Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mrs. Alton.

Welcome to today's lesson on art and design.

Today's lesson is all about documenting the creative journey, and this is from the unit Foundation Workshops: Selecting Primary Sources and Recording from Observation.

So let's get started.

So I hope that by the end of today's lesson you can document your learning journey by organising and connecting source material in creative formats.

Let's look at some keywords for today's lesson.

Document refers to the process of recording and capturing various aspects of your work or creative journey.

Connect means to link or join things together to form a relationship or association.

Our lesson today is made up of two learning cycles.

The first is about identifying documentation methods, and the second is all about connecting and arranging sources.

So let's take a look.

Andeep and Sophia are discussing how artists document their work.

Andeep says that, "Some artists create digital sketchbooks or use social media to document their work." Maybe you've seen examples of this yourself.

"Lots of artists use sketchbooks and carry them everywhere." And Sophia mentions that, "Some artists make films of themselves making their work and that can be part of their creative journey too." And these can be really interesting to watch an artist's process and methods as they work.

Can you think of any other ways for artists to document their work? Have a think.

I'm sure you've come up with lots of interesting ideas about how artists might document their work in creative ways.

Assessment Objective 4 in GCSE is all about presenting a personal informed and meaningful response.

And it's really important to remember that there's no set way to present your work.

It's all about documenting your journey from that initial starting point through to that final outcome.

So just imagine if the documentation of your work and its final outcome was in a room mixed up with lots of other projects, would that examiner be able to identify your journey and your outcome? And when that magically comes together, you know that you've really done a good job.

So documenting your work should.

A, always be in an A4 sketchbook.

B, suit the personal style of your work.

Or C, show your development throughout your project.

Well done if you selected B and C,.

It should suit the personal style or type of your work and show the development throughout your project.

Artists develop their ideas based on their needs, their style, and the results they want to achieve.

And they document their process to show how their ideas are developing.

So we might take a look at this image here and we've got lots of style of typography and we can see here that the artist has chosen to use a gridded paper because that suits the style of work that they're producing.

So this lettering.

So really thinking about the documentation method and how that's suiting your approach.

Is it working for you rather than against you? True or false question.

Sketchbooks are the only way to document your creative journey.

Well done if you recognise that is a false statement.

Can you think why? You're correct if you said that there are many ways to document your creative journey like we've just mentioned, and that's because all creative journeys are unique to each of us and we all have preferred ways of working.

We might work in a very fluid way where we get an idea and we suddenly kind of spring to another one and it's more of a kind of zigzag pattern.

Or it might be very linear, a very process based or that might even be led by your teacher.

So none of these approaches are wrong, but it really depends on how each individual works.

So what do you think is more important in the creative process? Is it the final piece or the journey to get there? Maybe have a discussion with the person next to you and see what you think.

Alex says that, "They're both important because together they show your hard work and what you've achieved." And Aisha comments that, "The journey is more important because you learn and experiment, which helps you improve." So there's really no right or wrong answer to this, but it's really thinking about your creative process and that it's not just about that end product, that's just a small part of it.

If we think about those whole breadth of assessment objectives for art and design, it's really about that creative journey.

How are you really sparking your ideas and how are you documenting all of those fantastic things you've done on the way as well? So many artists view documenting their creative journey are just important as the outcome.

And this is really because it's showing the development of their ideas, and also their problem solving along the way, which is a really important part of being an artist.

s, also known as the Addictive Sketcher, explores lots of themes like people, landscapes and animals, often filling his sketchbooks so there's no white space.

So he's really filling them with all these different themes that he likes to explore in his work.

And for Adebanji Alade the actual book itself becomes the artwork.

It's not just a workspace.

And if you to have a chance to look at some of his sketchbook work, you'll see that they're just so beautifully recorded, these everyday scenes.

And he often puts objects that he's been given or finds in locations and they'll become part of his journey and part of his sketchbooks as well.

So an interesting artists there.

Other artists who document their creative journey to reflect on their needs style and goals include; Joey Yu, and she's an illustrator who transforms everyday scenes into this very cinematic-style illustrations.

