Art Themes to Explore in GCSE & iGCSE
If you are looking for art themes to explore in GCSE or iGCSE lessons, the huge list below is a great starting point. Thank you to art teacher Annie Chapman who started this list and to other teachers for making suggestions which I’ve added. Some words link to art teaching resources on this website.
Aboriginal and native art
Abandoned places
Advertising/Consumption and consumerism, Rich world vs Poor world
Ageing, old and new, decay and change
Animals
Art & Words
Beauty.The beauty myth, Self-image
Beautiful vs Ugly
Bullying
Book illustration and text
Casting Shadows
Colour and mood
Camouflage
Cubism
Carnival and Celebration
Culture Patterns, objects, traditions: eg: Africa, Asia. Japan
Collections
Contrasts
Dance
Decay
Dream/Surrealism
Design eg. clothes/shoes/campaign poster
Depression/Fragility
Equality
Emotions
Fear and Nightmares Environment
Faces and features
From natural to abstraction
Fantasy
Fragile things
Family
Flowers and plants
Game Design
Graffiti/murals/Protest messages
Heroes
Identity
Inside out
In The News
Impressionism /light in painting
Illustrate a story
Landscapes of the mind, loneliness, loss
Light/dark
Masks
Magnification and macro
Memory
Music
Mirrors/reflection
Money /inequality
Metamorphosis/change
Money
Myths and Legends/Magic
New/old
Opposites
Out of Place
Ordinary vs extraordinary
Paradise
Pattern eg. patterns in nature/repeat patterns/rotational patterns
Planets/Save the planet/Space
Pop Art and Comics
People
Rich world-vs-poor world
Refugees/War
Sea /coast
Seasons
Stories and storytelling
Symbolism
Seven Deadly Sins
Self-portrait
Self-image
Secrets/a secret place
Time and Space
Time-lapse/freeze frame/movement
Transformation
Tropical vegetation/Jungles
Trash and/or treasure
Through a Window
Ugly/beautiful
Under water
Washed-up, things found on a beach
World within a world
Women in Art
Zoom-in/Close-up
Zodiac
This website is for art teachers. I’m pleased that art students also enjoy it, but I am not able to respond to individual students who want help with ideas for their GCSE projects.
Please comment below if you have more art themes to explore in GCSE & iGCSE lessons and I will add them.
There is also a fantastic list of artists listed by theme on The Arty Teacher. Click the link below to find out more.
Thanks so much for your assistance Sarah. Please can Game design be considered as a theme?
Hi Liz, Great idea; I have added it. Thanks for the suggestion.
my son is doing GCSE coursework but wanted to do it on African culture but he has to choose famous artists to tie in with that theme any help please
Hi Billie, You can look at a culture instead of an artist. GCSE specification states that you need to look at ‘contextual sources’. These could be artists, cultures, films, animation, or anything that inspires creativity. If I had a student who wanted to look at African culture, i would want them to narrow it down to a tribe or country within Africa. He could do a page in his sketchbook on ‘African Art’ to start with, but then look at Maasai Clothing or Senufo Masks. If his art teacher insists upon an artist, and hey, they are running the course, there are some great choices here: https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/10-african-artists-you-absolutely-must-know/
Fantastic resources, I appreciate you making them available to us. The extensive list below is a wonderful place to start if you’re seeking for art-related topics to cover in GCSE or iGCSE classes. This incredible collection was compiled by Annie Chapman, a teacher of art. A few of these words are clickable links to useful pages for art teachers. Keep writing, I really enjoy reading your posts. Come across Joshuacreekarts.com and hope you can visit this too to get more information.
Hi! Thanks for your positive comment. I’m delighted you like the list. I’m happy to keep adding to it, so if you have any ideas, do let me know. I do mention Annie at the top of the post! I’ll check out your website.
Greetings, may you please advise what aspects are considered irrelevant and ‘out of topic’ when choosing a starting point?
Hi Klavier, I think you can pick any theme as long as you can see how you can fulfil the assessment objectives for your course. Choose a starting point that really excites you as you will be working on that theme for a long time. Pick something where you are inspired to record in a variety of ways. (Photography, drawing etc) Most of all, be creative and make a personal response!
I am an IGCSE teacher from Ghana. I have 5 learners and I am currently preparing them for the exams. However, I am a bit lost with the kind of themes to make available to them to choose or help them choose. Kindly, share some possible themes with me. It will really be helpful.
