Art exam - a sham?

whelpy

Howya, Im in leaving cert doing art once a week after school since October. I gotten into the habit of using crosshatching for shading in my drawings, but my teacher always discourages me from using this method, saying that apparently art examiners are ''biased'', that they would only accept smudging and the like. For example, on a cylinder sketch we did, she said that the way i did it made it look flat, (even though i used a series of short lines to suggest the curved side of the can) that curved lines would make it look more realistic.

I know she's there to be a teacher and helping me, but i just don't agree with her view on the ''flat flab'' shading.

Anyone into art would know that It's really frustrating to have your technique changed, espically when you've just got the knack for it.

Maybe she's right, but ii can't see it. And are art examiners really narrow minded??

degausserxo

If it's still life you're doing, it's draw what you see, which most likely isn't a load of lines.

If it's not, it really depends on who corrects your paper.. My art teacher from first to fourth year absolutely despised smudging, so it was ingrained in us not to do it but to shade properly, even if it took longer. For the LC though, I had a different art teacher (I was the only one in the class who hadn't had him before) who told us to do it, and took marks from my exams for doing it the way I'd been taught since first year. Ask around, are there any different art teachers in your school? Find out what they think of it.

Lawliet

Really any technique you use should be rewarded as long as you execute it well. Maybe the problem is that you're not using cross hatching in a way that benefits your drawings. And the last thing you want to do is get stuck into using a style that doesn't work for you. Listen to your teacher and vary it a bit. Take an object and draw it using the cross hatching shading and then draw it again using smudging and blended shading. Put then down on the ground step back, take a good look at them and be honest with yourself about which looks better.

whelpy

can't upload pics! :mad: :mad:

Thanks guys
Anyway she's the only teacher although i can go to the jc art teacher, yeah i'll do that. your'e probably right lawliet the shading is prob not doing me any justice, i'll play around with it.

spinandscribble

I'm doing an art portfolio course now with the intent to enter art college after a fews of studying and working in a different area. The topic of the smudgy style of LCers has cropped up because hatching is what's recommended in our drawings. The generally view is the leaving cert exams are too short to do well done hatching drawings.

I'd agree with the pervious poster and maybe it's not working for you. Get a second or third opinion. At the end of the day the most important aspect is getting your tone right and not the method you use.

K-Ren

Hi OP
In the time I had completed LC Art, not once were any terms such as "cross-hatching" ever used in my education! Our teacher simply let us draw in whatever style we wished or were able to, and then told us what kind of mark we could expect to get for it i.e what worked and what didn't work. Everyone has their own style, which is very hard to change, and I feel that whatever way you draw or shade, will be totally different from the next student- art examiner's can't really account for that.

I think whatever style you are used to, or inspires you, is good; by all means, take your teachers advice and try and draw the way she would like you to- after all, she has seen past pupils techniques and marks- but if you don't think it adds to the picture, leave it out and draw your own way. You're obviously a stylistically concious student, so I'd imagine your shading's grand.

Goodluck with your work and exam!

sovkhoz

My take on the situation:
Your art teacher is in the right. The point of things like this is to expand the students skills in more than one niche area and also show that how something is drawn should depend on what you are drawing. If you draw an oak tree in pink pastel and 4h pencil, you end up losing quite a lot. I know someone is going to take what I am saying to the extreme and get offended, but read on. You may draw a very fine and accurate oak tree but it will be more or less a symbol- to be artsy fartsy, if someone comes in not knowing what an oak tree is and sees this drawing they won't leave with any more of an understanding. The person viewing the piece won't think "This person really captured the essence of an oak tree!" they will think "This is a drawing of what one imagines an oak tree should look like". This is fine most of the time, but completely against the point of life drawing.
Also, let me remind you there are more options than "smudgy" and "cross hatch" when it comes to shading, you can shade softly without rubbing or erasing your pencil constantly. This is a very complex technique that takes a huge amount of practice to not look childish and sloppy. I encourage you to research it and all the other methods of shading out there, you will only benefit from it.

Of course, after all of that leaving cert art is a bit of a pile of **** really and no one really is going to give a rats ass how you shaded your onion on the day really if you are competent- and dear god the lc art idea of competence is a bit dissilusioning