Do You Have to Every Piece of Art for Ap Art
Last Updated on Feb 8, 2017
Looking for fine art project ideas? A theme for loftier school fine art boards? Whether specialising in Painting, Graphic Blueprint, Photography, textiles or Sculpture, most senior high school Fine art students brainstorm by selecting a topic for their portfolio, coursework or exam project. It is a decision that many find difficult, whether due to a lack of inspiration, an disability to discern between two or more than possible ideas or a general misunderstanding well-nigh the type of topic that is appropriate. Below is a pace-by-step guide that IGCSE, GCSE, A Level Art students (and those from many other high school Art qualifications) may use to assistance brainstorm, evaluate and select an outstanding subject, topic or theme for their high school Fine art project.
Pace ane: Brainstorm Ideas
- Write down all subjects, themes, places, things, activities or bug that are personally relevant and that thing to you(even random, unexpected things, such equally a the art room sink, or heirloom knives and forks in your kitchen drawer). The purpose of any artwork is to communicate a bulletin: to comment or scream or sing near the world in which we find ourselves in. If there is no emotion behind the piece of work, there is no driving force – zilch to straight and shape your decision making. Write down the things that you intendance well-nigh; that movement you.
- Include topics that are unusual, challenging, controversial, gritty or inspiring: those that fill you lot with passion. Students who select substantial, heartfelt problems that they really believe in are more likely to achieve great results than those who cull aesthetically pleasing but superficial subjects. A tried and true subject tin still exist approached in an individual and innovative way, but choosing a topic that is novel and fresh has certain advantages. Strong, contentious issues are those which the assessors themselves accept a reaction to; they provoke an emotive response. Such topics make the markers and moderators sit down up and have notice: information technology gives them ample opportunity to see the merit within your work. (Instance shown below:Photography Coursework folio boards by Louise Hutt).
Painting Coursework folio boards past Lauren Day from Green Bay High School:
Painting Coursework final slice past Hera Lorandos from St. Lawrence College:
Painting Coursework folio boards past Michaela Coney of Waiuku Higher:
Note: For inspiration about how to present your brainstorming, yous may similar to view How to make a Mind Map: creative examples for loftier school Art students.
Step 2: Evaluate your ideas
Think carefully about the topics that you have written down. Use the flowchart at the terminate of this article to evaluate your ideas.
- Eliminate those which are 'cheesy' (i.e involving pink hearts and Brad Pitt), insincere (i.due east. a theme of 'World Peace', when really this is something you couldn't care less most) andoverly "pretty" or lacking in substance (i.east. bunches of roses). This doesn't mean that a traditionally 'beautiful' subject cannot be successful, (see the cupcake instance beneath by a educatee from Sir William Ramsay School – image sourced from Dan China), but think advisedly before proceeding with such a topic.
- Eliminate those subjects which you are unable to explore first-hand. In social club to create artworks, you lot will need admission to loftier quality imagery. For case, if y'all are exploring the way in which humans kill animals in order to consume their meat, admission to the inside of a shambles or abattoir/freezing works is probable to be essential. Reliance on photographs taken past others is rarely a adept idea. No matter how awesome a theme appears, if you are unable to explore any aspect of it immediate, it is very unlikely that you will be able to do the topic justice. Remember that you will likely need to render to your source imagery several times during your high school course, and so a submission based upon a item found that merely 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 platonic GCSE, IGCSE or Art A-Level subject is one that y'all can physically render to, whenever y'all demand – to draw, photo or feel commencement-hand.
- Remove the topics for which the source material is excessively simple, i.e. containing only a few forms, textures and patterns. A small pile of paper-thin boxes, for case, might inspire a nifty cartoon, but if this is the starting point for an entire year'southward As or A2 work, the directly lines, rectangular forms and flat box surfaces are unlikely to provide enough visual variety to explore for months on cease. Overly busy source material, on the other hand, is not an upshot – it is much easier to simplify form and item than it is to add back in.
