Homework This Week

These are the homeworks set for Mr. Bird's classes this week:

Year 10 GCSE Art and Applied Art

Make a portrait of yourself expressing an emotion.
Use the guide sheet to help you. You can access the guide sheet by clicking here.

Year 8 Learning Pathway

Sketchbook presentation: complete the following tasks.

Spend 20-30 minutes checking your sketchbook and getting it ready for marking.
Use the 'Checking your sketchbook' sheet to help you.You can access the sheet online by clicking here.

Student Artwork of the Week

21st-25th March 2011

Two pieces of work this week- one 3D and one 2D, by Year 7 and 8 students respectively.

Alex, Year 8: Cubist Portrait of Dave Grohl

This painting was made by Alex, who made two drawings of the rock star Dave Grohl from different angles. He then combined the drawings into one, multi-angle image, and painted the result. His inspiration was the famous portrait, Weeping Woman, by Pablo Picasso.

Pablo Picasso: Weeping Woman, 1937

Jesse, Year 7: African Mask

This mask was made from clay by Jesse, Year 7, during his immersion day. What makes this work so great is the combination of realistic 3D elements, and traditional African-style decoration. A really mature piece of work.

GCSE Sketchbook Examples

GCSE students- Over the last few months you have produced some fantastic sketchbook work. I have collected some of the best examples below. 

All the work is beautifully presented. However, for each piece, I've also tried to explain which assessment objective it scores marks for. This is useful information to think about as you are putting together your sketchbook for the current project.

Remember, these are the assessment objectives:

AO1: Develop ideas by looking at the work of other artists. Show understanding of different artists and artistic cultures.


AO2: Improve your ideas by experimenting. Be able to select the best media, materials and techniques for the work you are making..


AO3: Record your ideas, your opinions, and information about your topic, and about artwork you have looked at.You can record these things visually, in words, or by any other appropriate means.


AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response to what you have studied. This should show your understanding and make connections with the project work in your sketchbook.

Sketchbook Titlepages- Matthew, Tamazyn and Kimisha

Titlepages are not hugely important, but you might score a few marks for AO3 by showing that you can record simple ideas about the topic. Mainly, a titlepage makes a great first impression- which is always a good thing.

Brainstorm- Jade

Interpretations of Colours- Jade

Mood board- Jade

In the three pages above, Jade will score marks for AO3 by recording her ideas about the topic in a variety of ways. She will also score some marks for AO2, because she has thought carefully about the method and materials she is using to present her thoughts.

Brainstorms- Tamazyn and Kimisha 

Like Jade's work, above, these brainstorming pages score marks for AO3. Notice, however, the different approaches to brainstorming from each student. Tamazyn's is based on key words, while Kimisha's is more visual. Both these approaches are equally good.

First-hand drawing from plants and flowers- Pooja

Preparatory drawing from photographs- Jessica

Both these drawings score marks for AO2, because by drawing you are experimenting and learning about media and materials. They also score marks for AO3, because the students are recording information from the world around them. However, Pooja's drawings will gain more marks for AO3, because they are first-hand drawings- drawings done directly from life.

Photography- Kimisha and Matthew

Another way to get marks for AO3 is photography. This kind of work scores lots of marks because it is first-hand information. Like drawing from life, it is information that the students have gathered personally, rather than researched from books or the internet.

First and second hand research on foliage- Pooja

The pages above are a really good example of a student thoroughly researching a topic. Pooja gathered leaves and made rubbings of them- this is first-hand research. She then added to this with some second-hand research- images found from the internet. She gains plenty of marks for AO3 by combining these two types of research.

Research into the painter Peter Doig- Ceren

Research into the tradition of linocut printmaking- Ceren

These two pieces of research score marks for AO1, because the student is gathering ideas based on other artists' work. Just researching the artist only scores a small number of marks, however. You gain more marks for AO1 when you begin to make your own work inspired by the artists you research.

Ideas development- Pooja

This work by Pooja gains marks for AO2, because she is trying out her visual ideas in different media, and improving them as she goes along. If Pooja can show that her ideas here have been inspired by an artist she has looked at, she will also get marks for AO1.

Homework This Week

These are the homework tasks set this week for Mr Bird's classes:

Year 10- Art and Applied Art groups
Complete the 'Shading a Face' worksheet. This will help you to build up skills for a self-portrait piece we will be doing next week. You can access the worksheet by clicking here.

Year 8 Pathway Art group

'Draw Something in Your Bedroom'. This is the third week of our drawing competition. The best drawing of an object from your room will win a prize. See the blog post from 28th February for hints and tips. 

