The Top 10 Mistakes Made by Art Students

Last Updated on April 14, 2018

A Spanish translation of this article is available here: Traducción Española

In my seven years of educational activity, I have assessed over ane m Painting / Fine Art student folios. It has become obvious that loftier school Art students make the aforementioned mistakes, over and again. This article outlines these errors, so that others tin can avoid making the same errors themselves.

In no particular order, the mistakes are as follows:

Thinking Art will exist an entertaining, 'filler' subject

Many students select Fine art thinking that information technology will be a fun subject where you hurl a bit of paint around and scribble with brightly coloured crayons. Students who enter under this misconception suffer a very quick wake-up call. Art can indeed be fun, but information technology is likewise an unimaginable amount of work. Information technology requires abiding and ongoing effort. Many students spend more time on their Art homework than they practice on all of their other subjects put together. Art should be taken for one reason only: because playing with line and tone and shape and form and texture and colour fills yous with joy. If you don't dear making art, your subject selection will torment you lot. Art will become your demon: the subject area you resent with a passion, instead of enjoy.

Taking too long to begin

Some students are struck with a fear that they don't have an original starting point or that they haven't interpreted their exam topic in quite the right manner. They spend weeks fretting over their topic selection and worrying whether it is good enough. Here's the truth: information technology'due south not the idea that matters – information technology's what you practise with it. Even the lamest beginnings can get draw-droppingly astonishing if they are developed in the right manner, with reference to the correct artist models (visit our Pinterest Boards for creative person ideas). Delaying your projection in the hope of stumbling upon a 'perfect' topic rarely works: instead it results in panicked, last-minute submissions that are a stake shadow of what they could accept been, had the full resource allotment of time been used. Not bad high school Art portfolios (in almost all cases) need time. Practice yourself a favour and brainstorm.

Producing weak or uninspiring compositions

Compositional errors tin can be cleaved into the following 4 categories:

• Cheesy: Surprisingly, there are still students who endeavor to create artworks containing hearts; glitter; prancing horses; leaping dolphins or bunches of roses. Overly 'pretty', cliché and/or unimaginative subjects are rarely successful.
• Slow: Those who select appropriate but common subject-matter (i.e. portraits) just make no attempt to compose these in an innovative mode, do themselves no favours. Even highly able students sometimes submit projects that make an examiner want to yawn. (A less able educatee, on the other hand, with exciting ideas and clever compositions, can make an examiner sit upwards and take discover).
• Unproblematic: Some other mutual compositional error – usually evident in weaker students – is to avoid circuitous / challenging arrangements and/or choose a scene that is completely 'flat' or formless (i.e. an enlarged detail of a brick wall or a cloudy heaven). This is unlikely to give you sufficient opportunity to render complex three-dimensional form and runs the risk of limiting or stifling your project.
• Unbalanced: Every image, page and preparatory component of your high school Art project should be arranged in a well-counterbalanced, aesthetically pleasing way. This tin can exist a challenge for some, but certain principles – and directing conscious attention to limerick – make this easier. (More than on composition in an upcoming commodity).

Flaunting poor skills

Struggling with a applied attribute of Art is not a mistake (no one is perfect; anybody is in the process of improving their skills and becoming better) simply flaunting your weaknesses to the examiner is. Remove weak pieces and ensure that you present your skills in the all-time light. If you are messy and struggle to control paint, choose an creative person model that allows you to apply gestural, expressive castor strokes, so it appears that your lack of control is intentional (this volition allow you to continue practising with wet mediums, rather than avoiding them completely). If yous struggle to depict realistically, Read eleven Tips for Creating Splendid Observational Drawings and consider embracing gestural drawing, distortion, manipulation or semi-abstraction. Showcase your strengths and use these as a distractive machinery, while against your weaknesses head-on.

Failing to show development

Many Art qualifications (i.eastward. IGCSE, GCSE, NCEA and A Level Art) ask students to develop ideas from initial concept/s to final slice. Difficulties with development usually present themselves in two forms: submitting a body of unrelated work OR submitting work that doesn't develop at all. We have written an in-depth commodity about development to to help those who struggle with this (information technology was written for A Level Art students, merely it applies to other Art qualifications besides): this is one of the most important articles on this website.

Continually restarting work

Those who take Art are often the perfectionist type, wanting every aspect of their portfolio to be perfect. This ambition is great – in fact, most teachers wish this was a more widely-held attitude – all the same the mechanisms for achieving this are often flawed. Continually restarting pieces of work is not a good idea. Information technology is rare that a cartoon, painting or mixed-media slice cannot be worked upon and improved. In about all cases, initial 'bad' layers give an artwork substance, resulting in a richer final piece (see this article about working over grounds for more). Those who habitually restart work have less time to consummate the second piece and often end up with a folder of semi-consummate pieces, none of which truly stand for their skill in the best calorie-free.

Drawing from 2nd-hand sources

Drawing or painting from images taken by others is one of the riskiest strategies a high school Fine art educatee tin use. Information technology sets off alarm bells for the examiner, as it tin can indicate a lack of personal connection to a topic, a lack of originality, plagiarism problems and consequence in superficial / surface-deep work. Using images sourced from magazines, books and the internet screams of one thing: a student who cannot get off their behind long enough to observe something of their own to draw. NOTE: This is a guideline but. There are certain art projects – some of which are featured on this website – in which drawing from second-paw resources is acceptable. In general, notwithstanding, this is something that should exist approached with extreme care.

Spending likewise long on notation

For some students, writing comes naturally – they enjoy pouring words onto a folio. Others use note as a grade of procrastination, to avert working on the visual material. At that place is zero wrong with annotation. It is an splendid mechanism for refining ideas, evaluating work and communicating concepts and ideas. But students should remember this: information technology is usually possible to score perfect marks with piffling or null annotation (except, of form, in artist studies where written assay is required); it is never possible to score perfect marks with note but. Spend your try creating outstanding drawings and paintings. Utilize annotation as and when is necessary, simply put your fullest energy into creating artwork. Put the fine art beginning and the annotation second.

Presenting work poorly

Whether you acknowledge or not, presentation is important. Art and Blueprint is a visual subject field. Those who assess it are highly sensitive to visual cues. The style artwork is mounted, arranged and put together speaks volumes to the examiner about your attitude as a candidate: your enthusiasm, your commitment and work ethic. Scrunched, domestic dog-eared, smudged works can (if you are lucky) communicate the idea that you are a insane, artistic genius, but they are more likely to communicate the idea that you are a disorganised, slovenly student who couldn't care less about the subject area. When someone has a few minutes to assess or moderate your entire year'southward work, starting time impressions count. Allow your work shine. (We volition have detailed presentation tips in an upcoming commodity – stay tuned)!

Procrastination

The ultimate downfall of an Art student is procrastination. This is the number one barrier to success. Leaving things until the final infinitesimal tin can work in some subjects (especially the kind where knowledge is absorbed and regurgitated on cue) if y'all accept an excellent memory, excellent grasp of the subject and a accept a refined cramming technique – but it almost never works in Fine art. Even practiced, highly able students need fourth dimension to produce a great Art project. Why do Art students procrastinate? How practise you end? Please read our article: How to stop procrastinating and go your art homework done.

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Amiria has been an Art & Blueprint instructor and a Curriculum Co-ordinator for seven years, responsible for the course blueprint and assessment of educatee work in two high-achieving Auckland schools. She has a Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Architecture (First Class Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching. Amiria is a CIE Accredited Art & Design Coursework Assessor.

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