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.

renaissance - old master - da vinci

The Renaissance (UK /rɨˈneɪsəns/, US /ˈrɛnɨsɑːns/, French pronunciation: ​[ʁənɛsɑ̃ːs], from French: Renaissance "re-birth", Italian: Rinascimento, fromrinascere "to be reborn") was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe.

and whenever we talk about the renaissance.. we must always start with the first, the grand master...leonardo da vinci.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Italian pronunciation: [leoˈnardo da ˈvintʃi]  pronunciation (help·info)) (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Old Style) was anItalian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.  

leonardo was a master painter. when he painted, he painted in oils, in layers. one painting could take years, as he slowly painted layer on layer of transparent and varnishes and oil layers.  if you see on of leonardo's paintings up close you can see all the layers as they are beginning to crack with age.  they are also cracking because the paint that was used was actually pigment (ground minerals and rocks) mixed with oil and egg...

leonardo also invented a technique called 'sfumato' a technique to make shadows rather smoky and blurry.  this is one of the reasons the mona lisa is so famous, as no one can tell for sure the exact nature of her smile as it is blurred. 

abstraction - schamehorn

these works are by a friend of mine; elizabeth schamehorn.  we used to belong to the same art gallery.  she used to paint local canadian landscapes.  but she too.. has evolved, blending ideas and emotions to create her masterpieces.

this work is called 'narcissus'.  does anyone know the greek myth about narcissus?  who was so in love with his reflection he couldn't move from the water side.  consequently, he starved to death......

in her work 'samuel champlain' you can see her inspirations - the samuel champlain statue in orillia, ontario, canada and the reflections of the waters of lake couchiching...

her work 'gaia' is inspired by the rocks of the area... but it also seems very familiar   anyone ever seen picasso's blue nude?  

abstraction - kandinsky

next guy - kandinsky

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky /kænˈdɪnski/ (Russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Канди́нский, Vasiliy Vasil’yevich Kandinskiy, Russian pronunciation: [vaˈsʲilʲɪj kɐnˈdʲinskʲɪj]; 16 December [O.S. 4 December] 1866 – 13 December 1944) was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely abstract works.  

If we follow the timeline of his works, we can see how he started painting realistic landscapes in Russia.  He let his emotions and senses take over in his works as you can see by his colour choices and geometric shapes.  Then he went figure to make his work pure representational works.