Lino- My World
From my last project of teaching paper mache, I had learnt an important lesson. Subject interest. In order for a work to be presented with a desired level of standard, the level of interest within the lesson topic has to be high in order to motivate pupils to want to discover further and explore for themselves. Being stimulated by their own curiosity and developing more interest in subject matter overtime is the ideal process. This time, I set an open topic of their choosing in five categories:
- Human Figure: Identity
- Environment: Nature/ flora and fauna
- Events
- Fantastical
- The abstract
Knowing my 2nd years pupils have had the experience of doing Lino in the previous year which means they are somewhat familiar with the concept and materials involved in this lesson. Of course, including important details of the health & safety measures that are needed to re-emphasized knowing there could be one or more pupils that might accidentally cut themselves. To start off, I have asked them to visualise what they had done the last time, discussing on what they would want to do differently this time. I think that it benefits pupils greatly to develop this habit of self-reflection in order to identify their learnings, recognising what their strengths are and what they can improve on.
Key things that one needs to know in Lino:
- Concept of negative and positive space
- White = cut areas | black= painted areas
- Form/shapes/line works
- emphasis | focal point
- when printed it is flipped to be the opposite side
In my experience, understanding negative/positive space is clear but knowing exactly where/what you want to be cutting can become complicated. I decided to recap on the concept of playing with spaces and forms by showing a few examples:
With re-introduction of this discipline, I feel that it is necessary to link theory with practical to fully grasp the concept as a whole. That is where experimentation comes in:
This process is an exercise like gestural drawing to recognise what marks could be made in drawing and in Lino. And to make it interesting, I timed them with every ten seconds, they have to make a marking each time, using a white chalk. It was interesting what each pupil have come up with on their A4 sheet, different ways or techniques to create patterns or texture.
The exercise of mark making was to help pupils transfer the ideas of patterns and line works onto their Lino board samples as practice. With that, it could help them reflect upon certain line works that can achieve certain effect.
Most of them have focused on the thickness of the lines depending on how deep they have cut it. Others have use repetitive lines to create a pattern or texture(criss cross). Which is why I emphasise on the different sizes of the cutters, giving a demonstration of the technique of cutting. Mostly, because I had the same experience of rushing it through and every cutting strokes is short and thick. Which followed by a short discussion to refresh their memories on their own experiences and previous implications on things they wanted to do. Which then led me to show other classes' (3rd years) works sharing how certain ideas can be represented. Either in a stylistic way with patterns, simplified spatial outlook or realistic approach. These are some of the examples:
2. visual aid part 2:
This is the beginning of my own idea which I have yet to perfect the concept. I have used my own image, taking photograph of my foot in an angle which I thought could be close to what the bark of a tree look like. Down to earth is my title and usually, a good artwork could speak for itself by understanding the title alone. Even at this stage, not only did I show a drawing that I have used with the white liquid pen that I was not exactly happy with because I too was confused at one point but realising the mistake I tried again. So I was excited to show my pupils that I was not too different when it comes to finding the best way to represent my idea. Sharing my journey no different from theirs with questions like: Should I have chosen form as the focus on spatial? At this point, form is obvious but other contexts of what was intended was not achieved yet; but I do not just stop there, several attempts led me to the closest of what I had in mind.
How they had begun with their transference of ideas was different by using- Carbon paper
Before I allow them to begin cutting away, firstly, I asked them to write down on areas using B for Black and W for white. At this point, it has been established in the concept of cutting, black means printed area and white means cut out areas. So it was literally as clear as black and white without any confusion and chances of making less mistakes. As Lino can be tricky, you can either cut too much or not enough.
3. Printing: Having set up two sets of stations, so that the process would flow well instead of allowing pupils to not do anything because the area is crowded with others queuing.
Even though they were familiar with the process, I would still like to see how much they do remember and how differently each would manage this process. Having had demonstrated with my own work, it had helped the process to move efficiently and pupils know exactly what to be doing. Even the rolling of paint has its technique to be equally spread- vertical and horizontal. That goes for applying paint onto the board and personally that is how I would do it, smooths over the surface easily covering every spot. However, I had expected a few pupils to come up with their works appearing with tiny white spots. I had mentioned there could be three reasons why that is so: Either the surface was not clean from the cut outs or the pressure on the roller was not enough and it could be that the amount of paint needed was not as much as it should have been.
In between the process, while monitoring their progress, for some of the pupils, I felt the need to stress on delivering the best effective way to present their ideas. For example, how can one create texture with line works? Like the one I have done, the consistency in line works is important and rough spontaneous marks can look quite interesting. Besides that, the cat for example, I felt there was more she could do with the marks she has done on the form. And because cat has hairs, I asked, "What other details of the cat can you display? What else do we know about it?" Similarly, how does one create hair texture? This time, the hairs are short therefore requiring short strokes of thin lines. By guiding them this way, I realised they do switch different size cutters to achieve different line works. I felt that was a good improvement in knowing what they needed to change along the way without even questioning. Which leaves me to do most of the questioning to stimulate their thinking. I would always ask how they have come to reach this idea, what had influence their choice and what they thought was most interesting about the subject.
Example: Again with the cat, this pupil mentioned she watched Alice in wonderland 2010 version and thought that it was her favourite character in that film. Simple. And yes I felt she had deliver the simplicity of the cat's character but most importantly, pupils are needed to articulate and recognise the purpose of doing such task that should be meaningful to them. Pupils have to make meaning of their own learnings after all.
(Above) This particular had shared she was inspired to do trees too and I felt she did cut well with the thin line works that was neatly done. I had probed further in terms of tones as it still looked flat. I asked, "How does one create tones in this case? We can't add things to it but we can eliminate. Think of the light direction." That is when she understood as shown above, she decided her light direction would be on the left, not only that, she has added texture on the branches and continue from there onwards.
Overall, I had felt that what I have done with the theme, could be improved immensely as it had been more vast than I wanted. It was harder to balance that I imagined to correctly allow pupils to input their personal ideas but it needed a clearer theme. Which is what reflected on the pupils' works too, the ideas were simple and therefore lacking sophistication. However, what I felt proud of this lesson was the enthusiasm in pupils, more questions were being asked and they were initiative in making their own decisions instead of relying on the teachers most of the time. You would expect pupils at junior Cycle level two to be mature and independent already but at the adolescent stage, they are youthful souls still trying to find their identity and understanding what matters to them. In lesson as such, these are steps to getting a better understanding of their interests and what they can relate to. Next time, I would be considering bringing in social media as that is what connects everyone in this generation.
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