Good at what, exactly

The key element for this part of your course lists the media you might use, and then singles out one thing separately: the role of drawing. That looks like a detail. It is the most useful idea in the whole objective, because drawing is not one activity and neither is anything else you make. ⭐⭐ A PIECE OF WORK IS NOT GOOD OR BAD IN ITSELF. IT IS GOOD OR BAD AT THE JOB IT WAS DOING. Think about four drawings a person might make during one project. ⭐ ONE IS MADE WHILE LOOKING AT SOMETHING, TO GET INFORMATION OFF THE OBJECT AND ONTO PAPER. It is judged on whether the information arrived. Proportions, how parts join, where the light falls. It may be quick and unlovely and still be completely successful. ⭐ ONE IS MADE TO TRY OUT ARRANGEMENTS. Move that over, repeat this three times, turn it. Judged on whether it settled anything. ⚠️ AND HERE IS SOMETHING STUDENTS FIND HARD TO BELIEVE: BEING WRONG IS USEFUL, BECAUSE AN ARRANGEMENT THAT CLEARLY DOES NOT WORK HAS RULED SOMETHING OUT, AND THAT IS PROGRESS. ⭐ ONE IS MADE TO PLAN. Judged on whether somebody else, or you in three weeks, could build the thing from it. ⭐ AND ONE IS THE FINISHED PIECE. That one does have to stand on its own, because there is nothing beside it to explain it. ⚠️⚠️ SO THE QUESTION IS THIS A GOOD DRAWING CANNOT BE ANSWERED UNTIL SOMEBODY SAYS WHAT IT WAS FOR. A BEAUTIFUL DRAWING CAN FAIL AND A SCRUFFY ONE CAN BE EXACTLY RIGHT. That is also why sketchbooks are marked the way they are, which surprises people. A page is not credited for being attractive. It is credited for doing a job in the project. ⭐⭐ NOW CARRY IT ACROSS TO MATERIALS, WHICH IS WHY THE TWO SIT IN ONE PART OF THE SPECIFICATION. Your course asks you to select and experiment PURPOSEFULLY. That adverb is carrying the marks. ⚠️ A SHEET OF SAMPLES PROVES YOU TRIED SIX THINGS. IT PROVES NOTHING ABOUT WHY, AND ON ITS OWN IT EARNS VERY LITTLE. The same sheet becomes evidence the moment it was answering a question: you wanted an edge that looked torn rather than cut, you tried three ways of getting one, and what you did next shows which answer you took. ⭐ A MATERIAL IS NOT CHOSEN FOR WHAT IT IS. IT IS CHOSEN FOR WHAT IT DOES TO YOUR IDEA. Carry one question through everything that follows: what job is this doing, and is it good at that job?

Four jobs a drawing can do

The same person, the same pencil, four completely different standards of success.

Tap the two that name a purpose

Tap the TWO statements that say what a piece of work was FOR, rather than describing how it looks.

These three samples were made to find a way of getting a torn edge rather than a cut one
This page was made to test whether the shape worked better repeated than enlarged
This page is carefully presented and uses a range of colours
This drawing took a long time and was done very carefully

A beautiful drawing that failed

A student spends a whole lesson on a careful, accurate drawing of an object, intending it to work out how the object would look from a different angle. It does not answer that. Why does the time not count for much?

Because it was made to answer a question and did not answer it, so it is a good recording and a failed development, and the job it was doing is the standard it is judged against
Because the drawing is not accurate enough
Because spending a whole lesson on one drawing is always too long
Because the student should have used a different medium

Five terms for materials and process

Five terms, each defined by what it is. The last one is the cheapest mark in the whole objective.

Match each piece of work to the job it is doing

A quick line drawing of an object, made while looking at it
A page of the same shape moved, repeated and turned several ways
A small grid showing the same mark made in five different media
A measured drawing showing exactly where each element will sit
A finished piece, mounted and presented on its own

Getting information off the thing and onto paper, where accuracy matters more than appearance
Settling an arrangement, where an option that clearly fails has still been useful
Finding out what each material actually does, so a later choice rests on evidence
Telling somebody, including your later self, what is to be made and where it goes
Standing alone in front of a viewer, with nothing beside it to explain the attempt

Two that follow from judging by purpose

Select the TWO statements that follow from a piece of work being judged by the job it was doing.

An experiment that did not work is worth keeping, because it is the evidence that something was ruled out
A short written note saying what a page was for changes what that page is worth
Making every page as attractive as possible is the surest way to raise a sketchbook mark
The standards that apply to a finished piece should be applied to every page

