Lillias & The Puffin

Lillias H chose a puffin as her animal theme for her Standard Grade Lighting Design unit. After initial investigation drawings, she experimented with materials to create a piece of lighting for Edinburgh Zoo. As you can see, Lillias’ development page includes cheap Ikea lights to show her experiments with opacity and colour and her final sheet displays her design in light and dark, showing off her use of fiber optics. This was a project I had tried with S4 Intermediate a few years ago. I was worried that it would not be possible for S3 Standard Grade, that the techniques and materials would be too complex and that the time frame would be too short to complete. Lillias shows that I was entirely wrong to doubt her. Beautiful work.

Spots Before Your Eyes

Tasja L‘s cheetah drawing won ‘Artwork of the Week’ at the start of term last year, so it’s only fitting that her final mounted sheets win ‘Artwork of the Week’ at the start of this term. Tasja was absent for a great deal of the course, though when she was in, she worked hard on getting all the elements of her sheets completed, and as you can see, it was worth all the effort.

Tasja’s ideas are the key to this piece of lighting. Her final piece is a strange, though incredibly beautiful and simplistic product. It’s interesting form and colours far outweigh it’s gruesome inspiration and source. The centre of the lamp is based on a cheetah’s fur, while the outside comes from the cat’s mouth, its gums and teeth.

Turtle Power

This week’s ‘artwork of the week’ comes from Fran (S3, OLSP). She has been working on her lighting windows for a few weeks now and has finally collected her hard work together into something that is close to being mounted onto her sheets. Her use of tissue and stenciling to portray a turtle’s skin and shell has been really successful. Fran created a light box out of card, tinfoil and Ikea battery powered lights to show off her designs.

Blooming Marvellous

Zara B (S3, OLSP) hasn’t used Neoprene or Felt before to make art, so the fact that this is the first time she’s used these materials and also the first time she’s used difficult tools such as hot glue guns and scalpels, she’s created a very impressive work. Zara is experimenting with materials to develop an idea to make a piece of lighting out of a floral theme. By investigating flowers through their shapes and patterns, colour and using different materials, she’ll be able to make the right decision when it comes to choosing an idea for her final piece.

Solar Powered

I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find an Artwork of the Week this week, then was shown a nice idea by a Higher student at Castlehead High. Laura K has been working on her Lighting Design Unit for her Higher.

Under the supervision of Mr Meek, Laura has been able to make a model of a lighting idea for a brief aimed towards the Glasgow Science Centre. She aims to design the solar system influenced lighting structure for the Atrium on the ground floor. I was speaking to Laura and asked her would it be possible to manipulate her model into a photo of the atrium to actually see it in situe. Laura was not familiar with Photoshop, so I asked her if it would be O.K. to try and compose it myself.

Laura’s idea is not concrete and may change to incorporate a surface on the globe or glowing rods instead of the metal wire, though the featured pictures will give you an idea of her intentions.

Below is the composed image of Laura’s lighting idea in its larger scale above the cafe in the Science Centre and her original model for comparison.

Cockatiel Care

Rachel H has worked for 10 solid months on her Lighting Design unit to make it as good as it could possibly be. It was packed with seven other Int. 2 works last week and delivered to the SQA for assessment. Rachel has also paid to receive her work back from the SQA, and so she should, her expressive and design units are stunning. Rachel’s care and intense precision to detail gives her drawings an impressive ‘botanical drawing’ style. This along with her neat and patient making skills has helped her create a beautiful design unit. A work of art that truly deserves the title ‘Artwork of the Week’.

LumineSSSSssssence

Rachel A has been finalising her Design Unit for her Art & Design (Int 2) Qualification. A piece of lighting based on a Cobra, the light is aimed to illuminate an Info. Room at Edinburgh Zoo. Correctly themed and well constructed, the ‘snake light’ has been attracting lots of attention from pupils.

Rachel, along with a few of her classmates, has had to put a great deal of time and effort in to produce an outcome of this quality. Class time is simply not long enough to produce something of this standard. Rachel has attended Thursday night extra-curricular support classes since October, building structures, experimenting with the opacity of materials, paper manipulation, wire modelling, cutting and gluing, painting and  papier-mache.

It is for this very reason that Rachel deserves ‘Artwork of the Week’, well that, and the fact that this is a beautiful piece of sculpture too.

Night Lights

So, S4 have been working themselves to the bone trying to finish their lighting unit final solutions. All work needs to be finished for next week, most are nearly there. Below you will see some of the lights in their ‘on’ state. The pupils had to think about how the light would react and look, on and off. The light is aimed to suit an Information Room in Edinburgh Zoo, so it had to be themed as such to suit the client.

Nicole‘s light is based on a parrot. She has emense focus and skill. Usually pupils need to have input to sort many problems that arise when building three dimensional objects. Nicole has been working from her own original ideas under her own incentive. She has created a stunning ornament.

Rachel A has put a lot of work into the above piece, and it shows. Based on a snake, Rachel had to build a wire frame to form a snake body, that didn’t quite work out, so she then had to build another sturdier shell from card. She had to actually make two final pieces. The tongue is a great touch, it’s a little creepy, but the red glow adds warmth and contrast to the shell.

Michael‘s theme is easily identifiable. He has worked paper fringing into the shark’s gills. It makes them look realistic and also has a nice effect on the light that has to fight its way through the hairs. The fin gives the body an un-even keel, it helps the form look more interesting.

It’s hard to get a nice mix of primitive and modern, though I feel Hannah S has done so, but it’s not without a lot of effort, attending after school classes and giving her all. The stripes are beautifully stitched on to tissue windows. The tiger fire pattern, painstakingly hand painted. I could really see this piece in an african themed livingroom, it does have obvious themes, but it is so subtely done that it looks very classy.

Using the wolf, Konor had tried his best to make his light frightening and unapproachable. By lighting up the deep red of the mouth, the light no longer attracts people in, it repels them away. The neoprene teeth help add to the suspense of the light being dangerous. A weird and threatening shade, though it strangely works, tempting the viewer’s interest with every scared glance.

Lights Alive

S4 are currently working towards a final piece for their design unit. Building models, maquettes and plans, they are slowly but surely finding the right materials and forms to get their ideas across.

Each based on a different animal, their lights must look suitable for use in an information room in Edinburgh Zoo. Not an easy task, especially when there are so many factors including lighting effects, daytime appearance, market, public use, cost and theme to think about. The tighter the design brief, the tougher the challenge.

Lizard Lights

A bit of a weird one this week. It comes from Ross in S4, he’s been working on lighting ideas for his Intermediate Development sheet (Design lighting for Edinburgh Zoo). The panel above is from a window section that will be lit up by a small set of Ikea battery lights. Ross has cut little spike shaped holes into card, the card has then been painted with lizard skin. Coloured tissue paper has been pushed through the holes to produce relief transparent domes.

I explain this as ‘a weird one’ due to the status you are seeing it in. A work in progress, this small 10 x 10 cm square has come from hours and hours of development, and although it may not look like much to the layman, it’s involved a lot of decision making, exploration and  effort.

It is unsure as to what final design aspects Ross will use in this piece, but I am enjoying what he’s has been making lately.