GCSE ART crisis- help needed!

[NoClueAboutArt]

Any GCSE art teachers out here please?

DD2 is good at art (has been told she is capable of a grade 9) but has been really poorly and struggles with time management and has got behind.

She has a couple of days to plan her final piece for her mock on the topic of 'identity' but is having a complete mental block about it and has no idea how to move forward. ( I think it's AQA exam board)

She tells me she has already used up all her ideas on this theme in a recent exam piece but is now expected to bring together further ideas from past art work on this same theme for a final piece. However, as she has been working slowly, she has nothing more to work with.

Please, please can anyone help with an ideas to get her started and move forward. She's getting really stressed about it and I cannot help.

i'm not an art teacher but do you mean that she needs ideas of what to paint? I wonder if she could look at old pictures of her with other people, and paint them as silhouettes in the background (so the figures are just black rather than defined) and then do a full colour picture of her now in the middle, to show what makes up her identity? sorry if i have misunderstood x

Hello! I'm an art teacher! What were her recent pieces? What artists has she been looking at for her current project? I'm sure I can come up with something! That's the bit I'm best at, haha!

1/4 of the marks available are for development (how well she can develop her idea past initial ideas). It could be that she does something similar to her previous final piece but tries out different media (e.g a different type of paint, or mixed media). She could create a new composition, and say what she has changed to improve her work (is it a 2D piece she is working on?). Alternatively if she really doesn’t have much work she could do another small artist study (that links to what has already been done!!) and creates a new final piece that links what she has previously done AND with the work of the new artist.

Of course this may not be what the teacher has asked for, but I’ve taught AQA for almost 20 years and that’s what I’d recommend.

DO NOT do something completely random that doesn’t link with what she has already been doing - this will lose her marks without question

Ps I also teach AQA (Fine Art). To be a level 9 the mock significant outcome will need to flow from previous outcomes.

So sorry for the late reply. And thanks so much for the input so far.

Artists featuring so far are:
L Freud
Stella Vine
Jonathan Yeo
Guy Denning

But as I say, she has drawn on all of them already. I think she would feel better if she had something new to work on rather than reinventing past work in different media as she seems to think she needs to do something 'else'.
TIA

What do you mean by "she has drawn them all already"? You sometimes copy sections of artists for AO1 or experiment with their techniques for AO2, but actual outcomes (AO4) need to be personal responses (ie your own work, influenced by the artists you looked at.)
In regard to Jonathan Yeo, what was her personal response? Ditto with Freud/ Denning etc. At this stage I would start combining aspects of their work into something new. Or loose brushmarks like Freud, with sketchy areas of negative space like Yeo.
I can make more suggestions if I know what her overall theme is and exactly what her previous pieces were based on (self portrait etc).
She won't get a 9 if she does something new and random. That is not how the course works at all. Projects need to be developed and sustained.

"Or loose brushmarks like Freud, with sketchy areas of negative space like Yeo."

Sorry, I'm in the bath haha! That should say "Combine loose brushmarks like Freud with sketchy areas of negative space like Yeo."

She could also use desaturated colour or black and white like Denning, or collage some newspaper etc behind the paint.

Sorry, could also use bright colours like Vine, but I wouldn't copy her use of form for a final piece. You can get away with that style as an established artist but I think it would lose you marks at GCSE, even if it isn't fair. Or is the Vine connection about celebrities?

Thank you. Sorry I mean 'drawn on' as in she feels that she has used that source of inspiration already. Not literally drawn in the sense of drawing a picture!

She understands about making links but she's being very stubborn when I talk to her about it- and quite difficult to help tbh! She has the mindset i've done everything I can and have no more ideas. I

know I'm not explaining it well. I will talk to her again but it's like getting blood out of a stone. But she has been very poorly so I'd like to help.

sorry x post. I'll ask her to read your kind helpful replies, Pangur then see what she says :)

Sorry in a rush to get to class but...for last exam she has done:
A portrait sketch with painted sections in the style of stella vine and Jonathan yeo. It had a sort of photo shop/ platsic surgery theme.
thanks

the portrait was based on photography that she did (of a friend)

Ah plastic surgery. Cool. To develop, she could look at someone like Orlan and Photoshop or collage "perfect" lips etc (bits of Angelina Jolie etc) onto a photo of herself or a friend (important that some of the pics are "first hand".)
Do a loose background (like Freud/ Yeo), some bright colours (Vine) sketch in the wonky distorted face and just do some of it very refined/ detailed (Yeo). The collage and the painting will count for AO4. Viola!

(PS Orlan is an artist who got plastic surgery to have all the "best bits" of women in famous paintings such as the Mona Lisa. The collages face, much like Orlan's work/face will probably look wonky rather than beautiful, which is the point! )

Pangur, you’re a life saver. DD is very pleased with your suggestions- thank you so much for taking the time to post. I’ll let you know how she gets on!

Hurrah! :D
Let me know if she is stuck with anything else!

Just read this thread and felt compelled to send shout out to Pangur2 for such helpful advice. This is the best of Mumsnet.

Aww shucks! If anyone else is stuck with GCSE or A level art/ photography ideas, I am happy to help!