Choosing a material for what it does

Your specification asks you to select and experiment purposefully, and that adverb is where the marks are. ⚠️ A SHEET OF SAMPLES WITH NO QUESTION BEHIND IT IS DECORATION. A method for making an experiment count. ⭐⭐ START FROM WHAT YOU WANT THE WORK TO DO, NOT FROM THE MATERIAL. An edge that looks torn. A surface you can see through to the layer underneath. A line that varies without you meaning it to. Now you have a question, and a material is an answer to it. THEN TRY THE SMALLEST THING THAT ANSWERS IT. ⭐ A TRIAL DOES NOT NEED TO BE A PIECE OF WORK. IT NEEDS TO BE BIG ENOUGH TO SHOW YOU WHETHER THE MATERIAL DOES THE THING. THEN WRITE ONE SENTENCE SAYING WHAT YOU FOUND. ⭐ NOT THAT YOU LIKED IT. WHAT IT DID, AND WHETHER THAT WAS WHAT YOU WANTED. THEN DO SOMETHING WITH THE ANSWER, because an experiment followed by nothing looks exactly like an experiment nobody learned from. ⚠️ AND KEEP THE ONES THAT FAILED, WITH A NOTE SAYING WHY THEY DID. ⚠️ THREE HABITS THAT COST MARKS HERE. ⚠️ THE FIRST IS THE SAMPLE SHEET WITH NO QUESTION. Six techniques tried because they were available, which shows range and demonstrates no thinking at all. ⚠️ THE SECOND IS MAKING WORKING PAGES PRETTY. ⭐ TIME SPENT NEATENING A PAGE THAT WAS MEANT TO SETTLE SOMETHING IS TIME TAKEN OUT OF SETTLING IT, AND IT EARNS NOTHING, BECAUSE THE PAGE IS CREDITED FOR ITS JOB. ⚠️ AND THE THIRD IS THROWING AWAY WHAT DID NOT WORK. The failed trial is the evidence that a choice was made rather than stumbled into. One last thing. This module is about how these decisions are reasoned. For handling any material in practice, follow your centre's own rules and your teacher's instructions.

One idea, three materials tried

Here is an invented project, written for practice. A student is making a piece about a building being demolished, and they want the edges of the shapes to look broken rather than cut, because the whole idea is about things coming apart. ⭐ NOTICE WHAT CAME FIRST. NOT A MATERIAL. A REQUIREMENT: EDGES THAT LOOK BROKEN. Now they try three ways of getting one, and each trial is small, because a trial only has to show whether the thing works. ⭐ THE FIRST IS TEARING THE PAPER BY HAND. It gives a soft, fibrous edge with a pale line where the surface lifts. It looks torn, which is close, and it looks gentle, which is wrong. The building is not coming apart gently. ⭐ THE SECOND IS CUTTING AND THEN DAMAGING THE CUT. Sharper, harsher, and the damage sits only on the surface, so from a short distance away the edge still reads as a straight line somebody made on purpose. ⭐ THE THIRD IS BUILDING THE SHAPE FROM SMALLER PIECES SO THE EDGE IS WHERE THEY HAPPEN TO STOP. Ragged, uneven, and it does the thing, but it takes a long time and the student has four shapes to make. ⚠️⚠️ NOW THE PART THAT EARNS THE MARKS, AND IT IS NOT THE THREE TRIALS. IT IS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. The student writes one sentence under each: too soft for what this is about; still reads as a straight line; right but too slow for four of them. Then they use the third for the one shape that matters most, and the second for the others. ⭐⭐ THAT LAST DECISION IS THE WHOLE OBJECTIVE. A QUESTION WAS ASKED, THREE ANSWERS WERE TESTED, AND WHAT WAS MADE AFTERWARDS SHOWS WHICH ANSWER WAS TAKEN AND WHY. ⚠️ AND THE TWO THAT DID NOT WIN STAY IN THE BOOK, WITH THEIR SENTENCES. THEY ARE NOT FAILURES. THEY ARE THE REASON THE FINAL CHOICE COUNTS AS A CHOICE RATHER THAN A GUESS. A student who tore some paper, liked it, and used it throughout may end up with a similar piece. What they will not have is any evidence that they decided anything.

Order how an experiment earns its place

Put these six moves into the order that turns a page of samples into evidence.

Decide what you want the work to do, before thinking about any material
Turn that into a question a trial could actually answer
Make the smallest trial that would show whether a material does the thing
Write one sentence saying what it did, and whether that was what you wanted
Use the answer in the work, so the decision is visible in what you made next
Keep the trials that failed, with their sentences, as the record of the choice

Build the sentence that justifies a choice

This is the sentence that turns a sample into evidence. Assemble it.

The media and techniques run

Five questions on choosing and testing materials with a purpose. Three lives.

Complete the media and technique facts

The material an artist works with is the _____. The way that material is handled to produce a particular effect is a _____. A sequence of stages that produces a finished piece of work is a _____. A written note explaining what a piece of work was for, or what was learned from it, is an _____.

medium technique process annotation sample composition texture tone

Which job is this experiment serving

A student fills a page with eight different mark-making techniques, all done well, with no notes and nothing elsewhere in the project that uses any of them. What is the most useful thing to add?

A question the page was answering, and one piece of later work showing which answer was used, since the marks are for the decision rather than the range
Four more techniques, to show a wider range
A neater layout, so the page presents better
The name of each technique written beside it

Three pages to give a direction

Three students show you a page from a sketchbook. Each has done real work, and each page is one addition away from counting.

A page holds six neat samples of different materials, beautifully arranged, with no writing on it at all. What would you tell them?
A student has torn out two trials that did not work, because they spoiled the look of the book. How would you respond?
A student spends two lessons making a development page look finished, and it now resembles a final piece. What has gone wrong?

Explain how to choose and test a material

A friend fills pages with samples and cannot understand why their sketchbook marks stay low. Explain what a page has to do to be credited, and how to choose and test a material purposefully.

Explain why a piece of work is judged by the job it was doing rather than by how it looks
Describe at least three different jobs a drawing can do, and how the standard differs for each
Explain what the word purposefully is asking for when the specification says select and experiment purposefully
Set out how to turn a wish about the work into a question a trial could answer
Explain what should be written next to a trial, and why one sentence changes what the page is worth
Explain why trials that failed should be kept rather than removed
Finish with why time spent making a working page attractive usually earns nothing

Media, Materials and Techniques

Justify the choices, the way you are assessed

What you'll cover