Eight journeys from Sutton to Centenary Square

After the group of illustration students had hand-made their own drawing books and decided on their own individual ways of recording their surroundings using a range of illustration process, the students came on a day trip to walk from Spaghetti Junction to the new library at Centenary Square in Birmingham. While walking alongside Birmingham and Fazeley Canal the students did not only stop at various points of their journey to record their urban surroundings, but they also had the opportunity to find out more about the vital role that the canal system had played in Birmingham's industrial past. Each student's outcome is one of the many stories that will be told over the course of the next year as part of Outline's initiative called City of 1000 stories.

The group of illustration students at the start of the day's journey.

 Students recording their urban surroundings in their hand-made books.

 Individual pages taken from the final books.

Two examples of final books, which record in a visual way the journey the students made from Sutton Campus to the new library at Centenary Square.

Our final destination for the day was the new library, which is currently being build at Centenary Square.

Unusual Journey

A large panoramic drawing exploring the less obvious side of Birmingham during a walk underneath spaghetti junction, telling a different story to the glossy outward facing refurbished Birmingham. The drawing is a large horizontal piece about 12 inches high.

Another unusual journey following random pieces of battered pipework collaged together from different sites around the city. Not evident from the photograph is the scale of this drawing which is over 6ft high. Drawings produced by the first year level 3 illustration group .

Seminar with Robert Perry at Outline

Robert Perry RBSA was the first artist to visit outline for the city of 1000 stories project. Rob was the perfect guest speaker to launch the project because of his life and work. As an artist from Birmingham he has travelled throughout Europe to draw and paint landscapes that bare the marks of two world wars. He has become a popular character in France bringing his Birmingham background and experiences to the people of northern France whilst returning to Birmingham with fresh insights from his contact with French culture and our shared tragedies that lie in the brutal past.

Robert Perry at work in Aveluy Wood, 7th Feb. 2000

Robert Perry - The Somme Battlefields 1914-18, Setting sun in Trenches

Robert Perry - The Somme Battlefields 1914-18, Trenches in Aveluy Wood

Robert Perry brought with him a box full of relics, which he had found or he was given by local farmers during his excursions across Europe.

Workshop with Robert Perry at Outline

A couple of days after the seminar Robert Perry RBSA gave up some of his precious time to run a day-long workshop with a selected group of art and design students from courses across the art and design department. After the Outline seminar with Robert it became apparent that students wanted to find out more about the great variety of processes and techniques Robert uses in his work. Therefore the workshop with Robert was highly anticipated by our students, as it gave the students the chance to learn from Robert's great wealth of experience as a fine artist and historian.

Robert Perry RBSA during his demonstration of different drawing processes.

After Robert presented his work that he had done at several World War sites across Europe during his Outline seminar, the students used images, newspaper clippings, battle maps and war poetry as inspiration for their own artwork.

Robert Perry RBSA and the group of students during their final critique at the end of the day. 

Many thanks to Robert Perry RBSA, who gave up his time to come in and share his extensive knowledge as a travelling artist with the students. Further images of the student's work can be seen in the next post.

Workshop with Robert Perry at Outline, part 2

This post is showcasing the fantastic work that was produced in the day-long workshop with Robert Perry RBSA. 

In the afternoon we also welcomed a small group of students from BMAPA, which is the performing arts department of the college. The BMAPA students are currently rehearsing for the play "Oh, What a Lovely War" by Charles Chilton, which will shortly be performed by the students at the Old Joint Stock in Birmingham. Upon seeing the work that was produced during the workshop with Robert, the performing arts students express their interest to feature some of the work that was produced as part of  their performance.