GCSE Art: The figure

Hey loves, i'm doing this series to help anyone who's doing GCSE Art and also to track my progress. I'll be doing this in little stages and by the topics so it's easier for you guys to read and process. All pictures in here are from my own sketchbook which stay on my blog please!

The first topic is ''The figure'', I got a B on this topic so I can give some constructive advice as how to go about it. This doesn't have to be in any particular order but they're all requirements for your sketchbook to get a top end grade and when I show yu my sketchbook you'll see why the B rather than the A.

DISCLAIMER: I like to say that i'm not the best in anything I blog about so this is just some advice x

1. Dictionary/ Thesaurus description

This one of the first things you should have in your sketchbook, or somewhere at least. Try and make it a bit creative but don't take up a whole page. Art is about creativity but the examiner does realize when you waste pages to fill up your sketchbook.

This was My First page, It has a title made out of stick men and my dictionary description is in the right hand corner, I'll zoom in in the next pic. I've also done figure studies off he top of my head to decorate the page and I have done a small mindmap of artists to investigate, after I investigated them I put clouds around the ones I was interested in.

2. Figure studies

Even if you're not told to, just do heck loads of figure drawings, to decorate pages and for random pages and so on, it shows you know how to draw one and have experimented with different positions. After all the topic is the figure and there's no harm in drawing some.

3. Collages 

Collages are key for examiners and I have no Idea why, this is what got me a B instead of an A. My collage wasn't big enough and didn't have enough pictures. A good tip would also be to add annotations which I'll explain later. 

Its even called a tiny collage. 

               

This was okay too but I guess I could have done more to achieve my A! 

4. Artist Investigations

You need to show plenty of evidence that you've looked at other artists besides yourself and the best way to do this is through what I like to call Artist investigations and Art analysis (MOUTHFUL). It's basically a way of analysing art. My top tip here is too write as little as possible regarding the artist's life, their parents, where they went to school and their favourite ice cream flavour. Focus on the artwork and say what it is about it that you like and WHY. Here's a format I follow:

Describe: 

• What do you think it's about? - Could there be a story behind it, a mood? or an event? 
• What does it look like? - Colour, Texture, Tone, Composition, Scale
• How was the artwork produced? - Materials and time 
• Context: 

- What was happening around the world at the time this artwork was produced? Is there any connection? 

- Why may the artist have produced this artwork.

The artist's intent: 

• What is the focal point? (Where is the point of main attraction?) 
• Why is it the scale that it is?
• What kind of composition has the artist used? (where on the page has he placed things and why?) 

OTHER STUFF lol: 

• Colour - Bright? Bold? Vivid? Dark? 
• Line - Calm? Rough? Vertical? Horizontal?
• Tone - Dark or light? Contrast? Shadows and highlights? 
• Shapes - Simple or Complex?
• Texture - Rough? Smooth? 

Here are some of my Artist investigations: 

Artist Investigation on Kelly smith who focuses on the torso

Artist investigation of Carly Ashdown, created the background myself with watercolour.

As part of your artist investigation it is important that you show how you responded to the artist and I call the the artist response. You make an artist response by creating a piece of artwork ''in the style'' of the artist and this doesn't have to be an exact copy of their artwork, it can be just using their; theme, colour pallete, objects, ideas etc. 

For Carly Ashdown this was my response: 

I also did an artist investigation and response to Wendy Ortiz: 

Investigation

Response... ALWAYS SIGN YOUR WORK! 

5. Experimenting with media 

I'm not a fan of being an artist who uses every material under the sun but unfortunately in your sketchbook you do have to. Use loads of different medias and annotate around them. (Write about what you used, whether you like it or not and whether you might use it in your final piece.

Here I also experimented with colours and different media to show how I'm thinking about my final piece. I had interest in the watercolours, My copic colours and also using some pencil.

6. Finally plan your final piece. 

I started experimenting with the idea of a devil and an angel and doing some sketches (thumbnails of how I wanted it to look like)

The examiner is also an artist, So any copying done
will most likely be noticed. So be safe than sorry and
just mentioned what you used to help you.

I planned my final piece in my book and since we're allowed out sketchbook this was really helpful. Here I did some experiments with colour and what and where I was going to place stuff.

Thanks for watching, these are all the basic steps you need for your GCSE sketchbook :). Please comment if you liked it and share this blog post and also comment if you think I missed anything out.