In this video you will learn how to produce interesting Cover and Title pages for your GCSE art sketchbooks and create a great first impression.
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Your GCSE art sketchbook is everything, and if you treat like a treasure it will shine like one. Your sketchbook is a creative document that contains your artistic journey, all your written and visual material, and all your research. Your sketchbook is what determines your final mark and every page is important, including the front cover page. Today I will show you some great examples on how you can make your Cover and Title Pages look appealing, and make it count towards your final mark.
The cover page is the first page of your sketchbook and introduces the title of the theme, kind of like a book cover, while a Title page is the first page for a mini project or a subtheme within your sketchbook. For example here the theme is Natural Forms and as we see on the cover page of this sketchbook, while inside the sketchbook the student explores different mini-projects and more specific subthemes for the natural forms, such as flowers, animals or fantasy fish as we see in this title page. You can always complete your cover or title pages at the beginning when you are first starting to work on a theme project, or you can leave it empty and then come back at the very end of your project after you have completed some pages and have more ideas. It really doesn’t matter in what sequence you do it, but it is important that you make good use of this page in a smart way. You can work on them horizontally or vertically, it’s your choice depending on what you are planning to make.
--Here is another example of a cover page for Natural Forms. A good tip to take into account is that you make your cover page into a work of art, and relate the artwork with the theme or title of the project. So select designs that have a direct association with them. In this example, the shells, flowers, and skull are all natural forms.
--Ideally, your sketchbook cover should give a snapshot of the artistic journey you have undertaken. It is the first impression that will influence the examiner’s opinion, so take it as an opportunity to grab their attention and create something cool and fun, such as this example that shows fantastic and strange creatures.
--Here is an example of a cover page for the theme Reflection. You might use your text in smart ways for your cover page, such as here you have a scene of mountains being reflected on a lake, and also the title text is reflected on the surface of a lake and has a little bit of fuzzy effect.
--If you are working on a specific art movement, such as Pop Art then you can use the style of the movement to fill in your page with designs taken from Pop artists' work.
--Or, if you are planning to experiment with a specific art technique, then use the actual technique in the title page, in this example we see that the student has used of points and dots to create a title page for Pointillism.
--In this example where different mark-making techniques are incorporated in the title page, thus also giving the title page a double function as a study of these techniques.
--Or, you can use the appropriate materials that relate to the technique, such as in this example for the collage title page where the student collaged pieces of images from magazines. Or for your mixed media title page, you actually use mixed materials.
-- You can also try to incorporate the text into the artwork in a playful manner, and you be creative with the font style of the text to make it even more artistic. And it doesn’t always have to be just the title, you can also include a quote from an artist or some poetic phrases.
-- Just generally be creative and imaginative with this and fill the entire page, never just put text on its own. Make something cool and have fun with this!
Ok great, that’s it with the examples, I hope you got an idea, there are so many things you can do with your cover and title pages. Let’s just recap the basic points:
-- Treat your cover/title page as a work of art
-- Relate the designs and imagery with the theme of your project
-- Use appropriate materials or techniques that relate to the theme
-- Incorporate the text into the artwork in a playful manner
-- Use interesting font style for the text
-- And, generally, be creative and imaginative
I hope you found this helpful… Is there anything specific you want to ask me? Tell me about your questions or concerns, in the comments below. Also don’t forget to grab the guides at the link below and book a free first trial for online tutoring.
· Click here to book your first FREE trial for 30 mins online tutoring with me.
· Download the guide ‘Quick Tips for GCSE in Art Students’, from the link below to help you prepare for your art studies.
· Do you want to excel in your GCSE in Art and create outstanding sketchbooks? Go ahead and check out my online course ‘GCSE in Art & Design made simple: The Complete Beginners’ Guide’ at https://www.stellakarageorgi.com/online-courses
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