Expressive Arts - Art and Design

COURSES

S1/S2

The course is designed to develop visual awareness and creative skills and to foster an interest in the environment. Through the exploration of the visual elements of line, tone, form, colour and pattern, pupils will develop practical skills within a range of appropriate art activities. Pupils are given the opportunity to study and evaluate the work of artists and designers in the Critical Activity part of the course.

STANDARD GRADE

These notes give a brief overview of the course work for Standard Grade Art & Design. They are intended to help you with the 3 parts of the course, which are:

• DESIGN ACTIVITY
• CRITICAL ACTIVITY
• EXPRESSIVE ACTIVITY

These 3 different activities are each worth one third of your overall Standard Grade mark.

Throughout the course, it is vital that you meet all the deadlines. If you cannot meet the deadlines by working in your Art & Design class time, you should work at lunchtimes or at home to catch up. You should always ask for help if you are struggling or not sure about something.

DESIGN ACTIVITY
The Design Activity is worth one third of your overall mark and is marked by the Art & Design department in school.

In S3 you might design a theatrical costume, a ceramic pot, set of tiles or a T- Shirt. In S4, the current design unit is mask design. You will start the Design Activity after the summer holiday and you should complete it by the Christmas holiday. The Design Activity part of the course involves practical problem solving work, designing something to fit the purpose given in a design brief.

The Design Brief - for the Design Activity you will be given a Design Brief, which sets rules, restrictions and requirements. You have to follow the design process to solve problems and reach a good solution, which meets the requirements set by the Design Brief.

Remember - good design should be aesthetic (it should look good), and be fit for its purpose by serving its function. This applies to any area of design - a pair of training shoes, or a kettle, or a car, or a house…

Each stage of the Design Activity is important and the unit is marked as a whole (it is not just the final solution that is marked). You must demonstrate your ability to progress and develop your design ideas from the Design Brief towards the final solution by following the design process.

The design process has 4 stages to it - they are:

Stage 1 - Research and Investigation

The Design Brief will guide you to look for ideas and should inspire you to research various different themes. You should make different studies using different media for this stage.

 For this stage, you should present a variety of images that you haven’t created, but that inspire you. For example, you could have postcards, photographs, pictures from magazines, images from the internet, etc.

It is also essential that you include some ‘market research’, which simply means you should include some images of professional design work that already exists, and is relevant to the theme of your chosen design brief.

Throughout the Research & Investigation stage, you should be thinking about why you have chosen particular images, what is it about them that inspires you, and how you might use them in your final outcome.

These should be mounted and presented on either one or two, A2 sheets for this stage of the Design Activity.

Stage 2 - Development of Ideas

This is where you develop your Research & Investigation work onto the next stage. You should do this by experimenting with different techniques and trying out different materials. For example you can take tracings from sections of your Research & Investigation studies and play about with the shapes - develop them by repeating, distorting, simplifying, enlarging, stylising or overlapping.

Try making samples of different ideas, showing that you have experimented with a variety of materials and techniques. Illustrate your design ideas and present a variety of different final outcomes at this stage.

These should be mounted and presented onto either one or two, A2 sheets

Stage 3 - Final Solution

For this stage in the Design Activity, you should produce 1 final outcome. You will select your best design idea from the previous stages and present it. In S4 at present the final solution is the mask itself.

Stage 4 - Evaluation

This is the final stage in the Design Activity. For this stage you have to present a written evaluation of your design and solution. You will be required to write an account of the design process that you have gone through and judge the final outcome. You will do this by commenting on how well you met the design brief, how successful your solution is and why, what difficulties you encountered, how you overcame these, how you could improve your design. You must consider and assess what you did and why, as well as criticising and appraising your design. This can be hand written or word processed and should be between one and two A4 sheets.

CRITICAL ACTIVITY
The Critical Activity is worth one third of your overall mark.

The essays are mainly written as homework.

In S3, the essays are marked by the Art & Design department. In S4, they are sent to the exam board (the SQA) to be marked, however the Art & design department will read your essays before they are sent away and give you an indication of what mark you might expect to achieve.

For the ‘Critical Activity‘ you have to write 2 essays in S3
One Design Critical - an essay on designers and their work
One Expressive Critical - an essay on artists and their work

For the ‘Critical Activity’ you have to write 2 essays in S4:
One Design Critical - an essay on mask designers and their work
One Expressive Critical - an essay on artists and their work

For these essays, you will be given a folder of information to work from. You will have to research and investigate appropriate information, select and collate it where relevant, describe work using appropriate art terms and referring to the visual elements, make judgements and support these, compare and contrast, and write a conclusion. For each of these essays, you should study the work of two designers/artists and critically evaluate 3 examples from each artists/designer. More marks will be given to more original essays - be individual with your evaluations.