- Eliminate those topics for which the source material lacks artful entreatment . Do non mistake 'aesthetic appeal' for pretty. In fact, some of the 'ugliest' things tin can be stunningly rendered in an artwork or design. Art teachers (and artists in general) often speak of finding the beauty in the ordinary or mundane: seeing the magic in that which others have discarded or forgotten (see the electrical plug painting below by Amy Thellusson fromNotting Hill and Ealing Loftier Schoolhouse) . This does not hateful, however, that annihilation is suitable for your A Level topic. Some scenes are genuinely unattractive and unsuitable visually. Sure object combinations (due to their item shapes, colours or textures) are extremely hard to etch in a pleasing way. Similarly, some items – particularly disproportionate drawings or designs past others – are very challenging for a high schoolhouse pupil to replicate. A drawing, for example, of a doll that is proportioned unusually, may announced to exist an inaccurate, desperately proportioned drawing of an ordinary doll. In other words, the examiner may not realise that the doll is proportioned desperately – they may think yous simply cannot draw. (If you discover ascertaining the aesthetic potential of your ideas difficult, discuss this further with your art teacher. Alternatively, y'all are welcome to join the discussion in our forum).
- Eliminate topics which are mutual or over-done (unless you accept an original style of approaching this topic) . It doesn't thing if some others have explored the same topic equally you… With the millions of people in the world, it is highly unlikely that you lot will be the simply ane to explore a item theme (in fact, this is benign, as you tin learn from others…and no one will make fine art exactly like you lot), but, if Everyone is doing it – if it is a topic that the examiners have seen a hundred times earlier, you should retrieve carefully about whether you have something sufficiently new and original to say almost it.
- Ensure that the topic yous choose is something that y'all actually care about and which can sustain your involvement for a year. If you accept more than 1 topic left on your list, choice the thing that you lot care about the most.
A Level Photography piece by Kate Dunn from Cobham Hall School:
Painting Coursework page boards by Melanie Nieuwoudt from Green Bay High School:
A quick guide for evaluating ideas
The data in this article has been summarised in a flowchart, which can be used as a quick tool to evaluate GCSE, IGCSE and A Level Fine art ideas. The top section of the diagram contains general areas to trigger brainstorming; the bottom outlines the evaluation process.
Summary
A good GCSE, IGCSE, NCEA or A level Art coursework topic keeps you enthusiastic, creative and eager to create more than. It eliminates the demand for slavish self-discipline. It opens the door for you get a 'real' artist – making art about what matters to y'all.
Comments
When outset published, this article received over eight hundred comments from students looking for direction and assistance with their high school art projects. Southward ome of these comments accept been published below. It is hoped that the answers provide valuable insight for others.
Levi:I am struggling with a theme for my fine art A2 Level Unit iii. I was wondering if you can propose. I was thinking of 'seasons' but cannot detect much information or artists to enquiry and this is important considering I have to write an essay on the artist. I practise not think this is a theme with plenty data. I did very well in my AS Level and got an A on both units. They were on Natural Class (Fish) and Waterways. There was so much information on both these themes. I did the Day of the Expressionless festival for my GCSE and got an A*. I am trying to detect a theme which has lots of information but am struggling. Give thanks you for your help.
Amiria: Firstly, I want to stress that the most of import factor should be how personally relevant your theme is: the quantity of data available on this topic is much less crucial. The truth is that these days – with the prevalence of information available on the cyberspace – information technology is very rare to observe a topic which you are unable to find sufficient fabric. If yous are finding information technology hard to source data that relates to a 'seasons' theme, this may exist because yous are being too full general in your investigations. I propose that you retrieve most what aspect the topic you are most interested in… For example, are you merely drawn to aesthetic aspects, i.east. tawny autumn leaves or a barren winter scene…or do you lot wish to bear a more than theoretical investigation – i.e. exploring ideas of regeneration / bike of life etc? Once you lot have narrowed it down (hopefully to something that is gritty, meaningful and personal) brainstorm Google searches for artwork that fits this specific field of study. Hopefully this will provide you with more than results.
If yous would like to abandon the seasons theme birthday, and wish to starting time with something new, it is difficult for me to make suggestions equally I don't know your interests and the possibilities are endless! If y'all are really stuck, accept something ordinary – and do something unusual to it. For example, one of my nigh contempo students took fruit, waited until it rotted and decayed…and then strung them upwards on the classroom wall using nails and cord. She and then took barbarous and cute photographs of these, and began the most intricate and detailed drawings and paintings. There were many painters of fruit whose work was helpful to her. There was too an endless supply of crazy, gimmicky mod artists whose exploratory use of media was of relevance.
Forget about quantity of data. If you care enough about something, you lot volition be able to write an outstanding essay with ease.
What moves you? What matters to yous most in the earth?
