Creative Statements for Component 1 and 2

Task:
You are to write your Creative Statement for Component 2. This is what the moderator requires to help them understand your project.

Download the Creative Statement HERE then look at the extra help and an example is HERE

Investigating using Photography

Objective
To gather further primary research for your Component 1 project. 
To enable those who feel drawing is weak to collect useful primary research.   
Within the mark scheme, AO3 states: 'Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to their intentions in visual and/or other forms.'

Task
1. Consider the subject matter for your project. Take a collection of 30+ photos that you could either edit and use in the final artefact or just use as drawing/illustration reference.
To get the best results from this task, be as creative as you can with your subject and composition. 
As an example, if you have a wise old wizard in your book—and don't have a wise old wizard to hand—dress up your friend/dad/self in a bed sheet, cardboard hat and long stick. Pose them in different, relevant positions. 
Or, look on YouTube for tutorials about how to create wise old wizard make-up. There are loads of tutorials (plenty of zombies) on make-up. Make sure you then photograph the 'making of' period.
You will get plenty of good results from using your initiative. 
Do not make excuses as to why you couldn't get interesting images, there is no excuse.

2. Screenshot the collection of thumbnail photographs. (see presentation above)
Print off and annotate -

• Note images that are good. This might be due to them being in focus, correct composition etc. 
• Cross out images that are not to be used. Out of focus, badly cropped, wrong position etc. 
• Write simple notes against the photos, 'out of focus', 'too far away' or 'too dark', 
• Make your annotations obvious - write in pink? 

Within the contact sheet presentation, comment on the following:

• What were your intentions for the shoot? Why take these images? 
• What are the successful elements, What worked well? 
• What were the unsuccessful elements? What didn't work well? 
• If you were to take these images again, what would you do to make them more suitable? 
• Do you believe that you have all the shots you need for the project? If not, what others do you need to take? 

Checklist for assessment
Lots of interesting photographs with concise and insightful evaluative annotations. 

Deadline
Start of the lesson, May 14th.

Colour choices

Objective

In order for you to fully explore the combinations of colours that you could potentially use in your design, you must trial a draft in various colour schemes.

Task

Take your latest ideas and colour it using colour scheme ideas. This could include:
Monochromatic, complementary, analogous and triadic. There are many more examples - high saturation, low saturation with spot colour. It's up to you.
*Please ensure that the colour choice you make for your final pieces is included in the examples that you create.

Presentation

Post to your presentation with an explanation of what and why you have done this. You should also point out the most successful version and explain why.

Checklist for assessment

Can we tell straight away that you have consciously used colour?

Deadline

Tuesday 28th of November

Below is Michael's A* example.

Refined drafts

Objective
To further develop your layout ideas

Task
Take one of your favourite scamps and draw it neater at an A5-ish size.

Do this 3 times with the same design, refining each time as you go. After each drawing, annotate to describe what elements you can change and refine. This could be type size/placement, character size/placement,
You don't have to include colour at this stage.

AO2 Refine their
ideas through experimenting and selecting appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes

Presentation
Photograph and post to presentation.
Checklist for assessment
3 refined drafts with annotations.

Deadline
Tues . 13 July

Drafting Ideas

Objective

To explore and develop different ideas through drafting.

Task

Using the presentation above for ideas, create a set of drafts that further your project ideas.

Use pencil or pen.
Annotate your ideas as you progress.

Presentation

Photograph your sketchbook pages and post to blog

Checklist for assessment

Lots of interesting ideas.

Time needed

3 hrs

Deadline

TBC

AO1 Contextual Investigation - Hwk

AO1 Contextual Investigation

Looking at an Artist / Practitioner

Objective 

Develop ideas through sustained and focused, personal investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

Very important!

Present your work as much in the style of the artist as you can. Maybe write your notes first, then present last in your sketchbook / Google presentation.

1

Find an artist or another practitioner that has a link to your theme. This does not have to mean that they use the same subject matter, you could consider their style to be of interest.

2

Explain your personal response. Use the pink section on the LOOKING AT ARTEFACTS sheet to help your questioning and responses.

3

Criticise and analyse their work. Use the remaining 3 sections of the  LOOKING AT ARTEFACTS sheet to help your questioning.  (This should be the biggest part of your investigation.)

