Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today about finding your artistic voice and exploring how to plan a final piece.

Let's get into some thinking, talking, and exploring together in this lesson.

So let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to plan a final piece that demonstrates your artistic voice and the culmination of your ideas.

Before we start, let's take a look at some keywords that we're going to be using throughout this lesson.

So the first keyword is demonstrate.

Demonstrate means to show or illustrate through practical application or examples.

So that might be through sketchbook work.

The second keyword is culmination.

Culmination means the final stage or result of a process.

For example, a final piece.

And the third keyword is recurring.

Recurring means occurring repeatedly.

For example, themes of interest or preferred techniques and materials might happen over and over again.

So pause the video here and give yourself a moment to make a note of those keywords, and then press play when you are ready to continue.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in this lesson: recurring themes and techniques for a final piece and a plan for a final piece.

So in this first part of the lesson, we're going to take a look at recurring themes and techniques for a final piece.

The final piece of art we see is often a culmination of ideas and preparation work.

It represents an expression of the artist's voice.

Which ideas do you think the artist explored in preparation for this piece? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about this, and then press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, when analysing an artwork, it's insightful to consider the preparatory processes the artist may have undertaken.

Artists often engage in various forms of preparation to develop their ideas and compositions.

For instance, they might create preliminary sketches or studies to experiment with different elements before finalising.

The piece's preparatory works can reveal the artist's exploration of composition, light, colour, form, and perspective.

By examining such studies, we gain a deeper understanding of the artist's creative process and the evolution of their ideas.

Also, artists may delve into thematic explorations, researching subjects or concepts to inform their work.

Research can involve studying various sources, including literature, history, or personal experiences to enrich the content and context of their art.

And by understanding these preparatory steps allows us to appreciate the depth and complexity of the artistic process, highlighting the deliberate choices made in the creation of the final piece.

And by reflecting on these aspects, we can better appreciate the layers of thought and effort that contribute to the finished artwork.

Maybe the artist found themselves interested in recurring ideas to do with peace, freedom, or unity.

Look closely at the content here on this page and how it links to the final piece on the previous slide.

Perhaps the artist used a sketchbook to explore ideas and compositions.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

This statement here, a final piece represents the culmination of an artist's whole life's work, all their ideas and all the materials they have ever used.

Is this statement true or false? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that the statement is false, you are absolutely right.

A final piece represents the culmination of an artist's themes, materials, and techniques, and artistic voice, at a particular moment in time.

So it's not their whole life's work.

Izzy and Alex are discussing how working on a final piece relates to them as art students.

For Izzy, her portfolio counts for 60% of her grade.

It demonstrates all her preparatory work, artist research, experiments, and ideas developments.

For Alex, it's the same, but the external set assignment makes up the remaining 40%, and he'll choose a theme from the exam paper, develop ideas over several weeks, and then create a final piece during a 10-hour exam.

So it is slightly different being an art student making preparation and final pieces, compared to professional artists.

And then when it comes to your GCSE, to achieve high marks, a GCSE Art final piece should clearly relate to the chosen theme or question; show a strong understanding of materials and techniques; demonstrate refined skills and decision-making; visually communicate a message, mood, story, or personal connection; and demonstrate a clear link to development and preparation work.

And you may have experienced being given a theme or making a final piece already in your art lessons, so you just need to follow the same process.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

To achieve high marks, a GCSE Art final piece should be a surprise piece, unlinked to preparation work; clearly relate to the chosen theme or question; clearly relate to the work of others in the class.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about the correct answer, and then press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said, to achieve high marks, a GCSE Art final piece should clearly relate to the chosen theme or question, you are absolutely right.

Good job.

Artists often identify recurring themes, materials, and techniques as they look back at their developing ideas.

These recurring elements shape their artistic voice and might influence their choice of final piece or final pieces.

Although you may have been guided by briefs or lessons, the work you have done will also have had recurring themes, and you will be able to see that within your work.

This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to look through your work and sketchbooks and reflect on recurring themes, materials, and techniques.