SOPHIA:I'm most to begin my AS Art and we have been asked to produce work over the summer on the topic they have given us. Although I won the fine art prize terminal year I am struggling with ideas for our theme which is Manmade. I like fine fine art and my previous works have been detailed forms of nature including horses, plants etc. To starting time with I accept been looking at Leonardo da Vinci and have been inspired by his sketches of human beefcake, simply I don't know how to develop this into my own ideas keeping within the Manmade topic. As well after reading your tips I realise it has to convey emotion. Help!
AMIRIA:Hi Sophia, thanks for your question. Your enjoyment of drawing natural forms, horses, plants and human anatomy drawings suggests y'all particularly like curving, organic forms – possibly with a preference (at this stage) for realistic delineation. There are plenty of 'Manmade' items that also fit into this category, i.due east. curving architectural forms; ornate utensils / kitchenware (old kettles etc); woven baskets; intricate jewellery pieces… If yous do a Google paradigm search on 'curving organic form' you lot get a good idea of the huge range of beautiful man made forms that fit into the artful you lot seem to like… which could thus form the basis of an AS portfolio. The possibilities, however, are endless, so it is better to inquire yourself what things actually matter to you – what do you desire to communicate to the globe? Your piece of work is often best driven non simply by an emotion, but by a message (which will and so provoke an emotional response in you and viewers). What bothers you? What enrages you? One time you have an idea, y'all tin then beginning to recall about ways of exploring this aesthetically…
ABIGAIL: Hello! I am really struggling to detect ideas for my theme of mural this yr. Last year I received an Excellence for my NCEA Art board which was to do with humans and birds. My fine art often surrounds humans and animals but I cannot do that with the theme this year and so I am actually stuck! I was thinking of doing Rural vs Urban just as I am in love with Venice and other historical buildings that I feel the need to pigment them for my fine art board!! I don't know how I could incorporate these ideas (rural, urban, historical buildings) or if y'all have whatsoever other ideas for the theme of Landscape information technology would be MUCH appreciated! Thank you!
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 purlieus where the two run across? It is possible that historical buildings could play a office in an urban/rural theme if yous looked at, for example, vines/creepers itch over bedraggled buildings / nature taking dorsum a manmade structure etc. However, such interpretations are reasonably common and don't seem to exist that personal – i.eastward. historical buildings seem to exist something a teenager might like aesthetically, but don't appear to have much personal relevance (correct me if I am wrong).
When thinking well-nigh a 'landscape' theme, remember that the give-and-take landscape tin be interpreted quite widely…i.e. it doesn't necessarily limit you to 'pretty' outdoor scenes, merely could involve digital/virtual landscapes and how these interact with the physical earth…or perhaps human despair / disenchantment manifested in dirty, graffiti-filled urban alleyways. Whatever the case, equally suggested in my responses to the above 2 questions, yous need to begin by identifying issues that really thing to you and using these every bit the starting point for exploring mural. For example (this is only a random idea, to illustrate the point), you might be 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 then brainstorm to explore this idea through the depiction of schoolyard landscapes – focusing perhaps on grid-like patterns (repetition of rectangular classroom windows etc) in dreary asunder architecture. As your work progress, yous might finish upwards abstracting the architectural forms in an effort to better represent/communicate/express your ideas.
If you detect it easier to start with a physical subject area and let the ideas catamenia from there, then select something unusual and interesting. Not a pretty building or a valley containing flowers – but perhaps a cattle carcass decomposable in long grass or a smashed up car abandoned on a verge. It's not the macabre is necessarily more appropriate than pleasant imagery, merely that the world is already filled with a million depictions of pretty landscapes. Unless you are an absolutely amazing artist,you are doing yourself a disservice by selecting a mutual, 'pretty' discipline. And even if y'all are absolutely amazing, it can be far more exciting to pick something unusual and crazy!
HAYA:Hey! I'm having a problem choosing a topic with my five folio (Every bit Level) portfolio. I prefer natural over manmade. Any idea as to what I can base my v pages on? So far I've been working on different postures of the man body wrapped with drapery in an attempt to symbolise repression – a characteristic well known to myself as I'chiliad a repressive person. Throughout my work, the truthful identity of the model is hidden. I was wondering if my topic needs to be adult whatever further? Also, I was thinking of basing my piece of work on something manmade…but I don't know what I could mayhap do under manmade. Your site is absolutely awesome. Cheers for all your help!
