The Art Course

Oeneus

Is it just me or is the Art course just completely stupid?

All of the exams that we have to do don't necessarily prove artistic talent.

There is this one where we have to draw someone posing in 10 minutes, and in my opinion 10 minutes isn't enough time to sharpen the damn pencil! What are you going to prove in 10 minutes? The only thing you can really achieve is speed, which is totally irrelevant in terms of art.

For me to produce a decent workpiece can take at least 2 days.

I would of thought they would ask you to do a project over something like a 2 month period in the same fashion as you would in the Engineering course.

And what is the use of learning Art History. Nothing really unless your interested in it. And we've pretty much covered the interesting stuff so I'm starting to lose motivation.

But why does one have to learn about Art History to be a good artist, and to get a good grade?

For example, you could be the most ass kicking Artist in the whole damn school, but hate the History, therfore not getting the grade, then going on to become a talented Hobo!

Cabaal

If you think 10min is'ent long, you better not go to art college where you gota draw something in 30sec or less.

Regarding the good grade, good grade dos'ent matter much, well ok it does
But to be honest alot of Art students are accepted into art colleges on there portfolios before they even do the LC Art exam.

But I will admit the DOE Art Course is'ent perfect and has a good few problems but its all you've got to work with atm.

havok*

Originally posted by Cabaal
you better not go to art college where you gota draw something in 30sec or less.

Wtf are u on ?

Oeneus i completely agree, I'm repeating and doing art for the first time this year. From school i've learned next to nothing, while from part time art classes once a week i've picked up tons.
Tbh the lc is a dated system.
I also think the way art is marked is ridiclus, marked off the best?
So basicaly if u go to a school with **** artists ur garanteed an A1?

Cabaal

The LC is a dated system, thats been proven many a time.

But complaining about having to draw something in 10 min's is just stupid when things do get harder down the road.
And drawing something in less time is part of many art courses thats all I'm saying. and yes the art exams are marked badly I'll admit that.

Stephen

I did the leaving last year, and I have to say that I did enjoy the LC art course - even some of the history. All the boring stuff about old churches and sh1te didn't interest me, but I found the more recent things like impressionists and irish artists and the like very interesting.

One thing that really annoyed me though, was my class. Most people in my class were utter wasters who just picked art as a subject because they thought it was easy/required no work. As a result, most of the time in class was spent sitting there doing nothing whilst the art teacher went insane screaming and roaring at the muppets.

(I got a B btw)

Oeneus

Originally posted by Stephen
As a result, most of the time in class was spent sitting there doing nothing whilst the art teacher went insane screaming and roaring at the muppets.

(I got a B btw)

That sounds just like my Art Teacher, it's scary. She stormed out of the classroom one time. She's quite old, too. She says that she is leaving next year and she is blaming it on the muppets in our class.

Cabaal

I guess I was the lucky one
Class I went to was'ent disruptive and everyone was doing Art because they had some interest in it (yes including me!) not because it was some easy class.

Unfortunatly Art wasn't a subject in my school (all boys school) so I had to go across to road to other secondary school (all girls school) for my classes about twice a week.

Just for those of you woundering htf I got away with doing Art and all that, well I gave up Irish in 2nd year and took up Art instead cause I figured if I'm gona do a subject I might as well do one I have a hope of getting good marks in.

Oeneus

Dude, If I could use Art as an excuse to be the only bloke in an All girls school, hell you are one lucky Biatch!:D:D

Cabaal

Hay I still had to do work ya know

None the less I got to go on Art trips in 4th & 5th year tp Dublin en stuff which was great (for artistic reasons of course) :cheeky:

Ah when I think back I really did'ent take advantage of the situation as much as I should have, oh well

the good old days, man I feel old....

saik

I agree , the lc art course is arse - it does not make sense. It is not what it should be - a continuation of the stuff you did in the jc.
the jc course had projects so it was a fairer assessment of what you could do. According to the DOE, the same project based system is intended for the lc course. Unfortunately they (still?) have not got around to implementing it. I can see why people strongly disagree with the current system.
However, having done art for my leaving cert , it was an enoyable subject and i liked the history part especially. My class was "good", badly behaved, but interested in art, many of them have gone on to study it in college.
The exams suited me, as i'm a lazy f*cker, but able to draw well, and i don't use rubbers (something to do with all the biro scribbling i did in maths/chemistry etc) so did quite well in the timed exams. (the bits i fell down on were the preparing/planning bits) overall i got a b3 - scoring best in history and timed exam/life drawing.
Last year they ****ed the history paper up, which was upsetting, and they didn't award full marks for the question they made a balls of. It's indicative of how the department cba with art.

anyway: about the history section, I believe it's called "history and appreciation of art". Being able to draw well is one thing, but to understand and appreciate art is another. It makes the difference between a good painter/scetcher and a good artist. I think this is why it is on the course.

Cabaal

Not sure if it was last year or the year before (it was one of them) but I happened to be looking through the exam papers and I think it was ordinary level.

Anyway one of the questions went along the lines of:
The most important thing when designing a webpage is colours & something else (can't remember wtf other thing was) design a webpage.

I had a serious problem with that question, how the hell can Art even come into webdesign like that and the most important thing about any webpage is content and EVERY webdesign book/site will telll you that.
Content is king!

So basically this question was wrong from the start, not a good idea for the DOE to talk about stuff it dosn't know about IMHO

Ok maybe I'm just nit picking at this stage ..

Monkey

The art course is terrible. I hated doing it. This mightsound silly it was so academic. They treat it like just another subject but it's different.

Plus there is mention of a portfolio which you will need to get into art college - Art for the leaving cert should probably be portfolio and should be based on work that has been done throughout the year and on a theme chosen by the student.

And the art history part should be reformed - we learnt about Newgrange, Georgian Dublin, Bronze artifacts, high crosses etc.. but there was little to no mention of inportant irish artists such as Francis Bacon, Jack Yeats and Louis Le Brocquy. There isn't really a long standing tradition in irish art so we shouldn't try and fabricate one by studying traditional craftwork. There is far more to gain by studying the work of more recent artists like those mentioned previously.

It felt like wasted time for me and my class was also full of wasters.

havok*

Originally posted by saik

anyway: about the history section, I believe it's called "history and appreciation of art". Being able to draw well is one thing, but to understand and appreciate art is another. It makes the difference between a good painter/scetcher and a good artist. I think this is why it is on the course.

Yeah, that appreciation question's a lifesaver for the written exam.
My class this year is fairly small, only 7 (4 girls and 3 lads) do art, so @ least u can get a fair bit of attention. Only thing is the teacher's fairly p4nts imo

I Hear the results from DIT & DL portfolio submission are back early may, any1 been told a date ?