Who is your favourite artist/”ism”? Or choose one of the following:
Picasso, Braque, Derain, Max Ernst, Miro, Klee, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh,
Patrick Andy Warhol, Lichtenstein, Peter Blake. Impressionism, Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, Photo-realism, Renaissance Art.
Use a children’s web site like www.kids.tate.org to research them.
Find out about them and what they thought, were they part of any movement? Why do you like them? If they are painters, how did they use paint? – Thickly or thinly. Did they like bright colours or warm or cold or vibrant or muted tones? Were they paintings realistic or just suggested ideas that trigger thoughts in your head. Did their paintings have special meanings?
Choose works that inspire you. Print them out in a smallish size and merge them into your sketch book, write about them and why you like them. They must be by famous artists. Do a few on each page that are similar or relevant to your interests.
Choose something you are really interested in portraying – faces, trees, still life, buildings and animals; whatever your interest try drawing bits of it. If you like drawing faces; draw pages full of eyes – screwed up, wide open. Then lips, then try textures for hair. Draw and draw and draw, don’t throw any away and don’t worry about what they look like. It’s important to see how you have progressed. Fill your pages up with doodle and sketches of your chosen interest.
Work on this really hard: Explore tone, line and texture. Whatever your subject or theme – practice drawing it by looking at it lots and drawing only what you can see. Annotate your drawings; say what you can see, what you think, your ideas, your likes and dislikes.
Try out different techniques and media styles. Look at the artists you like again, how did they create the effects they use? What media did they use? Have a go yourself.
After you have worked very hard on your ideas and sketches then you may be ready for your main piece.
Main piece
Select a theme from Landscape, Portrait or Sculpture. Your piece can be observational, from memory or imaginary or use all three. Your preparation in your sketch book needs to show how other artists have your piece and there needs to be a lot of drawing leading up to it, exploring your ideas, your composition, techniques etc..
You need to express yourself – get emotional about it!
Your piece needs to have relevance to your favourite artists (as in be in their style or have elements of their styles in your piece.)
It should be no bigger than A2 in size.