2023 uni applications for those pursuing art and creative routes

[Duchessofmuchness]

The other thread discussing Uni applications for RG and academic routes isn't so relevant for DS. He's considering Art Foundation year or direct entry to uni for fashion design.

Anyone care to join a thread on similar creative paths. (Not just fashion!)

He's looking at art foundation at Kingston, Central St Martin's, UCA,

For Fashion BA looking at Central St Martins, London College of Fashion, Manchester Met, Nottingham Trent, Liverpool John Moores, Leeds Beckett.

Most seem to accept without art foundation but he would need one to Central St Martin's so if he wants to try for that will need foundation.

Lots of open days coming up and hopefully school will give him some more advice next week. No start on his PS yet!!

There is no doubting his talent but he does lack maturity.

Dc has an EHCP and it's very hard to get them to do the 'on paper' stuff despite their talent. Not helped by the 'they are young adults so we talk to them' vibe from college.

www.additudemag.com/twice-exceptional-adhd-signs/

www.getinflow.io/post/twice-exceptional-gifted-adults-with-adhd

Duchess I have a ND creative child and I think their brain doesn’t work in a linear way. I think it’s like everything is connected to everything else rather than A then B then C.

They also think visually rather than with words so ideas can arrive almost fully formed and it’s hard to translate into words for the book.

one of these articles talks about how difficult tasks are that involve cognitive slowing.

feel free to ignore all of this if it doesn’t fit!

@Duchessofmuchness and @OneFrenchEgg Lots of sympathy here... DD really didn't like having to do annotations for everything in the sketchbook, although she wasn't bad about recording all the stages a piece went through. Eventually she buckled down and powered through doing lots at a time after the event rather than writing them as she went.

Things fell apart a little bit towards the end of sixth form, and she only ended up doing one draft of the essay which her A level specification needed (do all art A levels need an essay?) It was enough to get her a decent grade; she was aware that she could have put more work in to polishing it, but made the conscious decision that it was 'good enough' as by then she was focused on the next stage.

As you say, the marks are as much for process as for product, mainly because that's much less of a subjective judgement and harder to appeal against. One of the art teachers at her school is also a coursework moderator for the exam board, so he sees a lot of work. He told the students various horror stories of people with great art but no annotations/essay, who therefore barely scraped a pass, and that gave her a bit of a kick-start. Hopefully things will click into place for your DCs. (It happened late in the day for mine, so there's hope!)

Ah, the A level portfolio.... DD was a nightmare at GCSE about annotations and then thankfully "got with the program" for her art textiles A level. She'll use some of that for degree applications as well as current foundation year work. I was actually surprised this summer as we saw a beautiful statue at a museum and DD said very casualty "I used that for my A level portfolio" - so more was going in than I thought...
Anyone doing an open day today? We thankfully have a Saturday off, which is good as I have a hacking cough (which is why I am up this early!)

@Philandbill not today but we are going to Camberwell (UAL) open day at the end of November. Done Ravensbourne and Kingston and saw the Foundation show at Camberwell at the start of summer. Then too much going on this side of applications but will try and do semi local ones early next year (I see Anglia Ruskin has one late January). Depends on mocks I suppose, but we have a year so can space degree open days out.
My daughter's art teacher (who wants application portfolios pretty much done by Xmas holiday) keeps telling her she 'has it in her hands' but needs to get more on paper. Like others she has a lot of work with her other A levels (History I'm looking at you) and needs to finish up her EPQ plus a music exam next month. Her A level sketchbook (I've had a peek without her knowing) is very neat - too neat probably, but all her school notebooks are meticulous.
I notice she does a lot of sketching and working out ideas on her iPad, maybe as it's portable. I guess she'll have to print stuff out to stick in to demonstrate progression?

@HannahDefoesTrenchcoat - thanks for the links. I hadn't read about that before and some new insights for me. DS also dyslexic. Your words describe DS very accurately.

