loughborough illustration portfolio review/interview.

Heya I had my interview on the 7th and heard back yesterday. It was by far my hardest interview and over the last two years i've had ten interviews so far as I applied to foundation and degree last year. They seemed to like making me feel uncomfortable in the interview, asking nippy questions and particularly attacked the essay I brought along without looking at my work much. I felt a bit cheated that the interviews were held in the new building which has had millions of pounds spent on it, and realistically the illustration course isn't actually held in that building. I personally thought the whole interview had been a disaster except two things which hinted to me that there could be an inkling of hope I would get in.. that was- 1) they mentioned if i got a place i would have to pay a deposit for a trip, and 2) as one walked me out he said "We like to give the one's we're interested in a bit of a work-out", and they definitely had me sweating haha :P So after coming to the conclusion that they hated me so much and were ignoring my ucas, i received a conditional of a pass last night I had two men interviewing me, but it depends who you get, i'm sure not all the interviewers would be as brutal as i felt they were on me! I hope I haven't scared you, I think it was because I felt way too relaxed when I went in that I was a bit shocked. The amount you have sounds like the amount i had! Good luck ! Fingers crossed !

Sorry OP, I have nothing useful to add since my interview was for Fine Art, but I just wanted to ask whether the illustration course is now in the same building/area as fine art? Some of the students said they moved it from that place (can't remember the name) that's not really on campus, but I forgot where they said it is now.

The reason I ask is that I'm going there for Fine Art (I got a conditional pass for foundation, too) but my work is pretty illustrative and they said you can kind of move between the two courses if you need to, which is partly why I chose Loughborough. It'd just be a lot easier to do that/see if I wanted to do that if the Illustration students were in the same area

Well done on your offer though, will you accept it? I haven't found anyone on TSR yet who's doing Fine Art or Illustration for definite, yet!

OP: Good luck with your interview, I'm sure you'll be fine

I think it's in the foundation building now, the building it used to be in is now a storage area/library type thing i think.. I don't think it really matters though because each art course has to go to different buildings to use different facilities according to a lady who we bumped into when we were going to see if illustration had moved to fine art, but everyone can use everything I think. (I hope that made sense and don't hold me to any of this lol). I'm not sure if I will accept it or not yet, I don't think it's particularly well known for it's illustration course and after such an interview i'm not sure if i would want to be taught be these kind of people. I'm going to wait until I have my last two interviews and then decide once I have replies from them I think :P How about you? Is Loughborough your top choice?

mochachoca, thanks for the heads up, do they specifically ask nippy questions about your work, or stuff regarding outside of your work? one of my friends had any interview there and the guy asked him to name 'anything within the media that moved him', thats a pretty wierd thing to ask within an illustration interview
though loughborough are a pretty highly respected university, and they have won the best student experience consequetively like 5 times, must be good
they had an open house event thing a month ago, and they seemed to really big them selves up when it came to finding work placements and student experience, but remember illustration is one of those subjects that dont particular need course recognition, practice well and you'l get to the top bearing in mind loughborough is pretty high in the tables as village whisper said!


villagewhisper, i had the exact opposite of what happened to you, last year i applied for fine art instead of illustration, but loughborough art dep boast students have alot of freedom whatever subjects you do, kinda but like foundation, so you can swing back and forth to different areas. i was kinda annoyed i got rejected from bcu regardless of having an great interview, one of my peeers whom was no where near my technical abilities got in, and due to the fact i was interviewed by an lame photographer annoyed me -___- but yeah, if i can get an offer from loboro, my definite choice as well!

Ooh, so are you kind of a fine art-y illustrator or have you kind of dropped the whole fine art thing? I hate that this whole application process has made me doubt myself and my work, because before now I'd never really thought about whether what I did was more fine art or illustration. A lot of places seem to think they're really different, but I don't see it like that at all! I was so glad that my Loughborough interviewer agreed with me! I think he could tell that I'd been having trouble trying to decide between the two, because he kept saying that it's important that I don't see any boundaries between them and just focus on what I want to do. He was so nice! I looked him up on the website afterwards to see what he did, and he makes robots or something Idk, but he went to the Slade so he must be good

I hope you get in, so good luck! What day is it?

my works mainly illustrative, but with the odd bits of sculpting and oil paintings, but i think it was mainly due to finding myself lost in what i wanted to do, and by taking up foundation helped me in making my decision, but its one of those things in which theres a fine line between, yeah, i agree with you too, most places do boast themselves to be different, but loughborough seem be different from the rest, they say they want to have students with individual preferences, he makes robots? he seems like a cool guy guy

its on wednesday, i do hope so! making notes for it as i type

Yeah look, here: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/staff/alan-bunkum.html Click on the portfolio bit on the right, lots of robots!

Haha, it sounds like Loughborough would be a good match for you, too Nottingham Trent said that they were pretty open, and yet the woman basically attacked me all the way through my interview by accusing me of having no original ideas of my own (complete rubbish) just because I use books to inspire a lot of my work so it's quite illustrative. Funny thing was, at the end she told me to go see this student outside who just wrote/drew graphic novels! If that's not illustrative I don't know what is. Maybe it was a test though, since I got an unconditional offer. Still, NTU seems to be pretty conceptual, which is really not my thing. Didn't like their studios and allocation of spaces, either.

