A-level Art and Design - Personal Investigation

I am currently moving onto my personal investigation and I have chosen my topic of interest, gathering a good set of photos regarding my topic.
We were told to develop our topic but I am lost on how I may go about this effectively to be able to achieve an A*. Any advice/guidance would be hugely appreciated! Thank you!

Reply 1

Kingston Eve

Official Rep

Original post

by earnest-ram

Hey @earnest-ram!

Do you know which exam board you're studying under? Different exam boards will have different requirements/marking criteria.

I'd recommend further reading on your topic of interest - for example if it's a particular artistic movement, read up on the major artists and key pieces. Smarthistory is an excellent free resource focusing on AP/A-Level History of Art, but can be incredibly useful for A-Level Art and Design students as well.

Hope this helps,
Eve (Kingston Rep).

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 2

earnest-ram

Original post

by Kingston Eve

Hey @earnest-ram!
Do you know which exam board you're studying under? Different exam boards will have different requirements/marking criteria.
I'd recommend further reading on your topic of interest - for example if it's a particular artistic movement, read up on the major artists and key pieces. Smarthistory is an excellent free resource focusing on AP/A-Level History of Art, but can be incredibly useful for A-Level Art and Design students as well.
Hope this helps,
Eve (Kingston Rep).

I'm currently studying under the ocr exam board, currently have a good sum of photos for reference but struggling slightly to develop further. Thanks for your reply!

Reply 3

Kingston Eve

Official Rep

Original post

by earnest-ram

I'm currently studying under the ocr exam board, currently have a good sum of photos for reference but struggling slightly to develop further. Thanks for your reply!

Hey @earnest-ram,

The OCR 'Personal Investigation' consists of both the practical portfolio (i.e. sketchbooks/artwork) and the related written study. In terms of the practical portfolio, development usually means trying out new mediums, techniques or processes. You can develop you current ideas by looking at the photos you currently have for inspiration - for example, if a lot of your photos have sculptural elements, you might try and create small sculptures out of clay or paper mache to explore your chosen theme. Look at your images and try to think of a relevant 'twist' on them in a new medium. Watching A-Level sketchbook tours available on YouTube can be a great way to visualise how this might look in practice. Experimenting with new media doesn't need to be expensive - there's lots of printing methods (e.g. block printing/stamping) which can be done with items you might have about the house.

For the written study, the OCR spec suggests 'exploring the genre, subject matter, movement or historical framework of the overarching starting point, course of study or theme selected.' If you have a chosen word/theme, try to see how it connects to wider art history. For example, if my Personal Investigation focused on the word 'Space', I might look at how artists like Christopher Nevinson or L.S. Lowry portrayed crowds. Alternatively, I may go down the route of 'outer space' and look at Lucien Rudaux instead.

Hope this helps,
Eve (Kingston Rep).

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