An in-depth study of one or more artists each semester will help inform the development of your own resolved artwork and expression of your ideas. This will refute the examination of historical, social and cultural issues and concerns related to when and where the artist worked and lived and the way the work was made.

Select an artist or two who relates to your work in some way. It may be that they are working on a similar idea, or in a similar way; it may be they are using similar materials or techniques. Try to include an Australian artist and an International artist. This will give you a broader understanding of the art world.

Choose an artist that has some documentation in several areas. They may have a website, a gallery representing them and a review of their work in an art magazine. If you can't find more than their own personal website, you may have trouble looking at their work with the necessary differentiation, so choose someone else.

Find out about their personal history, where they were born and raised, where they have lived, at what they have worked. All of these details are only interesting when related back to their artwork. How have these things influenced their work? Are there any physical, emotional, or spiritual restrictions on the development of their ideas or work? How has their work changed over the length of the artist's working life? 

Go deeper than what you can find on a general encyclopaedia-style website.

What other artist or people have influenced their work? Has another artist influenced them or have they been inspired by another person to make their art in a particular way?

What world events ​have influenced their work? Is there a culture of which they are a part? Major events? Major ideas being developed around them: science, inventions, wars, religion and gender? Refer all of this back to the artwork.

Finally, has the work itself had a life that has influenced or changed the way that it is considered? What other ideas have come to be associated with the work?