*their brain doesn’t work in a linear way. I think it’s like everything is connected to everything else rather than A then B then C.

They also think visually rather than with words so ideas can arrive almost fully formed and it’s hard to translate into words for the book.*

It's a useful insight for me and helpful in my understanding what is going on in his ND brain. Everything that helps me understand is welcome. He can be a charming, sparky and interesting young man but also and probably unconnected to his ADHD and dyslexia is all the teenage moodiness . Probably no worse than in lists of houses around the country. Rejection of parental opinions, advice, naive opinions about things where we no nothing and he apparently knows everything and monotone surliness . (Made worse by hunger or lack of sleep!!)

Thanks all for sharing experiences.

Fortunately DS's essays for both art and textiles were done last year as think that would have been a step too far!!!

Does anyone have any views on Oxford Brooke’s Art and Design Foundation course?

Dd is keen to go on to study animation after Foundation so is looking for somewhere strong in that field. I’ve looked at the degree offerings at Oxford Brookes it doesn’t look like they are strong in animation.

I don't think Oxford Brooke's offers an animation degree. But during the Arts and Foundation year your daughter can apply to another university for her degree. I'd look carefully at the program though to make sure they do some animation on the foundation course.

My daughter has just realised on the foundation course she will be on next year, that she wouldn't specialise until the second third of the year, and last third was their personal project. But UCAS applications would have been submitted by then - so how does it work that the foundation year helps them with their degree application portfolio? Unless they were to stay at the same institution, their portfolio won't be that different that what they submitted to the foundation course with maybe some additional work from last projects for A level (of course they'd get the experience, but that wouldn't be evident yet).

@mondaytosunday We had wondered that, too! I suspect that Foundation tutors might be able to give more advice over the course of the first term about what sort of work to be doing to fill in the gaps in a portfolio? But that's just speculation, and I defer to those with more experience of the system.

I actually think that’s why some courses don’t really need a foundation. They are widely “sold.”as an opportunity to widen skills and experiment and that might help with some portfolios but not others. Portfolios are often submitted in January so there’s little time. There should also be written elements to portfolios explaining ideas, failures and success, your journey to success with a final piece of work and they shouldn’t be huge so no one will wade through them. Portfolios are not just about finished pieces of work shoved into a folder.

@mondaytosunday at Kingston they're just starting their specialism so they have 6 wks before the Xmas break then 3+ weeks before UCAS deadline. When DD applied this year she submitted her portfolios in Feb so with luck and a following wind Foundation students could have approx 3 months work for a portfolio but not a final piece. DD has her deferred place based on her A level work so a foundation isn't always necessary.
My DD wasn't ready to go away from home this year so a FD suited her really well and has given her the chance to do lots of things she hasn't tried before.

@Localher0 Ah, that's interesting about the timings. DD wanted to get her UCAS done before Christmas and in fact she had requests for portfolios within a week; that's skewed my view of the timings!

I'm trying not to post too much of her classwork here but she is so thrilled to be learning new techniques every week. It's the happiest we've ever seen her! To be honest, I had worried that art school might be a bit unguided, but at least in her course, they are following a structured programme and doing a lot more homework than I thought.

Wonderful @PhotoDad.
I agree @TizerorFizz, but like @Localher0's daughter mine isn't quite ready to leave home just yet, and thought her foundation year would be as advertised- a bridge between A levels and uni and a chance to beef up her portfolio with more specifically relevant pieces. As she is interested in animation, this does require experience with programs not available to her now (Maya and the like). She does have some animation already from her UAL course that she has continued to work on. I suppose she would need the software skills learned on foundation for when she started the degree course, and University of Hertfordshire has a particularly helpful list of books to read/reference and animation programs that are free to use or for a small fee when doing their portfolio.
I can't really see her having enough time to get a really competitive portfolio done with all the outside research and work she'd need to do for it along with her other A levels and commitments in order to apply for a degree place now. UofH has 1000 applicants for 100 places!
And yes they do very much emphasise demonstrating process here @TizerorFizz - interesting that looking at 'successful' portfolios on YouTube and the US portfolios are 95% completed works with no process shown at all! Three common portfolio criticisms: lack of backgrounds, drawing/painting from photos (especially people), everything dead centre.
I wish YouTube was around when I was doing my portfolio!

