[Dinnes]

Hi there,

Basically I've just finished my GCSEs, and have chosen my four subjects - Art, Maths, Physics, English (Architecture in the future hopefully).

My Art teachers have made it clear that I need to do some real thinking about what I want to do for my AS and get back to them before term starts so I can get ahead.

The problem is that I literally have no ideas about what to do - or rather, I have too much choice.

I did a mixture of still lives and abstract work last year, and everyone who's seen my abstract has been really positive and appreciative; reactions to my still life were a little more indifferent, so I guess I will end up doing something abstract-based which relies more on creativity than analytical skill.

Of course this problem isn't that helpful - after all it's a personal choice I'll have to make, but if anyone has ideas about subject matter/style/medium etc. then that'll be great.

I'd quite like to get my hands on oil paints next year, and if it helps my teachers advised me not to do any architecture focused stuff until next year when I have more freedom.

Hope you can help me out!
Dan x

[Claire888]

I have no idea why they've asked you to do that. It is definitely not needed. I've just finished my A2s (art was one of them). Over summer we had to do a project but it was largely unrelated and I doubt it had much effect on AS grades as it wasn't preparation for the major projects of that year.

But what I would advise for an idea is try to move away from the stuff you did at GCSE. You will look back on it in years to come as rubbish and so are likely to not want to have your A-level work moving on from that, but instead on a different path. However having said that it is a good idea to have a fairly clear focus, stick with it and develop it over the course of the year (showing improvement). I didn't really know where to start and as a result my early AS work was not very good.

The good thing about A-level is that you get introduced or are able to use much more in the way of media, my GCSE work was almost all acrylic but by A2 I was using plaster, coloured pencils, patterned paper, oils, foam board and lots of other stuff (you get my drift) but you only find out about this stuff when you start making work, so don't worry too much about that yet.

The best plan when deciding on work for me at least was looking at other artists for inspiration (you will use this a lot over A-level) I found someone called Catherine Mackey at A2 and that really helped to develop my work. Look for their use of colour, media, subject or general style to give you some basic ideas and work from that (and you don't have to like everything about their work, to get this).

I came to love oil paints, they can give a huge variety of results and can be used in completely different ways so its worth experimenting. However some people really hate them, the time they take to dry and likelihood of smudging can be annoying, and puts some off. Anyway I've realised I'm rambling but, I loved art, can't believe it's over. Also I've applied to architecture this year as well. Personally I don't think doing architecture focussed work is a problem if you enjoy it, I always have used buildings in my work and just means I was more confident in my portfolio, because I felt it was relevant. So I wouldn't be too put off that subject matter now if you want to try it, it really isn't a problem for applications.

[Dinnes]

(Original post by Claire888)
I have no idea why they've asked you to do that. It is definitely not needed. I've just finished my A2s (art was one of them). Over summer we had to do a project but it was largely unrelated and I doubt it had much effect on AS grades as it wasn't preparation for the major projects of that year.

But what I would advise for an idea is try to move away from the stuff you did at GCSE. You will look back on it in years to come as rubbish and so are likely to not want to have your A-level work moving on from that, but instead on a different path. However having said that it is a good idea to have a fairly clear focus, stick with it and develop it over the course of the year (showing improvement). I didn't really know where to start and as a result my early AS work was not very good.

The good thing about A-level is that you get introduced or are able to use much more in the way of media, my GCSE work was almost all acrylic but by A2 I was using plaster, coloured pencils, patterned paper, oils, foam board and lots of other stuff (you get my drift) but you only find out about this stuff when you start making work, so don't worry too much about that yet.

The best plan when deciding on work for me at least was looking at other artists for inspiration (you will use this a lot over A-level) I found someone called Catherine Mackey at A2 and that really helped to develop my work. Look for their use of colour, media, subject or general style to give you some basic ideas and work from that (and you don't have to like everything about their work, to get this).

I came to love oil paints, they can give a huge variety of results and can be used in completely different ways so its worth experimenting. However some people really hate them, the time they take to dry and likelihood of smudging can be annoying, and puts some off. Anyway I've realised I'm rambling but, I loved art, can't believe it's over. Also I've applied to architecture this year as well. Personally I don't think doing architecture focussed work is a problem if you enjoy it, I always have used buildings in my work and just means I was more confident in my portfolio, because I felt it was relevant. So I wouldn't be too put off that subject matter now if you want to try it, it really isn't a problem for applications.

Thanks, that's really helpful. I guess so long as I do stuff I enjoy and have a clear idea of what I want to achieve then I'll be sorted And I already dislike my GCSE stuff ;D I shall hit the ground running and look up different artists to see what I like.

Thanks
Dan

[dark-blue]

I think my course was slightly different to you in that we were given a topic to do for the first project. My advice would be to not come to the table with pre=formed ideas about what you're going to do and whose work you're going to look at. AS is a lot different to GCSE because of the sheer freedom you - for ours, we did not have to come up with a final outcome, and this meant more time was spent on experimentation, especially with unconventional materials (I used ice in mine).

It's interesting your teacher told you to wait until A2 to do architecture - at our school, many people find themselves exploring an almost extension of their AS work for the Personal Study. Someone I know also wants to be an architecture and they did/ are doing structure-based work for the entire course for as far as I know, just exploring different aspects of it.