Unit 1. Reflection and Evaluation

Reflecting and Evaluating the Creative Process (not just the final artwork)

This assessment task requires you to look at your creative process throughout the first three areas and discuss and analyse your strengths, weaknesses and successes. There are two parts to your presentation of this. These should provide assessors with a thorough understand of what you were trying to achieve and the decisions you made to get there. You need to be honest, meaning discuss what really happened, don’t just focus on the positives.
Use appropriate art language.  

When evaluating your work, don’t forget to say why and how you choose to work in particular ways. Be descriptive but also concise – that means stay focussed, avoid repetition and waffle. 

This assessment task is highly relevant in the examination at the end of the semester.

Part 1
Research and Exploration
Develop and Experimentation

When you’re reflecting and evaluating these aspects you should consider: 

• What was the overarching theme/lens you explored for your creative process? 
• What specific aspects and information that developed from your exploration directly contributed to the development of your own direction and ideas?
• What else could you have researched to fully expand your ideas? 
• How did your conceptual and visual ideas for your subject matter develop?
• Did you refine (focus) your ideas for your message or subject matter further through your process? Explain the alterations and processes you used.
• Which significant artists, art movements or cultures inspired your ideas and creative practice?
• What approaches to subject matter and use of materials, tools and techniques did these artists use? How did their studio practice influence your own?
  Succinctly describe how and where this influence can be seen or interpreted from you final work
• What other research and experimentations contributed to the development of your technical skills? 
• What experiences, sources and other activities helped you to refine your skills? Advice, YouTube, trials…
• Are there any aspects of this stage of the creative process that you wish you had redirected or extended further? 

Part 2
Refinement and Resolution 

You also need to evaluate your resolution of your final piece. You can reference relevant work from your preparatory studies. 

• How effectively is your message, idea or meaning conveyed through your choice of subject matter, composition and application of materials? You must describe where this happens at the same time.
• How does your approach to the formal elements (line, shape, form, tone, colour, texture, light, sound, time) contribute to the delivery of the message through the subject matter? Identify specific parts in the artwork where this can be seen.
• How did the approach you used with materials and techniques contribute to the overall resolution of the artwork? Again, provide visual descriptions of where specific effects have been created.
• What specific attributes of your artwork did you think are the strongest conveying your intended meaning, ideas or message? 

Also consider…

When including a specific experimentation task you would write a very brief summary on the following:

• The aim of the experiment.
• The materials and techniques used to create the desired effects.
• How these supported your goals for your message, subject matter and composition.
• The benefits, strengths and weaknesses of undertaking this experiment.

Word Count

This piece of writing might be anywhere between 500 and 800 words, depending on the task and criteria determined by your teacher. Experimental tasks and small artworks will require less. Some students are able to make very clear and concise statements while still including the required details of their reflection and analysis.

You should use descriptive language including specific art terminology and relevant adjectives to describe every detail of your artwork and the practices and processes you used. 

Student Example 1: Creative Art Process Reflection and Evaluation

Can you create an image in your mind of the final artwork and how the student went about creating it right from the beginning with her initial research?

For this assessment, we were given the task of creating a portrait of a significant Australian. In this unit, we focused on ‘metamorphosis through appropriation’ by researching these concepts and then applying them to our work. At the start of the task, I collected reference material on a range of significant Australian’s including comedians, actors, and writers. This helped me substantially when coming to a final decision on who my subject matter was to be. However, I believe it would have been beneficial to further research my selected subject matter to gain a better understanding of not just her work but who she is as a person. For a large part of the preparatory work, I wanted to draw inspiration from the Pop Art movement and reflect this in my final work. I was intrigued by the application of bold, primary colours found in this movement and how I could use a medium such as gauche to express these in my final piece. However, as the preparatory work progressed, I started to move away from this movement and towards a more realistic approach. As part of the preparatory work, I completed a series of experimental pieces which allowed me to work through several mediums before deciding on the one for my final. These pieces allowed me to work with a range of mediums including acrylic paints, watercolours and Indian inks which not only allowed me to experiment, but also begin to build an idea of the appearance of my final piece. Overall, this section of the unit has widened my skill set and introduced me to different mediums such as gauche. Not only did this preparatory work help me develop my final concept and experiment with different mediums, it also inspired me to practice these mediums so that I can further strengthen my skill set.      

