WHAT SHOULD A GCSE Photography SKETCHBOOK CONTAIN?
A sketchbook is a creative document that contains both written and visual material. It is a place for researching, exploring, planning and developing ideas – for testing, practising, evaluating and discussing your project. It is the place where you learn from other artists and express and brainstorm ideas.
The sketchbook is an important part of your Coursework project. It shows the journey (or development) towards your final piece and usually contains:
· Drawings, diagrams, thumbnails, composition plans, paintings and/or designs (particularly those that are incomplete or experimental)
· Practise and trials of different techniques and processes
· A range of mixed mediums and materials
· Evidence of first-hand responses to subject matter and artworks, demonstrated through observational drawings, photographs and annotated pamphlets and sketches from exhibitions or gallery visits. (Note: If you are going to glue something in, evaluate it, discuss its relevance and explain how it helps to inform your own work)
· Digital printouts of relevant artist work
· Annotation (see below)
Note: The sketchbook should NOT be used as an all-purpose journal for doodling cartoon characters or scribbling notes to a friend. All work contained within your sketchbook must support your Coursework project as a whole.
HOW TO Write in A GCSE SKETCHBOOK
The following tips and guidelines should help you understand how to add quality notes to your pages:
· Reveal your own thinking and personal responses (rather than regurgitating facts or the views of others)
· Explain the starting points and ideas, emphasising personal relevance and your own connections to subjects
· Critically analyse and compare artwork of relevant artist models (both historical and contemporary artists, from a range of cultures). Discuss aesthetics, use of media, technique, meaning/emotion/ideas and the influence of an artist upon your own work. While it is important to conduct research into your artist models (and to convey an understanding of this information), avoid copying or summarising large passages of information from other sources. Instead, select the information that you think is useful for your project and link it with your own viewpoints and observations. Use research findings to make you sound clever and knowledgeable – to prove that you are aware of the artists and cultural influences around you – and to help you to critically evaluate artworks (by giving you background information and a peek into the mind of an artist): do not use it to fill your sketchbook with boring facts
· Demonstrate good subject knowledge, using correct vocabulary (phrases such as ‘strong contrast’, ‘draws the eye’ and ‘focal point’ etc)
· Reference of all images, artwork and text from other sources, ensuring that artists, websites and books are acknowledged (it should be obvious to an examiner which work is yours when viewing a page, so cite sources directly underneath the appropriate image. Photographs taken by yourself should be clearly labelled, so examiners know the work is yours and reward you for it)
· Communicate with clarity. It doesn’t matter whether you jot down notes or use full sentences, but never use ‘txt’ speak and try to avoid incorrect spelling, as this indicates sloppiness and can hint to the examiner that you are a lower calibre candidate
When annotating a GCSE or A Level Art sketchbook: WRITING WORDS about PHOTOGRAPHY:
· What subjects / themes / moods / issues / messages are explored? Why are these relevant or important to the artist (or you)?
· What appeals to you visually about this artwork?
· How does the composition of the artwork (i.e. the relationship between the visual elements: line, shape, colour, tone, texture and space) help to communicate ideas and reinforce a message? Why might this composition have been chosen? (Discuss in terms of how the visual elements interact and create visual devices that ‘draw attention’, ‘emphasise’, ‘balance’, ‘link’ and/or ‘direct the viewer through the artwork’ etc.)
· What mediums, techniques (mark-making methods), styles and processes have been used? How do these communicate a message? How do they affect the mood of the artwork and the communication of ideas? Are these methods useful for your own project?
· How does all of the above help you with your own artwork?
With NATURAL FORMS....click here for an idea for HOW TO GET AN A*
A sketchbook is a creative document that contains both written and visual material. It is a place for researching, exploring, planning and developing ideas – for testing, practising, evaluating and discussing your project. It is the place where you learn from other artists and express and brainstorm ideas.
The sketchbook is an important part of your Coursework project. It shows the journey (or development) towards your final piece and usually contains:
· Drawings, diagrams, thumbnails, composition plans, paintings and/or designs (particularly those that are incomplete or experimental)
· Practise and trials of different techniques and processes
· A range of mixed mediums and materials
· Evidence of first-hand responses to subject matter and artworks, demonstrated through observational drawings, photographs and annotated pamphlets and sketches from exhibitions or gallery visits. (Note: If you are going to glue something in, evaluate it, discuss its relevance and explain how it helps to inform your own work)
· Digital printouts of relevant artist work
· Annotation (see below)
Note: The sketchbook should NOT be used as an all-purpose journal for doodling cartoon characters or scribbling notes to a friend. All work contained within your sketchbook must support your Coursework project as a whole.
