Courses — BNDS A-Level Programme

S1 Unit 3: Exploration & Artist Study

A Level Art & Design · Semester 1 Plan · Unit 3 of 5 · ← Unit 2 | Unit 4 →

What this unit does

This is the exploration and artist-study stage. The first half covers AO2 (Explore): twelve prescribed media experiments, evidence-based selection, and a scale trial at outcome size. The second half opens AO3: two artist studies chosen to solve — then argue about — your problem, plus a bridge piece that carries the study into development. The unit closes with A2, marked against AO2 and AO3 together.

Dates & span

Mon 2026-10-12 → Tue 2026-11-10 (W7 → W11), split by the G11 Juniors Days (Wed–Fri of W10). You sit A2 on Mon of W11, and Unit 4 opens mid-week after the feedback day. These dates may shift when the school publishes the calendar for this period.

Lessons

  • Lesson 06: Media Exploration — the twelve prescribed experiments as one three-day run; you decide keep-or-change with evidence.
  • Lesson 07: Selection and Scale — critique of the grids, media selected for writable reasons, scale trial (name what broke and repair it — that is your AO2 evidence), Stage 3 page.
  • Lesson 08: Artist Study 1 — from the prescribed pool: analysis → meaning and context → method copy → personal response → influence note.
  • Lesson 09: Artist 2, Bridge Piece and A2 — Artist 2 chosen to argue with Artist 1; bridge piece finished across the Juniors Days gap; A2 sat; one defensible direction.

Assessment

A2, Mon 2026-11-09 — exploration and artist study (twelve experiments, media selection, scale trial, artist pages, bridge piece), marked against AO2+AO3.

CS tasks, each direct practice for A2:

  • CS5 Fri 2026-10-16 — experiments documented.
  • CS6 Fri 2026-10-23 — Stage 3 page + selection note.
  • CS7 Fri 2026-10-30 — artist pages.

See the full register.

Key content

  • The twelve experiments (prescribed): ink+stick blind/sighted · charcoal erased back · wet-in-wet watercolor · collage from own photos · monoprint · frottage · wax resist · impasto+scraper · stippling/cross-hatch · three-media layering · low-relief maquette in raking light · digital threshold/overlay. Experiment 11 is not optional: the 2D-to-3D loop is what separates AO2 and AO3 at the top band.
  • Artist pools per theme (prescribed): Reflections → Estes, Fish, Escher · Worn → Tàpies, Siskind, Kiefer · Hands → Kollwitz, Dürer, Yoshitoshi/craft photographer · Structures → Sheeler, Feininger, Whiteread. Every pool spans period and culture and contains one 3D-capable anchor. Choose an artist who solves your problem, not one you simply like.
  • Your one-sentence defensible direction from the A2 feedback day is the entry ticket to Lesson 10: no direction, no composition.