You should describe techniques and methods that the designer/artist uses for his/her work and their inspirations. Most importantly, you should use appropriate language and art terminology to describe their work, such as making reference to the ‘visual elements’ (colour, line, shape, proportion, tone, texture, pattern, mood/atmosphere). You should compare and contrast the designers/artists work. Throughout the essay you must give your own opinions, thoughts and feelings about the work, backed up by sensible and reasoned argument - this is a very important requirement.
Your essay must be illustrated with photocopies or printouts of the designs/paintings that you are describing. In S4 in particular, it is best to have these in colour.

Most pupils present their essay word processed, but this is not necessary. It is perfectly acceptable to write it.

You will be given more information about how you should write your essays and what you should include when you are given the folders.

EXPRESSIVE ACTIVITY
The ‘Expressive Activity’ is the exam that takes place around April in S4 and lasts for five hours. It is worth one third of your overall mark.

You might have the opportunity to practise this in S3, but it will be in class time, over 6 periods (not a continuous 5 hours).

For this exam, you are given exam titles/themes and you have to interpret them - usually into a still-life theme. For example, the themes recently were:
Waiting
Roots and Fruits
Reflections
Celebration
Burst Bag
Approaching Storm

The themes are always very broad so that you can interpret them in many different ways and usually you can include almost anything into your still life arrangement. The themes are given out early in the year to give you the opportunity to prepare well in advance. We will ‘brainstorm’ the themes in the class, so that you should feel inspired with ideas of what you will do. You can use any media - pencil, oil pastel, watercolour, paints, pen and ink (but not oil paints) for this exam.

Good preparation in this section is very important and you should decide well in advance what you are going to do. You will have the opportunity to practise for this exam in class by researching and investigating your title, and by developing your ideas, trying out different compositions, different media, etc.

You should think carefully about what your studies will be, and also try to consider scale (for example, some with very carefully observed detail, some looser - with an emphasis on texture, some bolder - highlighting different shapes, etc.) These should all be drawn/painted etc. from OBSERVATION. They should be studies of objects / items placed in front of you or from photographs or images in books, etc. They should not be from your imagination.

It is your responsibility to bring in objects/images that you will draw/paint each time you come to Art & Design.The exam in S4 is usually in your classroom, but in strict exam conditions - no talking, no music, no mobile phones etc. The exam lasts between 9.30am - 12.30am then from 1.30pm - 3.30 pm. You are allowed to take two A2 preparatory sheets into the exam for reference. In this five hour exam, you should produce one piece of work. This is your opportunity to demonstrate how good you are and to show off your skills.

In S4, the ‘Expressive Activity’ is sent away to be marked by the exam board.

ART AND DESIGN - HIGHER & INTERMEDIATE 2

ENTRY LEVEL
For Higher - Students are expected to have attained Standard Grade at level 1 or 2 or a pass at Intermediate 2
For Intermediate 2 - Students are expected to have attained Standard Grade at level 3 or 4. Students who have not sat Standard Grade Art & Design may also enter at this level.

COURSE CONTENT
EXPRESSIVE ACTIVITY e.g. still life/portraiture. This area develops skills in direct observation using a variety of media, for example, paint, pencil, oil pastel, pen and ink, on a chosen theme.
DESIGN ACTIVITY e.g. graphic design/jewellery design. Students work from a design brief where they outline requirements, identify and solve design problems relevant to their particular area of design.
ART & DESIGN STUDIES - this involves the study of artists and designers
relevant to the practical work.

EXTENDED READING & VIEWING
Students are expected to make good use of textbooks, CD roms, and visual resources to develop their coursework.

ASSESSMENT
EXPRESSIVE ACTIVITY - an external assessment of the Expressive Folio of 3 sheets - research, development and final solution. This is worth 80 marks.
DESIGN ACTIVITY - an external assessment of the Design Folio of 4 sheets - research, development, final solution and evaluation. This is worth 80 marks.
ART & DESIGN STUDIES - written exam. The Higher exam lasts 90 minutes and is worth 60 marks, the Intermediate 2 exam lasts 1 hour and is worth 40 marks.

HOMEWORK
Homework assignments focus on helping the student consolidate knowledge and skills and will normally develop any ongoing classwork. Most of the Art & Design Studies will be carried out as homework assignments.

PROGRESSION
After Higher students can progress to the Portfolio course in preparation for application to a variety of further education courses.

FACILITIES

ART DEPARTMENT FACILITIES

The Art Department is situated in an older part of the school, built in the 1930s and presently comprises four work areas. The Art Department had a complete refurbishment and enlargement in the second half of 2003.