Art and Design (Fine Art)

Assessment

The course is rooted in direct creative activity supported by individual tutorial discussion and reference to exemplar material created by teaching staff, students and established historically significant Fine Art practitioners. Careful guidance is given about the construction and presentation of individual outcomes, sketchbooks and portfolios, supported by visual examples and written and verbal instruction. The Fine Art studio forms part of a purpose-built open-plan teaching space offering you access to drawing painting and printmaking facilities. Access to digital equipment is also available. A wider range of visual and contextual materials are made freely available, many designed by the teaching team. The course is delivered as two distinct units of study, which test the skills of observation, media handling, ideas development, contextual research and visual realisation. Quality of written expression is especially important in the second year of study. FIRST-YEAR PORTFOLIO – INTERNALLY ASSESSED The first body of coursework is internally set and marked and is concerned with the construction of a portfolio of studio-based drawing, printing and painting working mainly from directly observed sources. The development of this skill set is then utilised fully in pursuit of two independent projects. ART 7202C (60% OF TOTAL MARK) A personal investigation is undertaken in the latter period of first-year study; the theme for this work is agreed upon via negotiation between the individual student and the course team and generally originates from the three key themes of Landscape, portrait and Still life. This component of the course also requires the undertaking of an illustrated essay related in theme to the nature of the personal investigation. ART 7202X (40% OF TOTAL MARK) An externally set exam paper is released in February offering a choice of themes for independently researched visual development and contextual work. The culmination of this body of work is a fifteen-hour exam undertaken in April in which a summative piece of visual work relating to the exam question is undertaken. An A level in Fine Art may lead naturally to a pre-degree foundation course and then degree-level study in a wide range of art & design-based disciplines. The study of art and design at the degree level can lead to career opportunities in a wide and varied field. Fine Art students become freelance creative practitioners or work for design companies in many areas including; interior design, jewellery, graphics, illustration, animation, architecture, set design, fashion and textiles, and a host of creative digital industries. Fine Art study may also open opportunities in the field of gallery and exhibition work.