Masters degrees in Drawing offer advanced training in artistic techniques for producing images using a range of utensils such as ink, pencil, charcoal etc.
Taught MA and MFA degrees are typical for the field, though research oriented MRes and MPhil programmes may also be available at some institutions. Entry requirements normally include an appropriate undergraduate degree such as Art or Design.
MA Drawing at Wimbledon College of Arts is aimed at students who want to explore and interrogate the practice of drawing.
What students can expect from the course:
- A course that promotes drawing for a purpose, focusing on process and cross-disciplinary dialogues that centre on communicating ideas to an audience, client or user
- To develop their drawing, discursive skills and agendas through a re-orientation of their practice
- Collaborations across and between diverse disciplines and courses at the College
- To have access to rich research sources such as Wimbledon’s Jocelyn Herbert Archive, the Stanley Kubrick Archives and University of the Arts London Centre for Drawing
- To benefit from the College’s established relationships we have with Tate Britain, The British Museum, Ashmolean Museum, The Royal Academy, The Sir John Soane Museum and the V&A drawing collections
- To explore a range of practices and disciplines where new languages and methodologies can be developed, including: architecture,
art, cartography, dance, design, engineering, performance, the sciences and writing
Unit One:
This will comprise of input from a range of practitioners from diverse disciplines, encouraging discussion of drawings purpose, its currency and potential for communicating and problem solving. This may include input from scientists, architects, writers and performers exploring the boundaries of drawing.
Unit Two:
This unit will focus on defining and developing themes from Unit One via individual or collaborative research questions. The unit will allow students to set up identifiable internal or external collaborations, and establish specific targets. The collaborative process can be used to resolve issues across and between disciplines.
Unit Three:
Will allow students to further develop their individual research questions, and explore and define practical methodologies to articulate drawing for a purpose.
This is an intensive, vocational course with strong professional links to the industry, offering a maximum of four students, with high levels of painting and drawing skills, the opportunity to develop their careers as scenic artists. The skills and techniques acquired on this course are to the level necessary for theatre, television, film and animation industries..
During the year students acquire an understanding of professional practice and standards, and gain in-depth skills and experience in scenic art techniques and their application, combined with the practice of managing a scenic art department.
The Course has 3 very intensive terms during which students paint the sets for the School’s six main house public productions, offering them the opportunity to see their finished work used on stage in a wide range of public performances and venues. Teaching is led by the School’s Head of Scenic Art in collaboration with visiting industry professionals who provide master-classes in a range of skills and techniques that include; life drawing, portraiture, perspective, marbling, wood-graining, polystyrene carving and painting for animation. The scenic art students work collaboratively with the School’s other production departments, and most especially with design students. Furthering their introduction to the industry, work placements with principal companies are arranged during the course; particular attention is placed on students developing their own professional portfolio. Upon graduation students will showcase their work in a public exhibition and be interviewed by some of the UK’s leading industry practitioners. In a freelance industry most of our graduates begin working as assistants for scenic artists, scenic workshops and large theatre companies, eventually becoming supervising scenic artists themselves.
Recent graduate employment includes: The Royal Opera House, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Cardiff Theatrical Services, The Royal National Theatre, Northern Ballet, TR2 Plymouth, Richard Nutbourne - Cool Flight Ltd, Rocket Scenery, Cameron Mackintosh’s National and International Tour of ‘Mary Poppins’, Disney's ‘Aladdin’ and ‘Frozen’ on Broadway. Festival work includes ‘Boomtown’ and ‘Glastonbury’. Film work includes: Wes Anderson's ‘Isle of Dogs’ (UK release - March 2018), Tim Burton's ‘Frankenweenie', Aardman Animations' ‘Shaun the Sheep’, ‘Pirates’ and ‘Early Man’ TV work includes: 'Will' for TNT’, ‘Crazy Face’ for Netflix and 'Good Omens' for the BBC.
Postgraduate study in illustration reflects the diversity of the subject and the opportunities that exist in areas such as publishing, advertising, graphic and web design, theatre, television, art galleries and museums. We welcome applicants with a variety of approaches to Illustration, from both academic and professional perspectives.
You will be encouraged to explore a range of methods with support from highly accomplished and respected staff, all of whom have understanding and expertise in the art of illustration.
Facilities include excellent individual working spaces with access to a drawing studio and extensive printmaking resources. There are life drawing classes, workshops and field trips. You will also have the chance to study bookbinding, book arts, digital technologies and web publishing.
