Arts Award Gold Qualification Specification Checklist – Melanie will up
- identification of a main art form/practice and development of skills within a new art form – DONE
- ◗ development of new arts pathways
- ◗ understanding of the relationship of their own arts activity to current arts practice
- ◗ a new piece of art work or arts practice
- ◗ sharing the new work
- ◗ how to collect feedback and evaluate their overall development
This could include:
- ◗ details of their main art form/practice – DONE
- ◗ details of the new art form/practice and why they have chosen it
- ◗ a skills development plan
- ◗ evidence of working with a practitioner experienced within the new art form or arts practice – DONE
- ◗ evidence of progress
- ◗ evidence of the new work
- ◗ evidence of sharing the new work
- ◗ feedback from others
- ◗ a final review, including reflection on the new skills developed and the influence they have had on their main art form/practice
My art form
My main art form is Photography.
My new art form will be Surrealism.
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Introduction
My Strengths and Weaknesses
My strengths
Fine Detailed Work – A student at my school held a drawing contest and I ended up winning. I submitted a picture of two dogs and a toad. The organiser of the competition noted that I had paid attention to detail.
My winning picture 
My runner up picture
Telling a story with art work – When I visited the Tate Modern, I felt inspired by Olafur Eliasson’s tunnel of fog which led me to make a mood board which conveyed a story from pictures I found of the exhibition.
Expressing emotion – In GCSE media studies, I made an advert about old age and loneliness, and how it could be prevented. In the advert, I took a picture of a dim empty cup with a black background and a faint hand holding the cup, saying the percentage of seniors who feel they have no one to talk to.
Creating abstract or surreal art – In my Philosophy lessons I like to use surreal artwork to aid my work. I have made several revision posters using surrealist drawings.
My weaknesses
I would like to develop these skills in my Gold Arts Award project
- Using studio equipment independently
- Using Photoshop independently
- Understanding light and shadow
- Working in black and white and using contrast
- Choosing the right materials
- Being free and experimental
How my project will help me to achieve my goals
Using studio equipment independently – I will have to practice this in order to take my photos.
Using Photoshop independently – I will be editing my pictures so I will pick up what different features are which.
Understanding light and shadow –
Working in black and white and using contrast –
Choosing the right materials –
Being free and experimental –
Evidence of Progress
Working with a practitioner: Melanie Jones, abstract photographer.
About Melanie
Melanie Jones is an abstract, landscape and portrait photographer and is also the art teacher at Treasure House School.
Pictures from Melanie’s website
The first picture I have chosen shows surrealism a lot, because a ladder would normally not be seen on a beach, it feels out of place. I like how the background is misty, it gives off slightly eerie vibes which often goes hand in hand with surreal photography. I hope to learn how to create different feelings in my photos, like Melanie has with the mist. I have included some other photos I like that demonstrate Melanie’s ability with abstract photos.
About the project
Melanie gave me a brief that would help me to learn new surrealism skills:
For this project I used photography to capture pictures and Photoshop to edit the pictures to get the desired surrealist effects I wanted. I researched beforehand into different surrealist photography to give me an idea of what i’m doing and to also to get inspiration.
Learning how to use the studio equipment and camera
My school received new studio equipment and camera which I took part off setting up almost completely independently, this was a useful experience and a good lesson to learn, navigating around problems that I encountered helped me learn to adapt and learn more about the equipment itself.
I took pictures of Aidan to practice different types of lighting. In particular I was focusing on 3 point lighting. I also watched other students use different types of lighting so I picked up on quite a few different types of lighting, and how to set the lights themself up.
One point lighting
Three Point Lighting
Backlighting
Three point lighting with hair lighting
Planning my mini-project
The lighting diagrams I made for my surrealist portrait.
Taking the images
We can add a gallery of the unedited images here. You should also describe the process of taking the pictures a little.
Editing the images
Describe how you edited the pictures. We can also put a couple of screenshots of you editing the work in Photoshop.
The final images from this mini project
Feedback from Melanie
Alice created a set of deeply creepy photos for her mini-project and she learnt a lot about photography along the way. She is now capable of using the studio, an SLR camera, and editing software independently which will help her to create her new art work. She is a meticulous editor who took time to perfect the images even though this was a practice project. The use of the plague mask, combined with the young and innocent looking model shows an understanding of contrast and dualism often found in surrealist art. I think Alice would benefit from a study of surrealism as an art form to give her final project more context.
How this project helped me to achieve my goals
Write one or two sentences about how this project helped you with each of these goals.
Using studio equipment independently –
Using Photoshop independently –
Understanding light and shadow –
Working in black and white and using contrast –
Choosing the right materials –
Being free and experimental –
Working with a practitioner: Federico Von Borstal P.H.D
Explain that due to the Covid-19 closures, you completed a Udemy online course instead of working with a surrealist practitioner. Give a little bit of information about what you learnt (a couple of sentences).
Screen shots from the Udemy Course
Explain how completing this course helped you to achieve each of your goals:
Understanding light and shadow –
Working in black and white and using contrast –
Choosing the right materials –
Being free and experimental –
Preparing for the New Work
Generating Ideas
My project plan
To collect research I will:
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To plan, practise, and prepare for my project I will:
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To create my project I will:
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To evaluate the success of my project I will:
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How my project will use my strengths
Fine Detailed Work : This will make sure I pay close attention to all the small details, which then adds up into the bigger picture.
Telling a story with art work:
Expressing emotion:
Creating abstract or surreal art: As I am doing surreal photography, this will come in handy as i already have some previous experience with it.
Specific research and planning – Learning new skills
Shopping / Visits / gathering materials etc.
The Plans
Creating The New Work
Creation and ongoing evaluation
Overcoming Challenges
Editing / Post Production
Photographing the Work
Click here to see my online exhibition!
Feedback
Feedback surveys and reaction from others