I Got an F on My Art Project Video
Last Updated on February 8, 2017
Looking for art project ideas? A theme for high schoolhouse art boards? Whether specialising in Painting, Graphic Design, Photography, textiles or Sculpture, most senior loftier school Fine art students begin past selecting a topic for their portfolio, coursework or examination projection. It is a decision that many find hard, whether due to a lack of inspiration, an inability to discern between 2 or more possible ideas or a general misunderstanding about the blazon of topic that is advisable. Below is a step-past-step guide that IGCSE, GCSE, A Level Fine art students (and those from many other loftier school Fine art qualifications) may use to assist brainstorm, evaluate and select an outstanding subject, topic or theme for their high school Art project.
Step 1: Brainstorm Ideas
- Write downwards all subjects, themes, places, things, activities or issues that are personally relevant and that matter to y'all(fifty-fifty random, unexpected things, such as a the art room sink, or heirloom knives and forks in your kitchen drawer). The purpose of any artwork is to communicate a message: to comment or scream or sing about the globe in which we find ourselves in. If there is no emotion backside the work, there is no driving force – nothing to direct and shape your conclusion making. Write down the things that yous care about; that move yous.
- Include topics that are unusual, challenging, controversial, gritty or inspiring: those that fill you with passion. Students who select substantial, heartfelt bug that they really believe in are more probable to achieve great results than those who choose aesthetically pleasing but superficial subjects. A tried and true subject can still exist approached in an private and innovative way, but choosing a topic that is novel and fresh has certain advantages. Potent, contentious bug are those which the assessors themselves have a reaction to; they provoke an emotive response. Such topics make the markers and moderators sit down upwards and take notice: it gives them ample opportunity to see the merit within your work. (Example shown below:Photography Coursework folio boards by Louise Hutt).
Painting Coursework page boards past Lauren Day from Green Bay High School:
Painting Coursework final piece by Hera Lorandos from St. Lawrence College:
Painting Coursework page boards by Michaela Coney of Waiuku College:
Note: For inspiration about how to present your brainstorming, you may similar to view How to make a Mind Map: creative examples for high school Art students.
Footstep 2: Evaluate your ideas
Call up carefully about the topics that y'all have written downwardly. Use the flowchart at the end of this article to evaluate your ideas.
- Eliminate those which are 'cheesy' (i.eastward involving pink hearts and Brad Pitt), insincere (i.e. a theme of 'Earth Peace', when really this is something you couldn't care less about) andoverly "pretty" or lacking in substance (i.e. bunches of roses). This doesn't mean that a traditionally 'beautiful' subject cannot exist successful, (see the cupcake example below by a educatee from Sir William Ramsay School – image sourced from Dan Red china), simply think carefully before proceeding with such a topic.
- Eliminate those subjects which you are unable to explore commencement-hand. In order to create artworks, you will need access to high quality imagery. For case, if you are exploring the manner in which humans kill animals in order to consume their meat, admission to the inside of a butchery or abattoir/freezing works is likely to be essential. Reliance on photographs taken by others is rarely a skillful idea. No affair how awesome a theme appears, if you are unable to explore any aspect of it firsthand, it is very unlikely that yous will exist able to do the topic justice. Remember that you will likely demand to return to your source imagery several times during your loftier school course, so a submission based upon a particular constitute that only blooms for a couple of weeks out of the year or a view of your village during a rare wintertime snow storm is very risky. The ideal GCSE, IGCSE or Art A-Level subject is 1 that you can physically return to, whenever yous need – to draw, photograph or feel first-hand.
- Remove the topics for which the source material is excessively uncomplicated, i.e. containing only a few forms, textures and patterns. A small pile of paper-thin boxes, for example, might inspire a great drawing, but if this is the starting bespeak for an entire year's AS or A2 work, the straight lines, rectangular forms and flat box surfaces are unlikely to provide plenty visual diverseness to explore for months on end. Overly busy source material, on the other manus, is not an issue – information technology is much easier to simplify class and detail than it is to add dorsum in.
