Advanced Higher Art- IDEAS!

[whitezombie]

I'm starting Adv. Higher Art next year and I have no idea what to used as inspiration for my study. I'm doing fashion/textile design- any ideas???

[sjonit]

Hmmm dunno, find a designer you like, take inspiration from their work??

I did Higher Art, and used Andy Warhol as inspiration for my work and projects. You know that pop art style, bright, vibrant comicy. I designed a piece of clothing at one point and just tailored it into what I thought was a Pop Art style.

You can get inspiration from so much, wildlife, engineering, emotion.

Depends what you really into, if you like a subject that usually help your creative side come out more.

[whitezombie]

sounds cool, what kinds grade did you get for it?

yeah, I'm using Vivienne Westwood as my main inspiration form wise, but I'm trying to zone in on a topic thats extensive enough for the whole study you know? I don't wanna get half way through and be stumped for ideas, but at the same time I don't want to used a dead obvious common subject.

[sjonit]

I got a grade A higher, then left for uni.

Cool, she has a lot of cool clothes. Using her is great as she was so heavily involved with the early punk scene.. Think sex pistols, malcolm mclaren etc.

You could use her as your base and branch off into modern punk styling. good luck.

[Young Blood]

i'm guessing you've been into the store to have a gander yeah?
and that you've gone up to the art school to have a look at their graduates work?

if not then get on it quick smart.

what is it about her work that you like? think of it in that sense, is there an aspect that you really
enjoy? maybe you have something outside of your art stuff that you like - say organic forms,
that you want to bring in to your work - it's pretty hard for other people to tell you what to do
pretty much you've got to think of what interests you, it could seem really disconnected but
there's always a way.

also it can be a pretty simple idea - it doesnt have to be complicated to be interesting or extensive.

[Elfaba]

I used vivienne westwood as an influence for a lot of my higher art folio - pertaining to the design side of the course mainly

are you dead cert on using her?

Lewis asked a lot of good questions there.

my only reservation with Vivienne Westwood is that I've heard of a few folk using her as their inspiration/main influence on their folio, but its making your final pieces individual and unique that really counts i guess

I only did Higher art then went onto higher/further education too so i dunno what the exact remit is for advanced higher art so sorry couldnt be of more help!

[poprock]

Is this what you’re supposed to do on a Higher Art course? Take an existing creative person or company and study them? Or use them as inspiration? Is it always about following someone who’s already out there?

(Nothin’ wrong with studying current or past talent, I’m just curious. Besides which, the whole structure of ‘fashion’ is reliant on standing on the shoulders of giants, or at the very least stepping on their toes.)

[Elfaba]

also, if you like Vivienne Westwood you may also quite like Jared Golds stuff

is it fashion specific things you are looking at?

I'd go out and buy as many high fashion mags as you can and sift through them for ideas and inspiration if that is the case too!

[fallen_nemesis]

Is this what you’re supposed to do on a Higher Art course? Take an existing creative person or company and study them? Or use them as inspiration? Is it always about following someone who’s already out there?

(Nothin’ wrong with studying current or past talent, I’m just curious. Besides which, the whole structure of ‘fashion’ is reliant on standing on the shoulders of giants, or at the very least stepping on their toes.)

not done Advanced Art in MANY years, but certainly we had to reference artists to show a contextual element to your work.

I did it all at the end tbh and made up research boards after I'd done the actual work, that way there's no pressure or worry about your work being too much like someone else's!.

Try asking your art teacher what's expected. In our school anyway we weren't allowed to pick from all the options and we all basically had to do either the expressive unit and a written one, or the expressive one and the design one. We weren't allowed to do animation or abstraction/ surrealism either although they're valid options due to things like time constraints and marking criteria.

It could be that your school will have some set topics you have to pick from for your theme. I vaguely remember there being a big list and having to pick something losely to fit to the set topics. (I'd never have picked altered images on my own) . In the end I did things morping into other things and life cycles / decay etc/ Cliched, but there was loads to chose from.

Most importantly be sure you have loads of ideas for it. If you're stuck maybe sit and mind map?

The braoder you can keep it the better as you won't run out of ideas of pigeon hole yourself too much.

Remember you can always look up artists after you've done the work, the contextual bit is the easiest, it's far harder to come up with actual paintings the night before the dealine

^ voice of experience here.

I also remember as far as the SQA were concerned it was far more about your ideas process than talent. If you tried loads of things and had ideas (even if you didn't quite have the technical ability yet) you scored far better than folk that did the obvious well worn path to a more profiecent technical level . Also explain why you did things (ie -" i was exploring x , y z. I feel it failed on this account, and i liked this about it." Then go and take an element you liked from it and develop that.

[poprock]

… it was far more about your ideas process than talent.

Aye. I know what you’re saying there, but just to clarify: Ideas and process are where you display talent. Technical skills are less important.

Anybody can be taught technical skills. Not everybody has the patience to develop a thorough creative process.

Like the cliché says, it’s all about the journey, not your destination. Enjoy the ride.