You could then list two to three themes you have explored that have been recurring in your work, so that have popped up over and over again, the materials you've used most often and maybe enjoyed the most, and the techniques you have found yourself experimenting with or enjoying the most.

Pause the video here and give yourself enough time to do that, and then press play when you are ready to continue.

How did that go? Did you identify those recurring themes? Maybe identified some materials and techniques that you enjoyed using the most? Well, looking through your work and sketchbooks, there may have been lots of possible outcomes, but maybe like Izzy, you said, I've repeatedly sketched the theme of growth in nature, and drawing different plants with different media is recurrent in your work.

Or maybe like Alex, you love using watercolours and pencils because you enjoy how delicate they are and how you are able to use layering techniques to create depth, which feels fitting for the theme of fragility that you may be exploring.

Well done for taking a look through your work in sketchbooks and reflecting on those recurring themes, materials, and techniques.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson.

Let's take a look at planning for a final piece.

For art students and established or professional artists, the process of making a final piece is similar.

They might plan their final pieces by reflecting on the work they've done so far and ensuring their final piece aligns with the recurring themes and ideas they've explored.

For some professional or established artists, the planning and creation of a final piece might also be driven by a combination of practical and artistic reasons, such as commissions, client needs, and exhibitions.

So they may be asked to do commissions or exhibitions based on specific themes, so maybe that is nature recovery, or they may be reflecting on a particular historic moment.

So their final pieces will be driven around those themes.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding here.

Is this statement true or false? For some professional or established artists, the planning and creation of a final piece might be driven by exam themes.

Is that true or false? Pause the video here and have a discussion, and then press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that that statement is false, you are absolutely right.

For some professional or established artists, the planning and creation of a final piece might be driven by reasons such as commissions, client needs, and exhibitions.

They're not driven by exam themes.

Unlike professional artists, students are required to demonstrate their planning and development process as part of the exam or coursework criteria, often in a portfolio or sketchbook.

You can see an example here.

Let's take a moment to pause here.

What about this statement? Art students are required to demonstrate their planning and development process as part of the exam or coursework criteria.

Is this statement true or false? Pause the video here and have a discussion, and press play when you are ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that statement is true, you're absolutely right.

Students are required to show their planning and development process to demonstrate their ability to think critically, experiment with ideas, and refine their artistic concepts before reaching a final outcome.

Once artists have identified recurring themes, materials, and techniques, they might begin to plan the details of the final piece.

This includes deciding on the size, format, and overall layout.

They often create smaller sketches or mockups to test the piece.

This planning phase helps artists visualise the final artwork and make adjustments before beginning the final work.

Planning might include images and annotations to outline the composition and layout of the final piece, demonstrate the way the elements of art will appear, to get clear about dimensions or other technical aspects relevant to the piece, maybe to show a timeline outlining the stages of the project, including deadlines for each phase.

You can see this example here of some planning that has some images and annotations there.

This brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to develop a detailed plan for your final piece, including sketches, material choices, dimensions, and a project timeline.

You could create a preliminary version of your final piece to visualise composition and layout, and you could also establish a schedule outlining each stage of the project, from initial concept to completion.

So pause the video here and make sure you give yourself enough time to have a go at developing that detailed plan, and then press play when you are ready to continue.

How did you get on? Well, there are lots of different outcomes, but you might have included some images and annotations to guide you with the composition.

You should have planned how you will include materials and elements of art, and maybe created a timeline so you can complete within the allocated timeframe.

Let's take a look at that example there a little bit closer up.

So you can see that we have got some exam prep, the structure of experimenting there, some examples using images and those annotations, and we've got a timeline, the plan for the three-day exam, what we're going to do on day one, day two, and day three.

So well done if you were able to develop a detailed plan for your final piece.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about planning a final piece.

An artist's final piece or outcome is often a culmination of ideas and work.

When studying arts, there are specific requirements about how to plan and demonstrate planning for a final piece.

Artists often identify recurring themes, materials, and techniques as they look back at their developing ideas.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson.

I hope you enjoyed learning about planning a final piece.

I hope to see you in the next lesson.

See you then.