So she might work from photographs for instance, and really put this kind of twist or style on the images and play with lighting and dynamic fills within her work.

Gaby Sahhar explores things like identity, migration, and LGBTQ + rights and doing that by lots of different mediums. So including painting, video installation, often this kind of multidisciplinary approach, especially in exhibitions.

So the work might come onto the floor, for instance, be on the walls, it might be sound.

So very interesting in terms of how they document that journey.

Cecilia Caulder, she works with paint and pens to create these really vibrant imagery in her beautifully made books.

She sometimes uses these zig-zag concertina sketchbooks as well and really reflective of her unique process.

So really very stylized work and very inspired by David Hockney as well.

And Donald Rodney who explored his experiences with sickle cell disease, race and identity through his sketchbook works.

And there's a whole wealth of his sketchbooks that have been kept that really show his experiences of hospitals, sketching what he felt, sketching what he saw, and sketching what was meaningful to him.

So there's a real wealth of collection of the documentation of his life through his sketchbook work.

So true or force question.

Artists document their work by reflecting on their needs, style and goals they want to achieve.

What do you think? Well done if you recognise that's a true statement.

Can you think why? Well done if you mentioned the artist document their work really to guide their creative process and act like a personal timeline of the growth and change in their work.

So documenting your work can include any method, as we've said, that tracks your development by connecting ideas to source material.

So taking a look at this illustration of a sketchbook, can you identify how sources are connected, one of our keywords there, and documented in this sketchbook format? Take a few minutes to look at each page and see if you can unpick some of those techniques and approaches.

So let's take a look at what you may have identified.

So here we've got on the left hand side a very structured presentation.

And this is a bit like our personalities.

We might really show our style through the way that we approach our book.

And on the other side we might have a more spontaneous presentation.

So we might have books that are very orderly or very spontaneous or a mixture of both.

And then linking ideas across numerous sources.

So we've got sources that connect, and in that way where we have this connection, we start to identify themes in work.

So it's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.

If you just see the one picture or the one piece, you don't get much of an idea.

But when you start to collect up multiple images together and you stand back and you see them across themes and ideas start to really come through in the work.

And that's a really important reason of having this idea of multiple sources in your work.

And then we've got keywords as well.

So make art not war.

We can already start to then think, oh, okay, I start to get an idea about what we're looking at here.

Where was the direction of the work going.

We've got experiments down below and we can see that there's been aspects of the source imagery that have then been manipulated and experimented with.

We've got overlaid images on the right hand side, so this idea where they've been torn and manipulated and overlapped.

And then repeated variations.

And this is about developing an idea.

Lastly, notes, so annotations, reflections, why are you doing what you're doing.

How is it moving towards your intention of your work? So sketchbooks can come in lots of shapes and sizes as we've mentioned.

And this is an example of a concertina format.

So concertina format are really nice that they can be handmade.

You can get a large sheet of paper, A2 is really quite nice, cut a strip and then you can fold it to make this kind of concertina that you can easily present work in.

And also they're portable, easy to carry.

Lastly, they're very good if you put them on a surface so you've got almost like an instant exhibition of your work.

So they can work for multiple purposes.

Next, we've got presentation sheets and display boards.

And again, these can be really nice thinking about that jigsaw analogy that you can stand back and visually map your work across a whole kind of range of ideas and themes as they start to emerge in different directions that your work's heading in.

And it's really about this idea of showing development stages on one large display.

And this can be quite a nice way of preparing work for exhibition so that you have some work maybe in a sketchbook and you've got some of large sheets and that can really make a nice dynamic exhibition and showcase your work.

We've also got photographs, videos, and audio recordings, which are really creative ways to document your work digitally.

And they also have their benefits as well.

So you can capture details, you can freeze moments of your work, you can display your steps and techniques of your work as well.

You can easily share work digitally with a wider audience.

So working across multiple platforms, multiple ways of working depending on the choice of your project can be really beneficial.