My final artwork relates to the theme of ‘metamorphosis through appropriation’ as the piece reflects the source image in a new and unique way. The image has been cropped, altered and transformed to convey the subject matter’s work. I have created an artwork from a borrowed image and improved it so that it is no longer just a photograph of an author but instead the embodiment of her work. This image has been changed as her skeleton has been exposed to express her work on both a literal and metaphoric level. The skeleton is a literal representation of Jane Harper’s crime novel genre, whilst also being symbolic of uncovering the truth when you look a little closer. In my final piece, I have tried to convey the message and style of her work. In this way, I am expressing aspects of Australian culture as her work strongly draws inspiration from this country and especially its beautiful landscapes. The embroidered circles presented throughout the piece reflect the rich, earthy colours of Australia’s stunning landscapes, which are often the setting for Harper’s stories. 

Whilst many elements of art can be observed in my piece, texture and colour are the two most important ones. The harmonious colours present throughout my artwork covey the message of Australia’s captivating landscape. Texture can also be observed in my piece through the use of moulding medium and wool. The moulding medium is present around the edge of the skeleton and in the hair. The texture created from the wool can be observed as embroidered circles scattered around the subject matter. Both of these mediums create a literal texture which adds depth to the artwork.    

For my final piece, I chose acrylics and moulding medium on unstretched canvas. I also incorporated wool into my artwork towards the end in the form of embroidery. I chose to use acrylic paints as it was something I had used before and was comfortable doing so. However, I chose to work with both unstretched canvas and moulding medium as I was unfamiliar using them and decided to challenge myself by doing something new. The same can be said about the embroidery in the sense that it was a challenge, however, I was not completely new to the technique. I chose to include it as I believed it would bring a unique and intriguing element to my piece. I believe most of these mediums contributed positively to my composition to create a piece that I am overall happy with. However, I do believe that I could have worked on the embroidery further to make it more visually appealing in the overall piece. Unfortunately, the unstretched canvas did not work as well with the embroidery as I would have hoped. This is because it buckled, creating an uneven surface which affected the general outcome of my final artwork. Next time I will use an embroidery frame to overcome this limitation of the medium chosen.   

Student Example 2: Creative Art Process Reflection and Evaluation (Collaborative Unit)

Can you create an image in your mind of the final artwork and how the student went about creating it right from the beginning with her initial research?

During the exploration phase of our artistic process, we investigated our overarching theme of “where urban life and the natural world collide”. We chose to focus on our theme through the lens of the four seasons (Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring), with each artwork included in our exhibition titled one of the seasons previously mentioned and painted or sculpted with the influence of how we perceive each of those seasons. To develop our ideas for this theme we first created a brainstorm, using word association to bring forth new perspectives and give us a base-level plan for how we might represent our theme. I researched nuclear mutation after associating my assigned season (spring) with rebirth, beauty, vibrance and regrowth. I discovered the effects that radiation has had on the regrowing flora in Chornobyl and Fukushima, and I would later use these mutated flowers as subject matter in my final. I also developed an array of photographs to use as subject matter, exploring how plants have almost ‘overpowered’ the human world in my backyard. This involved weeds and vines that suffocate the vegetables and plants we grow and overrun the empty pots; however, I ended up barely using these photos in my final refining my subject matter by instead finding photos of mutated flowers online and citing them in all my work.

If I were to research more to develop the meaning behind my artwork I might learn more about the effects of radiation on people and demonstrate that in my final instead of cracks in my portrait’s skin. I would also take more portrait photos allowing me to better understand how light falls on a face, which might make the final look less flat in some areas. At the beginning of our developing process, I imagined painting the face of my individual would be almost camouflaged or made up of natural features, however, I decided that this does not effectively demonstrate our theme or artistic statement and the ‘clash’ between ‘two worlds’ and so I decided instead to emphasise the contrast and divergence between them thus, also allowing me to refine the way I perceived the theme and lenses in the first place. In our group piece under the name and lens of ‘Autumn’, we again brainstormed word associations and designed an idea, which came quite quickly, however, we had to adapt and completely alter our plan when the ceramic head exploded in the kiln which I will discuss later.