- Eliminate those topics for which the source material lacks artful appeal . Do not fault 'artful entreatment' for pretty. In fact, some of the 'ugliest' things can exist stunningly rendered in an artwork or blueprint. Art teachers (and artists in general) often speak of finding the dazzler in the ordinary or mundane: seeing the magic in that which others take discarded or forgotten (encounter the electrical plug painting below by Amy Thellusson fromNotting Hill and Ealing Loftier Schoolhouse) . This does non mean, however, that annihilation is suitable for your A Level topic. Some scenes are genuinely unattractive and unsuitable visually. Sure object combinations (due to their particular shapes, colours or textures) are extremely difficult to compose in a pleasing style. Similarly, some items – peculiarly asymmetric drawings or designs by others – are very challenging for a loftier school student to replicate. A drawing, for instance, of a doll that is proportioned unusually, may appear to be an inaccurate, badly proportioned drawing of an ordinary doll. In other words, the examiner may non realise that the doll is proportioned desperately – they may think you merely cannot depict. (If you detect ascertaining the aesthetic potential of your ideas difficult, discuss this further with your art instructor. Alternatively, you are welcome to join the give-and-take in our forum).
- Eliminate topics which are mutual or over-washed (unless you take an original mode of approaching this topic) . It doesn't matter if some others have explored the aforementioned topic as you… With the millions of people in the world, it is highly unlikely that you volition be the only one to explore a detail theme (in fact, this is benign, every bit you can learn from others…and no i will make art exactly similar you), only, if EVERYONE is doing it – if it is a topic that the examiners accept seen a hundred times before, you lot should think advisedly about whether you take something sufficiently new and original to say most it.
- Ensure that the topic you choose is something that yous really intendance about and which can sustain your interest for a year. If you have more than one topic left on your list, pick the matter that you care about the about.
A Level Photography piece by Kate Dunn from Cobham Hall Schoolhouse:
Painting Coursework folio boards past Melanie Nieuwoudt from Green Bay Loftier School:
A quick guide for evaluating ideas
The information in this article has been summarised in a flowchart, which tin can be used as a quick tool to evaluate GCSE, IGCSE and A Level Art ideas. The acme section of the diagram contains general areas to trigger brainstorming; the lesser outlines the evaluation process.
Summary
A proficient GCSE, IGCSE, NCEA or A level Art coursework topic keeps you lot enthusiastic, creative and eager to create more. Information technology eliminates the need for slavish cocky-bailiwick. It opens the door for you become a 'real' artist – making art about what matters to you.
Comments
When first published, this article received over eight hundred comments from students looking for direction and assistance with their high schoolhouse art projects. S ome of these comments have been published below. It is hoped that the answers provide valuable insight for others.
Levi:I am struggling with a theme for my art A2 Level Unit 3. I was wondering if yous tin advise. I was thinking of 'seasons' but cannot find much data or artists to research and this is important because I have to write an essay on the artist. I do non think this is a theme with enough information. I did very well in my Equally Level and got an A on both units. They were on Natural Grade (Fish) and Waterways. There was and so much data on both these themes. I did the Day of the Dead festival for my GCSE and got an A*. I am trying to find a theme which has lots of information but am struggling. Give thanks you for your help.
Amiria: Firstly, I desire to stress that the near important cistron should be how personally relevant your theme is: the quantity of information available on this topic is much less crucial. The truth is that these days – with the prevalence of information available on the internet – it is very rare to notice a topic which you are unable to discover sufficient cloth. If you are finding it difficult to source information that relates to a 'seasons' theme, this may exist because you are being too general in your investigations. I suggest that you remember about what aspect the topic y'all are near interested in… For example, are you merely drawn to aesthetic aspects, i.e. tawny autumn leaves or a barren wintertime scene…or do you wish to conduct a more than theoretical investigation – i.e. exploring ideas of regeneration / wheel of life etc? In one case you have narrowed it down (hopefully to something that is gritty, meaningful and personal) begin Google searches for artwork that fits this specific bailiwick. Hopefully this volition provide you with more than results.
