One year behind in Visual Arts. Is there any hope?

[Sara Lodén]

Ok, so our crappy teacher just quite because she decided she didn't like the Ib course.

So, now I'm in the middle of my last year, and I haven't done a single art piece and I kind of feel like crying every time I think about what theme to pick.

Does anyone have any advice of what to do?

How to begin? Where to start? What to put most effort in?

What techniques to use?

How to show your process in your IWB?

What are the deadlines at your school?

How many art pieces do you recommend to have done the first term of IB3? And about how many pages in the IWB?

Extremely thankful for any advice, and help with a theme. I was thinking of choosing clouds as my theme but couldn't really come up what to do with it. Is it too shallow? Any ideas?

/Sara

[gints]

Do as many possible different medias as you can.

Choosing topic is easy Human body, nature, dreams, under these you can do a lot of different SW Studio Works. Remember to work on RWB Research work book cause it's 40%.

[Danika]

Clouds? try to foccus your theme in something more specific or involve your theme with the feelings they generate in you i don't know... you really have to hurry but don't worry, try to do one project for week and you'll totally manage it. If you are in HL option A you should make at least 80 pages so you can pick from a wide variety which ones you are going to photocopy. If you are in HL option B the number of pages increases, probably you should do between 100 minimum.

Remember that you don't have to write only about your projects but also about your influences, exhibits you've gone, techniques you are interested, any investigation or comment about an article related to arts, etc.

Don't worry, you'll do fine (:

[lemon-gelati]

i've seen people do their theme as clouds, and they got a very high mark.

but that was because the word had a type of symbolism for them, something that they could relate to.

i hate to be blunt, but if you don't start pumping out finals you don't have that much hope...

good luck with it all. x

[~Lc~]

it is stressful, but I did it. I got a 4! but hey I passed right? I'd recommend you move to SL if you're taking HL. And move another subject to a HL. A language maybe?

it's doable! it's gonna take LOADS of time, but it's doable

[elmar]

it is stressful, but I did it. I got a 4! but hey I passed right? I'd recommend you move to SL if you're taking HL. And move another subject to a HL. A language maybe?

it's doable! it's gonna take LOADS of time, but it's doable

My teacher recommends to move from HL from SL, where I am currently at, to have more time to work on our projects. Should I stick to SL or allow another year to do all the work?

[Mattqat]

I'm in pretty much the same boat. I didn't even know I needed to have a theme until the beginning of senior year, 2 months ago, and no one in our class really had any final work for IB. Our teachers still expect everyone, even those poor people in HL A, to be able to finish everything, and they're just putting us on a really strict schedule. I need 4 finished projects by Wednesday. (I've only done about 2 so far, but that's beside the point.) So I just say pick something and go with it, and just see where you end up. I think one of the main things IB wants to see is some kind of journey or development throughout your work, so it's not the end of the world if you take a few wrong turns along the way. As for switching to SL, if you're still lost at this point I'd say definitely do it. However, the trend at my school seems to be for people to take HL art over an HL science, if they're not particularly awesome at either. We don't offer HL languages, so meh.

[solastalgia]

Haha, don't worry! You can definitely do it. I'll try to help with some of your questions, hopefully I can answer one or two things.

How to begin? Where to start? What to put most effort in?

Begin by not thinking too hard about it. You'll only drive yourself crazy. Create simple outlines for your works, then paint/create pieces. You're going to have to use a lot of your extra time (extra time for an IB student?! Shocking concept!!) painting. Don't churn out crap pieces for the sake of getting them done, but definitely try not to think so hard about it. Through these pieces, you can find an avenue to take with the rest of your work/exhibition. Just start by doing. I know that sounds like bad advice, but trust me, even if you paint something random you like and THEN bring meaning into it, it's better than spending ages trying to figure out a perfect plan for how every work is going to come out exactly, because then you'll have a lot of planning and nothing done. Just relax and go with it, and try to do as much as you can.

Tip: If you can, make bigger works / 3D works. You can get more than one photograph to send in out of those, so it essentially counts as more than one project and may save you valuable time.

What techniques to use?

There are no "set boundaries" with this. Anything goes with IB, as long as you show you're technically skilled with whatever medium you use/technique you try. Do you know what kind of media interests you? Like for me personally, I love origami. So a lot of my works are/will be centered around it. I say as long as you highlight your strengths as an artist, show you attempted to learn something new, but still downplay weaknesses, you should be fine. Some things are quicker projects than others, though. Like photography, for instance. If you're a good photographer and can work with image editing on the computer, that's a GREAT way to save time. It will also give variety to your works instead of having everything a painting, and that keeps the examiner's interest. Just an example, though. As long as you try to think out of the box and see what you can do to save time and still create effective works, you'll do well.

Tip: Do technique practice in your workbook. Every project, create a page where you just show how you learned and practiced a technique you used in the project.

How to show your process in your IWB?

My teacher tells us that for each project, it's good to have pages in each of these categories:

Artist Research

Project Planning

Technique Practice

Conclusion / Evaluation

Research an artist first, to be inspired by. Bring some of that artist's aesthetic into your planned project. On one or two pages, write about aspects of this artist that are relevant to you. If you use any pictures of paintings/works of theirs, make sure you describe them and why they are important.

Plan your project out on one or two pages. What are you going to do? Write about each element of your piece. If you're doing a painting, maybe draw a quick sketch to refer to and label different aspects of it. Discuss symbolism and meaning here, or at least what you plan to convey. The more thorough you are, the better.

On the technique practice page, just show you tried a new technique and worked out how to bring it in to your final piece. You might want to try painting with a palette knife on these pages, if the artist you're researching used a palette knife prominently. Or if you're not used to watercolors and want to do a watercolor piece, use the page to try out the paints. Describe what you learned, mistakes you make, and how it will help you in future projects.

