#WeAreTogether - live drawing online
Monday, 18 May 2020
Lisa Clark is a Senior Technician within the School of Film, Theatre and Television. Usually she would be working closely with students to realise their set designs for the approximately forty performances that the school puts on each year. During the lockdown Lisa has been providing this support online as well as livestreaming art classes for local school children.
We caught up with Lisa to find out more about this:
“We decided to have an online theatre festival so I’m still supporting students but in a slightly different way. Instead of using theatres for set design I’ve asked them to be more creative and maybe think about using the space around them for a performance. Luckily, I have a ready-made film studio (or garden shed!) so have been able to film design techniques here for sharing. It’s been refreshing to have this challenge which has made me rethink how I interact with students and colleagues.
“I’d never worked from home before but, once I got my head around it, I found it wasn’t as difficult as I thought. It’s still about communicating – just in a different way. Using this experience has helped with The Art Shed, a project in which I livestream art classes. I draw a picture and people draw the same thing along with me. They can share their work in the comments section and I’ll encourage them in their progress. Drawing is for everyone and we can all get better with practice!
“Initially, I thought that this would be good for primary school children but this has broadened to include teenagers and adults as well. From a modest start of maybe 60 people coming to the sessions, there are now 240 attending. I’m really pleased to be able to give something back to the community.”
If you’d like to join Lisa in her live drawing classes you can do so via Lisa’s Art Shed group page.