Materials and processes
Art & Design · Key Stage 3 · The School
Choosing a medium
Graphite: controlled, correctable, tonal. Charcoal: fast, dark, physical, messy. Ink: committed, no undo, superb for line. Watercolour: transparent, layers build up, white is the paper. Acrylic: opaque, quick-drying, forgiving. The medium is a decision, not what happened to be in the drawer.
Printmaking
MONOPRINT: one impression from an inked plate. RELIEF (lino, wood): cut away what stays white, ink the surface, print — and remember it comes out MIRRORED. SCREEN PRINT: ink pushed through a stencilled mesh. Printmaking teaches planning, because the cut is irreversible.
Testing first
Professionals test. A colour on scrap of the same paper, a lino offcut, a small maquette before a large sculpture. Sketchbook tests take minutes and save hours, and at GCSE the tests themselves carry marks under refinement — the finished piece alone never scores as well as the finished piece plus the evidence of how it was arrived at.
Draw a stormy sea three times. CHARCOAL: broad, dark, smudgeable — the mass and drama come easily and detail is impossible. FINE PEN: every line deliberate, so you get texture and precision, and no atmosphere. WATERCOLOUR: light, bleeding edges, unpredictable — good for spray and distance, hopeless for a sharp edge. The subject suits one of the three, and knowing which is the choice you are being marked on.