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A Level Art Inspiration (A2)

12:38

A* A2 LEVEL ART SKETCHBOOK So here we have it. Here are some images from my A2 Level sketchbook! DETAILS: Exam board: Edexcel Unit ...

12:38

A* A2 LEVEL ART SKETCHBOOK

So here we have it. Here are some images from my A2 Level sketchbook!

DETAILS:
Exam board: Edexcel
Unit 3: Creative Study
Unit 4: Growth and Evoloution
Essay: 3,000 words (This was a compulsory part of my course but I will devote a whole separate post to this don't worry)

TIPS:

1. Showing your working out

2. Experimentation

3. Finding inspiration

3. Development

(Some of these tips are the same as GCSE and AS, in fact they're all applicable to each stage of your academic art career!)

I received 100% over the course of my A Level so I managed to tick every box for this particular book as well as those that preceded it. Hopefully this will be of some service to you my dear readers!

I can't say that i'm a fan of watercolour but it's important you try everything! Also different brands of water colours can really impact your paintings so make sure when you find a set that it's a good quality one. I brought a water colour set from pound land once and the colours were terrible and awfully faint.

Keep doing studies of other artist's work. The water colour down below is one from Agnes Cecile.
Check out her YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/agnescecile/videos?spfreload=10

I'd say one of the most successful water colour images I did. This was after significant practice though and a few rather dodgy attempts!

Below this painting was done in oils and I can safely say when painting portraits it is genuinely one of the best mediums. It takes days to dry though so I'd advise you paint on a separate sheet and stick that in your book after it's dried otherwise you won't be able to do anything in your book for days.

This is what I mean when I talk about taking the time to show your working out. It's not pretty and yeah it looks rather scruffy but do you know what it shows? That you are thinking, exploring and developing. The story board down below, that is constant throughout my book with every short test film I made, really enhanced my book and ticked the boxes I needed for that coveted A*.

Post cards, post cards everywhere! Sometimes even if the link can seem a bit tenuous it's much better to have post cards then to not. If anything, these little images printed on fancy card that can sometimes be charged at relatively unreasonable and extortionate prices, are evidence that you took the time and effort to go and visit galleries and exhibitions.

This, as opposed to what you might think, is actually a photograph that's been painted on. I was inspired by a series by the Chapman Brothers entitled 'one day you will no longer be loved', poignant hey? Anyway the series focused on the degradation of a bunch of classical paintings which I felt worked well with the theme 'growth and evolution' .

Extensive photoshop experimentation. This counts too!

Pencil here! I believe I used 6B, HB, 2B and 5B. Basically all the Bs.

Charcoal and chalk here, not my favourite medium as it's quite difficult to work with when you're attempting to do very intricate stuff but hey, all in the name of experimentation.

Pencil here. All the Bs once again.

Have you ever seen a professional photographer's desk? If you haven't I can almost certainly, without any real proof, state that he/she has got a contact sheet on there somewhere. Contact sheets are super easy to print out and a great form of experimentation as they show all those different uses of light and posing you exploited (well hopefully exploited, if you've just got someone staring at the camera and 50 images of just that, well that might get a bit dull). What's also great to do, and this links in with development, is to cross out and circle the images that you dislike or really like. This is what a lot of pros do it before they choose their final photos and it makes you look oh so fancy too.

You don't just have to experiment with one different medium at a time, how about two? In this case photography and red ink!

If you would like to see the entire A2 sketchbook click the link down below for the entire video! Good luck!

A Level Art Inspiration (AS)

14:07

A* AS Level Sketchbook DETAILS : Exam board: Edexcel Unit 1: Transformations Unit 2: Growth and Evolution TIPS: 1. Annotate 2. ...

14:07

A* AS Level Sketchbook

DETAILS:
Exam board: Edexcel
Unit 1: Transformations
Unit 2: Growth and Evolution

TIPS:
1. Annotate
2. Primary Research
3. Development
4. Visit Exhibitions and Galleries
5. Experimentation

Unit 1 for me started off with a bunch of homework tasks to get us started on the theme transformations. These were not my favourite and I didn't create any particularly nice pieces out of them as I really didn't like the limitations it put on my imagination.

The only good thing I got out of these homework tasks were some of these pencil sketches below: Can you guess who they are?

I did this oil pastel as part of my one of my homework tasks as well. Oil pastels are much like charcoal in that they can be quite difficult when it comes to doing really intricate stuff. I haven't had much practice with this medium and I think this comes across somewhat in my Degas study but all the same, not bad for a first attempt.

Below here's where all my stuff started, grim and macabre that's me to the bone!

I did these little sketches of directors and photographers when I was doing pages on their work. These weren't particularly necessary but I felt it gave the pages just that extra pizzaz. Tim Burton comes up again in my book so watch out for that. Love this guy!

Jean-Pierre Jeunet (great director you should check him out!)

Theses two below are studies from my own photographs and I feel this is something examiners really like as it demonstrates your own personal development.

Look down below, see all that planning? The storyboard, the script, the schedule and even the rough notes are exactly what examiners want to see. THIS is what I mean by development; showing how you are working towards your final piece and how much planning and work this entails.

As well as the pre-production process I also thoroughly documented the production process. If you will be creating a film it's always beneficial to get a friend to take pictures while you shoot so you have a range of behind the scenes images to put in your book.

Document hair and make up too! TAKE PICTURES OF EVERYTHING!

Post production is a pretty important part of the film making process so it's great to have screen shots of the editing process. I used MAGIX Movie Edit Pro and After Effects for editing. Sometimes with these programs it can be hard to find your way around, especially when you get into more complicated arenas of editing, but if you practice before hand you'll get a lot better at it don't worry.

UNIT 2 Sketchbook - Covert and Obscure
I went full on creepy from the start with this sketchbook!

Contact sheets!!! These are really easy to print out and I wish I found out about this earlier instead of cutting out mini squares like I did in previous books; that was the most tedious thing I have ever had to do. It's not about cutting corners but finding out what methods are most time efficient and effective!