and to smudge them to show that movement and change.

Can you see where that smudging is happening? Now, I'm going to have a go at creating some curved lines and organic shapes and smudge them to show movement and change.

So you could use these as examples.

So pause the video and have a go now at drawing your own curved lines and organic shapes and smudging them and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Well, hopefully you were able to create those curved lines and organic shapes and smudged them, showing that movement, like this example here.

Can you see where the smudging is taking place and how that creates that movement? Now I'm going to have a go at repeated shapes to show movement and change.

So look at this example of circles here.

Pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at repeating a shape and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you find that? Well, hopefully you ended up with something like this.

You selected a shape and were able to repeat it, and then we're able to show that change of movement through that repetition.

Now to show a changing colour within different shapes.

So here we can see we've got some triangles and we've got different shades of this brown-beige colour.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at showing that change in colour within different shapes and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you find that? Well, hopefully you were able to show a change in colour within different shapes.

Can you see here these organic curved shapes within each other, and they're all different shades of pinky purple.

This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to use charcoal or soft pastels to experiment with different artistic techniques to show movement.

Think about a change in colour or repeated shapes, overlapping shapes, or smudging.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at this learning task and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at an example? So maybe you experimented like this in your sketchbook or on a piece of paper.

Maybe you had a go at smudging some lines using charcoal.

Maybe you had a go at changing of a colour within shapes, these organic curved shapes here.

Or perhaps you repeated some shapes to show some movement like these circles here.

So well done for having a go at experimenting creating that movement.

This now brings us to the second part of our lesson.

We're going to have a look at abstract expression.

Lucas and Laura are remembering what they know about abstract art.

Lucas says, "It is a type of art that uses shapes, colours, and lines in art to express feelings." Laura says, "It's not about creating things exactly how they look in real life." Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which of these is an example of abstract art and how do you know? Is it A, B, or C? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said C, you're absolutely right.

Abstract art is not about creating things exactly how they look in real life.

So from these images here, we can see there are two people in the first image and a flower here, and they look pretty accurate.

The children are discussing different places they might see lots of movement and change.

Lucas says, "People playing on the park." Andeep talks about a busy street.

Laura mentions an aeroplane or train, and Izzy talks about a firework display.

Laura wants to create an abstract piece of art to express movement and change in her local park.

Laura says, "There are children playing, people running, trees blowing, and dogs walking." Laura thinks of the lines she might see and draws them out on her page using charcoal.

This one here shows children throwing a ball.

Here, we've got the lines of a path, the dogs running in circles and the people running.

She thinks of different shapes she might see, and she says, "I chose to use different greens for the shapes of the trees blowing in the wind." Laura continues to add different lines and shapes to express movement in her abstract piece of art.

We've got the sun rising and falling here in these reds and oranges, and also people walking along the path here.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Can you order the steps to create abstract art? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about the answer to this question and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you ordered them this way, you're absolutely right.

Starting with the charcoal lines, then adding those colours, and then adding other colours further to create the abstract art.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to create an abstract piece of art to express movement and change.

I'd like you to use charcoal and oil pastel or chalk pastel.

Think about places you have lived or visited and the shapes you think about from these places.

Use organic and geometric shapes and uses artistic techniques to show movement, such as smudging, overlapping, repeating, and changing colour.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at this learning task and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you get on? Were you able to create your abstract piece of art? Well, let's have a look at an example here.

So maybe you created something like this where we've got changes in colour through these greens here.

Maybe some repeated lines like these blue lines here.

Or maybe you smudged some lines to create that movement, like those people running.

Maybe there was some overlapping as well where you've got these dogs running in a circle, but also the sun rising.

So while done for having a go at creating your own abstract piece of art, showcasing the different movement using those artistic techniques.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about abstract expression.

Artists use different techniques to show movement and change in their artwork.

Artists express change or movement both between different places and within the same place.

Abstract art uses shapes, colours, and lines to express feeling.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.