Year 10 Library Lesson: Module 4

Year 10 pupils: You are going to be using the Library to carry out research on a number of artists of your choice. In order to carry out this research, you will be able to access books and internet sites to help you find the information you need.

Below is the slideshow with the information presented by Mr Iona.

Art Library Lesson

View more presentations from John Iona

In the window below, you will find the Livebinder put together with some key internet sources for you to begin your research:

Art websites

Below is the bibliography template. You can use this sheet to keep a record of the sources you use to help you in your research. Remember, the bibliography is a useful tool to help you avoid plagiarism and to show Mr Bird how much research you have done using good quality sources.

Open publication - Free publishing - More bibliography

Student Artwork of the Week

13th -18th March 2011

This week's artwork comes from a Year 10 GCSE student, and from a Year 8 immersion day.

Lulu, of 10 Sapphire, produced these two pieces for the beginnings of her GCSE Project 2 sketchbook. The first artwork is a titlepage for the topic, which is 'Emotion', while the second is a pencil drawing based on a photograph, which follows the same theme.

Lulu, 10 Sapphire- Titlepage for 'Emotion' Project

Lulu, 10 Sapphire- Pencil study

In their immersion day this module, Year 8 are studying the famous painting 'Guernica', by Picasso. Sultan and Deimante from 8 Opal and 8 Ruby made the preparatory drawings below in response to 'Guernica', combining Picasso's artistic style with their own lettering to express the emotions they saw in the painting.

The last image shows their final, life-size artwork, developed from the initial drawings. A very impressive piece of work!

Pablo Picasso- Guernica, 1937

Deimante, 8 Ruby- Preparatory Drawing

Sultan, 8 Opal- Preparatory Drawing

Sultan and Deimante, Year 8- Final response to 'Guernica'.

GCSE Sketchbook Annotation Sheet

This is a very useful sheet for all GCSE students. It's a writing frame that should help you to structure the annotations you make in your sketchbooks.

It's very important to explain each piece of artwork in your book with a small amount of writing, but it's easy to write the wrong things, and hard to use the right artistic language. Following the five headings and using the phrases on this sheet will make your annotations better, and help you gain marks.

You can access the sheet online by clicking here. I hope you find it helpful!

Student Artwork of the Week

7th - 12th March 2011


This week's artworks of the week come from the Year 8 learning pathways, and from 3Es.

This is a homework task by Piotr in 8 Ruby. He won this week's 'Draw Something in your Bedroom' contest with his drawing of a mounted figurine. Piotr's drawing has all the 'formal elements' we look for in a good drawing- line, tone, texture, proportion and perspective.

Piotr, 8 Ruby

The following drawings are by students in the 3Es Drawing Skills group. This week the pupils in this group were working on using line effectively. They made these drawings without taking the pencil off the paper in order to take their mind off producing a 'perfect' drawing,  and focus on making an interesting image with plenty of detail and texture.

Rutendo, 8 Amethyst

Shavel, 7 Amethyst

Georgia, 8 Sapphire

Well done to all these students!

Student Artwork of the Week

27th February - 5th March 2011

Some great artwork this week from both Year 10, who were beginning a GCSE project on the topic of 'Emotion', and Year 8, who are continuing a project about Cubism.

Year 8 Work
These students had examined Cubist-style images, which try to show an object from many different angles all at once. They made two observational drawings of a fruit or vegetable, one showing the inside, and one showing the outside. Then they cut up their drawings and amalgamated them into this inside/outside Cubist collage.

Shayleigh, 8 Emerald

Jade, 8 Topaz

Year 10 Work

The first two images here are sketchbook titlepages from the Applied Art group, based around the students' project title of 'Emotion'. The last picture is a final outcome painting from an Art and Design module 1 project.

Kimisha, 10 Amethyst

Matthew, 10 Opal

Pooja, 10 Amethyst

Well done to all the students whose work is featured here!

'Accessing' Tasks for Year 10

For those Year 10 students who would like to continue their 'accessing' project tasks at home, here are links to the worksheets for each task. Just click on the tasks below to bring up the sheets.

I hope this is useful for you all.

Mr Bird.


ACCESSING TASKS


Task 1: Produce a TITLE PAGE based around the project title of ‘Emotion’.

Task 2: Produce a BRAINSTORM based around the project title of ‘Emotion’.

Task 3: Produce a MOOD BOARD based around the project title of ‘Emotion’.

Task 4: Make an emotion COLOUR CHART.

Task 5: Take a series of PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHS based around different emotions.