Help! Fine Art at Oxford?

You know, wouldn't it be easiest if you have a range of mediums and a range of styles? Show that you have broad interest and is creative and willing to take risks and go for alternatives, especially seeing as art is all about creating and not following rules. Developing your own style is probably a good idea too! Every good artist have their own style of drawing/working so patch up on that? Analyse some artists' work, show that you're still learning, but give some original analysis maybe. And what styles of work have you investigated into, on your own outside of class? I personally have done Japanese manga and am teaching myself how to draw portraits, and am thinking of developing my Pre-Raphaelite style that I looked into for personal invesitgation at AS, but at home, so if I were applying I'd bring all that out. Any experiments done on computer? Maybe there can be some 3D stuff like clay etc? - maybe modern art, mix it with Leonardo da Vinci or something - show your wide range of interest that you're not fixed to the old-fashioned. Things in Tate Modern or whatever - some people don't know how to appreciate such works, discuss that maybe? And maybe don't just stick to the "normal" art, put in some graphics, product design, illustrations, media, photography. Play around with colours, use different techniques. One medium can be done in sooo many different ways - show all of that.

So a few techniques per medium per style, mixed with personal style and developement and some discussion of works you've studied, mix the time scales, don't plunge it all into modern or all into the ancient. Put a few cartoons in if you wanna. Doodles, rough sketches...

Sorry I'm not actually applying for art I'm be applying for sciences this year so I might just be talking a load of rubbish. However art is my ultimate passion :redface:

unfortunately I don't like the career prospect.

Reply 5

I wish I was studying Fine Art :redface:

It would be the absolute BEST degree ever.

Reply 6

OP

Okay, thanks everyone!

Irisng - well, living in Ireland means getting to the Tate ain't exactly easy...but the rest of your advice is brill. I've taught myself manga too, although it never seems to turn out properly. Again, Ireland is not the place to have these interests, there's no outlet for them.

Just a thought, though - you were the one who wrote that cool mock personal statement on art, right? Why don't you apply for it? You sound totally into it. I mean, everyone wants me to do medicine, but that's not a great reason... :rolleyes:

Reply 7

Alvira

Okay, thanks everyone!

Irisng - well, living in Ireland means getting to the Tate ain't exactly easy...but the rest of your advice is brill. I've taught myself manga too, although it never seems to turn out properly. Again, Ireland is not the place to have these interests, there's no outlet for them.

Just a thought, though - you were the one who wrote that cool mock personal statement on art, right? Why don't you apply for it? You sound totally into it. I mean, everyone wants me to do medicine, but that's not a great reason... :rolleyes:

Cooool you do manga too? :biggrin:

It's not too hard but then I have loads of Japanese manga comic books so I learnt loads just by copying and repeating and now I have the style :biggrin:

Portrait has to be the hardest one for me so far - given I've only been at it for a year with about 5 official portraits, it's not going too badly :tongue:

Japanese animation is pretty easy on computer - I've tried a few on Paint (the only art prog I know how to use lol).

And yeh I was the one who wrote a mock art PS! I've forgotten what I've written now, it was a month or so ago wasn't it? Was the mock PS any good? I do wanna apply for art, but I don't really like the idea of going into college for the foundation course, and also art isn't very employable :redface:

I'd love the degree though :redface:

and I can't imagine the degree being very hard :biggrin:

cus I simply don't see art as work at all. It'll be like me relaxing and having fun 24-7 for three/four years :biggrin:

And the hard bits that will challenge me still wouldn't be work! Hehe for my art AS I don't remember myself working lol.

Reply 8

Cvb

Well last year I applied to do Fine Art at New College, Oxford. I didn't get in and I am now re-applying to do music with AAAB. My rejection made me realise that Fine Art wasn't really for me... you see you've gotta have loads of ideas...original crazy ideas. Well that's the impression I seemed to get after visiting the Ruskin School.
In your portfolio I would suggest contempory styles and maybe some photos of sculptures you've done. I was advised to take a foundation course and although at the Open Day they said that their thoughts on this was 50:50 I think they would prefer a year's out experience.
My portfolio was almost all classical styles so try and be experimental!!! Hope this helped...and good luck!
Also St.Edmund's Hall would probably be worth looking into. I thought it a bit small but it's near the Ruskin and accepts more art applicants!
x :smile:

