Welcome to the Fine Art Department

Fine Art at GCSE allows students to work with many different materials and develop individual and personal ideas based on an artist and/or theme.

How is the course taught?

Over the course students will develop their observational drawing and painting skills and will also be able to create prints, make sculptures and work with photographic images. They will be expected to work in a sketchbook to explore and develop their ideas and produce original outcomes in a material of their choice.

What will I learn?

Students choosing GCSE Fine Art need to be interested in both making art and learning about the work of other artists. They will need to look at other artists’ work for ideas and inspiration and to understand some technical aspects of making art. They need to show in their coursework that they have been inspired, in some way, by the work of another artist. Students will get the opportunity to visit an art gallery to see the work of other artists first hand.

What other activities will I do?

Fine Art GCSE work needs to be experimental, some students find this difficult, but mistakes and accidents are all part of making
interesting art. Students will be expected to develop ideas through sketches and notes in a sketchbook and will learn how to use new materials and processes as well as using ones they have learnt throughout KS3.

What is required of me?

Students need to be motivated to work in their sketchbooks at home for at least an hour a week. Independent Learning is an important way of developing ideas for class work and a way of ensuring that a large enough quantity of work is completed. Attendance is vital for students to be able to complete the controlled assessment in lesson time over 2 years.

The Course

Your GCSE coursework (Unit 1 Portfolio) is worth 60% of the total marks and this assessment starts as soon as you begin the course in September. You will have a final exam (Unit 2 Externally Set Assignment), which is worth 40% of the full GCSE. After working for approx. eight weeks, building project ideas around a set theme, you will spend two days working on your final outcome.

Units 1 and 2 are assessed separately out of 96 marks.You will be assessed using Assessment Objectives called:

  • AO1 Develop, which is about researching designers and styles of design
  • AO2 Refine, which is about experimenting to find out more through practical and annotation
  • AO3 Record, which is about showing ideas and personal visual work including drawing
  • AO4 Present, which is about the completion of your final idea based on your research

Requirements for the Course

It will be very useful to have some basic art equipment at home so work can be completed to the highest standard. This will include:

  • Black fine liner pens
  • Drawing pencils in a range of grades (2B, 4B, 6B)
  • Glue stick
  • Scissors
  • Double sided tape
  • White gel pen

*A Fine Art pack with equipment will be available to purchase in September