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Art Foundation

I am currently doing my AS levels; Art, Textiles, English lit and French and plan to do an art foundation next year specialising in fashion or textile design (not sure yet.) I think I will probabally get an A in textiles and a B in art this year and I was wondering if I decided to drop art next year, if that would go against me when I applied to uni. I'm hoping to apply to somewhere like St Martins and I know they are really picky. Doing art and textiles is a lot of work this year so I'm sure it will be even worse next year but if they are both neccesary I will continue to do both. What does everyone think?
Also did anyone do art and textiles at a level who is now doing an art foundation or their degree and do you have any tips on how to stay on top of all the work/do well?
Thank you! :yes:

Reply 1

forsaken_earth

13

thatfrenchkid

I am currently doing my AS levels; Art, Textiles, English lit and French and plan to do an art foundation next year specialising in fashion or textile design (not sure yet.) I think I will probabally get an A in textiles and a B in art this year and I was wondering if I decided to drop art next year, if that would go against me when I applied to uni. I'm hoping to apply to somewhere like St Martins and I know they are really picky. Doing art and textiles is a lot of work this year so I'm sure it will be even worse next year but if they are both neccesary I will continue to do both. What does everyone think?
Also did anyone do art and textiles at a level who is now doing an art foundation or their degree and do you have any tips on how to stay on top of all the work/do well?
Thank you! :yes:

Okay well I'm not doing textiles, I only take art, but I did get a place to do foundation in fine art at csm for next year so i might be of some help...

Firstly, don't drop art. You need an art base - and art is valued above textiles anyway in terms of A-levels. Of course, your offer from arts london will be low and unspecified - providing you get in.. You'll need to build up a strong portfolio that you're going to show them - and having a mixture of art AND textiles will help you stand out.

To stay on top of your work.. well you can't be lazy. At this time I presume you have your exam, so you should be in the studios at least four hours a day working on that/your coursework. Go to tonnes of exhibitions, get inspired and pursue your own ambitions in your work. Art is hard, but it is exciting and extremely rewarding - I don't think you should drop it.

You might want to speak to Matisse - she did fashion at csm.

Reply 2

thatfrenchkid

OP

lella_m

Firstly, why are you dropping art and not one of your other subjects?

Because to be honest I am enjoying all my other subjects a lot more than art. I enjoy art itself but the A level is so much work and done in such a way that you can't study something that interests you as its all about getting marks by doing certain things. Originally I was planning to keep all four as I am half french and so don't tend to go to alot of the french lessons and I wanted to keep english because it keeps my windows open if I have a nervous breakdown and decide that art and design isn't for me. To be honest I do really want to keep all four but its so much work and I am worried that by doing both art an textiles it will bring both grades down to what they could be otherwise.

Reply 3

Persipan

17

My experience of art foundation (not at St Martins, just generally) was that it was very hard work indeed, just in the sense of doing art all the time instead of interspersed with other things throughout the week. Very enjoyable and worthwhile, I should add, but knackering!

I suspect doing both art and textiles is giving you an early taste of that, and that may be a good thing for the future in that you're, as it were, building your muscles up now.

On that note, I'd lean towards continuing with both - as you've already recognised, there's a substantial workload involved in the kind of study you're hoping to do, and I don't know that cutting back now will help you prepare for that. The good news is that once you have built up your creative muscles, it becomes much easier - certainly, I worked just as hard on my degree as on my foundation, but I wasn't anywhere near as zombified by it because I was used to it.

Reply 4

Freud

14

When I was at Byam Shaw, there were people who didn't do a level art, but their portfolios must have been top notch, everyone else there get A in art a level. If you want to do an art foundation it makes no sense to drop art a level. Plus try and bump your grade up one, churn out lots of work and be sure to hit all the AOs and you'll get an A. A levels are very much about quantity.

Reply 5

thatfrenchkid

OP

forsaken_earth

Okay well I'm not doing textiles, I only take art, but I did get a place to do foundation in fine art at csm for next year so i might be of some help...

Firstly, don't drop art. You need an art base - and art is valued above textiles anyway in terms of A-levels. Of course, your offer from arts london will be low and unspecified - providing you get in.. You'll need to build up a strong portfolio that you're going to show them - and having a mixture of art AND textiles will help you stand out.

To stay on top of your work.. well you can't be lazy. At this time I presume you have your exam, so you should be in the studios at least four hours a day working on that/your coursework. Go to tonnes of exhibitions, get inspired and pursue your own ambitions in your work. Art is hard, but it is exciting and extremely rewarding - I don't think you should drop it.

You might want to speak to Matisse - she did fashion at csm.

No I have finished both my exam and coursework for both subjects. I think they went well but they were a week apart which was quite stressful. There was a girl in the year above me who only did textiles for A level but was amazing and she never got a place at Chelsea but I thought that, that was because it is predominantly art based but perhaps central st martins is like that too. Depending on my grades this year I think I will try to keep art then. Thanks.

Reply 6

thatfrenchkid

OP

Freud

When I was at Byam Shaw, there were people who didn't do a level art, but their portfolios must have been top notch, everyone else there get A in art a level. If you want to do an art foundation it makes no sense to drop art a level. Plus try and bump your grade up one, churn out lots of work and be sure to hit all the AOs and you'll get an A. A levels are very much about quantity.

I think it is a bit late to get an A it came to the point where I had to prioritise and I picked textiles so I am fairly sure I got an A in that. I thought because techinically I am doing two A levels in art and design just one specialising in fine art and the other in textiles that they were basically the same in terms of uni. Also I do quite a lot of art work in my own time which I would say is of a lot better quality than my as work because I'm more into it. I hate that at a level you have to write about every little thing that you do.

Reply 7

forsaken_earth

13

Freud

When I was at Byam Shaw, there were people who didn't do a level art, but their portfolios must have been top notch, everyone else there get A in art a level. If you want to do an art foundation it makes no sense to drop art a level. Plus try and bump your grade up one, churn out lots of work and be sure to hit all the AOs and you'll get an A. A levels are very much about quantity.

Did you enjoy Byam Shaw? Did you do fine art?

Reply 8

Freud

14

forsaken_earth

Did you enjoy Byam Shaw? Did you do fine art?

In hindsight it was a very good course, I improved a lot over it and learnt a lot. But at the time I hated it, struggled to make friends and hated commuting. Yes I did fine art foundation.

Reply 9

justreadthebooks

In general, does anyone know what a level grades people get that go to university of arts london for fashion design/art foundation/journalism?

Art Foundation

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