How to avoid the cliché
Starting a new work can be a daunting prospect for even the most confident of high school Art students. It is often difficult to ensure your work is totally original, especially if you have picked a theme that may already have been responded to lots of times before. It should be an exciting challenge to try and make work that is innovative and individual, but sometimes avoiding cliché can be difficult.
9 steps for avoiding the cliché in an Art project
Research common and cliché responses to the theme you intend to explore, so you know what to avoid in your own work.
Create an extensive moodboard and plan of different artist ideas and imagery to refer to as you develop your ideas. This is an essential part of the planning process and allows you to creatively combine research, inspiration images and annotated ideas together. Your moodboard and initial plan are also an effective way of showing examiners your initial ideas and thoughts.
Make the time to explore current artist work as well as traditional artist responses to a theme.
Have a broad research base and look on sites other than relying on Google to be your sole source of influence. Sites like Behance, Flickr and Carbonmade, Talenthouse, ArtServed etc are all continually updated and full of creative inspiration to get you inspired.
Look for successes in places that might be overlooked. Take the time to review your work by yourself and with others to target areas of development that you may have missed.
Don’t just stop at one outcome. Think about how you can redevelop your work in other ways, which could push your ideas further and create a more individual response.
Keep an open mind when you develop your work – don`t try to force yourself too much in one direction. Be open-minded to new ideas and exploit these in your work. You will always be more personal and innovative if you can be free to develop your ideas on other tangents.
Remember that you can develop ideas in many different ways using unexpected mediums and processes. For example, photography students may approach image-making without a camera and think beyond the conventional photography. In Ella’s case, textiles and craft skills were just as essential to the development of ideas as her initial photographs.
Be experimental… but always take the time to select the best media and techniques to further develop your work into the most meaningful outcomes.