If y'all would like to abandon the seasons theme birthday, and wish to get-go with something new, information technology is hard for me to brand suggestions as I don't know your interests and the possibilities are endless! If you are really stuck, accept something ordinary – and do something unusual to it. For example, one of my most recent students took fruit, waited until it rotted and rust-covered…then strung them up on the classroom wall using nails and string. She so took savage and beautiful photographs of these, and began the almost intricate and detailed drawings and paintings. There were many painters of fruit whose work was helpful to her. There was also an countless supply of crazy, contemporary modern artists whose exploratory use of media was of relevance.
Forget about quantity of data. If you intendance enough virtually something, y'all will be able to write an outstanding essay with ease.
What moves you? What matters to y'all nigh in the world?
SOPHIA:I'm about to begin my AS Fine art and we have been asked to produce work over the summer on the topic they take given us. Although I won the art prize final yr I am struggling with ideas for our theme which is Manmade. I similar fine art and my previous works have been detailed forms of nature including horses, plants etc. To start with I have been looking at Leonardo da Vinci and have been inspired by his sketches of homo anatomy, merely I don't know how to develop this into my ain ideas keeping within the Manmade topic. Likewise later on reading your tips I realise information technology has to convey emotion. Help!
AMIRIA:Hello Sophia, thanks for your question. Your enjoyment of drawing natural forms, horses, plants and human anatomy drawings suggests you particularly like curving, organic forms – perhaps with a preference (at this phase) for realistic delineation. At that place are plenty of 'Manmade' items that likewise fit into this category, i.e. curving architectural forms; ornate utensils / kitchenware (old kettles etc); woven baskets; intricate jewellery pieces… If you lot do a Google prototype search on 'curving organic form' you get a proficient idea of the huge range of cute homo made forms that fit into the artful yous seem to like… which could thus form the basis of an AS portfolio. The possibilities, even so, are endless, so it is better to ask yourself what things really matter to y'all – what do you want to communicate to the globe? Your piece of work is often best driven not just by an emotion, but by a message (which will and then provoke an emotional response in you lot and viewers). What bothers yous? What enrages you lot? Once you accept an idea, you can then start to think about ways of exploring this aesthetically…
ABIGAIL: Howdy! I am actually struggling to notice ideas for my theme of landscape this yr. Final twelvemonth I received an Excellence for my NCEA Art board which was to do with humans and birds. My art often surrounds humans and animals but I cannot do that with the theme this yr then I am actually stuck! I was thinking of doing Rural vs Urban simply equally I am in love with Venice and other historical buildings that I feel the demand to paint them for my fine art board!! I don't know how I could comprise these ideas (rural, urban, historical buildings) or if you take whatever other ideas for the theme of Landscape it would be MUCH appreciated! Thanks!
AMIRIA: What particular aspect of a Rural vs Urban theme would you focus on? The encroachment of urban sprawl on the rural environment? Conflict at the boundary where the two meet? It is possible that historical buildings could play a function in an urban/rural theme if you looked at, for example, vines/creepers crawling over bedraggled buildings / nature taking back a manmade structure etc. However, such interpretations are reasonably common and don't seem to be that personal – i.e. historical buildings seem to exist something a teenager might like aesthetically, but don't announced to take much personal relevance (right me if I am wrong).
