While some people know exactly what they want to spend the next two years of their life working towards, for others it isn’t always that straightforward.

‘pIck SOmeThInG YOu’rE PassIOnAtE AboUT’ This statement, while woefully overused, should not be ignored.
While I, unfortunately, can’t look into my crystal ball and tell you exactly what to pick, I WILL advise you not to rely on a teacher, student, or any other human being to give you one. While a nudge in the right direction is a definite use, steer clear of this ‘easy’ beginning point. While this might save some initial stress, you’ll pay tenfold for it later.

If the inspiration is not intrinsically soulful or unique to you, then later you’ll find yourself lacking ideas and relying constantly on prompts from the person who had the idea in the first place.
This leads to a very surface-level project that lacks depth and expansion to the initial idea outlined- Art A level, like Shreck, is like an onion. It has layers. It should look like an unpacking of an OTT gift-wrapped necklace. The fancy box is your title, then you sort through the chaos of packing peanuts or cardboard strips, equating to the many potential avenues you could go down- succinctly choose the ones with most potential for artistic genius. Then you get to the real deal: rip off the wrapping paper of that first excellent idea. Explore it, shake it, SMELL it for all I care. Test the waters of what could be inside. You want to be thorough. You start to make your way towards the finesse of tissue paper- this is you having guided the examiner to a pretty solid point. All this is for decoration, so when you peel open the pretty sticker to the actual box containing that million-dollar necklace (don’t ask me to quote brands I am NOT a jewellery person, so I probably should have chosen a better present example), You feel as though all the fluff and spectacle of the process was completely worth the end result (Your final piece if you hadn’t already caught on).
Of course, there are times where you might take diversions onto new topics, circle back to others or just abandon one entirely. As long as you explain that thought process it all gets you marks.

The Exam Piece
OK, so what If I said that I had my exam title a good month or so before the titles came out?
No, I am not a see-er or a mystic, though my fantastical inclinations may suggest otherwise, but what I did do was use my noggin a lil bit. Tricky, I know.

I chose a specific topic, or topics, that I knew I’d love to explore. Don’t pin it down too much though (for example, I knew I really wanted to do a fantasy project, hopefully on fairies or mystical creatures.) I even went so far as to plan a couple of the photoshoots I wanted to do (I.e using my little cousins to pose as Fairies in costumes in trees and water etc).

Then, when the 8 questions came, I just slotted that idea into one of the briefs. There were actually a couple of avenues I could have gone down. I chose ‘gatherings’, and so just needed to say that I was focusing on gatherings of mystical creatures of my choosing and BAM, we have our topic. Try to choose the question that most easily encorperates your idea and don’t overcomplicate. For example, I could have chosen ’Time’ and possibly done a fantasy theme utilising the way time works differently in the fantasy world of my choosing. Or ‘the mundane’ and used the setting of a mundane walk in the woods, but had hidden fairies and interesting creatures hidden throughout the piece.
Or fauna, and really delved into the experimental creatures in a fantasy light (Do try and stop me, I’m on a roll now). Light in the landscape- really just making light a central focus in how I portray the characters, many being ‘lit from within’ to play with how a normal landscape would only have external sunlit lighting. “Vivid’ is just pretty obvious, etc etc etc. I mean it really does work with anything.

All you need to make sure is that when you begin your theme especially, make the focus on the GIVEN word (I.e gatherings) and not on your chosen topic (I.e fairies). As the project moves forwards, while you can dominate with your theme more, don’t lose sight of that question.
While you don’t have to, I gave my topic a title (‘An unexpected gathering in the woods’) using that question word so that when I mentally referred to my topic, I wouldn’t forget about the driving idea.

So WHY are we doing this? The point is to take away from that initial panic when you see the questions, preventing you from making rash decisions and then changing and changing and changing your mind. In the second topic, every day counts. So to already know what you’re doing (and better yet, if you have already maybe been planning some photoshoots, organised models, costumes, dates, PIECES inspired by these) you are going to feel sooo much more at ease and able to just relax into making art rather than decisions.

TIP- Pick a topic that shows RANGE. Something that you can show off your skills in multiple areas. Something almost opposite to your initial topic. For me, my personal investigation worked with HUGE pieces doing acrylic and oils most predominantly. So I chose an illustrative second theme which could dominate with gouache and watercolour.
HOWEVER doing this doesn’t necessarily get you marks. You need to show that range WITHIN each project not just across both to get marks in that Assessment objective. What it shows the examiner is confidence. And, if you are serious about pursuing art after school, is so helpful to include in your portfolio to show off all your incredible skills 😉