Natural forms as the basis for the teaching of design in Secondary Schools and Training Colleges

Most Students and their teachers in the second cycle institutions are aware of the fact that Changes hale taken place in all aspects of the arts as far design is concerned, making necessary revisions and extensions in the training of the young artist. In our schools, there is no emphasis on locking in order to see and experience lent- rather there is too much stress cm looking merely to verify already existing facts. Therefore there is no incentive for the student to be innovative and his power of invention is destroyed. In all, five particular factors play major roles to the Changes that have occurred in the idea. about creative activity which also affect ideas of training that is; arriving at the idea that information derived from our own experience can be considered more valid for our expressive resources; that information which we gain from the knowledge of the nature of our materials and their uses is seen as very important that a visual art is dependent on the expressive and Constructive use of the specific ideas of vision; that personal experience form inescapable base of individual expressions and aesthetic decisions; that art is not based on a number of Static Concepts but changes and extends its boundaries in response to the changing situations. The result can be summarised as follows. The training needs to develop personal enquiry on the basis of practice, not theory, seeking always the individual solution to each problem. To meet the demand for revision of our attitude to initial training, courses like Basic Design have been introduced into many schools of art; bat critical analysis of the nature of those Courses has been a iffic.lty. Therefore Basic Design is in danger of creating new art fore of geometric abstraction and graphic design. It cannot be over emphasised that the Basic Design should be; an attitude of mind, not a method; primarily a form of enquiry, not a new art form; not only an enquiry about materials used, bet also an enquiry about the Sources, terms of personal expression and reaction to the society; emphatically not an end in itself bet a means of making individual more aware of the expressive resources at his disposal. To start on a creative visual experience, we need to start from marks made by tools and materials at our disposal. A visual art is concerned with mark to be seen. The mark must be made with an implement and in a material or medium. The implement be it stick, pen, chalk or brush, will make marks peculiar to its structure and nature. An appreciation of the character and nature of these a mark is necessary to any attempt to build up a design in the medium. It therefore becomes a good training to make drawings of the construction after they have been made and occasionally to make drawing first and then to attempt to build from the information given in the drawing. Design, therefore is a means of ordering line, dot shapes and texture to give unity and consistency to a work of art and to allow the observer understand it. The artist develops methods of or arranging the visual element, dots, line colour, texture, space, light, dark, smooth and rough in a manner related with ideas and feelings in designing. Writing under the topic Natural Forms as the Basis for Design Teaching in Secondary School and Training Colleges, it is meant to direct student attention to other sources of design making and to diversify the sources of design making in the teaching of Art. Again, it is intended to encourage and inspire students to use natural forms or objects in the environment as basis for making designs. The justification is to help students to have other sources of improving their knowledge in design making and to help design programme in secondary school and training colleges to be more interesting.

Source: KNUST