The programme also includes working with writers, designers and publishers in collaboration and in live briefs. Many of our postgraduates have seen their work published and there are a small number of set projects, which evolve from year to year to reflect contemporary developments in Illustration. For example, students have made work for the Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh Filmhouse and the ECA Bookmarks symposium.
You will be encouraged to take part in national and international competitions, with the aim of joining the ranks of those who have exhibited and won prizes in prestigious events, such as the V&A Student Illustration Awards, Folio Society, Penguin Book Awards, 3x3 and Image Nation.
This programme offers an excellent opportunity for independent, focused study. MA students produce a body of practical and written work on an agreed topic. MFA students produce an extended range of work, appropriate to the length of the course. Self-directed projects are connected to a number of set projects, workshops and collaborations throughout the academic year.
Your studies will combine practical studio work with theoretical and written studies, including professional practice elements in preparation for employment in the industry. There is a lecture/seminar series that will examine the wider context of your studies, presented by contemporary illustrators, designers and artists.
Graduates explore an exciting and diverse range of careers, including working as picture book illustrators, designers, freelance illustrators, artists and craftsmen, or in leading agencies.
Our MA Illustration course encourages you to question the nature of your practice and its context and position relative to the creative industries.
This course will appeal to you if you're open to participating in a broad range of creative strategies, utilising traditional and digital methods.
These include drawing and printmaking, lens and time-based media, with ideas and concepts that might be realised through exhibition, publication or exciting new hybrid forms.
The course encourages you to engage imaginatively with illustration, in relation to both the academic subject and practice of illustration. A selection of our student's work is available to view in our gallery.
Students’ practice is considered within a global context and with an awareness of the emergence of new and innovative approaches that interrogate, challenge and advance traditional practice.
Graduates from the MA programme will be able to carve their own niche in an evolving market for visual material.
Students studying on the course come from a number of diverse backgrounds including Illustration, Graphic Design, Printmaking, Drawing, Photography and Painting. Others come from outside of art and design, having had experience across other subject disciplines, but demonstrating a passion for illustration.
The course is structured and delivered in order to encourage and support you in developing your own distinct visual language, recognising an expansive understanding of contemporary illustration through the exploration of relationships between illustrator as author, audience and context.
Ideas are developed through specific individual approaches to research into practice and reflective enquiry.This deeper understanding and commitment to practice assists students in identifying, exploring and achieving your future career aspirations.
The Master of Fine Art in Fine Art (MFA) provides postgraduate studio-based arts practice, critical theory in fine arts and access to the professional skills and knowledge to succeed in a career in the fine arts. The programme will appeal to independent artists wanting to extend their practice within a critical research framework supported by practicing tutors. Artists looking to extend their career path into curatorial practice in the contemporary arts, collaborative projects with arts organisations, arts in socially engaged practices and/or further research will find support for this trajectory in this broad-based programme. Teaching involves lectures, seminars, and group and individual tutorials from active artists with research profiles. The programme will equip you with creative, interpretive, critical and analytical skills to develop an advanced understanding of contemporary art and its social, cultural and historical contexts.
The image above shows a close up of the work Nova by Saad Querishi, a former student of Fine Art at Oxford Brookes. Saad has been commissioned to produce a piece of work for the new areas of the campus and will be acting as a resource for the students on the programme.
Your artistic practice – An independent studio environment enables you to further your work within a supported critical framework. Through group and individual tutorials, staff/peer critique and presentations, an incremental approach is applied whereby you will confidently develop your work towards public exhibition/dissemination. There are two formal exhibitions during the MFA programme.
Flexible studio options – Students may select to locate their studio either at Oxford Brookes or elsewhere. Students working from their own studios will be eligible for a reduced tuition fee.
Technical resources – The School of Arts’ workshops offer supported working environments in a range of specialist areas including: sculpture, photography, video, sound, printmaking and book-works. All our workshops are staffed by highly skilled and creative Technical Specialists.
Extra-curricular activities – You will gain exposure to a range of contemporary artistic practice through the thriving creative student community in the School of Arts at Oxford Brookes. You will participate in the lectures and film screenings set up by the Fine Art Research (FAR) Group. These include visiting contemporary artists, critics, curators and notable alumni. Free life drawing classes extend your drawing skills and optional local, regional and international field trips provide further stimulus.
