Task 1A - Body of Work (Visual Diary)

Due Date: Tuesday 9th April (Semester 1, Week 10/ Term 1, Week 10)

Assessment Type: Examinable task; Production

Assessment Conditions:

• Time for the task: 10 weeks (includes class time and independent work in own time)    

• Activities are to be completed during the week identified in the program outline.

• Tasks not completed in class are to be completed in your own time.

• All tasks are required to be completed in accordance with the school’s assessment policy.

Task Weighting: 10% of the practical mark for the year

A visual diary is a creative document that contains both written and visual material. It is a place for researching, exploring, planning and developing ideas – for testing, practising, evaluating and discussing your project. It is the place where you learn from other artists and express and brainstorm ideas.

The visual diary is an important part of your coursework project. It shows the journey (or development) towards your final piece and usually contains:

• Drawings, diagrams, thumbnails, composition plans, paintings and/or designs (particularly those that are incomplete or experimental)

• Practise and trials of different techniques and processes

• A range of mixed mediums and materials

• Evidence of first-hand responses to subject matter and artworks, demonstrated through observational drawings, photographs and annotated pamphlets and sketches from exhibitions or gallery visits. (Note: the sketchbook must NOT be used as a dumping ground for fliers and pamphlets. If you are going to glue something in, evaluate it, discuss its relevance and explain how it helps to inform your own work)

• Digital printouts of relevant artist work

• Annotation (further information below)

Note: The visual diary should NOT be used as an all-purpose journal for doodling cartoon characters or scribbling notes to a friend. All work contained within your sketchbook must support your Coursework project as a whole.

The following tips & guidelines should help you understand how to add quality notes to your Visual Diary pages:

• Reveal your own thinking & personal responses - Do not simply regurgitate facts or provide the perspective/views of others you have found and/or sourced. Instead, try to communicate your original ideas/thinking to your own personal experiences or artistic preferences.

• Explain the starting points and ideas, emphasising personal relevance and your own connections to subjects & themes. This could be demonstrated through:

- Written Reflections on Personal Connections: Explaining why you chose the subject/s

- Annotated Images & Sources - Collect photos, magazine cut-outs, screenshots, or drawings & annotate them with personal insights.

- Include Artist Research with Personal Commentary- Instead of just summarizing an artist’s work, make connections to your own ideas.

• Critically Analyse & Compare artwork of relevant artist models (both historical and contemporary artists, from a range of cultures). 

- Discuss aesthetics, use of media, technique, meaning/emotion/ideas and the influence of an artist upon your own work. 

- While it is important to conduct research into your artist models (and to convey an understanding of this information), avoid copying or summarising large passages of information from other sources.

- Instead, select the information that you think is useful for your project and link it with your own viewpoints and observations. 

- Use research findings to make you sound clever and knowledgeable – to prove that you are aware of the artists and cultural influences around you – and to help you to critically evaluate artworks (by giving you background information and a peek into the mind of an artist): do not use it to fill your sketchbook with boring facts

• Demonstrate good subject knowledge, using correct art terminology & vocabulary (phrases such as ‘strong contrast’, ‘draws the eye’ and ‘focal point’ etc.)This could be shown through:

- Labelling and Explaining Techniques &/or Art Mediums: Reference medium-specific terms: glazing (paint), burnishing (pencil), crosshatching (ink) etc.

-  Use Movement and Style Terminology: Identify and articulate connections between your work and specific art movements or styles.

- Analyse Artists' Works with Vocabulary: Include artist research that showcases understanding of styles, techniques, and movements

- Create a Art Glossary: Dedicate a section of the diary to a glossary of terms encountered in research or personal practice.

• Reference ALL Images, Artwork and Text from other sources- Ensue that all artists, websites and books are acknowledged & referenced (it should be obvious to an examiner which work is yours when viewing a page. Cite sources directly underneath the appropriate image. Photographs taken by yourself should be clearly labelled, so examiners know the work is yours and reward you for it)

• Communicate with Clarity. It doesn’t matter whether you jot down notes or use full sentences, but never use ‘txt’ speak and try to avoid incorrect spelling, as this indicates sloppiness and can hint to the examiner that you are a lower calibre candidate.

• Select a good quality sketchbook and/or a collection of artist papers and found materials. The difference between work produced upon cheap, flimsy sketchbook pages that warp at the mere hint of moisture and that produced on thick, rich, ‘wet strength’ paper can be enormous. Even a garish cover design can negatively influence enthusiasm. If you have a choice in this area, buy a quality sketchbook and/or collection of paper / drawing surfaces. Begin with something that inspires you.

• Let the artwork shine. Do not distract from your practical work by using large lettering, decorative borders, or unnecessary framing or mounting. Do not spend weeks researching, preparing and reworking beautiful backgrounds – wild drips of coffee, torn paper, layer upon layer of careful speckled mediums – if this compromises the amount of time you spend on the artwork itself. Producing quality art or design work is your number one goal. 

• Vary page layouts to provide variety and visual interest. Some pages should have many illustrations; some should have single, full-page artworks; others should be somewhere in between. Position items carefully on the page as you work: making sure pages are well-composed.

• Use a consistent style of presentation, so that a consistent visual language unites the sketchbook. Some students are drawn towards hard-edged, ordered presentation methods (often those studying graphic design, for example); others prefer messier, looser, gestural presentation styles. Neither is better than the other: both can be amazing. Inconsistency, however (pages jumping from one presentation style to the next), can result in a submission that is distracting, busy and hard on the eye.

• Be selective. More is not necessarily better. Although examiners look to reward candidates and have your best interests at heart, bulking up your sketchbook with poor work does you no favours. Weak work can set off alarm bells for an examiner, leading them to be on the lookout for potential weaknesses elsewhere. This does not mean that you should discard everything which is not perfect (work should rarely be thrown away, as most things can be worked over and saved for far less effort than would be required starting anew), but you must discriminate. Don’t automatically include everything. Select work which shows the journey your project has taken and presents your skill in the best light.

• Prioritise visual work above annotation. It doesn’t matter how intelligent, well informed or clever your annotation is – it cannot redeem rushed, poorly executed practical work. Only once images on a page are complete (or as complete as needed) should you fill some of the gaps with notes. Even the hurried addition of annotation can be done harmoniously – making a sketchbook page appear thorough and well-balanced. Use text as a compositional element. Write neat and small (this way spelling or grammatical errors are less obvious), and – if your examination board allows it – in pencil (so that mistakes can be easily changed); otherwise, write in black or white pen: not ink that switches colour every sentence or is ‘enhanced’ by hearts on the ‘i’s.

• Give every page of your sketchbook some love. Use each page as an opportunity to remind the examiner that you are a hard-working, dedicated student who cares passionately about this subject. This does not mean that your sketchbook must be crammed to the brim with intense, laboured work (sometimes an expressive, ten minute charcoal drawing on a page is all that is needed) but that each part of your sketchbook is produced with care and dedication.