Recording, Drawing and Annotation

A page is marked for its thinking

Open most sketchbooks and you find a pile of drawings, some neat, some rough, with a title written under each one and the date in the corner. Here is the thing that surprises people. The neat, finished, carefully labelled page is very often the one that scores badly, and the rough page covered in scribbled notes scores well. That is because the third assessment objective, AO3, does not reward how a page looks. It rewards the thinking a page makes visible: what you noticed, what you tried, what it told you, and what you decided to do next. So learn recording as the running trail of a mind at work on a project, not as a place to keep tidy pictures. One question will judge almost any page you are shown: does it show a thought, and does it move the work forward?

Five words a sketchbook runs on

These five words come up throughout AO3. Learn what each one is for, because the marks follow the purpose, not the label.

How one observation becomes evidence

An invented student is starting a project on natural forms. Put the five events in the order they happen.

• She notices how the light throws a hard shadow across a crumpled paper bag
• She makes a quick study of just the shadow shapes she can see
• She writes beside it that the darkest shadow sits right under the deepest fold
• She decides that hard edge of shadow is what she wants her print to be about
• On the next page she tests that idea inside her own composition

The note that does a job

A student pins a careful drawing of a leaf into her sketchbook. Which written note beside it would earn AO3 marks, and why?

• This vein pattern is much stronger than my first sketch, so I will base the lino print on it
• A drawing of a leaf
• Leaf, pencil, October
• I am really pleased with this, it is very neat

Recording against decorating

Almost every AO3 decision comes down to this one contrast. The same drawing can sit on either side; what decides it is the writing and thinking around it.

Find the annotation that thinks

These five sentences are written across one sketchbook page beside a shell study. Select the ONE that is real annotation, showing thinking, rather than a caption, a label or praise.

• Study of a shell.
• Shell, coloured pencil.
• The spiral gets tighter towards the middle, so I will crop in close and let that rhythm fill the frame.
• This one took me nearly an hour.
• Quite a good drawing, I think.

Which notes move the work on

A page carries these five notes. Three of them would earn AO3 marks because they record thinking that changes what happens next. Choose the three.

• The blue looked cold next to the orange, so I will warm it with a little red
• This angle hides the face, which is not what I want, so I will try a side view
• The rough texture read better than the smooth, so I will build the final piece that way
• Drawing of a chair
• Finished this in one lesson

One question for any page

Markers reward a sketchbook for the thinking it makes visible, not for how neat or full it looks. So hold every page up to a single question. Does this page show a thought, and does it move the work forward? If a page only names or decorates, the answer is no, however tidy it is. If a page records what was tried, what it revealed and what to do next, the answer is yes, however rough it looks.

Match each recording act to its job

A cook improving a dish

Step out of the art room for a moment. Think about a cook working out a new dish for a restaurant menu. She does not cook it once and hope. She keeps a small notebook by the hob, and every time she tries the dish she writes what she changed, why, and what to do the next time. Less salt. The sauce split, so lower the heat. Guests left the garnish, so drop it. Six months later the dish is on the menu, and that notebook is the reason. Anyone could read it and follow the thinking that got there, one decision at a time. A tidy notebook with only the final recipe copied out neatly would be worth nothing to her. It is the running trail of tries and reasons that let the dish get better. A working page in art does exactly the same job: it is there to show a thought and carry the work to the next step, not to be pretty.

Complete the recording facts

AO3 is about _____ ideas, observations and insights as the work develops, not writing it up at the end. The place this happens is the working _____, kept going right through a project rather than filled in afterwards. Writing that shows thinking, saying what was tried and why, is called _____, and it is worth far more than a caption that only names what a thing is. A small quick sketch that tests a composition before committing is a _____, while a careful drawing made by looking hard at a real object is an _____ drawing. The real test of any page is not whether it is neat but whether it _____ the work by feeding the next decision.

Turn a caption into an annotation

A student has written only the words teapot study beside a drawing. Rebuild it into an annotation that would earn marks.

Recording quick-fire

Five quick decisions. Three lives.

Coach a student who records nothing

An invented student hands in a sketchbook of neat, finished drawings, each labelled with its title and the date. It scores poorly for AO3. Work out why and what to change.

• The drawings are accurate and tidy. Why is the AO3 mark still low?
• What single change would help the mark most?
• When should that recording happen?

Explain how recording develops the work

A friend says a sketchbook is just somewhere to keep nice drawings. Explain what AO3 recording really is, and how you would use a sketchbook to develop a project.

• Say what AO3 recording is, and why neatness on its own earns little
• Explain what a useful annotation contains, with an example of your own
• Describe how one observation could feed the next decision in a project
• Name one kind of drawing used to record or test an idea, and say what it is for
• Say how recording as you go differs from writing it all up at the end