When thinking well-nigh a 'mural' theme, remember that the word landscape can exist interpreted quite widely…i.e. information technology doesn't necessarily limit you to 'pretty' outdoor scenes, just could involve digital/virtual landscapes and how these interact with the physical earth…or peradventure human despair / disenchantment manifested in muddied, graffiti-filled urban alleyways. Whatever the case, as suggested in my responses to the above two questions, you need to begin by identifying issues that really affair to you and using these equally the starting point for exploring landscape. For case (this is just a random idea, to illustrate the indicate), y'all might exist disenchanted with the rigidity of school life and how the pedagogy arrangement has been reduced to spoon feeding students with small capsules of information. You could and then begin to explore this idea through the depiction of schoolyard landscapes – focusing perhaps on filigree-like patterns (repetition of rectangular classroom windows etc) in dreary disconnected compages. As your work progress, yous might cease up abstracting the architectural forms in an endeavor to better represent/communicate/express your ideas.
If you find it easier to start with a concrete bailiwick and permit the ideas flow from at that place, and then select something unusual and interesting. Not a pretty edifice or a valley containing flowers – but mayhap a cattle carcass decaying in long grass or a smashed upwardly automobile abandoned on a verge. It'southward not the macabre is necessarily more than appropriate than pleasant imagery, but that the world is already filled with a million depictions of pretty landscapes. Unless you are an absolutely astonishing artist,y'all are doing yourself a disservice by selecting a common, 'pretty' subject. And fifty-fifty if you are absolutely amazing, it tin be far more heady to pick something unusual and crazy!
HAYA:Hey! I'grand having a trouble choosing a topic with my five folio (AS Level) portfolio. I prefer natural over manmade. Any idea as to what I tin can base my five pages on? So far I've been working on different postures of the human trunk wrapped with drape in an attempt to symbolise repression – a characteristic well known to myself equally I'm a repressive person. Throughout my work, the true identity of the model is subconscious. I was wondering if my topic needs to exist adult any further? Also, I was thinking of basing my work on something manmade…simply I don't know what I could possibly practice nether manmade. Your site is admittedly awesome. Give thanks you for all your help!
AMIRIA: I really like your repression theme. It has a lot of potential. Yous could explore such things equally the results of repression and whether this damages yous / makes you withdraw or put up facades / conceal your true personality etc. The theme may lend itself to using acrylic gel mediums etc to attain transparency and translucent layers…exploring what is seen / what is not seen / what is hidden etc.
It is difficult to say whether your topic needs to exist developed further without seeing your work – but the body of work equally a whole should prove development…from a starting point towards a resolved piece of work. If your project seems to be simply repeating the same discipline from a different angle etc it is time for ideas / compositional strategies to be resolved. Looking to other artists for inspiration is often the best way to move forward if you are stuck.
Y'all might like to select manmade items that are connected to both fabric and ideas of repression …i.e. metallic buckles on clothing and stitched ties / cords / zips etc – all of which invoke ideas such as tying close / restraining / circumscribed etc. These objects have more structure and rigidity than merely draped fabric and the human course (and would thus provide yous with some welcome variety) but besides can be tied in nicely with your before themes. Good luck!
ASHLEIGH:For my AS Art I am doing Urban Disuse. It has to take some kind of story developing through to the end just I cannot think of anything????
Amiria:In that location are many possibilities… Literal interpretations, such as an area of town that is physically falling into disrepair and has some sort of history or story attached to it…i.eastward. maybe a thriving industrial area that became disused for some reason and and then became overtaken by graffiti / vandalism etc. Alternatively yous could explore notions of communities existence dispersed due to computers …i.east. the desertion (decay) of traditional urban social centres (i.east. malls / picture theatres) due to people favouring internet-based interactions from the warmth of their own homes…
Mayhap you could zoom correct and wait at things on a virtually molecular level…extreme close-ups, visually analysing, for case, the rust and erosion that creeps beyond metal surfaces – or mites that consume into timber. These could lend themselves to beautiful abstruse works. The 'story' in this example might be to exercise with the circle of life and how physical forms are transient and illusory with no clear boundaries…the ebb and flow of atoms etc…
Another option might exist the dazzler in disuse? Discovering something that has rotted away merely to expose something beautiful…
INAPICKLE:Hi! I accept to COMPLETELY rethink my original idea for my page board (NCEA Level three) and I'chiliad actually struggling for conceptual ideas. At the moment my new idea is the loss of innocence/complete mental destruction and changed perception of the globe through the experiences of state of war, told from a tertiary person point of view with a solider as the main character (like a narrative). Besides weaved into that thought is the idea of being so hands manipulated/brainwashed by the government into existence merely a playing piece/slaughtered in their 'game' of state of war.