4

Gather 4 examples of their work and bullet point why they are characteristic of the artist.

5  

Respond to their work by emulating their style or process. Take characteristics of their work and merge them with your own work. Translate the work into your own ideas.

Don’t spend hours coping whole images. Copies don’t earn many marks - your personal response does!

Extra 1

Take two pieces. One from the work of your chosen artist and the other from a different artist within your theme. Compare and contrast their work. What features or elements do they share and which are their own. Go into as much detail as you can.

Extra 2

Research to find out who the designer has been influenced by or has influenced. To do this you may need to read an interview with the illustrator.

Extra 3
When and where did they work? State if this had any effect on the work they have produced? What is the purpose and intention of their work?



It is important that your annotation is well researched, thought out and expressed. It is also vitally important that your pages are presented in a creative and interesting way.

N.B. There must be NO copy and paste from the internet. It stands out and makes you l
ook like you have no imagination or creativity.  Ask yourself… could anybody else have
written what is in your research? If the answer is yes, it is not personal enough.

Have fun with it. Presentation is vitally important - it communicates your creativity before your
words do.

Checklist for assessment
Relevant images, in-depth research and response in your own words (no copy and paste), accurate emulation.

Deadline
Tuesday 27th Feb.

Any problems, email me: deh@thomasadams.net

Component 2

The component 2 list has now been updated. 

Example 114 / 120

Whole Group Feedback Tips

GCSE Graphic Communication

Whole Group Feedback Tips

Put your name on the first slide.

There are lots of handmade pieces of work missing.

Look for work that you may have forgotten about in your sketchbook.

The start of your presentation: Chosen Brief, then Brainstorm/Annotating content.

Use the annotation help to explain your thought during each section of the project.

Don’t just describe what you are doing - discuss what the intention is, what you have learnt, how it relates to your project.

Rename ‘Pinboards’ section ‘Research’.

Images and text needed on every slide. No slide with just text.

Spell check and read through.

Take out quote slides from case studies.

WIP = Work in progress. Include it where you can.

No powerpoint animations (appearing text etc) Doesn't work on PDF.

Present your final piece.

Comp 1, not Unit 1.

Don’t use powerpoint templates.

Lose the whitespace. Busy = good. Look at the layout of your slides and fill up space.

Evaluation at the end.

Eduqas GCE Art and Design Paper 2018

Creative Statement - Comp 1

Task:
You are to write your Creative Statement for Component 1. This is what the moderator reads to help them understand your project.

Download the Creative Statement HERE then look at the extra help and an example is HERE

Component 1 Analysis

Over the next few weeks, you will be completing an analysis of relevant artefacts. You will be given certain slides to complete each hwk session and we will learn / revise the relevant elements each lesson.

Objective

To increase your understanding of the processes and techniques designers employ when creating artefacts. 

Task
Choose artefacts that are similar to the one that you are designing.

Add slides to your existing presentation. Title slide should state that it is Analysis.

Using the questions on the slides above you will be analysing the layout, colour, typography etc. 

I have also included a wealth of key terms for you to use. They are located at the bottom of the post or you can print them off HERE.

Presentation

Google presentation

Checklist for assessment

All points must be covered in detail. For those looking for A/B grades, there will also be some inclusion of further, self-initiated investigation.

Deadlines

19 June - Similar artefacts
26 June - Content (Poetic and Pragmatic)
03 July - Typography 1
14 Sept- Typography 2
21 Sept - Layout, Hierarchy, and Grids
28 Sept - Colour 
05 Oct - Rendering and process

Note that I will be collecting in your sketchbooks and mark sheets (in plastic wallets) at the end of the lesson on October 5th. Please ensure that you have gone back over the feedback and missing marks to improve your work.

Students that fail to hand in or are missing work will face the relevant school sanctions that are in place for homework.

These presentations are examples of the sort of detail needed for your analysis. The layout is also pretty good.

Holly's analysis  CLICK HERE

Emulation

Objective
To allow you to look closely at work that you like and that is relevant to your process.

To push your process and technique into new areas.

Task
Take a refined draft or one of you own scamps and 'work it up' into a design using the same technique that you have just learned from your copy. 
Use the same process that you have just been using. This means if you drew out a rough in pencil first, then you do the same.

