1.

AO1: Develop ideas through investigation informed by contextual

and other sources demonstrating analytical and cultural
understanding................................................................................ 1
A. Have you shown links and connections with art, artists and different
cultures, craft workers and designers?............................................... 1
B. Have you achieved what you set out to achieve? ................................ 2
C. Make use of contemporary artists, western and non-western, known
movements in art, music, video, films, ICT, artefact's.......................... 3
D. Starting point could be a theme, object, issue or brief. ........................ 3

AO1: Develop ideas through investigation

informed by contextual and other sources
demonstrating analytical and cultural
understanding.

Have you shown links and connections with art, artists and
different cultures, craft workers and designers?

• Whatever your project and/ or item of coursework is, you should try and include
a clear and strong reference to the work of other artists. This can be achieved in
a number of ways, for example, think about the subject or context of your work.
What your work is about or of, can be used to help you research and find art
work done by other artists, which follows or uses a similar theme. If your work is
an observational piece for example, of an object or group of objects, then try
finding similar work of objects. This would usually be called 'Still-Life'. So
searching for 'Still-Life' artists would be a good start. Also try to use a variety of
resources to help your search. The internet for example, although it will provide
you with a comprehensive search, try using an image search engine to find
examples of art work that use 'Still-Life' within work. After finding some
examples note the name of these artists, and then explore further by using
specific knowledge bases, Autology, would be an excellent place to start, once
you have few artists names to work with. Although a more general search could
be performed by using wikipedia or even better, try using an Art specific website
like artcyclopedia.com.
• Another way that you can go about making sure that you include links and
connections to the work of other artists is to begin your project or item of
coursework by finding inspiration within artwork that you find. In a sense, start
with an artist and/ or their work rather than your own subject matter or context,
and through your exploration and discovery of artists and their work, let your
findings help your own work to develop. For example, suppose that you were
given a project brief to make a response to portraiture but don't know where or
how to begin. Instead of trying to develop your own response or work from the
beginning, seek out examples of art and work, and then use what you find to
help develop your own work. This could be the 'style of art' that you have found
which inspires you, or it could be materials that an artist has used which you
decide to use for your own work, maybe you like the subject of the portraits
which an artist has used? To help you find artwork and inspiration from the
beginning, try visiting a gallery, if you can't visit a gallery in person, go to one of
the many online gallery's and explore artwork online. Some examples of these
would be:
 ◦ www.tate.org.uk - This website gives you access to four of the UK's
most popular galleries, being Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives, Tate Britain
and Tate Modern.
◦ www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk - This gallery is home to many modern
and contemporary art and artists. If you are looking for something
modern and fresh then the Saatchi gallery is well worth a visit, online
and/ or in person.
◦ www.moma.org - Another modern gallery is the MOMA (Museum of
Modern Art). This famous gallery in New York is well worth a visit, and
with the use of the internet visiting this gallery to find inspiration for
your own work couldn't be easier.
◦ www.npg.org.uk - The National Portrait Gallery is the perfect place to
visit if your coursework project or work is based on portraiture. There
are many excellent examples of traditional and contemporary portraits
on display for you to explore.
◦ www.louvre.fr - The Louvre Museum in Paris is another excellent place
to visit, here you can see many famous works art such as the Mona Lisa
(Leonardo Da Vinci)
• Perhaps one of the clearest ways to ensure that you have found strong/ clear
connections with the work of other artists is to present your research. This
method is useful if a link to a chosen artist is not directly clear within your work.
Presenting your research is not about writing or typing up a bunch of facts,
although by including some facts in your work is good evidence of demonstrating
that you have done some work in this area, ideally your work should include
opinion and thoughts. Opinions of your own and if possible from others, this
should be based on what you think about the work of your chosen art or artists.
Explain 'why' you believe that your chosen art or artist 'fits in' with your own
work. If the art or artist is the inspiration behind your own work, explain 'why
and how' you were inspired.
• You should also include examples of analysing your artists work. Consider
explaining methods, and structure about the work, is there a reason behind the
work? If so explain what you think this reason is. Can you explain what materials
were used by the artist to create the work? And how big, or small is the artwork,
and, is there a reason for the artist using the size or scale that they did?
• Do try to include some pictures/ examples of art work created by your chosen
artist in your presentation or sketchbook.
• Also, as much as you can, try to include a list of your sources. This could be a
simple list of books and websites that you have read/ used and/ or galleries that
you may have visited.