Help! I need your advice, am I on the correct rail? Or am I completely off?? I fearfulness that the idea is fashion too cliche AND I'k also unable to take photos of the subject matter first paw…
AMIRIA: Your ideas are non new, as such, in that others have explored them before, but I don't recollect they are cliché. There is a slight risk that they could exist presented in an obvious, literal 'this is what I am saying' type way, just this applies to well-nigh topics.
In terms of immediate subject field matter, I would be hesitant about only using 3rd party images – and would be specially conscientious if they are merely unremarkably available photographs (i.e. those off the cyberspace). You should utilise outset hand subject affair if at all possible. For instance, do yous have relatives who were in a war? Tin yous go concord of whatsoever of their former memorabilia? Perhaps you could take photographs at a museum or an former bunker? If you were thinking more forth the lines of Americans in Iraq etc, then newspaper clippings / mag articles – perhaps televisions or figurer screens with online news stories – could be used as concrete objects in themselves (i.e. with y'all initially creating a pile of photographs or pinning articles to a wall…and then drawing them, with all the creases / shadows / 3-dimensional elements). You could even take images and digitally superimpose them onto other surfaces (i.east. find a demolished building or something that appears to be some war scene ruin type affair…photo it beautifully, and so digitally superimpose other war based images over the top of it…
There are some instances where third party source material is appropriate (usually when the resulting work is a far departure from the initial images)…just I would be hesitant. Discuss information technology advisedly with your teacher. They will know your work and whether it will work for your situation.
KIMIKO:I've recently started my NCEA Level 3 Painting board and I'm very confused and muddled with ideas. I'm worried that my theme may be besides superficial or not easy for others to understand, to the point where I'grand thinking of redoing my boards. My theme right now is Arizona (desert), which was inspired by a dream I had of an open road journeying. The paintings that I have already done have a lot of vast open spaces to testify freedom, buffalo skulls and dark colours which depict death of the land, a main character (a girl), her tattoos and an old schoolhouse machine. I program on making my second board more surreal and reintroducing this coyote as a spirit guide (maybe this would create the more dreamlike qualities I'thousand trying to show)? I am also worried that I might be trying to cram too many themes or ideas into i making information technology complicated. Any ideas or pointers would exist such a life saver.
AMIRIA: Hi Kimiko.Your theme sounds cool and crazy (in a good fashion), but it seems to bring together a whole range of elements and ideas, so information technology doesn't surprise me that yous are floundering a little.
Firstly, I just want to check whether you take (or have had) firsthand access to any of your subject field affair? Have you been to the Arizona desert? Have you seen and photographed real buffalo skulls? Is the automobile a existent 1 that you have access to? Is the daughter y'all? Even if these things are ultimately depicted in way that is stylised and surrealistic, it helps immensely to take quality source material the beginning. Could you lot substitute cow skulls for buffalo skulls (your school science dept should have some)? You lot want the examiners to believe that this is something personal to you – you don't want them to suspect y'all take produced the whole matter from second mitt imagery sourced off the internet. There have been some good folios based on second hand imagery – i.e. pictures from comic books – simply these are rare, and in these cases the students cleverly dispense the prototype to 'make them their own'.
The second thing that concerns me a picayune is the large range of objects/scenes within your work. For most students, becoming expert with the representation of just ane or two items within a year's work is plenty of a challenge, permit alone trying to get competent at drawing landscapes, bones, human figures, cars, and (now possibly) animals all at the same time. I would probably refrain from introducing a coyote, especially if this is something that has non appeared anywhere elsewhere in your board for this reason…simply information technology is difficult to say without seeing your piece of work. If you are a strong drawer and can cope with a wide range of forms, it might be advisable, as long as it could be integrated seamlessly within your board. What does your teacher retrieve?
