Pre A Level Art & Design · Resource Library
See the semester plan for what is taught when.
Image sets
Seventeen exemplars for visual-elements analysis, weighted toward photography:
- Photography: Walker Evans (Alabama Cotton Tenant Farmer Wife, 1936), August Sander (Artists’ Party in Cologne, c.1930), Carleton Watkins (Arbutus Menziesii), Emmet Gowin (Edith, Chincoteague, 1967), Frederick H. Evans (Lincoln Cathedral, 1898), Eugène Atget (Versailles ×2, 1901–02), Gerry Johansson (×2), Albert Elm
- Painting / works on paper: Ad Reinhardt (Number 107), Adolph Gottlieb (Blast I, Descending Arrow), Arnulf Rainer (Untitled), Fernand Léger (The Mirror), Jacob Lawrence (They were very poor)
Printmaking
These are the materials for the printmaking part of Unit 4.
Three-class linocut sequence. Across three classes you will: (1) get an introduction to relief printing, cover safety, transfer your design using tracing paper, and begin carving; (2) refine your carving, ink with a brayer, make test prints and your first prints on good paper; (3) make final prints, experiment with multi-color and layering, and take part in reflection and a gallery walk. Includes a materials list, formative and summative assessment with its own 100% rubric, and two extensions: a 3–4 print series, or artist research on Dürer, Hiroshige or a contemporary printmaker.
A5 drawing brief (set as homework before the unit). Make three A5 drawings that will work as linocuts. Rules: A5 with a 1 cm border; one clear subject readable “in 2 seconds from far away”; no tiny background detail. The key constraint is “Linocut = no middle values” — the parts you carve go white, so suggest “grey” with lines, cross-hatching, dots or pattern, never soft pencil shading. Ends with a five-point checklist.
Carving step by step. Five illustrated steps: draw your design on paper → transfer it to the lino (carbon paper, or lay the lino on the drawing and rub the back to lift graphite) → cut away the negative space → ink using an inking plate and roller → print with a baren, spoon or hand using circular pressure. Note the mirror-image rule — important if your design contains text — and the irreversibility rule: “you can only carve more material away, but you can’t put it back.”
Color mixing guide. An RYB subtractive color-mixing poster: primary/secondary/tertiary star, equal-amount vs proportional mixes with ratios (e.g. 2 red : 1 blue = magenta), tints/tones/shades, and a wavelength spectrum. This supports the multi-color printing session and general color theory.