So our first task, look through your own or another artist documentation method and reflect on various ways it's been utilised and presented.

So for this, you may wish to research artists examples online and there's a multitude of videos of artists talking about the way that they document their work.

So that could be really helpful to have a look at that.

You might want to swap sketchbooks and compare methods with somebody else.

It could be when we're working, especially in a classroom or at home, we're quite set on our own work and it's really important to kind of step out of that and look outside of what you are doing to really get inspiration from others in terms of how they're approaching their work.

And that can be really transformative in how you see the documentation process for your own projects.

And then to list ways that you might creatively connect ideas and source material.

So you are looking at another's work and you are thinking about writing down some ideas about how you might apply some of those methods in your own practise.

So pause the video here while you complete this activity.

So I hope you found that process useful and that you've identified some ways that you can develop your documentation methods.

So let's look at Lucas's experience.

And he looked at the work of Adebanji Alade and he comments on how he loves how he takes his sketchbook everywhere, documenting what he sees, like people on the tube and the way he experiments with different drawing techniques and uses objects in his sketchbook to bring back memories.

And Sophia looked at Gaby Sahhar and comments that really enjoyed the way they created multimedia exhibition of his experience growing up in South London and the way that he has work on the walls and on the floor, along with sound.

So along with this kind of multimedia approach.

And listing ways you might creatively connect ideas and source material.

So you may have said maybe overlaying, filling up the page, experimenting with media, adding texture, using collage to play with composition, using text to explain and connect ideas.

And I'm sure you've come up with lots of other ways that you might connect ideas and source material.

So let's take a look at learning cycle two, connect and arrange sources.

So the way that you document your work will have a personal style, and this might not be instantaneous, it might be something that develops with time.

So testing different ways to arrange your work can really help you to develop this style and help you to make visual connections between your sources, the artists, and your own personal ideas.

So true or force question.

How you select and organise your work is important when documenting your creative journey.

Well done if you said true.

How you select and organise your work is also a key part of the GCSE assessment.

So choosing a format that works best for you and the area that you are working in will effectively show your skills.

How would you describe the way that this student has connected sources in their sketchbook? Take a good look.

So you may have identified that the images connect to the theme of landscape.

So again, we're thinking of that idea of connecting sources together.

The arrows and annotations really connect the key points.

We've got overlapped primary and secondary photos which connect the location.

So in this example, the students actually looking at archive photos with current day photos.

They're comparing how the location has changed over time.

And we've also got sketching, which connects to a photo.

So taking an enlargement and you can see that that visually has some relationship to the images.

How would you describe the way this student has responded to a source with experimental media? Have a good look.

See what media you think they used to create their drawing.

So well done if you identified that this is a continuous line drawing and we can see that it's been done in pen and we can see that it's a continuous line drawing because it looks like it's been done quite quickly.

The pen's not being taken off the paper, it's got that really nice kind of movement to it.

And then you can see that they've worked on top with something like string and pane and the string's been attached to the sketchbook and they've used that to see if they can draw with this experimental approach, experimental way of layering media as well.

So really starting to think about how you might respond to a source with a different approach, a different media.

How would you describe the way this student has experimented with connecting the two images together? So well observed if you've noticed that there is a media experiment layered with a primary photo, and this has been done digitally so that the two images combine and merge together.

So true or false question.

Connecting sources on a theme helps tell a story and communicate ideas more effectively.

Well done if you recognise that's a true statement.

Connecting sources such as images, sketches, and notes work together to help you communicate and develop your thoughts better.

So when connecting your ideas for different endorsements, if you were working on a film for instance, by making a digital presentation, you might connect them by turning a 2D design into a 3D outcome if you were working in three dimensional design.

You might want to also, you could collage ideas onto a 3D object such as a box.

So it doesn't need to be, as we've said in kind of sketchbook format, you can think of lots of different ways to engage the viewer in your development process and how you've connected your work.

You might want to, for instance, plan a theme or a layout for an exhibition space.

So if you were doing a project on architecture for instance, that might be a really good way to connect ideas.