AMIRIA: I really like your repression theme. Information technology has a lot of potential. Y'all could explore such things as the results of repression and whether this damages yous / makes you lot withdraw or put up facades / conceal your truthful personality etc. The theme may lend itself to using acrylic gel mediums etc to achieve 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 be developed further without seeing your work – but the trunk of piece of work as a whole should show development…from a starting bespeak towards a resolved piece of work. If your project seems to exist simply repeating the same subject 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 style to move frontward if you are stuck.
You might like to select manmade items that are connected to both fabric and ideas of repression …i.e. metal buckles on article of clothing and stitched ties / cords / zips etc – all of which invoke ideas such as tying shut / restraining / confining etc. These objects have more than structure and rigidity than merely draped fabric and the man form (and would thus provide you with some welcome variety) but besides can exist tied in nicely with your earlier themes. Good luck!
ASHLEIGH:For my AS Art I am doing Urban Decay. It has to have some kind of story developing through to the end simply I cannot remember of anything????
Amiria:There are many possibilities… Literal interpretations, such as an area of town that is physically falling into busted and has some sort of history or story fastened to it…i.e. perhaps a thriving industrial area that became disused for some reason and and then became overtaken by graffiti / vandalism etc. Alternatively you could explore notions of communities being dispersed due to computers …i.e. the desertion (decay) of traditional urban social centres (i.e. malls / movie theatres) due to people favouring internet-based interactions from the warmth of their own homes…
Peradventure you lot could zoom correct and look at things on a near molecular level…extreme close-ups, visually analysing, for case, the rust and erosion that creeps across metallic surfaces – or mites that eat into timber. These could lend themselves to beautiful abstruse works. The 'story' in this instance might be to do with the circle of life and how physical forms are transient and illusory with no clear boundaries…the ebb and catamenia of atoms etc…
Another choice might be the beauty in disuse? Discovering something that has rotted away only to expose something beautiful…
INAPICKLE:Howdy! I have to COMPLETELY rethink my original idea for my folio board (NCEA Level 3) and I'yard actually struggling for conceptual ideas. At the moment my new idea is the loss of innocence/complete mental devastation and changed perception of the world through the experiences of state of war, told from a 3rd person point of view with a solider equally the main character (like a narrative). Likewise weaved into that thought is the idea of being so easily manipulated/brainwashed by the government into existence only a playing slice/slaughtered in their 'game' of war.
Assistance! I need your communication, am I on the right track? Or am I completely off?? I fear that the thought is style too cliche AND I'1000 also unable to take photos of the discipline affair first paw…
AMIRIA: Your ideas are non new, as such, in that others have explored them before, just I don't retrieve they are cliché. In that location is a slight risk that they could be presented in an obvious, literal 'this is what I am maxim' type way, but this applies to most topics.
In terms of firsthand subject matter, I would be hesitant about only using 3rd party images – and would be particularly careful if they are just commonly available photographs (i.e. those off the internet). You should use offset mitt subject matter if at all possible. For example, exercise yous have relatives who were in a war? Can yous get hold of any of their former memorabilia? Peradventure you could accept photographs at a museum or an old bunker? If you lot were thinking more along the lines of Americans in Iraq etc, then newspaper clippings / mag articles – perhaps televisions or reckoner screens with online news stories – could exist used as physical objects in themselves (i.e. with you initially creating a pile of photographs or pinning articles to a wall…so cartoon them, with all the creases / shadows / iii-dimensional elements). You could even take images and digitally superimpose them onto other surfaces (i.e. notice a demolished building or something that appears to exist some war scene ruin type thing…photograph it beautifully, then digitally superimpose other war based images over the top of it…
There are some instances where tertiary party source material is appropriate (usually when the resulting piece of work is a far divergence from the initial images)…merely I would exist hesitant. Discuss it carefully with your instructor. They will know your work and whether it will work for your state of affairs.
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 exist as well superficial or non like shooting fish in a barrel for others to sympathise, to the point where I'm thinking of redoing my boards. My theme correct now is Arizona (desert), which was inspired past a dream I had of an open up road journey. The paintings that I have already washed have a lot of vast open spaces to show freedom, buffalo skulls and nighttime colours which depict death of the state, a main character (a daughter), her tattoos and an old schoolhouse car. 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'm trying to evidence)? I am also worried that I might be trying to cram besides many themes or ideas into one making it complicated. Any ideas or pointers would be such a life saver.
AMIRIA: Hi Kimiko.Your theme sounds absurd and crazy (in a skilful way), but information technology seems to bring together a whole range of elements and ideas, so it doesn't surprise me that yous are floundering a little.
