Portfolio Preparation Summer Courses

This 2-week intensive summer course is perfect for students aged 15-17 with a passion for creative arts.

ABOUT THIS COURSE

You’ll have the opportunity to develop your artistic expression, experiment with different mediums, and will give you the confidence to produce a comprehensive portfolio of work in a variety of creative areas.

Through a range of practical projects in different arts subjects, you'll be encouraged to develop your own ideas, enhance your creative skills and knowledge whilst building a body of work for your portfolio. You'll be guided through a variety of creative approaches and processes including practical exercises in the areas of art, design, illustration, photography and fashion.

COURSE OVERVIEW

You'll work on a series of themed projects across a mixture of art subjects to allow you to experiment and explore your own creative identity whilst also developing your understanding of key creative processes to enhance your work.

Course highlights include:

• Practical workshops and themed projects
• Sketchbooks: creative ideas development
• Typography and design, experiments in composition and collage
• Drawing and Illustration
• Graphic Design
• Fashion and Textiles
• Photography & Film
• Architecture and 3D Design
• Mixed Media and Print Making
• Layout and portfolio showcase
• Portfolio reviews

This 2-week intensive summer course is perfect for students aged 15-17 with a passion for filmmaking and/or an interest in pursuing film or media-related studies.

ABOUT THIS COURSE

The UK film industry continues to be one of the world’s greatest providers of cinematic entertainment, and asks for passion, creativity, technical ability, vision, research and commitment.

You’ll have the opportunity to explore a variety of roles within the filmmaking process – from scriptwriting to the finished film – and will develop an understanding of both the creative and technical aspects of making a film.

You'll have the chance to work with live actors on set and learn the art of directing. Plus, finished films will be screened at the end of the course for group critique and to add to your showreel.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Working in small groups you'll develop a screenplay, including shooting script and storyboard for a short fiction film. You’ll then also take part in pre-production tasks such as casting and developing a narrative, before beginning the live film shoot and post-production sessions.

Course highlights include:

• Create a short film from initial idea through to post-production
• Learn the fundamentals of filmmaking
• Storyboard development; narrative techniques
• Script writing and developing drafts
• Production design
• Casting and rehearsals
• The art of directing; working with actors
• Lighting a scene
• Camera angles and shot selection
• 2-3 days live film shooting
• Editing and post-production techniques
• Sound editing
• Film screening with group critique

This 2-week intensive summer course is perfect for students aged 15-17 who are looking for an unparalleled insight into the world of animation and production design.

ABOUT THIS COURSE

You’ll develop your observational and design skills through exercises in sketch, cinematic storytelling, storyboarding, scriptwriting and idea pitching, as well as through the exploration of hand-drawn techniques, and cut out and stop motion. This all leads to the production of your very own animated short film.

You’ll have the opportunity to work with industry-standard equipment in our dedicated animation studios, including professional standard armatures and light boxes.

Plus, you’ll be guided by our expert tutors through the application and use of post-production software to give you an understanding of editing techniques and creative post-production processes.

COURSE OVERVIEW 

Through a series of workshops, seminars and practical sessions you'll be introduced to the 12 principles of animation in theory and practice, explore the fundamentals of animation through 2D animation exercises, and learn traditional and contemporary techniques.

Course highlights include:

• 12 principles of animation
• Narrative and storyboarding
• Drawing techniques and development
• Scriptwriting and storyboarding
• Cut out techniques
• Stop motion puppets
• Pixilation
• Traditional 2D animation
• Layout and background
• Creative postproduction editing
• Film screening and critique

This 2-week intensive summer course is perfect for students aged 15-17 who are looking for an unparalleled insight into the world of Fine Art

ABOUT THIS COURSE

You'll learn how to build a portfolio in order to make the broader understanding of Fine Art visible to yourself and others. The breadth of these possibilities will be accessed through what is specific in terms of practical instruction via core hand-eye skills and thinking and feeling through material processes. 

COURSE OVERVIEW 

You'll work on a series of themed projects across a mixture of art subjects to allow you to experiment and explore your own creative identity whilst also developing your understanding of key creative processes of fine art to enhance your work.

Course highlights include:

• Discussion on the history of fine art and where it's now in relation to your own history (where you're coming from, where you're now and where you want to go)
• How to use other art to understand who you're and where you fit in
• Reflection on your most important visual experiences
• Instruction on core drawing skills to understand memory/observation/dreams in relation to your most important visual experiences
• Instruction on core drawing and making skills to gain control and confidence
• Instruction on how to use a process to without control in order to surprise/recognise yourself
• An introduction to oil paint in relation to colour theory
• Drawing and modelling from the figure /motif in clay and charcoal
• Exploring traditional, tangible materials in order to make something contemporary
• Exploring contemporary, intangible materials (audio, digital, performance) to make something timeless
• Practising explaining your artwork at an interview or presentation

This 2-week intensive summer course is perfect for students aged 15-17 who are looking for an unparalleled insight into the world of Architecture and 3D Design.

ABOUT THIS COURSE

This new highly practical summer course is an ideal introduction for those with a strong interest in architecture and for students studying art, design, art history, town planning, architecture, landscape architecture and other subjects related to the built environment.

Centred around the fundamental creative processes of observation, thinking, and making, the course covers the major architectural movements and address issues of style, patronage, and national identity. You'll develop your drawing skills, whilst individual and group studio projects will allow you to explore building materials and methods of construction.

COURSE OVERVIEW 

Through a series of workshops, lectures and a field trip, you'll explore the fundamental principles of architecture and design including form, geometry, structure, colour, light and function. Teaching both traditional and contemporary analytical skills together with a general overview of architecture design, you'll have access to 3D workshops with manual and digital manufacturing equipment and a specialised library providing a range of relevant material in architecture and the arts.

In addition to traditional drawing skills, you'll explore digital media (including CAD) and photometric analysis of building elevations. There will be opportunities to visit landmarks in British architecture and design to support your studies. Taught by faculty members, industry experts and visiting speakers, the course culminates with the preparation of a professional portfolio.

This 2-week intensive summer course is perfect for students aged 15-17 who are looking for an unparalleled insight into the realm of Illustration

ABOUT THIS COURSE

If you're a budding illustrator and wish to improve your creative drawing skills and build a portfolio, this new course will give you the chance to immersive yourself in a range of different mediums, to produce exciting and original work, and to develop your drawing and illustration techniques.

During this course, you'll explore the excitement of a rapidly evolving discipline, one that blurs boundaries between various kinds of visual creativity. You'll challenge and interrogate the way that we think about imagery and style.

You'll engage in a range of experimental research methods to strengthen your illustration practice. The course will focus on intuitive image making, ways of exploring subject matter through illustration and developing content. Outcomes will include images, picture books, series of images, performance, three dimensional objects, text based work or other more individual conclusions.

You'll be given a series of tasks that have been developed specifically to push your thinking and making and to trigger your creativity, from which you'll produce a number of outcomes. Your projects will include elements of drawing, experimental image making, movement, and exploration of unconventional narrative forms.