Have you achieved what you set out to achieve?

• The answer to this question will not usually be apparent until near the end of
your finished work or project. Throughout your work and projects you should be
making clear notes that explains your work as it develops. Think of this as
annotation, or as a journal or diary. These notes are very important for providing
good evidence of developing your ideas and work, and can also be used to reflect
on your work to determine if indeed you achieved what you set out to achieve.
• So to gain marks for this assessment objective, make sure that you make
constant notes about your work, your ideas and your development process.
• If your final outcome ends up being unlike, or different from your development
work, this is when questions about weather or not your work achieved what you
intended will be asked.
Make use of contemporary artists, western and non-western,
known movements in art, music, video, films, ICT, artefact's.

• Contemporary artists are modern and current artists that are usually producing
new art work at the current time. A good source of contemporary artists would
be the 'Turner Prize', which is an annual event for new and current artists to
showcase their work and hopefully win an award for their contributions. You can
find examples and more information about the Turner Prize at: www.tate.org.uk/
britain/turnerprize/ This would be an ideal place to find examples of British
(Western) modern artists, which you can then include within your work. For
some examples of non-western artists try visiting this
website: www.asianartnow.com
• Known movements in art are points in history when a group of artists typically
worked in the same or similar style or theme. Some of the more famous art
movements are:
◦ The Renaissance which reigned from the 1400s in Italy until the mid
16th century.
◦ Baroque - Which began in the 1600's and lasted until 18th century.
◦ Rococo - In the 1700's
◦ Romanticism - In the 1800's
◦ Realism - Which began in the mid 1800's
◦ Impressionism - Also started in the late 1800's
◦ Expressionism - Which began at the turn of the 20th century
◦ Cubism - In the early part of the 20th Century
◦ Surrealism - Which began in the 1920's
◦ Art Deco - From the late 1920s to the 1930s
◦ Abstract Expressionism - During the 1940's and 50's
◦ Pop Art - In the 1950's and 60's
◦ Photorealisim - During the 1960's and 70's
◦ Post Modernism - 1980s to the present day
• Knowledge of these popular artistic movements in time is very useful to enhance
your marks for Assessment Objective 1. You should at least learn which art
movement your chosen artist worked in and mention this period of art, along
with a brief understanding in your sketchbook and/ or presentation. There are
many time-lines available online to help you learn about the different art
movements, one of which is: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art-
timeline.htm
• The use of ICT can be a very quick and effective way to add more depth and
evidence for assessment objective 1. For example, you could use image editing
software like adobe photoshop, or Gimp (which is free) to change and
manipulate an image. This could be something as simple as changing the tones
and colour effects, or something more extreme like applying filters and effects to
warp and bend images. By printing these out and working from them in your
own work, you can create some wonderful results. Within each project that you
create during the course you should try to include at least one example of
developing your work using ICT as a tool.

Starting point could be a theme, object, issue or brief.

• For all of your coursework and/ or projects your work should follow a set theme.
Usually this theme will be set for you, and your challenge is to show that you can
create a series of outcomes that follow the set theme. Where ever possible your
work should clearly show the connection and relevance of the theme that your
project is based on. However, occasionally within a project you will also have an
opportunity to make a personal response. A personal response to a project or
theme is your chance to produce an item of coursework with development work,
 using your own ideas, inspiration and direction. This is an excellent opportunity
for you to experiment and develop your own style or preferred context.
• A good way to illustrate how your work is in-keeping with a given or chosen
theme is to use a mind-map or spider-gram. These are excellent ways that you
can get started on a project or item of coursework, and something that you can
return to and develop further as your project or coursework item develops.
• Sometimes an object or artefact may be the source of inspiration for a project or
item of work. If this is the case then try to begin your work by working directly
from the artefact or object. Treat it like 'Still-Life' exercise, where by you sit in
front of the object and produce a set a drawings and studies based on what you
see and how you see it. Later you could then develop your work further by
adding more objects, selecting alternative viewpoints to work from, experiment
with scale, and try out a range of different materials and methods. Taking
photographs of the objects and artefact's is also an very good way to develop
your sketchbook work. As well as producing drawings and studies of your object,
take a couple of photographs which demonstrate and capture the same view
points that you used. Stick these into your sketchbook and add some comments
that explains how you worked from the object. Also, consider taking photographs
of your object that use alternative view points that you can work from at a later
point in your project.