What an A* GCSE Art Sketchbook Looks Like

This Art GCSE exam sketchbook was graded A* and I’ll take you through the project.

She chose ‘Water’ as a starting point from the 2016 exam paper. She starts by making a Mindmap to generate ideas.

Her first artist research was on ‘Monet’. Monet created a lot of paintings of water lilies so there are some strong links to the theme. She included detailed analysis of the artist’s work and reflected on his work in her own words. My students know they will get no marks for copying and pasting from the Internet and I can tell when they have lifted information from Wikipedia.

She has painted a copy of one of Monet’s paintings to explore the artist’s style. She continuously annotates and reflects on her work as it progresses.

She has created her own response to Monet by taking her own photo of the reflection in the school pond and painted it in the style of Monet. This is how students can respond to an artist to create their own work in the artist’s style. You can only get so many marks for simply copying other artist’s work - you need to make an original piece of your own to achieve the top grades.

She created another painting from her own photo, which includes a great deal of fine detail and demonstrates her painting skills. She continues to annotate and reflect on her project, which gains her marks.

Her second artist study is on ‘Maggie Hambling’. Hambling is renowned for her paintings of waves. Again she includes detailed writing about the artist’s style and her personal thoughts on the work.

She has made another copy of one of Hambling’s wave paintings so she can explore the artist’s style through painting. She continues to annotate and make comparisons between her first and second artists.

You might be able to see a pattern playing out. This is a student who is very systematic and organized about the way she lays out her project.

Her third artist is Winslow Homer who paints seascapes.

She chose a painting by Homer and made a sensitive copy using acrylic paint.

She does another copy, which is more accurate than the first. She looked carefully at the colours in Homer’s work and emulated them.

On these pages she took her own photo and created an original painting from it. She began by sketching it out using a 2B pencil. She used a fine brush to recreate the intricate detail in the painting.

She has considered an initial idea for her final piece and created a tonal sketch of it to work out the composition.

She has done a quicker line drawing from one of her photos. You don’t always have to create detailed and highly developed pieces, it is important to have quick sketches in there too.

She painted a miniature final piece design in preparation for the exam.

She included a contact sheet of her photo-shoot. This is great to include in her sketchbook as her photography informs her painting. Always include source material in your project.

She has included a 10 – 15 minute pencil sketch.

Here’s a 15 – 20 minute sketch in biro to demonstrate her abilities using other materials.

Remember, you get marks for experimenting with a range of materials. Here’s a 10 minute sketch using charcoal.

Finally she does two thumbnail designs for the final piece and includes the photograph she intends to work from so we know exactly what she plans to do in the exam. There should be no surprises when we look at the final piece and the sketchbook. You must have evidence of what you intend to do in the exam before you do it.

She draws out her final piece using a range of media.

Here is her statement of intent

She includes the colours she will use on the painting and she explains how she will use them.

On the final 4 pages she includes 4 alternative photos that she could have used to create her final piece. She gave reasons for why she didn’t use these images.

She has the photo she used to create her final piece and a detailed evaluation to explain why this is her choice.

And this is what an A* GCSE Sketchbook looks like.

I'd like to credit Annabelle Gaunt for the work in the sketchbook.

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