Firstly, I merely want to check whether you have (or take had) firsthand access to any of your bailiwick affair? Have you been to the Arizona desert? Have you seen and photographed real buffalo skulls? Is the automobile a real one that you have access to? Is the girl you? Fifty-fifty if these things are ultimately depicted in fashion that is stylised and surrealistic, it helps immensely to take quality source material the beginning. Could you substitute cow skulls for buffalo skulls (your school science dept should take some)? You want the examiners to believe that this is something personal to y'all – yous don't want them to suspect yous accept produced the whole affair from second mitt imagery sourced off the net. At that place have been some good folios based on second hand imagery – i.e. pictures from comic books – but these are rare, and in these cases the students cleverly manipulate the prototype to 'brand them their ain'.
The 2nd thing that concerns me a little is the large range of objects/scenes within your work. For most students, condign proficient with the representation of just one or two items inside a year's work is enough of a challenge, allow alone trying to become competent at cartoon landscapes, bones, human figures, cars, and (now possibly) animals all at the same time. I would probably refrain from introducing a coyote, particularly if this is something that has not appeared anywhere elsewhere in your board for this reason…but it is difficult to say without seeing your work. If you are a strong drawer and can cope with a wide range of forms, it might be appropriate, equally long as it could exist integrated seamlessly inside your lath. What does your teacher think?
The existent issue at paw, all the same, is whether you accept established what your work is actually most. If information technology is hard for others to understand, it may be because y'all have not fully defined yourself what you are trying to say. You mention that you are trying to draw a dreamlike state, and as well freedom and expiry of the land, just how are these things continued? Your art needs to be more than a simple delineation of a landscape you dreamed about, with hinted emotion. It needs to have a real message and purpose. What was the dream actually about? What is the purpose of the landscape? What is the artwork trying to say?
Once you lot have established this, it should be easier to know how to continue with your work. For example, if yous are trying to communicate the thrill and fearful freedom that might follow an apocalyptic catastrophe (that is the result of humanity'southward careless mental attitude towards protecting our planet, for example), with the earth is 'wiped make clean' and the landscape as we know it gone, leaving humans complimentary of the shackles of modern society and eking out a primitive existence etc… then little details in the desert sand could give hints at what happened and what has been lost – perhaps collaged littered remnants of society… The expressions, wearable and tattoos on the girl could likewise all contain clues well-nigh what has happened…
JADE:I'm having a little difficulty deciding on a projection for my A2 Fine Art project. I begin this project in September only we have been advised to showtime brainstorming ideas and collecting relevant sources during the summer holidays to contribute to the development and stability of my projection. This project is basically a personal experimentation projection, so I can literally do anything for this project which is why I'm struggling slightly to find an idea. I am generally quite an indecisive person unfortunately! And so when I think of an thought, it has to exist one in which I experience I will not ever get bored of and a project that essentially can be broadened. In my previous projects, I've always had problem with keeping with projects consistently flowing. I tend to eventually run out of different ideas!
I have been thinking almost doing 'the seven deadly sins' as a project, and I've done some research on this topic. Personally, I call up this could be an interesting theme to explore. However, my business organization is that my own inquiry and gathering of sources (i.e. original images) may exist limited. If you have whatsoever suggestions I would be very grateful. If you lot also have any other suggestions for me going in a different direction or topic, I would also much appreciate whatsoever ideas. I enjoy painting, sketching, chalk and I love mixed media work. I'd similar to find a projection in which I tin can comprise all mediums.
Thanks for your time, i'm sorry this post is then long! I find this site very helpful and encouraging, and so thanks.
AMIRIA:Well washed for beginning your preparation early – your instructor will be very happy! My feeling is that the 7 deadly sins is a very broad topic. Fifty-fifty just one of the sins would be 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 find one that is really important to you (on an emotional level, not just an intellectual level). For example, you could choice gluttony if yous (or someone you are shut to) struggles with dieting/eating/weight; or greed if people y'all are shut to work themselves into the basis in hunt of money, whilst sacrificing other aspects of their lives (i.e. a father who is e'er at the function and doesn't spend time with his family); or green-eyed if there is something you desperately long for…or someone who you see is existence 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 employ many mediums – this is a great idea for all topics. Experimentation and trialling a range of mediums is beneficial for all topics, so don't permit this worry or influence your topic option.
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Amiria has been an Art & Design teacher and a Curriculum Co-ordinator for seven years, responsible for the course design and assessment of student work in ii high-achieving Auckland schools. She has a Available of Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Architecture (Offset 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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