Reply 9

OP

Irisng: I only came across manga through the net, and have never seen them for sale anywhere (except the net); don't have Sky, so no anime for me! Basically I'm working blind with it, but I totally love the style, I think it's beautiful (and that's probably a really crass thing to say, but true, and compared to some of the -eek!- modern art that's out there...). I wouldn't say I'm great at it, their heads are always too fat, but it's great fun! I can do portraits, that's all we ever did in school. No sculpture or anything (it was a pretty poor place). As for job prospects, unless you strike it lucky they are pretty terrible. But I couldn't imagine not having a go...I'd love to go to Oxford too, so they're both pretty iffy. Well, if all else fails I'll study medicine in Ireland.
Let's hope it doesn't fail.
Oh, and your statement was great! You seemed so wildly passionate about it...mine seems so stodgy by comparision. Hmn, for a favour would you take a look at it, if you've time? Your influence couldn't but be helpful, judging from your own one. I really don't know much about them - there's no equivalent in Irish uni applications.

Cvb: that's invaluable - insider advice! Well, I am doing a foundation course, however much help that'll be. But my style is pretty traditionalist all right, damn. Oh well. As I said I've never sculpted either...more a case of not having the materials. It is Oxford all over, I suppose, although I expected them to be trad rather than radical. Now that I know I can do something about it. Good luck on your application too!

Reply 10

Alvira

Irisng: I only came across manga through the net, and have never seen them for sale anywhere (except the net); don't have Sky, so no anime for me! Basically I'm working blind with it, but I totally love the style, I think it's beautiful (and that's probably a really crass thing to say, but true, and compared to some of the -eek!- modern art that's out there...). I wouldn't say I'm great at it, their heads are always too fat, but it's great fun! I can do portraits, that's all we ever did in school. No sculpture or anything (it was a pretty poor place). As for job prospects, unless you strike it lucky they are pretty terrible. But I couldn't imagine not having a go...I'd love to go to Oxford too, so they're both pretty iffy. Well, if all else fails I'll study medicine in Ireland.
Let's hope it doesn't fail.
Oh, and your statement was great! You seemed so wildly passionate about it...mine seems so stodgy by comparision. Hmn, for a favour would you take a look at it, if you've time? Your influence couldn't but be helpful, judging from your own one. I really don't know much about them - there's no equivalent in Irish uni applications.

Cvb: that's invaluable - insider advice! Well, I am doing a foundation course, however much help that'll be. But my style is pretty traditionalist all right, damn. Oh well. As I said I've never sculpted either...more a case of not having the materials. It is Oxford all over, I suppose, although I expected them to be trad rather than radical. Now that I know I can do something about it. Good luck on your application too!

With your manga style you could try London. There's an Oriental City in London somewhere and there's a massive comic book shop and it's all in Japanese :tongue:

As for anime you can find some anime DVDs round HMV I think - my sister seems to find loads of them. Manga isn't too hard - took me two years :biggrin:

but I've kind of stopped now and moved onto portraits. It'd be great to see some of your manga and portraits! I wanna know how you do those portraits - I can always get a pretty good resemblence but that's simply not good enough - grrrr! - it's the kind when you get the right "air" or "character" but not the right details so you can tell who it is, if you tell them it is so-and-so. Annoying :redface:

And yeh sure I can give your personal statement a look. You probably should email me it cus PM-ing round uk-l has word limits :mad:

And if you have any of your art work online... :biggrin:

I'll PM you my address.

And lol with my mock personal statement! Thanks :tongue:

I can't even remember what I wrote now lol it's been so long! So often I can't be bothered to do art - I dose about in my art lessons :biggrin:

But once I get started I just sit there for hours - goodness it's been so long since I enjoyed some art. But it's great when you just "draw" - you just forget everything and you're in it and you have no idea what you're doing, you're just doing it! - bit of a natural instinct a lot of it is. I remember my more "poetic" way of saying all this is "you live the picture". I remember I had a bit of a shock when I looked up to find two people standing there watching me do my AS drawing :redface:

I just didn't know that they were there lol!

Reply 11

Cvb

Cvb: that's invaluable - insider advice! Well, I am doing a foundation course, however much help that'll be. But my style is pretty traditionalist all right, damn. Oh well. As I said I've never sculpted either...more a case of not having the materials. It is Oxford all over, I suppose, although I expected them to be trad rather than radical. Now that I know I can do something about it. Good luck on your application too!