Hi Elizabeth, Thank you for your comment. You could choose any of the themes in this post but I always think it is a good idea to choose a theme that makes it easy for students to photograph something and to easily find artists. For examples ‘Natural Forms’ is a good theme as learners could choose from a huge range of items that would photograph well. There are also lots of artists that cover this theme. You may find these links useful:
Artists listed by theme:
https://theartyteacher.com/artists-themes/
Natural Forms Artists:
https://theartyteacher.com/downloads/list-of-natural-forms-artists/
List of Natural Forms:
https://theartyteacher.com/downloads/list-of-natural-forms/
You may also find these complete units of work useful:
https://theartyteacher.com/category/arty-students/
This is so helpful and very relief. Thank you.
Hi Elizabeth, I’m so pleased you found it helpful 🙂
hello art teacher, is it true that we can choose to draw whatever we want in igcse art? or is there a subject for igcse art every year?
Hi, Different art teachers run their GCSE courses in different ways. They may give you a theme to start with at the start of the first year. If you are a self-motivated, confident learner they may well let you plot your own course but it is up to your teacher to guide you and do what is best for the whole class. When you get the exam paper in the second year, there is a broad range of starting points and often you can fit in what you would like to do into one of the questions (but not always!). I hope this helps.
Hi, this blog post is really helpful to me. But is art a good subject to take for pursuing engineering or design?
If you are thinking of persuing engineering or design, I would think that art would be the perfect subject to study. Think of polymath Leonardo da vinci, he found that recording his observations and ideas through drawing was essential. Many of his drawings were engineering designs! Many design courses would expect your to have studied art.
is art a good career choice?
im 15 and haven’t actually decided a career choice, I used to just draw any image that I liked, but recently I have started learning art, practicing anatomy for example
I have got a sketchbook that I actively use and, I also have another one which I am working on a comic in.
i love drawing, but is it a good career choice? and if so, what opportunities are there abroad that I can look into *for the future*.
Hi Huzaifa, If you love being creative, studying art at a higher level can lead to all sorts of interesting jobs. It might help you to look at all of these art related careers here:
https://theartyteacher.com/art-careers-written-for-kids/
Hiii, is it ok to do a fictional character as a theme?
Hi Jordan, Yes, that would be an interesting theme. I would strongly advise you to find an artist who has created artwork about the fictional character you choose. Or an animator or has created artwork, or a theatrical set designer who has made sets or costumes about the character. This would make your life easier!
Hi! i’m a gcse art student and i was just wondering if something about old fashioned clothes or something like armour would be a theme. i currently don’t have an art teacher :/ do we have to do the same theme as everyone in our class
Hi, Thanks for your message. Yes, both ‘old fashioned clothes’ and ‘armour’ would be excellent themes. Choose a theme where it is easy to photograph something. You don’t have to do the same as everyone in your class, you can all do your own theme. I would start by photographing either old fashioned clothes or armour, and then draw from your photos in a range of different media. Think about working on different surfaces and different sizes. You then need to find an artist that links with your theme in some way. Create a beautiful artist research page. Good luck!
Would surrealism be a theme ?
Hi Vishva, Surrealism is a movement rather than a theme. I’m trying to think if movements have ever come up on the exam papers and I can’t think that they have. I don’t see why you couldn’t research into Surrealism if that was something of interest. There are themes within Surrealism such as ‘Dream Like Scenes’, ‘Illogical juxtapositions’, or ‘Distorted figures and biomorphic shapes’.
Hi, my son his in his 1st year of art gcse. He is a good little drawer but that’s it really, not particularly good at painting or using different textiles. we are a little confused as to the structure of the course….
I do need to speak to his teacher but so hard getting to do this!
portfolio/theme idea he has thiught of is western/ cowboy….came from his love of an xbox game. We’ve had a little look at the ladscape artists for that era and he has favourite characters from the game that he can sketch etc just not sure how to make it into a portfolio….any help would be grateful.
thanks.
Hi Mari,
Hopefully his art teacher has shared the GCSE assessment objectives with him. You can see them on the following page:
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/art-and-design/gcse/art-and-design-8201-8206/scheme-of-assessment
If you scroll down to ‘Assessment criteria grid’, in bold you will see the 4 assessment objectives. The first reads ‘Develop ideas through investigations, demonstrating critical understanding of sources.’
‘Sources’ can be artists, designers, film-makers, books, anything creative really, including the designers and artists who made the xbox game. I would suggest he created a research page all about the game, the publisher of the game, the artists. You can find all sorts of stuff online about the art in games. For example here I found some fan art on the Rockstar Games website:
https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/51ka2k2819a1ak/fan-art-spindel-art-s-portraits-of-the-van-der-linde-gang
After this research page, he could photograph someone dressed up as a cowboy. Make sure he considers background, lighting, focus. Present these photos in the portfolio.
Draw from these photos. Draw in different media e.g. pencil, ballpoint pen, fine liners, markers, chalks, charcoal (what ever he feels comfortable with). Draw on different surfaces: white paper, brown packing paper? Cowboys drink coffee: coffee stain some paper and draw on that.