The real effect at hand, however, is whether you have established what your piece of work is actually about. If information technology is hard for others to understand, it may be because you have not fully defined yourself what you are trying to say. Y'all mention that y'all are trying to describe a dreamlike state, and too freedom and decease of the land, simply how are these things connected? Your art needs to be more than a simple depiction of a mural you dreamed almost, with hinted emotion. It needs to accept a real bulletin and purpose. What was the dream really most? What is the purpose of the landscape? What is the artwork trying to say?
Once you have established this, it should be easier to know how to go along with your work. For example, if yous are trying to communicate the thrill and fearful liberty that might follow an apocalyptic catastrophe (that is the outcome of humanity'south devil-may-care attitude towards protecting our planet, for example), with the world is 'wiped clean' and the mural equally nosotros know information technology gone, leaving humans gratis of the shackles of mod gild and eking out a archaic existence etc… so little details in the desert sand could requite hints at what happened and what has been lost – perhaps collaged littered remnants of society… The expressions, wear and tattoos on the girl could also all contain clues about what has happened…
JADE:I'm having a picayune difficulty deciding on a project for my A2 Fine Fine art project. I begin this project in September just we accept been advised to commencement brainstorming ideas and collecting relevant sources during the summertime holidays to contribute to the evolution and stability of my project. This project is basically a personal experimentation projection, then I can literally do annihilation for this project which is why I'thou struggling slightly to find an idea. I am more often than not quite an indecisive person unfortunately! And then when I call up of an idea, it has to be ane in which I experience I will not ever get bored of and a projection that essentially tin be broadened. In my previous projects, I've ever had problem with keeping with projects consistently flowing. I tend to eventually run out of different ideas!
I have been thinking nearly doing 'the seven deadly sins' as a project, and I've washed some research on this topic. Personally, I think this could be an interesting theme to explore. However, my business is that my own research and gathering of sources (i.e. original images) may be limited. If you lot have whatever suggestions I would be very grateful. If you besides have any other suggestions for me going in a different direction or topic, I would also much appreciate any ideas. I enjoy painting, sketching, chalk and I love mixed media work. I'd like to discover a project in which I tin incorporate all mediums.
Thank you for your time, i'thousand sorry this mail is so long! I find this site very helpful and encouraging, so thank you.
AMIRIA:Well done for beginning your preparation early – your instructor will be very happy! My feeling is that the seven deadly sins is a very wide topic. Fifty-fifty but one of the sins would exist sufficient for an A2 theme. It is much better to have a narrow, well executed body of piece of work, rather than a broad project that is scattered and incoherent. The key to picking a topic is to discover one that is actually of import to you (on an emotional level, not just an intellectual level). For example, you could choice gluttony if you (or someone you lot are close to) struggles with dieting/eating/weight; or greed if people y'all are close to work themselves into the ground in chase of money, whilst sacrificing other aspects of their lives (i.eastward. a father who is always at the office and doesn't spend time with his family); or green-eyed if there is something you badly long for…or someone who you run across is being destroyed by envy etc… In other words, exist driven by an issue that is really relevant in your life.
In terms of your desire to use many mediums – this is a smashing idea for all topics. Experimentation and trialling a range of mediums is beneficial for all topics, and then don't let this worry or influence your topic pick.
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Amiria has been an Art & Design instructor and a Curriculum Co-ordinator for 7 years, responsible for the course design and assessment of student work in two loftier-achieving Auckland schools. She has a Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Architecture (First Class Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching. Amiria is a CIE Accredited Art & Blueprint Coursework Assessor.
Source: https://www.studentartguide.com/articles/a-level-art-ideas
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