Art Seed Bank
The Art Seed Bank is a collection of short invitations to create, to think about art, to try something different.
Choose from the ever expanding seed catalogue, and watch your seed grow.
Seed:Indirect Selfie
Take a series of photos of yourself indirectly, using only reflections, shadows, etc.Think about context, where are you, what is in the picture, what story does it tell?Think about composition, how have...
Seed: What is Beautiful?
Make a pair of images, one ugly, one beautiful.Explain why one is beautiful and the other is ugly.What does this tell you about your aesthetic sensibility?Are you willing to be reconsider what is beautiful?
Seed: Variation of Hues
Make a collection of things, or the traces made by things, of varying hues of the same colour family.Arrange your collection into a composition. Document it. Give it a title.(A hue is a range of tones...
Seed: Under your Feet
Select a small square section of the ground and meticulously record what you see.This could be in nature or urban, inside or outside.Establish a point of view, like looking from above.
Seed: Multiples of One
This could be different shaped leaves, different bus tickets, kinds of teabags, tubes of toothpaste... find or collect; you can solicit but do not buy.When you have a good number of things create a method...
Seed: Mapping your hand
Cup your palm and look into your hand at all the wrinkles formed.Draw the lines with a sharp pencil or fine liner pen, like a complex roadmap, just the internal lines without the outline of your hand.
Seed: Found Frottage
Look for examples of low-relief patterns around you, in architectural details, natural or manmade objects, anything with a raised texture.Record them with rubbings ( frottage) using a peeled crayon, graphite...
Seed: Drawing from TV
While you are watchin...pause the movie when you see a screen that captures you visually.Draw from the paused screen for 4 /5 minutes in the dark, using colored pencils, pens, or try brush pens.
Seed: Design a Shrine
Design an altar or shrine of your own imagining. It does not have to be religious but it should have some significance that makes it sacred to someone or something.Draw your plan and explain why.
Seed: Cross cultural collage
Start with a decent quality print or photocopies of a classic work of art.Cut and paste, combining with another image from a different culture or time, from a magazine for example.Combine the images to...
Seed: Changing Light
Choose a building or a landscape in your area, draw it in chalk pastel or charcoal at 3 different times of day, observing the changing light. Artist link : Claude Monet paintings of Rouen Cathedral or Haystacks.
Seed: Shadow Painting
Using a cast shadow to help you get started An easy way to begin a painting... the composition and shapes are already there for you. Be experimental with this, treat it as a way in and see where it leads...
Seed: Portrait with Clothing
Choose a real person as your model or a photo of someone dressed in a particular way. How does the way the person is dressed express her identity?Paint a portrait of this person where the clothing is a...
Seed: Abstract Body
Take a black and white photograph of a part of your own body ( i.e. your arm, leg, chest) that has an abstract feel, not easily recognizable for what it is.This could be become a series of photos, think...
Seed: Real vs Reproduced
Do you often draw from a photograph or even from an image on your phone? This is an exploration of how we see what is in front of us, and how a photographic image differs from what we perceive with our...
Seed: Seeing Space
This exercise is to help you look at objects in terms of positive and negative space, and in doing so you become more aware of shape and the space around shapes, one of the fundamental elements of art.
Seed: Shadow Assemblage
Assemblage: art that is made by assembling disparate elements – often everyday objects – scavenged by the artist or bought specially. _Tate termsMaterialscreate an abstract or naturalistic 3D assemblage...
SEED: Photographing Contradictions
This assignment explores how we percieve emotions through images and challenges our associations tied to certain types of images. You will take a series of photographs that communicate an emotion that...
Seed: Creepy Ink Drawing
Make a drawing that allows the expressivity of the materials and mark making to communicate the nature of your object. Experiment with the material, don't try to be neat, messy is the point!Choose an...
SEED: Deterioration and Transformation
Create a still life of something that will self transform over a period of time.This could be perishable substances; fruit, flowers etc. or it could be something that collapses or melts (ice, wax, snow,...
Seed: On the Edge
Explore the state of precariousness through an artwork.Construct something that is on the edge of collapsing or falling apart, but does not. You can use whatever materials are on hand, no special art...
Seed: On the Grid
This activity explores how a grid can create structure or provide the impetus for a drawingGrid: A pattern or structure made from horizontal and vertical lines crossing each other to form squares
Seed: Overlapping Drawings
This drawing exercise develops awareness of design, composition, shape and space through the simplicity of pure contour drawingChoose a selection of several everyday objectsMake a contour drawing with...
Seed: Bearing Witness
The challenge is to make a work that responds to feelings and events without falling into generalizations or cliche's ( i.e. depicting a gun= violence).... Being super specific about your topic helps,...
Seed: Daily Drawing
draw anything, try drawing your feet, like this beautiful study here by Leonardo da VinciMeasured Study of a Footc. 1490-9290 x 70 mmRed chalk on paperRoyal Collection, Londonnot into feet?...sketch a...
Seed: Patchwork Viewpoint
Make a drawing that expands over time and space. Start with a room in your house. Choose an object in the environment, for example something on the table, and begin to draw it, letting your eye lead you...
Seed: Disappearing Act
It may exist for a few seconds or an hour, a day, a week, whatever.You can use any materials you like, natural or man made. It could be a drawing in the sand that the waves wash away, ice that melts,...
Seed: Fluid Ink Washes
Capture the momentTry this technique as an alternative to charcoal figure drawing for a loose fluid and calligraphic result. India Ink, a soft brush and a stack of paper is all you need. India ink can...
Seed: 23 of Me
Rather then make a picture of yourself, describe yourself with a collection of 23 small objects, drawings or photos that tell a personal story. 23 is the number of pairs of chromosomes we each have.
Seed: Memorial
Design a Memorial to commemorate something or someone.A memorial can range from a simple object ( think of offerings left at graves or holy sites: a flower, a pebble, a candle) to an elaborate, large-scale...
Seed: A Body Map
This seed takes inspiration from Body mapping as an arts based therapy using visual symbolic forms of expression.MaterialsLie down on the paper, position yourself as you wish, and have a friend draw an...
Seed: Modern Miniatures
Create a miniature painting of a scene with a person engaged in some aspect of contemporary culture that you wish to comment on. Aim for around size A5 (15 x21 cm).Materialsgood quality watercolor paper
Seed: Draw, Record, Erase, Record
Make a moving charcoal drawing All you need is some rough toothed drawing paper, willow vine charcaol, a kneaded rubber eraser, a smart phone or dslr camera, and an idea for a sequential event. This can...
Seed: Selfie-Transformation
Here is an invitation to photograph the transformation of your own image. You may use whatever means you wish: costumes, make up, digital manipulation.This is in a sense the opposite of a Selfie, you...