You might want to for graphics research ideas for a product or brand.

And for photography it might be about connecting ideas by selecting and reviewing images from a contact sheet.

So lots of ways that you could think about applying this idea to your work.

So some people feel confused about the best way to document their work.

And mostly it can be hard to know where to begin.

And there can be lots of methods actually that can help you get started if you know that sometimes seeing a white page in front of you is like a big brick wall when you don't know what to do.

So Jacob says that he never works on the first page.

That can be the hardest page.

So always start on the second.

And Aisha says about spilling things over her page as well.

And that might be a really good thing where you can go, oh, okay, it's already a bit mucked up.

I can kind of work around it and that spill might turn into something quite exciting in terms of your work.

Sam says that he collages his work together.

So he works on separate sheets and then uses his drawings and his designs and his ideas and starts to collage them to create that almost like a composition of the development throughout the book.

And Lucas says that if he makes a mistake, he just paints over it and keeps working.

So there's all these different methods that can almost make this documentation process a little bit less precious and more accessible depending on how you like to work.

So our next task is about choosing a minimum of three sources that connect to a specific theme.

And that might include a magazine image, a photograph, an object, or an artists' work.

So at least three of those.

So pause a video here while you go about collecting sources that connect to a theme.

So I hope you managed to collect some really good examples.

And here we can see that we've got three different sources that connect to the theme of beach.

So I've got one magazine image, a photograph of the sea, and an object, which is a shell.

So we can start to see a picture building in terms our theme.

So for our next task, you're going to use your chosen sources of inspiration and create the following: a drawing in your choice of media, a layered composition, incorporating two sources together.

So think back to what we've discussed within this learning cycle and creative ways that you might combine or layer images together.

And keywords or annotations to explain and connect your ideas.

So pause a video here while you complete this activity.

So let's take a look and it at an example of what this may have looked like.

So here we can see we've got a very enlarged drawing, really looking at texture and it's got a feel of that ripple of the photograph, the ripple of water, and also the driftwood texture of the bark of the tree.

And then we've got this idea of kind of layering two sources together.

So layering those ripples and those textures.

And that's been achieved with a lino cut print.

And thinking about keywords that might connect these sources.

So we've got the idea of the ripples, the reflections, and the pattern coming through.

So next we're gonna experiment with different ways to creatively document your source material to your personal style.

And that can include any documentation method as we've discussed.

So that might be in a sketchbook, it might be on a digital platform, it might be on a display board, for instance.

So pause the video here while you complete this task.

So how did you get on with that task? I hope you found some really inventive ways to showcase your personal style.

And here we can see an example of Jun's work and he said he decided to layer his images to create a lino print and document it as a concertina sketchbook.

And that creates a standup piece of work that he can then present on his desk.

So next we're gonna collaborate and provide constructive feedback on the successful elements of documenting your creative journey and areas for improvement.

So just taking a moment to reflect on what you've done so far and the successes that you can move forward or things that you would like to adapt.

So pause the video here and maybe work with a partner.

You could swap projects for instance, and just get some feedback on your processes and ways to move forward with your work.

So let's take a look at an example of what you may have said.

So Aisha comments on Jun's work by saying that she really liked the choice of the concertina sketchbook to document the lino cuts and the ripples in the water look great with the lino print and the repeating pattern.

And just comments to make sure to add images of the sources too, because we need to make these connections.

If someone didn't know you, would they be able to really follow your journey of your project.

So Jun says that he agrees gonna add the sources to his page and just note any ideas so that people can really see how he's connected his creative journey and ideas.

So let's take a look at the summary for today's lesson.

Techniques like overlaying, collage and experimenting with media help explore how different sources and compositions can tell the story of your creative process and ideas.

Thoughtfully arranging your sources can create visual connections between your ideas, help to communicate the development of your work.

Peer feedback helps evaluate the strength of your creative journey documentation and identify areas for improvement, refining your process as you go.

Thank you for learning with me today and I look forward to seeing you soon.