Can you take Art beyond GCSE if you’re not creative?

[Lunificent]

My daughter is talented at Art, has a well presented art book, excellent painting, drawing, limo printing and other techniques but she strongly believes she’s not creative so probably won’t take it for A Level. She appears to be creative but she thinks she’s not, she’s just taking inspiration from art and from ideas she’s seen online.
So can she develop creativity? Is this typical of someone at GCSE level? Should lack of creativity mean an end to her art study?
She seems to spend an inordinate amount of time on it, so part of me thinks she should keep it up as it’s what she tends to give her time to.

Lino, not limo.

My understanding is that for GCSE you have to get inspiration from other artists the school tell you to look at it. I believe if you would lose marks if you completely went off in your own direction and couldn’t show that you had got your inspiration from the other artist. For A-level this carries on up to a point but you have to take one aspect from the artist you are looking at not all of it. You could speak to the school art teacher and see what they say about her continuing art in 6th form.

I agree with pp. My ds would not claim to be creative because he has an idea of what that means and he is the opposite - very precise, very evaluative, very logical, and has high functioning autism. But of course he's creative! He's doing A level Art and doing really well. He takes a lot of inspiration from other artists, but is beginning to be more experimental. He has a great eye for proportion. If she enjoys it and does well at it I would encourage her to think differently and more widely about what 'creative' means.

Neat and well presented book and willing to put the work in is half the battle in my opinion. I am the opposite: can’t draw for shit, but I was always creative and had a well presented book and took the time with Art. As a non-drawer I never saw myself as a candidate for A Level but I remember my teacher saying that artists come in all shapes and sizes.

I got an A at GCSE and a B at A Level (back before the A) and am really glad I did it. It was a lot of fun and a nice break from all the writing (my other A Levels were English Lit and History).

'creativity' is definitely something that can be cultivated, the same way drawing exercises will improve your drawing techniques.

However, it's possible she has fallen into the trap of thinking being creative means being 100% completely original all the time. If this is the case then almost all artists aren't creative! The older you get the more realise that most things are influenced by, inspired from, previous work and artists. Does she think that people making straightforward representational art, like traditional oil still lifes and portraiture are uncreative? What about landscape artists? Does art need to have a gimmick in order to be art?

I've had a successful design career including designing for well known brands and working for big ad agencies and don't consider myself creative. Mostly design is about having a good eye and solving problems visually. I don't reinvent the wheel with every job and I work with a team of creatives so it's a shared load. My strength is having an amazing eye for detail and knowing instinctively what works well visually and what doesn't. It sounds like your daughter has a good eye and the rest is mostly really practice and learning to develop ideas and to develop your own visual language which all happens over years of doing art and design type things. It seems a shame to give it up if she has ability and enjoys it.

Art A level has some broader strands too. My DD did quite a variety of art! Certainly not just drawing and painting. She did fabric and clothes design! She also did photography A level. This might also be of interest if it’s available. All these A levels require log books and investigation of sources of inspiration. I think Art can be interpreted in various ways!

DD had similar thought about art A level and was in 2 minds wherher to take it. She decided to go for it as one of 4 subjects, thinking she would drop it after a term or so if she didn't get on with it. She ended up loving it, dropping English instead, and is now applying for art foundation for next year.

I didn't do Art GCSE and don't consider myself to be creative, but I went on to take an HNC in Graphic Design and loved it.

I did art at GCSE level, worst decision ever made. I hated it. But if she has ability and loves it, she should definitely pursue it. Speak to the art teacher and see what they say.

I don’t think she should worry about creativity. It’s such an abstract concept and I personally believe that as human beings we are all creative. As PP said she has to completely forget about the idea of being original. This really messed me up when I was studying art and isn’t something that should even be considered at this stage. Steal Like An Artist is a really good book by Austin Kleon.

I agree with others - she may be confusing 'creativity' with originality or her own style.

Takes ages to develop one's own style, took me best part of a decade. You can't force it, it evolves. I wouldn't expect an A level student to have their own style, let alone a GCSE one.

I teach many people and so many of them say they are not creative. I tell them the creativity comes from knowing different techniques.