Advice to those wishing to do an Art Foundation Course

I'm currently at Kingston Univeristy doing the art foundation course and I am having the time of my life. When it comes to chosing your foundation course I'd highly recommend chosing a course that has a low student to teacher ratio because you get more independant tuition this way and it is always nice when the teachers know your name and you can have serious convosations with you. I would also recommend an intense course. I am working everyday from 9:30 til 5:00 with 2 hours worth on break in the middle. I know it's a pain in the arse having to do so much work but it is so far the most important thing. I have done more work already than I did on my A level course. The friendships between you and other students on the course are unbelievably good as a result because the time you spend working means that you are amongst these guys all the time.

When I have spoken to people on less intense courses they have found themselves just messing around doing unnessesary crap.

I realise that my viewpoints are very biased considering I have only been on this one course but the ideas stated above are ones that I didn't think about when applying; I ended up being lucky chosing a course like this one.

Finally when you get a chance to visit the universities do not choose the university that is clean and has the best art facilities, because it is not these things that you go on a foundation course to learn about, but the ideas that you have.

I know this thread is random, but for those who are interessted I hope it's some useful things to know about.

Reply 1

fiesty_fox

6

Thanks for the advice.
About Art annd Design course content, do they do alot on fine art and textiles? See the thing is i want to choose a foundation course as one of my choices, but im focusing on graphic design mainly.
A graphic design foundation course lasts for 2 years, i don't want tp spend 2 years just doing graphics foundation, thats why i rather foundation which last for only a year which is art +design.

So tell me more about what exactly you do in that course, and are there alot of fine art sruff and textiles because i'm not good at them and i've never done them before :/

Reply 2

Dan_Connal

Yeah nice 1 for the info! I am interested in graphics as well and i wanted to get the foundation out the way. there is a 1 year foundation st martins (UAL) but i think doing the 2 years would be faster because you can skip 2 the last yr of the BA. i heard a big reason for the foundations is because allot of ppl drop arts so they didnt want loadsa people jus dropping out of a BA because it would look bad on the uni. anythoughts?

Dan

Reply 3

hester

1

Dan_Connal

Yeah nice 1 for the info! I am interested in graphics as well and i wanted to get the foundation out the way. there is a 1 year foundation st martins (UAL) but i think doing the 2 years would be faster because you can skip 2 the last yr of the BA. i heard a big reason for the foundations is because allot of ppl drop arts so they didnt want loadsa people jus dropping out of a BA because it would look bad on the uni. anythoughts?

Dan

you wont understand the importance of a foundation course until you actually do one.. trust me.. I doubt very much its because people drop out, its all about personal development and spending a concentrated ammount of time homing your skills in a specific way, and giving you better skills not necessarily in the areas you want to specify in. An art foundation course is all about experimenting, having fun doing what you want to do, working damn hard, but learning an AWFUL lot. You change so much during a foundation year, both in your work and personally, that only after you have done it, will you see the beneifits and why they make people do them :smile:

no matter how amazing you are, one will always be beneficial, even if you do know exactly what you want to do, it helps develop such a wide range of skills you'll need during your degree, and like i said before, you can manage without, like i did.. but its bloomin hard hard work to catch up, and you will feel behind, maybe not skills wise, but maturity wise (in an art sense not necessarily personal) and your work will lack a certain something for a while till you get used to the new way of working..

phew.. anyway, thats why you should def do a foundation course..

but on a foundation course you do such a wide range of things in such a short ammmount of time, you are bound to dothings you dislike, but they wont last long! Mostly its about trying loads of new things, and experimenting to find what you like and what you don't.. you get to specialise and choose a lot of stuff, and in general you can take projects in your own directions, and avoid things you might not like so much, and focus on ones you do.

mostly, its all about personal development, deciding how you work best, what you enjoy and don't and simply moving on from the rigidity of a levels

most of all.. they are GREAT fun :smile:

Reply 4

the_amy

Thanks for the advice! It has made me much happier about going for the foundation course, fingers crossed I get into my first choice college :smile:

9.30 - 5.00 sounds like a killer though! I'd prefer a more laid back course heh heh

Reply 5

fiesty_fox

6

bit of a stupid question but isit hard to get into art and design foundation course? :confused:

/ Or isit easy to get accepted?
If your prtfolio is not AS strong would they still give you a chance? because my portfolio is focused on product and graphics, nothing on textiles and fine art

Reply 6

hester

1

fiesty_fox

bit of a stupid question but isit hard to get into art and design foundation course? :confused:

