1. The Art and Science of Observation

2. 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

3. 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

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

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

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

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

8. 5. Artistic talent can be learned by anyone

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

10. 7. All human beings can learn to draw

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

12. 9. Drawing is effortless for
truly artistic people

13. 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)

14. 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

15. My Still Life
You are going to create a still life picture of the items in front of you
You have 5 minutes to create your picture
Now write for 1 minute about how you felt while you were doing the task and what you were thinking about
You now have another 5 minutes, you must draw with you unfavoured hand
You now have 5 minutes more but you must not look at the paper as you draw

16. What was the point of the drawing activity?
Taking you out of your comfort zone?
IB is likely to take you out of your comfort zone – you certainly won’t always succeed first time
Getting you to do “something different”
Recognising how experimenting and trying different ways of doing something can jolt you out of old habits and old anxieties
Learning to focus on the process and actually having as go
Just “having a go” instead of worrying about the final outcome is an essential way of making progress in your academic studies
Drawing was a metaphor for studying at Sixth Form and Beyond and for studying psychology in particular!

17. Fixed and Growth Mindset
The questionnaire was adapted from work by American psychologist Carol Dweck who has written extensively on fixed and growth mind-set
Watch the as she speaks about fixed and growth mind-set regarding academic ability intelligence and “the power of yet”

18. Fixed and Growth Mindset
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

19. Why is this important right now?
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
Your induction assignment is about a study which shows that the brain actually undergoes structural changes the more you practice a certain skills (neuroplasticity); the study is about observational drawing but the same is true of practising your academic skills

20. What was your mind set score?
Create a tally chart (frequency table) to show how many pupils fell into each category
This type of data, where you count how many people fall into different categories is called NOMINAL DATA
Descriptive statistics allow us to summarise data; here we could: calculate ratios, percentages, state the mode and/or draw a pie chart

21. Your scores
We could also put all of your scores in order and rank them
You now have a rank position within the group with regard to your mind-set on artistic ability
This is called ORDINAL DATA
Descriptive statistics could include:
calculating the median and the range
drawing a box and whisker plots

22. Qualitative data
You have also collected some qualitative data (in words) about how if felt while you were doing the drawings
This can be analysed by looking for themes in what you have said
You could turn the qual into quan by adding up how many times each themes was mentioned

23. Carol Dweck: The Power of Yet
The mind-set scores for this activity show whether people think artistic ability is innate and unchanging or that it can change with practice
Did people’s mind-set seem to consistently affect their experiences of the session?
My dad has an “extreme growth” mind-set when it comes to artistic ability - why do think this might be?
How do you think having a growth mind-set affects your engagement with a task?
How do you think it affects a person’s perseverance in the face of a challenge?
How might this have affected your recall of the objects?
Look back at the questions that were asked in the artistic mind- set questionnaire do you wish to discuss any of them?

24. The good news
psychologists now question old theories that led us to believe that intelligence is fixed
Now they believe that the brain is like a muscle that develops with use
research suggests that artistic ability is certainly not fixed
Chris is right, artistic technical skills AND creativity can grow with practice

25. Marian Diamond and the Brain

26. Learning artistic skills alters the brain
There is a massive literature on how hours spent engaged in many activities from juggling to meditation actually changes the structure and function of your brain, allowing you to do things that you could not do before
supporting the idea that we can get better at anything we turn our mind to
artistic ability and intelligence therefore may not be fixed after all
Certainly believing that they are won’t help you to improve !
The induction assignment article discusses how the structure of the brain actually changes with the amount of time spent engaged in observational drawing

27. The bigger picture
you tried out three different ways to observe/study the objects
it might have felt tough; when things feel difficult, this is because you are on the brink of discovery
crossing new frontiers in your skills and in your understanding
When things feel tough; feel excited, this is a sure fire clue that your brain is working!
When things are easy or you feel very little, it may be a sign that you are coasting, you could…
end up drifting off course
lose precious practice time
miss the chance to make the most of opportunities available at any one point in time.

28. Academic ability and Sixth Form
There are a multiplicity of different ways to create drawings and to study
trying new things can help us to achieve different (and therefore, potentially better) outcomes.
pupils often say they are studying hard but their outcomes don’t change? Why?
The drawing exercise has hopefully underlined the importance of giving new things a go.
Don’t get stuck in a study habit that doesn’t work for you!
reading up neuroplasticity will hopefully help you realise that the more time invested in something, the more connections are made in the brain and the more readily certain outcomes can be achieved; same is true in your academic studies.

29. What does it mean “to study” (think; to study an object, a person, an academic subject?
How do people study things?
Why do they study things in a certain way?
How does this affect their conclusions?
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?
Why might people be reluctant to change the way they study?