Scotch College

The family Day Art Show

Wet and windy was the order of the day for Family Day, and the crowds of students and parents were very glad to find a dry refuge in the our annual Art Show, set up in the foyer of the Teachers Centre.

Scotch has developed its curriculum in the fine arts extensively in recent years. While our standards are challenged by other mainstream schools, a relatively unique aspect of the Scotch programme, is the wide range of media the boys are introduced to, as they progress through the courses offered. Currently we have Fine Art to year 12, which concentrates on painting, ceramics, stained glass, drawing, photography and sculpture. Studio Art at Scotch is centred on multimedia; photography, animation, film, web design, 2D graphics and images generated on computer. In the coming year we are offering Visual Communication and Design at Year 11 This course builds on the current Year 10 Graphic Communication course. Work from students in this course was on display, including the development of house plans, and the design of logos for corporations.

General Art at the junior level was well represented with displays of Year Seven paintings, and the massive pit fired coil pots, undertaken by the Year Eight students. In the centre of the exhibition were two surfboards shaped and constructed at school, using fibreglass materials. The two Year 12 boys concerned had to learn how to air-brush their background designs and laminate their own labels designed in illustrator software.

The large format printing of the Year 11 and 12 Studio Art students was eye catching. It is significant that the students not only generate the designs on computer, but also use the large format printer in the classroom, to actually production manage the printing. The boys have had to re jig file sizes, adjust levels of brightness and saturation, run test proofs of prints, to ensure all is ready for final production.

The showstopper was arguably Year 11 student, Nicholas O'Keefe's animation. This is a three minute, entirely computer generated piece, involving three months of intense work, and over five thousand wire fames in its creation. Nicholas based the story on a section of 'Lord of the Rings', giving his work the title of 'Bridge of Khazad-Du'm'. He created the characters, and once having built the wire-frames, had to fill them in, which is called 'texture- mapping'. He then added lighting effects and music to complete an outstanding, visually exciting animation.