HOW TO Write in A GCSE SKETCHBOOK
The following tips and guidelines should help you understand how to add quality notes to your pages:
· Reveal your own thinking and personal responses (rather than regurgitating facts or the views of others)
· Explain the starting points and ideas, emphasising personal relevance and your own connections to subjects
· Critically analyse and compare artwork of relevant artist models (both historical and contemporary artists, from a range of cultures). Discuss aesthetics, use of media, technique, meaning/emotion/ideas and the influence of an artist upon your own work. While it is important to conduct research into your artist models (and to convey an understanding of this information), avoid copying or summarising large passages of information from other sources. Instead, select the information that you think is useful for your project and link it with your own viewpoints and observations. Use research findings to make you sound clever and knowledgeable – to prove that you are aware of the artists and cultural influences around you – and to help you to critically evaluate artworks (by giving you background information and a peek into the mind of an artist): do not use it to fill your sketchbook with boring facts
· Demonstrate good subject knowledge, using correct vocabulary (phrases such as ‘strong contrast’, ‘draws the eye’ and ‘focal point’ etc)
· Reference of all images, artwork and text from other sources, ensuring that artists, websites and books are acknowledged (it should be obvious to an examiner which work is yours when viewing a page, so cite sources directly underneath the appropriate image. Photographs taken by yourself should be clearly labelled, so examiners know the work is yours and reward you for it)
· Communicate with clarity. It doesn’t matter whether you jot down notes or use full sentences, but never use ‘txt’ speak and try to avoid incorrect spelling, as this indicates sloppiness and can hint to the examiner that you are a lower calibre candidate
When annotating a GCSE or A Level Art sketchbook: WRITING WORDS about PHOTOGRAPHY:
· What subjects / themes / moods / issues / messages are explored? Why are these relevant or important to the artist (or you)?
· What appeals to you visually about this artwork?
· How does the composition of the artwork (i.e. the relationship between the visual elements: line, shape, colour, tone, texture and space) help to communicate ideas and reinforce a message? Why might this composition have been chosen? (Discuss in terms of how the visual elements interact and create visual devices that ‘draw attention’, ‘emphasise’, ‘balance’, ‘link’ and/or ‘direct the viewer through the artwork’ etc.)
· What mediums, techniques (mark-making methods), styles and processes have been used? How do these communicate a message? How do they affect the mood of the artwork and the communication of ideas? Are these methods useful for your own project?
· How does all of the above help you with your own artwork?
With NATURAL FORMS....click here for an idea for HOW TO GET AN A*
Your Mood Board Collage for Natural Forms is your first task: ~Look at these links to see how creative you CAN BE: Click Here to start: CLICK
PHOTOGRAPHY SKETCHBOOK IDEAS – 16 INSPIRATIONAL EXAMPLES
CLICK HERE FOR A FULL GUIDE TO A BRILLIANT SKETCHBOOK!
The A3 Evidence Book must explore different artists and techniques. Think 'outside the box' and mix drawing/ painting/ mixed media collage with your photography.......as in this one on YOUTUBE:
- Guidance on Sketchbooks / Workbooks
Sketchbooks and / or workbooks should form an important part of the candidate Portfolio and the externally set task. Good practice shows that a sketchbook and / or workbook can underpin and offer a strong foundation for projects, tasks, themes and assignments. A sketchbook or workbook provides opportunities for enquiry, exploration and experimentation of visual and other sources and ideas. They may be presented in any appropriate format such as a visual diary, contextual notebook or design sourcebook.
A sketchbook / workbook should be regarded as a day-to-day companion that is personal to the candidate, providing ideas and potential starting points that may initiate and inform other portfolio activities. It should be essentially concerned with discovering and developing processes as the clearest independent indicator of connecting and personalising and providing evidence of a mature personal response.
Submitting the sketchbook / workbook as part of the portfolio
If a sketchbook / workbook relates directly to the final edited candidate portfolio, then the whole sketchbook / workbook can be submitted as an integral part of the submission.
However, there could well be pages within a sketchbook / workbook that do not relate to the portfolio submission. In this case, a candidate may want to guide the moderator to the work that relates specifically to the edited portfolio. This could by done by:
• using colour coded labels, book marks, paper clips or rubber bands to highlight work that is specifically applicable to the submission; • photocopying specific pages from the sketchbook / workbook;
• extracting specific pages from the sketchbook / workbook; • making a digital record of specific pages of the sketchbook and submitting as an e-sketchbook/workbook
The above approaches may be adopted, if applicable, for the externally set task as well.