Theoretical framework – Your ability to articulate your own creative position is enabled through a critical engagement with a range of scholarship informed by diverse practices by nationally and internationally recognised artists, collectives and movements. An early theoretical module explores contemporary art discourse through seminars informed by selected readings and in a later module you develop a more intense involvement with theory related to your individual research interests.
Professional development – The programme enables you to identify a professional focus which is likely to inform your subsequent career trajectory. This might involve research preparation, a placement, a collaborative project or exhibition management/curatorial practice. With the guided experience in this module our graduates are better prepared for a successful career as a professional artist.
Careers and professional development
In addition to the support, teaching and development opportunities afforded by the curriculum, as a student you will be immersed in the active arts environment of the School. During your studies with us you will have access to the visiting speakers arranged for this and for other arts programmes, for the seminars and conferences in diverse fields, including publishing, film, music and digital production in the School. The field trips, visiting artists, PhD students and opportunities in the programme’s Professional Experience module offer a rich network of individuals and organisations that enable you to make useful contacts for your future career.
Careers
Graduates from this programme will be well equipped to pursue their practice as independent artists who have a well-developed understanding of the theoretical and professional contexts of the current and contemporary landscape of the arts and creative industries.
This programme is delivered within the School of Arts, which offers a vibrant environment for the creative industries including film, photography, music and publishing. Through the modules, which address practice, theory and professional experience, students are provided with links to engage with employment and further study opportunities, either as independent practitioners, facilitators or participants within a range of group and collaborative practices and contexts.
Free language courses for students - the Open Module
Free language courses are available to full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students on many of our courses, and can be taken as a credit on some courses.
Please note that the free language courses are not available if you are:
The MA Animation Production sees observation, drawing and an understanding of the traditional principles of animation as fundamental, but these are critically contextualised in relation to technology, history, theory and professional/studio practice.
The overriding objective is to enable all of our Animation students to see yourselves as part of a ‘community of practice’ (that includes research and critique, and the building of a ‘production culture’), existing not as atomised students ‘doing their own thing’, but as part of a meaningful whole.
The overall aim of our course is to enable you to pursue your interests and specialism – whether 2D/drawn, CG, stop motion or other forms of animation – and produce excellent work that synthesises the ‘strands’ of theory, practice and professionalism.
We have detailed information on the course structure and content on our website: https://aub.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/ma-animation/course-journey/
AUB Animation has achieved alumni success with our graduates going on to work at Aardman, Framestore, Pixar, EA Games and the Moving Picture Company and many other companies. Our BA films have won awards and recognition in the British Animation Awards and Royal Television Society Awards and at festivals around the world. We are proud of the network of AUB graduates who are now employed in Animation – many of whom return to talk to current students.
A number of graduate films are linked to below or can be found on our course gallery
Our studios work in a way that mirrors industry with students working together in a high energy atmosphere.
Our state-of-the-art animation studios provide students with an individual workstation and light box. The course has its own computer suite with specialist software.
Animation Hardware
12 Field light boxes | Rostrum cameras | Dell Workstations | Stop Motion booths | Linetesting workstations | Wacom Intuos 4/5 | Wacom Cintiq workstation monitors | Professional lighting Set (Dedo/Kino Flo) | Canon 650D HD/SD Stills Cameras + sundries | Motion control rig | High Speed A3 sheet feed scanners integrated into Harmony | A3 Epson GT-2000 scanners | 24TB Isilon IQ 6000 Clustered Storage | Renderfarm running PipelineFx Qube 6.4 integrated into Maya
You’ll also have access to the following:
Online Avid Symphony Nitris DX Edit Suite | Avid Teaching Lab + 16 Workstations for Media Composer & ProTools | Avid Unity ISIS 32TB Server to all Edit Suites | 3 Avid ProTools Edit Suites + Audio Control Surfaces | Sound recording booths
Animation Software
Toon Boom Harmony | Adobe Creative Master Suite 6 | Autodesk Maya | Stop Motion Pro | Toon Boom Pencil Check Pro | Toon Boom Story Board Pro | Nuke | Mari | Zbrush | Extensive library of software tutorial DVDs | DVD/Blu-ray film library
More details and photographs of the specialist studios are available on our website: https://aub.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/ma-animation/resources/
Illustrators work within many disciplines, are able to visualise, elucidate and extend the meaning of a given field of knowledge or information and communicate ideas and narratives to specific audiences.
The contemporary practice of illustration is multidisciplinary, incorporating drawing, printmaking, traditional and digital media, model making, performance and collaborative, interactive practices.
