ART -
A LEVEL FINE ART and A LEVEL PHOTOGRAPHY
Requirements It is helpful but not essential to have taken GCSE Art. The Art & Design course offers two pathways of study or ‘specifications’ to students. Candidates must select their chosen pathway at the beginning of Year 12. Both pathways offer the chance to undertake a unique, personal and open-ended creative journey of discovery. We currently offer trips to Liverpool and other UK destinations to visit galleries and museums including the Tate, and also to undertake practical assignments.
Fine Art Specification Students will undertake an in-depth exploration of a wide range of fine art media, processes and experimentation with techniques both traditional and new, producing work in both 2 and 3 dimensions. We will introduce drawing and painting, mixed-media, collage, digital media and moving image. Digital manipulation of images is part and parcel of the course, and we use a wide range of Adobe Suite software with graphics tablets to support this. Students are required to develop personal, meaningful, conceptual ideas, and develop technically accomplished and individual approaches that reflect their creative styles and visual interests.
Photography Specification Students will be introduced to a range of stimulating photographic opportunities that will explore how lighting, lens, camera functions, digital and traditional techniques are used to manipulate imagery. Photography is more than documenting and recording. As with fine art, students are required to develop personal, meaningful, conceptual ideas, and must develop technically accomplished and individual approaches that reflect their creative styles and visual interests. In both pathways, use of a sketchbook will be an ongoing method of recording ideas, intentions, processes and experimentation. Drawing is a requirement in fine art only.
Art in Year 12 Preparation for the Personal Investigation For both specifications, during the first year of the course students will be involved in a series of workshops and short projects designed to explore their interests and ability. Recording and observation are an integral part of the research process. As they progress with their work, there will be an increasing emphasis on personal direction. All work will have an element of art analysis and students will be guided to looking at areas of art and design related to their individual directions of research. The middle of the year is concerned with developing individual projects that are accompanied by preliminary and supporting research. A range of materials will be used and these may be in two and three dimensions. No previous experience of sculpture is necessary. The use of IT and digital manipulation skills will be part of this process. The aim of these guided workshops and projects is to develop student skills and confidence so that they can then prepare themselves for the Personal Investigation. This is an independently directed art project that students begin towards the end of Year 12.
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