/ Or isit easy to get accepted?
If your prtfolio is not AS strong would they still give you a chance? because my portfolio is focused on product and graphics, nothing on textiles and fine art

its easy to get on to some, harder for others, as all courses go. Stop stressing about the fine art and textiles stuff though!! if you have textiles work, great! but if not, they wont hold it against you!! fine art wise, you shouldshow an ability to draw, but everyone will have different weaknesses and strenths, so they won't expect you to excel at everything

if your strength is graphics show your graphics skills but do show you have talents in other areas too, and a the basic artistic abilities,drawing and the general way of thinking :smile:

i cant draw for toffee, but i got accepteed on 5 foundation courses, and all i had was graphics work in portfolio. Jst show as wide a range of things as you can :smile:

Reply 7

traceyjhenry

1

I choose to move away from home to do my foundation course and trust me its the best thing i could have done! I am from london so i applyed to Camberwell which has an amazing reputation as well as st martins and london college of fashion! i got accepted at camberwell but decided to move to edinburgh, and applyed to edinburgh college of art but never got in so i ended up going to edinburgh's telford college to do a foundation art and design... it was fantastic...the best year of my life!!
The tutors at the college were brilliant...they were very hands on and were always around to help. The people on the course were great too i made lots of new friends etc!
A few of my friends from back home in london went to camberwell and 3 out of the 4 left within 5 months of starting the course purely because they were not given any tuition and were left to their own devices alot of the time.
So im very glad i went to the college that i did!
Im now in my 3rd year at uni doing BA(HONS) Photography film and imaging.
Unfortunatly we didnt do any photography on the foundation and i realised that this is what i really missed and thats how i decided what route i wanted to go in. We did however do everything else, Graphic, Textiles and fashion, sculpture, painting and drawing, life drawing and illustration. You have take into consideration that the course is only for one year so really each of these are just taster classes but i specialsed in sculpture for my foundation exhibition!
I would defo recommened doing a foundation course its great and can broaden your mind to alot of mediums!!!

Reply 8

Drowned World

Silhouette

I would also recommend an intense course. I am working everyday from 9:30 til 5:00 with 2 hours worth on break in the middle. I know it's a pain in the arse having to do so much work but it is so far the most important thing. I have done more work already than I did on my A level course. The friendships between you and other students on the course are unbelievably good as a result because the time you spend working means that you are amongst these guys all the time.

When I have spoken to people on less intense courses they have found themselves just messing around doing unnessesary crap.

I second this! I am at Wimbledon, and when I heard that we had to do full days, 5 days a week I almost wanted to cry...memories of college came flooding back where I couldn't even be bothered to turn up to lessons, and most of them only took up half a day! Since I've been at Wimbledon though, I've turned up on time, every single day, because it's actually enjoyable , and I am such a dosser/the person who falls into class an hour after it's started.
It's so true the amount of work you get done as well! Silhouette is right, you get more work done than the 2 years you spent on A-levels, which sounds hard to believe but somehow it happens.
Just a note, a lot of people at Wimbledon had offers from St Martin's but turned them down, because apparently St Martin's students only have to go into class for 3 days a week. I didn't quite understand this before, but now I see why.
So if you have some difficulty choosing courses, the amount of time you need to be in class is pretty important.

Reply 9

Silhouette

OP

St. Martins has a different teaching style to the likes of Kingston and Wimbledon. Kingston likes every student to be in class so that everyone can feed off each other and be inspired (and however much you try to believe this isn't true, you'll end up realising you're wrong). St. Martins doesn't mind so much so a lot of work can be done at home. I really enjoy the scenario here at Kingston where you are always surrounded by teachers and other students. I have such a great laugh in class.

At the moment we are messing about with all areas of art and design. Currently I'm doing a 6 day module for fashion (something I've never done before) and I'm enjoying it. Even though it's not something I will continue to do next year, the experience of doing it is still pretty awesome.

As I said before look at the teacher:student ratio of classes. I like the low student, teacher ratio here at Kingston but everyone else has their own preferred way of working.

I applied for Graphics courses last year, but the only way to get into the top top unis is by doing an art foundation. And plus what harm does an extra year at uni do. Yes maybe a bit more money but who gives a flying f**k when you're having the best time of your life?

A good way of looking at the foundation/degree scenario is using this analogy (which a degree tutor told me). If you're running a 100metre sprint. Without a foundation course you start the race 5 metres behind everyone; therefore you always have catching up to do, as mentioned before. It's much more relaxing when you are on the same level as everyone else.

Another thing to also think about. Most people on degree courses will have done the foundation, so you will be one school year behind most people if you go straight into the degree. That's one of the things that helped sway me towards foundation.