Based in the heart of the School of Art, MA/MFA Design: Illustration is part of an innovative design network — a community of staff and students exploring design ideas in a discursive, cross-disciplinary studio environment. Critically informed practical designers, the group works experimentally, inspired by new insights and possibilities.
While studying towards a particular qualification at MA/MFA level, students experience their subject in the broader context of contemporary design practice.
Dedicated spaces for the postgraduate community have been developed to enable the postgraduate community to flourish. These spaces, for thinking and practice, are located centrally within the School of Art, allowing easy access to an extensive range of workshops where the combination of traditional and state of the art equipment opens up a world of exciting possibilities.
The MA Design: Illustration is made up of four units totalling 180 credits.
The programme is designed to help you acclimatise to the challenges of MA level research and practice, enabling you to identify and describe a clear direction for your postgraduate design study.
You will be encouraged to develop design propositions that encompass key design issues and have complexity and ambition, taking full consideration of the relative contextual drivers.
You will also be encouraged and supported to extend your experience in the professional sphere either through a practical project, research context, exchange, work experience, or other negotiated professional set of interactions with an external partner, groups of students and creative industry.
Towards the end of the programme you will undertake a major project to consolidate your past research and practice into fully realised collections, pieces, proposals, business plans, or exhibitions – whatever means is appropriate to the work. You will also have developed a strategy for the continuation of your practice located and contextualised to the profession or discipline.
If you choose to progress to MFA Design: Illustration award you will study a further two units of 60 credits each.
This route is focused on the continuation of your practice aligned to the research and selection of appropriate public or professional venues and platforms to disseminate a significant body of work. You will be required to produce work for a public audience in the most relevant and appropriate form along with any implicit publicity and dissemination material.
At the School of Traditional Arts, based in London, UK, our MA degree is a full-time, two-year, taught course.
Our MA degree in Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts is unique – there is nothing like it anywhere else. We emphasize improving practice in skills and techniques in a range of traditional arts and crafts as much as theoretical and philosophical learning.
In the first year students take taught modules in geometry, ceramics, stained glass, woodwork, Indian and Persian miniature painting, icons, methods and materials. There is also a residential field study trip. (120 units)
In the second year teaching continues while students work on their own practical and research projects under supervision. (60 units)
At the end of the course, students select examples of their best art to exhibit in our Degree Show.
Our MA students tell us they especially appreciate
· Expert tuition and attentive supervision
· Good student:teacher ratio
· Small groups; close, supportive community
· International perspectives - teachers and students from varied backgrounds and from all over the world
· Our apprenticeship model - practising artists and experts guide students' development and deepen knowledge of techniques, materials and philosophical principles
· Varied learning - formal presentations, seminars, critical studio-based sessions, residential field study trip, staff and student meetings; informal visits to galleries, museums and other institutions
· Free access to our School's programme of short courses, in addition to the MA course
· Individual work space for each MA student
· Good technical facilities and support
Find out more about our Masters degree course here.
Applying
Applications for MA course beginning in September 2018 are now closed. Applications for the MA course beginning in September 2019 will be open from 24 September 2018 until 28 February 2019.
If you would like to register your interest and receive updates about the MA course beginning in September 2019, please complete this form here
https://psta.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=318450ca42a631910e91a9689&id=51819e2180
Further information about applying can be found here.
Validation
Our MA in Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts is validated by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
MA Fine Art is an opportunity to look at the familiar with a fresh, perhaps oblique perspective in order to explore how “detour” permits “access”(Jullien 2004) to more subtle yet more complex interpretations. What constitutes a meaningful and useful research methodology in one culture may be considered unknown, unnecessary or redundant in another. These differences are at the very fabric of the Fine Art course; establishing deliberate cross-cultural dialogues with students from International and UK backgrounds and providing a vehicle for highlighting differences in working practices and methodologies.
Recognising the individual and their aspirations, and celebrating ideas and risk-taking, our approach and experience of encouraging inter-disciplinary and collaborative activity lies with the provision of a meaningful journey for our students beyond the obvious.
They meet the fresh, often unpredictable and certainly challenging possibilities that are offered as they test, develop, progress, interrogate, ‘make’ and confidently reflect on their practice.
Our guiding principle is to offer distinctive and exciting opportunities for students to engage in their respective subject discipline in order to redefine their particular individual approach to their practice and position it within their chosen external creative economic and cultural environment.
Crucial to the course is that each student demonstrates a passion for their practice within their chosen medium and subject discipline.
See our online student gallery for examples of our student's work.
