A level examples.. for reference

in singapore we have N levels, O levels and then in JC you take A levels.  in some other countries (england, new zealand) they just sit for A levels.

if you are searching online for examples of  'O level work' you may only be able find past singapore examples.  but.. i have found.. if you want to appear creative.. you need to look further than your own hometown.  try googling 'art, A levels'... and be prepared to be impressed.

i found one exceptional website......its built by a teacher from new zealand trying to help her students do well in their A levels.

http://www.amiria.co.nz/artist/

... and she is pretty successful as some of the students score quite high.  here is the video of the student that scored 100%  what?  how is that possible.  do keep in mind that a level requirements are a bit different - they have to submit a sketch book, not just 8 prep boards.....  its pretty cool.. and you will see how the artist has used MANY different ideas and sources and inspirations and COMBINED them... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltG4HJFCZfc

renaissance - old masters - durer

durer.. is super interesting.  he came from northern europe.  so.. his models are not italian.  but what is incredible about durer is his intensity.  the intense detail he used in his paintings are awesome.  he was also a master printmaker.. so yeah.  cool.

Albrecht Dürer (German: [ˈalbʁɛçt ˈdyːʁɐ]; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528) was a German painter, printmaker, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since.  His woodcuts, such as the Apocalypse series (1498), retain a more Gothic flavour than the rest of his work. His well-known works include the Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514), which has been the subject of extensive analysis and interpretation. 

his print of a rhinoceros is pretty interesting.  he had actually never seen a rhino before. his friend sent him a letter from africa describing it and he drew what he thought it must look like. pretty damn close.  its so cool that it has a cult following.  lots of people use the shape and fill it with unrelated things.. which is (hint) a damn cool idea.

renaissance - old masters - botticelli

yay!  my favourite!!  i love botticelli!  love!

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli (Italian: [ˈsandro bottiˈtʃɛlli]; c. 1445^[1] – May 17, 1510), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He belonged to the Florentine school under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, a movement characterized as a "golden age".  His work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting.

bernini

bernini is a baroque artist... he came after donatello... and he was influenced by all the ninja turtles.. bernini was a genius of sculpture and one cannot talk about sculpture without mentioning him....

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (also spelled Gianlorenzo or Giovanni Lorenzo) (Naples, 7 December 1598 – Rome, 28 November 1680) was an Italian artist and a prominent architect who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture. In addition, he painted, wrote plays, and designed metalwork and stage sets.

A student of classical sculpture, Bernini possessed the ability to capture, in marble, the essence of a narrative moment with a dramatic naturalistic realism which was almost shocking. This ensured that he effectively became the successor of Michelangelo, far outshining other sculptors of his generationi. His talent extended beyond the confines of his sculpture to consideration of the setting in which it would be situated; his ability to synthesize sculpture, painting and architecture into a coherent conceptual and visual whole has been termed by the art historian Irving Lavin the "unity of the visual arts". A deeply religious man, Bernini used light as an important metaphorical device in the perception of his religious settings, often using hidden light sources that could intensify the focus of religious worship, or enhance the dramatic moment of a sculptural narrative.

renaissance - old master - donatello

donatello.. probably the least known of the ninja turtles.... he was more of a sculptor than a painter.. but what he could do with marble and bronze is still... quite.. impressive..

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (circa 1386 – December 13, 1466), also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian painter andsculptor from Florence. He is, in part, known for his work in bas-relief, a form of shallow relief sculpture that, in Donatello's case, incorporated significant 15th-century developments in perspectival illusionism.

renaissance - old master - raphael

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520), better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

renaissance - old master - michaelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo (Italian pronunciation: [mikeˈlandʒelo]), was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.