Copy

Objective

This task will allow you to investigate and practice how an illustrator / artist / photographer / designer has worked.

You will be expected to use the same (or very near) process and materials as the illustrator you have chosen.

Task

• If possible, complete this task in conjunction with a case study

• Consider and research how the designer has worked. You will normally be able to work it out from just looking at the work. Discuss with your tutor the process and materials needed.

• Write a short description of what will be required and in what order.

• Then set to work - remember to take a few work-in-progress shots.
Your final piece should form part of your unit 1 Google Slides presentation.
* Your first job will probably be to sketch out the design - ask your tutor if you need A3 paper
* If you are looking at a photographer, you could use some images from the web, but more marks are available if you take your own.

Presentation

Description / short written plan

Screen shots and photos of work-in-progress

Final piece together with original - see eg above

You will be graded on

How well you have gotten into the methods and processes used by your chosen designer

Deadline

First lesson back after summer hols.

Missing tasks

Missing tasks
For those students who are missing tasks from their presentations, here are the direct links to the blog posts:

Brainstorming

Pinterest research

Conventions of the form

Scamps of others

Please ensure that feedback is responded to and that all work is up to date before the end of term. 

Choosing Type

Objective 
To research a range of type choices available for your artefact.

Task 
Using Dafont (or other free online type libraries), gather together a range of typefaces that could be used as part of your artefact. 

Go for obvious and the not so obvious to give you something to talk about when analysing their suitability.

Then place your type choices on a draft of your piece and evaluate them in place.  Try maybe six?

Checklist for assessment Lots of interesting and relevant type choices.

Informed annotation.

Time needed 2 hrs.

Presentation Catch-Up Lessons

Objective

For the next two lessons (and for homework) you will be ensuring that your presentations are as good as they can be.

That means completing and presenting all of the tasks that have been set to best of your ability. 

Tasks include:

• Full Pinboards
• Scamps - other designers
• Case study 1
• Drawings of subject
• Typography - similar artefacts
• Handmade Typography - yours
• Scamps (thumbnails) - yours
• Photos of subject

For details about the tasks, the amount of work and for modelled examples, please refer to the blog posts. 

Full comp 1 list is at the top of the blog... or click HERE

Deadline

I will be marking your presentations on the morning of Monday the 12th of June. Please ensure that all sketchbooks are handed in either by Friday Afternoon of Monday by 9 am.

Scamping ideas for your own work.

Objective
To work through your initial ideas in an uninhibited fashion. Working in pen means that you can work quickly and not worry about making mistakes. Consider the fact that one of the ideas that you will make will eventually make it through to be a final design. Get all of your ideas no paper now, however strange.
For those who consider themselves not able to draw... think of these as diagrams rather than drawings.
The work at the bottom of the post is not A grade standard, but they have a lovely looseness to the drawing.

Task
Using a pen, draw out your ideas over a couple of sketchbook spreads or more.
Firstly, pour all of your ideas out. 

Then, if you like one, in particular, develop that one for a few scamps until you have a better, more refined version.

By refining, you are looking at improving the placement of the title, or the direction of an image. 

Try looking at your pinboards for inspiration and consider the quote by Picasso, 

"Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal".

Draw 18 over two pages.

Presentation
Sketchbook.
You may colour them if you wish, but do it loosely and don't spend too much time on it.

Checklist for assessment
Loads and loads of different ideas being explored and refined.

Time needed
3 hrs

Deadline
End of lesson, Thursday May 25th

Type Dynamics

Hand drawn type - Class and Homework.

Objective
To create a suitable typeface for your chosen design.
To evidence your understanding of the expressiveness of typography.

Task
Over two double pages of your sketchbook, experiment with hand drawn typefaces that could be used within your design. This could be a title or another graphic element.
You can work in colour or black and white. Leave in your mistakes.
Look on my Type Pinboard for inspiration... (HERE) 
Annotate on your page - why did you make type like this? Why is this type successful or unsuccessful?
Update!: You may wish to look at the 'matching intentions' slides and include similar images, textures and colours for your the type that you are designing.

Presentation
Photograph or screenshot your progress.
Post to your blog.

Checklist for assessment
2 pages of experiments, beautifully bustling and busy pages of creativity.
Annotations.

Time needed
3 hrs.

Deadline
May 23rd