GCSE Art

[Lillie]

If anyone who has taken GCSE Art would please give advice, I would appreciate this greatly.

I want to do well in this for my exam but I don't think I'm up to standards. We do two units during the course and we've just begun the second one. The first half of the first unit was perhaps 'adequate' but the second half was 'messed up'. That was due to the fact I did a third of a sketchbook in two nights. I now have to rely on doing exceptionally well in my second unit to be able to bring my grade back up. The question is: how do I do that?

I'm not really sure what is required of me. My art class is small so we're meant to "branch off and do your own thing" so it's hard to give 'requirements'. I have asked but my teacher hasn't really said about how many pages in my sketchbook I ought to do per week or anything. Other classes have set targets for them because they're big, but since mine is small we don't "need" targets. That is bad because I can't work without targets. How do I set myself targets and what kind of targets should I set?

Additionally, how much time should I spend on my Art homework every week to get an A in the final? It's definitely longer than eighty minutes because that's how long I'm meant to spend on other subjects that don't require as much work per week.

I also need tips on how to make my sketchbook more interesting and make a viewer want to keep turning pages. I'd show examples if I had any right now but I've given in my work.

I'm sorry this is all very vague but I'd still appreciate some comment. Thanks.

[Paulisacretin]

If anyone who has taken GCSE Art would please give advice, I would appreciate this greatly.

I presume that you are in year 10? Well Im in year 11 now, biology exam on monday so i'll try and help you

I want to do well in this for my exam but I don't think I'm up to standards. We do two units during the course and we've just begun the second one. The first half of the first unit was perhaps 'adequate' but the second half was 'messed up'. That was due to the fact I did a third of a sketchbook in two nights. I now have to rely on doing exceptionally well in my second unit to be able to bring my grade back up. The question is: how do I do that?
I do wonder if you are doing a different course to the one ive almost got my mark for, but we did 3 units and the final exam peice through year 10 and 11. Is yours just an art short-course or is it a full GCSE?

Anyway, the way each of our units was structured was this:
1)Obviously we had some sort of a theme. I had "entrances and exits", "art noveau" and "metamorphisis". So once you have the subject, you do the...
2) Observation. Here you draw actual things from real life/books etc as they are there, just like sketches but obviously with care
3) Development. This is where a lot of our marks come from, and is where you create ideas for your final peice based off the sort of subject matter you had in your observation. Here, you can use a variety of mediums, experimenting with colours and so on.
4)Art history. For your final peice, you'll be doing it in a certain style, and there will be an famous artist that also use/s/d that style. So in this section, we write a bit about the artist and copy a few of their peices
5) Final peice. This is the cumulation of all the work, and counts for 25% of the mark for each unit. Fairly self explanatory.

Of course, if you arent doing the full course then it might be different

I'm not really sure what is required of me. My art class is small so we're meant to "branch off and do your own thing" so it's hard to give 'requirements'. I have asked but my teacher hasn't really said about how many pages in my sketchbook I ought to do per week or anything.
My teacher told us at the start of the year we ought to try and do a lot of work in our sketchbooks, but for us at least, they are not looked at by an examiner or anything, I dont even know where mine is. I just drew random rubbish in it. so we didnt need them, because it was our units that got marked.

Other classes have set targets for them because they're big, but since mine is small we don't "need" targets. That is bad because I can't work without targets. How do I set myself targets and what kind of targets should I set?
Aim to do, if you can, between 5 and 10 high quality drawings for your observation and development

Additionally, how much time should I spend on my Art homework every week to get an A in the final? It's definitely longer than eighty minutes because that's how long I'm meant to spend on other subjects that don't require as much work per week.

How long does it take you to make do a nice drawing / painting / collage? An hour? You shouldnt need to worry, as long as you are consistant in your efforts to do the work. I became very disheartened around last september with art, my art teacher is very much focused on one girl in our class and the rest of us dont get much help, and I hardly spent my weekends with a 4b pencil in my hand, but Im supposed to get an A or a B so im cool. Just try hard.

I also need tips on how to make my sketchbook more interesting and make a viewer want to keep turning pages. I'd show examples if I had any right now but I've given in my work.
Obviously i cant help here as all i did in my was spill drinks, food, and occasional pencil + crayon marks on it

I'm sorry this is all very vague but I'd still appreciate some comment.
Yes, it is quite vague, id appreciate it if you'd tell me how old you are, where in the country you are and whether or not you are doing a full course
Thanks.

[Lillie]

I'm in Year 10, Hong Kong, UK school system.

Full two-year course. I researched and I think it's the Fine Art course (3202).

It's similar to what you say. We do two units of coursework. The first was "looking closely" and now it's "journeys". We'll be doing the final exam piece in the last term of year 11 before the exam I think.

The sketchbooks are our unit coursework so we will be giving those to the examiners. That's a bit of a problem since my first sketchbook doesn't have enough observation or development. For the art history part, I think we do critical studies and try things in a style but we don't necessarily have to use it in our final pieces. That means our sketchbooks are severely important and I need to make up for the first unit through the second one in some way.

Aim to do, if you can, between 5 and 10 high quality drawings for your observation and development

I'll try that. Thank you.

A really good drawing takes me about five hours. It's because I'm not that good at observational drawings that it takes me so long to touch up.

And thanks again very much for the help.

[Paulisacretin]

Well, I'm sure you'll get an A.

There are 3 art classes at my school, all three of them are bad.

1) Mine - My art teacher just doesnt have the sort of attitude towards all his pupils that he needs to have. He just focuses on... jessie...

2)The other class has a woman who's completely incompetant and thus they are not terribly good

3)The other other class has a teacher with no apparant concept of deadlines or time, and they fail generally.

Not fun!

[Igg]

Hmmm...
We don't have a requirement for sketchbook pages except to get the darn things done by may 2005.
At Kirkby I think they have to do 4 pages a week.