This term the Year 10 Visual Communication Design class has been learning to work with the graphic design element of 'point'. Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of colour are applied in patterns to form an image. As the dots increase in closeness we start to see them as shapes, but they still retain their fundamental dot-like qualities. Together a number of points can have an effect where the eye naturally attempts to ‘connect the dots’ to create a line or form.
The students took inspiration from Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds, with artist Hong Yi setting out to create a portrait using the medium of actual sunflower seeds. The final piece (pictured above) required approximately 100,000 seeds. As most students would not have that many seeds around their home, they were asked to go to the kitchen cupboard and see what they could use as a medium for their exercise in 'point'.
Braedyn Kaplan (Year 10 Red) showed his creativity in this inspirational image of his friend, Peter, on white paper (pictured.
Being a Visual Communication Design teacher during remote learning has been challenging. While there is no substitute for the classroom for sharing thoughts and ideas, we are fortunate to have ways of maintaining visual contact and submitting work online. Knowing that students have limited access to materials and equipment is also a challenge and this design task has shown the need for everyone to improvise during remote learning.
We were told to make an image of something using materials that we can find in our homes and so I decided to make my friend Peter using spices. I used glue to make a layout of the image and then poured the spices over it so they would stick down. I can't remember exactly what spices I used but my parents were happy for me to use the spices.