@mondaytosunday Yes, DD was certainly advised to show works-in-progress and some pages including preliminary sketches etc. She had no drawings-from-photos either. (A couple of photos, but that's different!)

Just curious - how can they tell if the drawings are from photos? Herts is dd's top choice at the moment - they sure do get a lot of applications though. Portfolio will need to be good. (Off to Falmouth tomorrow....)

@Acinonyx2 Most drawings from photos are very very detailed, and almost "too good to be true." Things drawn from observation tend to be less 'photo-realistic' as you can't take as long over them.

Good luck at Falmouth! Was on DD's longlist but it's a leeeetle bit too far from home.

Yes we're having to take a day there and a day back. I think it's just too far but looks lovely. Pity looks like it's going to be heavy rain all weekend though. I'm feeding all these tips back to dd. She's quite shy about sketching from life.

They said that art based on photos tends to look flat and yes too detailed. They want more of the artists interpretation, not a copy.
Please do report back about Falmouth @Acinonyx2! It's on top of my daughter's list! We will have to wait til after A levels to visit.
She could always draw you...!

Falmouth looks lovely in all the pictures! How big is the course? (One factor to consider is whether your DC would like a big bustling class with lots of peers, or a smaller group -- either can be good depending on personality!)

Various new people have joined the thread (hello!) so here's my reminder: if you want course-level data, then ignore the newspaper league-tables, and have a look at discoveruni.gov.uk instead, which is a mine of useful information and allows you to compare courses. (This is what used to be called 'unistats' a few years ago.)

We're off to Cambridge today to visit our DD at CSA@ARU. Many of you will sympathise that she has asked us to bring ALL of her fabric/sewing supplies from her room. Given that's five large boxes, and that her uni room is tiny, I suspect we'll be taking a lot home again! But we have a large car, so that's fine.

She had also been given lots of art supplies as presents by friends and family over the years who didn't know that her work was almost entirely digital. However, now she would like them for her course, and it was very satisfying to find a couple of hundred quids' worth of nice pencils and paper in her cupboard. She tells me that many/most illustrators work in traditional media (faster than digital) then scan the work and use photoshop to tweak it. Who knew?

I certainly take the point about using foundation as a bridge between A levels and degree and leaving home. As dd boarded so she was used to not being at home all the time anyway. Her 6th form was very arty. The art facilities were open long hours and portfolios were asked for quickly by 3 universities. It’s certainly hard on top of A levels which in DDs case, two had deadlines in March! Early Easter that year. It was a frantic time.

My DC did the foundation preparation short course this past week. It wasn't awful but there was no practical guidance on portfolio preparation & the activities were all quite basic.

@FactyFrances my daughter was there! Long reddish hair and made the Pinocchio nose and the cardboard container to carry her work?
She came home the first day and said 'waste of time and money'! It was advertised as run by Foundation teachers but it was run by recent graduates, and one of them told her that was new this year with new content. However she said she was glad she did it, especially when on the last day they had the q &a and the department head said the fact they took the course shows their commitment. But nothing she did will be used in her portfolio without a lot of extra work, and only for there, not for any other application.
She still wants to go there, and feels this wasn't an accurate representation of the foundation year. And now that she knows the layout and where things are she feels more comfortable in the environment.

For those worried about the portfolio, the universities themselves should give guidance. Certainly LCF did. Others do too. The finished pieces of worm are part of what you need but not all of it. Sketches, narrative, thought processes, experimentation and final works are all part of the mix.