Hopefully once he’s done this his art teacher will be able to tell him what to do next!
Hi, I am a teacher at a school in England. We have had our new brief for our y11 exam and the theme is ‘MAKE MUSIC DAY’. We are stuck for ideas on what the students could research into as well as artist who relate. Any help would be appreciated.
TIA.
Hi Chloe,
I hope you’ve discovered my ‘Artists Listed by Theme’ page. There are some artists listed under the theme ‘Music’ that might be useful to your students. You can see it here:
https://theartyteacher.com/artists-themes/
I hope your school has a music department. I would be straight up there to borrow instruments as some students might want to start with photography as instruments are so photogenic.
Other ways students might begin:
Photographing a friend listening to music.
Ask if anyone plays an instrument and use their own experience as a starting point.
This article was interesting:
https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/24-times-fashion-designers-got-their-beat-from-music
They could pick their favourite band and promote them as if they were playing at ‘Make Music Day’.
Hello Mrs! I’m a current IGCSE art and design student, our school doesn’t have a art teacher yet. I have no idea what to do, should I start with making a portfolio on my own first? thank you! A topic I want to do is “behind the eyes” it’s a topic surrounding mythical creatures and mythology. would this be appropriate? thank you so much!
Hi, That sounds like a very difficult situation. I’m surprised your school is letting you do an art course without an art teacher. Are you in your first year of the course? What have you completed since September? I would first try and find a couple of artist that create artworks about mythical creatures and/or mythology. Produce some research pages on them in your sketchbook. Then try and think of something real that you could draw (a primary source) that relates to your artists. (This will depend on the artist you have chosen, but it might be something like animal skulls if your school has them) You could also work from secondary sources, perhaps images of lizards? Or could you get a real octopus from a fish mongers and draw and photograph it? (I’ve had students do this!) You could then use your drawings to create mythical creatures of your own. Make sure you work in a variety of media and on a variety of surfaces. Hopefully this would be a start. Let me know how you get on.
Hi The Arty Teacher, I am teaching iGCSE Art and Design for the first time. Just wondering as to what you would consider as an ideal number of themes that can be introduced to a class over the course of two years. Is it several or is it a matter of concentrating on one theme only throughout the entire course? Much appreciated, thank you.
Different teachers structure the course in different ways. At my school, we do one theme in Year 10 with two main outcomes. In year 11 they do another theme (we run this a little bit like a mock). Then they do the externally set task from January.
Great job! ” The Arty Teacher”
The resources and responses you provided are very helpful and so inspiring.
I teach Igcse Art and design in keystages 3,4&5 in Africa.
Thanks!!
Hi Cletus, I’m so pleased to read that you find my resources useful and inspiring – thank you 🙂
Interesting and informative. I am an igcse teacher.would like to see the blog
Hi Ina, Thanks for your comment. You can see more blog posts here: https://theartyteacher.com/blog/
Have just come across this blog…. hope to gain more!!
Hi Brenda, That’s great to hear. I hope you enjoy more of my posts!
Hi Arty Teacher,
I am an art teacher in Africa Nairobi Kenya teaching IGCSE Art & Design.
Just wondering if you still do this blog.
Any materials would be appreciated including advice on Photography.
Kind regards.
James
Hi James, Yes, if you go to the home page of the blog you’ll see I post every week. If you look under the category ‘Techniques and Processes’ there are some articles about photography. https://theartyteacher.com/category/techniques-processes/
Good day what ideas could I work on for Stories or story telling
I think you might find the artists listed on the following page under ‘Narrative’ inspiring.
https://theartyteacher.com/artists-themes/
Hi Annabelle, That sounds like an excellent theme to me. Don’t worry about it – enjoy it. You could go in so many directions and make it personal. Within that theme, you can look at one aspect of it and then flow into other areas of it.
Here is a list of artists you might like to look at:
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/8-lgbtqi-artists-you-should-know/iQLiswH6mVfoJQ
‘Inside Out’ is a great topic. You could do a person without drawing a person e.g. A house on the outside where the objects in the house represent the person, or a jewellery box where what is in it represents the person. Both these could be 2D or 3D.
Or make a book (or a box) where the outside is the personality you show to the world and the inside is what you keep hidden.
You could take a more literal approach: You could do fish and fish skeletons. If you didn’t want to do a portrait, you could still do feet or hands and draw them and also the bone structure or x-rays.
This is really helpful thank you so much for sharing these I’ve already gotten an idea of what I want ❤️
That’s great to hear. Thank you.
Thankyou, I am very interested in receiving any newsletters
Thanks for your comment on my blog post. If you register at the following link you’ll receive my weekly newsletter about my blog posts, free art teaching resources and priced art teaching resources.
https://theartyteacher.com/registration