Finally, after you actually complete your project, evaluate it on a few pages. Treat it like an English (or whatever A1 course you take) commentary. Discuss everything about the painting that's important, such as how your theme fit in, how effective your symbolism was, how well you used a specific technique, and even anything you could improve for the future. Like someone else said somewhere, IB likes to see a journey within your art. Any thoughts of yours can go on these pages, just so show you're developing as an artist and adding depth to your pieces.

The workbook can bump you up from a 5 to a 6, or down from a 5 to a 4. Make it as thorough and clear as possible.

What are the deadlines at your school?

Unless we're lagging far behind there are no real set deadlines. We try to have a few workbook pages done every two days, and a project or two every month or so. Since you're a bit behind, it might be good to put YOURSELF on a rigid schedule. Work out a plan for what days you're going to do what. If you can plan when you'll finish certain works and have it all organized, you should have no problem. Just make sure to stay on top of your schedule.

How many art pieces do you recommend to have done the first term of IB3? And about how many pages in the IWB?

Well, you have to have about 15 - 18 photographs of your work, right? (Notice I said photographs, not works themselves.) And about 30 workbook pages to send in at the end of the course. I would honestly do as many art pieces as possible, because then you have a lot of workbook pages to choose from, and a lot of projects to select to exhibit. But if you want a goal, i'd say try for about 8 works, since you're one year behind. Then you can do 8 works in the second part of the year and have enough to send in to examine. It might seem a bit intimidating but if you apply yourself, I'm sure you can do it. Just remember to have about 5-6 pages for each work, and do in-depth analysis, and create works efficiently. Then it will all work out.

As for theme - clouds is good, but very specific. You might find yourself just painting, well, clouds. It's a bit limiting. What I would do to make sure you can get in the safe range of works is broaden your horizons even more to maybe "the celestial," "the world beyond," etc. Then you can bring in angels, space, wonders of the universe, astronomy, etc. It will be deep without being too complicated. Plus, you can work in clouds into all your works but still have a lot to talk about.

Hope I helped, good luck! Sorry about the wall of text, lol. If you have any questions, please ask.

[~Lc~]

it is stressful, but I did it. I got a 4! but hey I passed right? I'd recommend you move to SL if you're taking HL. And move another subject to a HL. A language maybe?

it's doable! it's gonna take LOADS of time, but it's doable

My teacher recommends to move from HL from SL, where I am currently at, to have more time to work on our projects. Should I stick to SL or allow another year to do all the work?

if you're a year behind then I don't understand your teacher's recommendations

do you have the option of getting an extra yea to complete things? I'd stay with SL... I wish I did SL!

[blackbird]

You can do it And I would recommend you to go with option B (work book), you only need 8 works of art... The techniques I find the easiest, fastest and that express the most emotion are watercolors and chinese ink. But it really depends on what you're good at and what it is that you like.

[Jackie]

....

Tip: If you can, make bigger works / 3D works. You can get more than one photograph to send in out of those, so it essentially counts as more than one project and may save you valuable time.

...

Well, you have to have about 15 - 18 photographs of your work, right? (Notice I said photographs, not works themselves.) ...

I don't know how they do it at your school but it seems abnormal for one to take pictures and send them in for the exam. In IB Art exams (or at least from what I myself have seen), a judge comes to the school and evaluates your work based upon a presentation that you give to them. You have to have between 12 to 18 actual works for HL, not photos. I apologize if I sound rude or anything, I just want to clarify so Sara doesn't get the wrong idea and have problems later.

[solastalgia]

I don't know how they do it at your school but it seems abnormal for one to take pictures and send them in for the exam. In IB Art exams (or at least from what I myself have seen), a judge comes to the school and evaluates your work based upon a presentation that you give to them. You have to have between 12 to 18 actual works for HL, not photos. I apologize if I sound rude or anything, I just want to clarify so Sara doesn't get the wrong idea and have problems later.

An examiner DOES come to the exhibition and interviews us, then grades our work + how well we present/explain it. But we also have to send a Candidate Record Booklet overseas to be judged by a moderator. This contains thirty pages of the workbook and 12 to 18 pictures of your works. Meaning, bigger works have more photos. (More than three/four is stretching it, though). A lot of year 2 students right now who need to get a lot done are creating bigger projects so they can take more photos. (One girl who doesn't have many works is making a huge robot, for instance, and that will push her a bit further into the safe zone because she can get three pictures of that.)

At least, when we asked for clarification on this, we were told that it wasn't 12 to 18 actual works, but 12 to 18 photographs of your work to send over, as well as twenty to thirty photocopied IWB pages (my numbers might be wrong, but they're close, I think). It's good to have as many works as possible, but my understanding was that the requirements for the CRB did not depend on the number of works you had but on the number of pictures of your works. A small painting will not have more than one photo. A big sculpture, on the other hand, needs to be viewed at from more than one angle and needs more photos. This is not to say smaller works aren't good, but IB artists will often do one or two projects that will get them more photos. So the number of projects ends up around 12 - 18, anyway.

For instance, my friend who did her art exam last year made a huge mural. That accounted for four photos. She made many other works as well, but the mural was more important so she made sure to have more than one photo of that sent in + all her workbook pages for it. (She ended up getting a 7, in case you were wondering, lol)

I don't know if anyone here was told anything different, but that's what I was told, so I'm sticking to it and making works that can get more than one picture early on, so I don't end up in a rut. Then I can concentrate on smaller, more intricate works.

Edited October 7, 2010 by solastalgia