Hi,
sorry I didn't mean to make you worried...I always thought that the Ruskin would be traditional, the work I sent up was mostly that. I would still keep some trad in your portfolio though. Best of luck for it all! Foundation Course will be invaluable! Have you looked into other institutions? I applied to Edinburgh, UCL (the Slade School) and Leeds. But, I withdrew my application when I heard about Oxford. I'm positive that you're a great candidate! The fact that you're Irish and happy to come all the way to Oxford is a pretty sure sigh that you're a very passionate applicant! xxx

Reply 12

OP

Cvb

I've thought about Slade and Chelsea, they being the only other two I've heard of! I'm sure there's more, but I just don't have the ground knowledge, if you get me. Let's hope the tutors think like that too! And yay for second applications! (This is mine...trying English at Magdalen turned out to be the biggest farce of my life...xD). While I have you though, I love the sound of SEH, but the fact that it's so popular for Art would make it really highly subscribed, wouldn't it?...As one who's been there, you might know!

Irisng: The HMVs over here are pathetic in the extreme. Hehe, I'll try and coerce someone into bringing me over for comics! (That sounds totally plausible). Although I've a cousin in the Oriental College in London...hmm, possibilites! I've always drawn portraits, I don't find likenesses hard, it's age! I either make them extremely young or really old. Opposite to what they are, like. I love doing it but nothing frustrates me more when it won't go right...

And thanks, guys! :smile:

Reply 13

Alvira

Irisng: The HMVs over here are pathetic in the extreme. Hehe, I'll try and coerce someone into bringing me over for comics! (That sounds totally plausible). Although I've a cousin in the Oriental College in London...hmm, possibilites! I've always drawn portraits, I don't find likenesses hard, it's age! I either make them extremely young or really old. Opposite to what they are, like. I love doing it but nothing frustrates me more when it won't go right...

And thanks, guys! :smile:

Hehehe arts people are all the same then! :biggrin:

I hate it when I can't get it right too! And it's the funniest when people say "Wow that's really excellent!" and I'm like "No it's not - look at this, that and this, and this." And then they're like "Oh." :tongue:

It's amazing though - I looked back at my AS work and it's like it's really really plain! Hehe it's one reason why I never trust the marking scales and standards of the exam boards and schools :biggrin:

You're gonna have to teach me how to do portraits! I'm not trained for observational drawings really cus I always used to do cartoons, but an advantage with that is now I can draw off the top of my head (usually :rolleyes:

) cus I'm used to not having a guide! I'm fine with everything else, hands, flowers, objects in general I just cannot do portraits grrrrrrrrrrr! But someday I'm gonna master the skill :biggrin:

(maybe 30 years later) But the good news is I've managed to improve without practising :biggrin:

I'm weird like that - attempt it and fail miserably over and over, stop for a year or two, pick it back up and "ting" I've got better! Let's hope that's the same with my art skills :biggrin:

And my stupid email account hasn't received your mail yet :mad:

in fact it still hasn't received a mail I sent to myself this afternoon :mad:

I'm sure I'll receive it somehow though!

And yeh get hold of the proper manga books - the stuff on the net, or at least the ones I've seen so far, are pretty awful in general - not a good basis for learning! My friend found an animation/manga site and told me the art was apparently really excellent - I went and had a look and I couldn't tell whether the main character was male or female. The art on that site was pretty awful :rolleyes:

And btw, if your manga people heads are too big - make them into the cute version of manga - they always have big heads :biggrin:

and they're sooo cute! Try it out it's fun! :biggrin:

Reply 14

OP

Hehe, this is turning into a totally cool discussion on manga! Hopefully our emails will decide to work sometime soon...after all, I have to teach you portraiture! :biggrin:

(Er...!)

I don't think you COULD call yourself an artist if you were totally complacent and said, 'oh yeah, my stuff is brilliant'. (I think it certainly wouldn't be then...) Your line about saying 'but this this and this is wrong' was so me!! I think you mature in drawing especially if you become more confident generally - I'm not as uptight about things as I used to be and hence my drawing's become more relaxed. :rolleyes:

You're so right about manga guides...in every bookshop in three cities, I must've seen about four in total, and they were all sort of kiddie stuff. I managed to get ahold of a History of Manga, and by comparison the real Japanese manga is waaaay better than these American guides. Most of the drawings on the net are dross...but I've seen one or two brilliant ones. Oh, and chibi (I think that's the word!) are so cute! But a little too like Pokemon, perhaps? :tongue:

Reply 15