Young Artists aged 10-15 | Winter Wonderlands: Sculpture and Modelling

Winter Wonderlands: Sculpture and Modelling

Create your own miniature winter wonderland!

In this winter workshop we will be making models with clay which we will then use to make drawings from. Making a model can help us bridge the gap from imagination into drawing, giving us a physical version of our ideas to work from. This method of working was famously used by Nicolas Poussin in the 1600s. He would create small modelled scenes to test the lighting conditions and compositions for his paintings before deciding which to commit to. He named this creation the “great machine”. Still to this day artists will use similar methods, creating scenes, sculptures and models in order to test ideas.

You will spend the first part of the course modelling with clay to create a fantastical sculptural landscape, the more festive and creative the better! Students will be introduced to basic clay building techniques and will be encouraged to explore their imagination and experiment with their ideas. Our models will then be dramatically lit, transforming them into the subject matter for our drawings.

We will then begin drawing from the clay with experimental exercises at first, moving toward more sustained drawings later in the day. We will play with scale, lighting, the character of lines and mark making to describe different textures.

Students will work with a variety of materials to explore light, shadow, contrast and tone. You will be encouraged to think about the narrative within your drawings, the techniques you are using and how we can translate three dimensions onto paper. We will explore the use of viewfinders to crop the scene and create focus in our image.

This course is for you if you are interested in:

• Sculpture, modelling and set design.
• Working between two and three dimensions.
• Imagination and world building.
• Experimenting with drawing techniques.
• Narrative and storytelling.

Students will:

• Develop observational and experimental drawing skills.
• Learn the key foundational skills to work with clay.
• Develop the ability to use your own artwork as a starting point for the development of future works.
• Develop their ability to experiment without the fear of making ‘mistakes’.
• Gain confidence in working within a group and in sharing ideas with others.
• Build their skills in contextual studies though discussion of artists work and conceptual ideas and themes.