The artists that inspired me in my individual painting ‘Spring’ were Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Christian Thompson, and Ben Quilty. Arcimboldo’s composition combining humans directly with natural objects inspired me to have the flowers in my painting amongst my model instead of around it, Thompson’s crown of flowers and plants inspired me to paint the crown of thorns-themed mask over the model’s eyes and Quilty’s expressive, free brushstrokes inspired to use much less detail and realistic blending then what I might use normally triggering me to also experiment with painting on a large canvas for the first time. I was more inspired by contemporary art movements in particular many of Del Kathryn Barton’s works, I love the way she brings vibrancy through nature in all her paintings, its aesthetics relate to my theme effectively bringing life and energy to the canvas. Both Del Kathryn Barton and Ben Quilty add texture to their works using textured brush strokes in the case of Quilty and detailed patterns in the case of Barton. When painting I used both these approaches to add form and dimension to the works for example I used the stick end of the brush to add dots to the flowers similarly to how Barton uses a dotting brush when adding patterns to the flora in her paintings.

Through much of the process, as a result of my being ill throughout much of the experimental stages, I had to experiment as I went along. I scratched paint into detailed areas of the painting to apply a textured approach to the flower petals and leaves using the back of the brush, a technique that I will likely use again in the future. When I spent time painting at home my mum, an ex-art teacher, gave me plenty of advice guiding me on how to bring out the colours in the vines and how to approach using contrasting colours (in particular oranges and pinks with blues) cohesively and effectively. I also spent a lot of time stepping back from the canvas so I could see how it appeared from a distance, a useful tactic when trying to get your composition right. Of course, if I were to change anything I would have loved to have more time in the experimenting process but unfortunately, I couldn’t experiment more with painting whilst I was unwell. I would have also preferred to have planned a little more on my subject matter, particularly in my painting. When accumulating subject matter, I spent time taking photos that I didn’t consider whilst painting the final piece.

In our joint ceramics piece ‘Autumn’ we aimed to represent the chaos and pain that can occur when the human and natural worlds collide, the outcome often being death and degeneration. We did this through the subject matter of having a human head engulfed in buildings in a suffocating manner. Unfortunately, there was too much moisture in our head when we put it in the kiln causing it to explode, luckily, however, the main facial features stayed primarily intact so we plan on positioning the pieces on a bed of autumnal leaves as it almost as though the themes of death and destruction are even better represented whilst the face is in its broken form.

Overall, I believe my painting portrayed our theme very effectively my specific message was to aim to depict the powerful rebirth that nature can show the human world and how that power, whilst beautiful and vibrant can overwhelm the human race and ‘fight back’ against the damage we have caused. I demonstrated this by portraying the subject matter of a woman being engulfed in mutant flowers with large cracks and holes in her face. I used colour to portray the human figure as pale, sickly, and grey with the vibrancy of the contrasting oranges, pinks, and greens of the flora bursting through and around the person in the image. I also incorporated selective use of texture with the woman in my painting portrayed with very smooth brushstrokes, particularly in the neck and chin, whereas the plants have a far more textured approach using smaller, refined brush strokes and the scratching technique, this highlights the contrast between the human life in comparison to nature and also allows the flowers to ‘pop’ out of the canvas. Another approach to elements of art I incorporated is the use of shape and line to reveal the ‘beautiful’ versus ‘damaged’ elements of the painting. Where the subject has cracks in her face I have used sharp, jagged lines and corners to represent pain and death whereas in the flowers and vines I’ve used rounded, flowing shapes and lines to represent beauty and life which are again two opposite traits to represent two contradictory worlds.

Sophie Dowling ‘Spring’ 2022
Acrylic on Canvas

Sophie Dowling, Sia Bebawi, Ginger Sorani ‘Autumn’ 2022
Earthenware Clay

S Dowling – Winter, G Sorani – Spring, S Bebawi – Summer

As seen above we included a branch throughout all three paintings each in the stage of a different season, this allows for cohesiveness throughout the exhibition.