Reply 10

fiesty_fox

6

How big is the class size in kingston A & D foundation course?

Reply 11

Silhouette

OP

There are about 110 people on the course and we have been divided into 6 groups for this first term. We work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9:30 til 5:00 and on Wednesday we have an art history lecture from 9:00 til 12:00 (I really enjoy these lectures).

For the first term you do a random 1 week project to begin with. Then you do 8, 6-day projects in:
Fine art: Print
Fine Art: Combined Media
Illustration
Graphics
3D Design
Fashion Culture
Life Drawing
Visual Studies

So far they have been fun and interessting projects and have stretched me to do things that prviously I wouldn't have tried out. Classes are made up of about 22 students which is nice. (This number does change occasionally as you'll find out if you do apply; it won't affect you though so don't worry)

Now I am choosing what I want to specialise in for next year. The choices are:
Fine Art
Graphics/Illustration
3D Design
Fashion

I recommend this course and last year they had almost a 100% record of getting their students into their 1st choice unis, which is nicely comforting.

Reply 12

camera_obscura

Silhouette

St. Martins has a different teaching style to the likes of Kingston and Wimbledon. Kingston likes every student to be in class so that everyone can feed off each other and be inspired (and however much you try to believe this isn't true, you'll end up realising you're wrong). St. Martins doesn't mind so much so a lot of work can be done at home.

I just finished my foundation at St Martins this year and we did have to come in for 5 days. In regards to their course and college, to be frank, I hated it! In fact I am now on an unplanned gap year trying to create an entirely new portfolio because the foundation left me in such a mess that I felt I could not use any of my work for a BA application!! I was an A student in Graphics at A level but at the end of the foundation I was so drained and depressed that I just got a pass.

It is a massive course, 600 students in total, and the classes are overcrowded. I'm quite happy to work independently but no-one wants to feel ignored by their tutor, or like it's a hassle if you want to ask their opinion.

I also find it interesting that in the university league tables the University Of the Arts had the highest percentage of unsatisfied students...

Anyway sorry to rant...and best of luck to all foundation students! :smile:

Reply 13

Silhouette

OP

When one of my friends here at Kingston was on the bus last year she recognised a tutor from St.Martins and the both of them talked about the foundation course. My friend said that she had places at both St.Martins and Kingston and the St.Martins tutor said, "why the hell are you thinking of going to St.Martins when you have a place at Kingston."

I don't wish to have a dig at St. Martins, even though that is what this looks like. I have never seen St.Martins college in my life so I can't personnally comment about it apart from te stuff I've heard from other people. Sorry about the incorrect information in the previous post.

Reply 14

the_amy

Wow, seems like Kingston would be a really good option. I just phoned up to order an application form.
It would be a bit of a trek for me to get there from home but all the positive feedback makes me imagine it's probably worth it.

Reply 15

Silhouette

OP

As I can only judge upon things that I have experienced, I cannot say that Kingston is better than another course. I can however say that by doing the foundation course here, you will have a great time, have lots of fun, and meet lots of interessting people, and produce a **** load of work.

I'm a bit sad really that my time in the experimental stages of art are almost over. I enjoyed doing the stuff that I won't be specialising in next year.

Reply 16

Vanessa_S

traceyjhenry

I choose to move away from home to do my foundation course and trust me its the best thing i could have done!

how did you afford to move away? I wanted to move away to do my foundation (next year..) but after discovering you can't get a student loan when doing a foundation.. it's basically impossible! accomodation costs add up to like nearly £3000 a year..and then all your living costs and stuff.. ?! unless you have like really wealthy parents/massive savings account, I don't understand how most people could afford to move away..?

Reply 17

Silhouette

OP

Well I have saved up (I'm not one to blow my money), I get cheap clothes from my work etc etc. so I have helped myself in that respect. Also I get grants from where I live which cover a lot of the costs which has saved me. I think that the situation for other students needs to be sorted out because so many of my friends work frantically to work up enough money to do the course. I am a very lucky person it has to be said because I'd have a lot of problems without the grants.

Reply 18

ryry

I REALLY want to go to Kingston - what did you write on your personal statement?! That's all I'm struggling with atm!

Reply 19

kk8899

4

hi may be there is some information u may have a look at as below
(the mark is from the student satisfaction rate,student survey 2005 )

loughborough 4, southampton 4, northumbria 3.8, manchester met 3.8,
SIAD,surrey 3.8, nottingham trent 3.7, kingston 3.6, UAL 3.5, leeds 3.3

hope it help, :biggrin:

Advice to those wishing to do an Art Foundation Course

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