The Art and Science of Observation

Guildhall Square Bring pencils, colouring pens, etc. Meet straight after registration, under the arch, to walk to Guildhall Square Collect a drawing board before we go Meet my Dad, professional artist Chris Wood

Questions to think about before, during and after the activity; Which are easier to study, people or buildings? What does it mean to study (to study an object, a person, an academic subject?) How do people study things? Why do they study things in a certain way? How do we judge whether we have been successful in our study of people or of buildings? Can we change the way we study? Can we improve our outcomes by changing the way we do things?

My Dad, Chris Wood Chris is a professional artist; new studio at Hot Walls He runs experimental drawing classes every week many years of experience in both 2d and 3d art unusual in his ability across many artistic media: painting drawing printmaking sculpture digital media; iPad addict! Uses it endlessly to try new techniques and keep himself up to date and relevant using a multiplicity of sources

Artistic ability Survey think about artistic ability for a moment to what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statements 3 strongly agree 2 agree 1 disagree 0 strongly disagree

1. Artistic ability is something people are born with that can’t be changed

2. No matter how good at drawing you are, you can always be better

3. You can always substantially change how good at drawing you are

4. Some people are artistic and good at drawing, some aren’t; there is not much that can be done about that

5. Artistic talent can be learned by anyone

6. Only a few people will be truly good at art – you have to be “born with it”

7. All human beings can learn to draw

8. You can learn new techniques, but you can’t really change your basic ability

9. Drawing is effortless for truly artistic people

Scoring On questions 1, 4, 6, 8, 9 you need to reverse the scores you have given yourself before you add up your total so… if you scored 3, then give yourself 0 if you scored 2 give yourself 1 if you scored 1 give yourself 2 if you gave yourself 0, give yourself 3 Add these scores to the scores for the other questions (2, 3, 5, 7)

If you scored 0-7 you have a fixed mind set on artistic ability 7-14 you have a fixed mind set on artistic ability with some growth ideas 15-21 you have a growth mind set on artistic ability with some fixed ideas 21-27 you have a growth mind set on artistic ability

Fixed and Growth Mindset Adapted from work by Carol Dweck on fixed and growth mind-set Watch the short clip on google classroom she speaks about fixed and growth mind-set and intelligence and the power of yet Mind-set can affect your academic studies fixed mind set thinkers sometimes find it really hard to bounce back from what they perceive as academic failings, e.g. getting a low mark its important to understand that ability can change with practice