Tag: 2nd year

17th February 2016

Superheroes

During the past eight years we have run the Drawing Book projects with various primary schools in Edinburgh, as well as in Orkney. This has involved tackling a variety of themes in collaboration between art students and school pupils. Animal Characteristics, Feelings, Olympics, Sea Monsters, Opposites and School Meals are but a few of these, and now we have Superheroes.

All of this has been made possible by Vivian French, who has guided us through Drawing Book collaborations, far and wide, with great skill, wisdom and good humour.

Our visits to Wardie Primary School have been a totally inspiring and creative experience for everyone. The children are natural, spontaneous, wise, and good humoured.

To make a connection between art college students and children at the very start of their education and causes us to consider the fundamental values of drawing, thinking, telling stories and picturing things.

The Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh City Council Literacy Department, and the University of Edinburgh have given their support to Drawing Book.

What powers would one wish to have, and how might these be used towards the greater good of mankind? This is the question. We learned the answers and much more besides from the Wardie Superheroes project.

Feb 17, 2016

24th February 2015

Mapbooks

‘In order to be able to function in the world humans have found it essential to map their surroundings in order to impart information to others and to understand the world for themselves. However, it has not always only for practical reasons that maps have been made. People, from childhood, have a natural urge to make them and maps are fascinating to look at. They draw the viewer in and anyone who makes a map demonstrates their thought process through the way it is laid out and designed and their preferences in what they choose to map.’
In this project our second year students were asked to produce a piece of work in book form – this could be taken in as broad a sense as they wished. The book had to contain maps and or diagrams that explained a place. This place could be somewhere they knew intimately, somewhere they were keen to explore or learn about through mapping it, or an imaginary place. Whichever they chose, students had to make a book that gave as much information to the viewer as possible using mainly images.

The images could be made using any medium, students chose to draw, paint, print or use digital techniques to produce there final books. The second years pushed boundaries in both there thought processes and practical techniques, resulting in a unique range of beautiful and provoking books. See below for a selection of our students completed ‘map books’.

Ryan Hamill

Rachel Donaldson

Ann MacLeod

William Hughes

Arran Stamper

Many thanks to the University Special Collections for inviting us to view a selection of rare books that have inspired many of our students to develop there book binding skills.

Feb 24, 2015

19th January 2015

Jeans for Genes T-shirt Design Competition: The Pin-Up

This year Edinburgh College of Art Illustration Department will once agin be collaborating with the fantastic charity Jeans for Genes, designing a limited edition T-shirt to raise crucial funds to support children and families with genetic disorders. Each of our second year students are aiming to design a fashion illustration to embody the key messages of the charity while appealing to a mass market of fashionistas. The selected design will be modelled and promoted by some of our favourite celebrities, creating a fantastic platform for the winners work. Our students are well underway on this challenging and rewarding brief.

This morning we enjoyed a very positive and constructive critic of our students proposed ‘Jeans for Genes’ T-shirt Designs. Special guests, Dr Tessa Hartmann and Laura Patterson joined us to share their extensive knowledge of aesthetics, marketability and current fashion trends. Our students are now eager to take Tessa and Laura’s advice on board as they move forward with their designs. Many thanks to our knowledgable judges, we are all looking forward to seeing the final selection.

To find out more about the charity:

http://www.jeansforgenesday.org/

To see previous winning designs:

http://www.jeansforgenesday.org/pressoffice/tshirtdesigncompetition

Jan 19, 2015

27th March 2014

Seamonsters of Portobello

Last Friday our department welcomed a group of pupils, teachers, parents and grandparents from Towerbank Primary School. The children from Portobello had been working with our Second Year students and the author Vivian French to create a picture book about a sea monster.

Our students incorporated the children’s drawings into a large book, as well as creating little sea monster books of their own, both of which they presented to the pupils on Friday.

Quite possibly Edinburgh’s longest book!

Early masterpieces by aspiring young artists.

Peony and her book, with sea monster cake in the background.

It was fun to have visitors in our department, a big thank you to everyone involved!

Mar 27, 2014

3rd March 2014

MapBook

Our Second Year Students have been flexing their bookmaking muscles recently for our three week long MapBook project. The task was to produce a map book, with the theme and format being completely up to the individual.

Students produced a stunning range of books, including star charts, maps of the underworld, maps of Edinburgh, Ireland, South Africa, or Taipei or even more faraway places. Their books took the shape of folios, concertinas, float books and some for which a name has yet to be invented.

Map of the Greek Underworld – Peony Gent

Map of Irish Myths – Mhairi Braden

Map of a walk through Edinburgh – Victoria Ball

Beasts of Burden – Felix Miall

Taipei Travel Guide – Liv Wan

Map of Lithuania – Gabriele Lisauskaite

And to finish off, all maps were combined into one big big map by the students – look at them go!

photo by Gabriele Lisauskaite

Mar 3, 2014

ECA Illustration