Anyway, yeah. I really do hope you get in, then at least I'll know of one other arty person Did you say before that you applied there last year, too?

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i did its said something about it waiting for it be checked by the mods or something excuse my noob-i-ness i'l send it again if this post goes through

Yeah look, here: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/staff/alan-bunkum.html Click on the portfolio bit on the right, lots of robots!

Haha, it sounds like Loughborough would be a good match for you, too Nottingham Trent said that they were pretty open, and yet the woman basically attacked me all the way through my interview by accusing me of having no original ideas of my own (complete rubbish) just because I use books to inspire a lot of my work so it's quite illustrative. Funny thing was, at the end she told me to go see this student outside who just wrote/drew graphic novels! If that's not illustrative I don't know what is. Maybe it was a test though, since I got an unconditional offer. Still, NTU seems to be pretty conceptual, which is really not my thing. Didn't like their studios and allocation of spaces, either.

Anyway, yeah. I really do hope you get in, then at least I'll know of one other arty person Did you say before that you applied there last year, too?

robot things are pretty cool! kinda remind me of terminator hehehe. that women at NTU sounds like she's on crack! it seems like NTU sound illustration-ny, probably compensating for the reason they dont teach illustration had my interview for coventry today, i got an conditional, but its my hometown, but its an morale boost

hehe, kinda surprised how not many loughyborough poeple are on here, yet its ranked quite high, from what ive seen on this site even though new, nahh i didnt apply here last year, kinda put it down as a joke this year, but now i really want to go there

oh, are you like an traditional painter? i paint with oils, would that be classed as illustrtion or fine art? or either? i'd rather be taught by someone like that too, but that ruins the whole thing about illustration and sticking to briefs and stuffs with ideas and crap. the coventry painting studios are pretty good i have to admit! cambridge is a very posh place from when iv been there last coventry is the utmost opposite
i have fb, but dont use it as much, but will end up stalking people on my course soon, i just want to get my interview done and thats all atm lol. one of my freind whos also applied for loughborough illustration has a recieved an offer, he is slightly better than me ¬¬ ha, but, its more fun that way meeting new people!

Haha, I wouldn't really say "traditional", which is probably why I got rejected from the Brighton Painting course. Do you have an online portfolio? This is mine: http://www.flickr.com/photos/villagewhisper/ I don't really do work like the first few normally, that was for my last project related to the overcrowded-ness of the Alice in Wonderland stories and how confusing I'd find it if I were Alice. That sounds really pretentious or something, but oh well My "normal" stuff is more like the "Rats, Rats, Rats" painting, so a bit more mixed-media. I tried oils today for the first time (painting Tyler Durden from Fight Club haha) and I really liked them! They're really blend-able and stuff...

Don't ask me that question, I have no idea which they are It probably depends what the painting's of or something. Do you like working to briefs then? That's partly why I went for Fine Art, I think I'd get a bit tired of doing what other people wanted me to do, unless I wrote the briefs myself...But that kinda defeats the object of it.

Everyone thinks Cambridge is posh I don't think it is really, but maybe that's 'cause I'm used to it. People seem to think the accent 'round here is posh, too...I don't think I have much of an accent, though, if any...

Where else did you apply? I'm terrible at meeting new people, that's why I hoped there'd be some people on here so it won't be completely random when I start

oh wow, you've got some kick ass skills, my fave is the 'Even Brighter than the Moon' drawing <3 i havent much stuff online, but i'l put some on flicker soonishhhh,
the first few pieces do look slightly fine art but most of your stuff does have illustrative influences to them hehe. at first oils are annoying and difficult to use, but the smell of linseed is what i love the most!
nahhh, sticking to briefs suckk, though its almost forced up on illustrators to think like that but i'd rather draw random stuff that looks cool and good heheh.
cambridge is posh! i remember during my first visit i could hardly see any chewing gum on the floor! i know that this is an random speculation to determine how posh a place is, but it shows that people over there seem to be a lot more sensible

ive applied at bcu (rejected hehe), cov, loughborugh, wolves, and stafforshire, how about youuu? its fun meeting new people! well people see me as quite loud, annoying and silly, so it'l be fun to see how the new uni people will have to put up with me heheh

Haha, thanks That drawing has waaaaaay more views than everything else, it's on about 90 and the others are around 50. There are now 418 page views though, so I don't quite get how that works...Anyway, my tutors didn't want me to include that one because it doesn't have any "meaning", which is true really. I did it for a drawing competition along with another one, but my other one won instead (I didn't think it was as good, though). Oh well, I don't want to sound like I'm showing off because I'm not You have to put some on flickr now, I want to seeee!

I haven't tried linseed yet, I need to do some experimenting. I'd love to be one of those people who can just draw something and have it look amazing without planning it out or using reference photos etc. I have to plan everything, and not just arty stuff. I need to be more spontaneous I think

Haha, that's probably true about the chewing gum actually. I drive past this poster on my way home from college about getting fines for dropping it on the floor, though, so maybe that has something to do with it...So yeah, maybe people around here are more "sensible"...!

Erm, I applied to Leeds College of Art, Brighton, the Slade (more for the sake of it than expecting to get in!), NTU and Loughborough. I got rejected from the first three, but I'm choosing to see it as a positive thing that I got offers from "everywhere" I had an interview