Course summary

Sitting in between Illustration, Fine Art, Animation and Graphics, the Art Practice course takes the best of all those creative disciples and combines them into one dynamic area of study. Gain a H.E qualification without the full cost of University and without the need to move away from your home. The HND Art & Design course is a gateway and stepping-stone into the level 6 at University (final year of degree), or route into employment or freelance within the creative sector. The course aims to give you the skills and confidence to work on illustrations in a design studio or a University setting, the emphasis is on both set workshops/lessons and independent study where you can develop your own research and techniques under a guiding studio environment. Learn to be creative in a dedicated illustration studio where you can express ideas in your own personal space and design your art using both traditional artistic media and digital software (Adobe CC Illustrator, Photoshop, Animate, Indesign, Premiere Pro and After Effects). You will study a broad range of creative skills, techniques and processes that cover both tradition art methods (such as advanced drawing and painting skills) through to digital and animation processes; which will take your work to the next level of design and realisation and give you the edge in an ever changing creative environment. The course has a dual focus on both the skills needed for a final year of a degree and also creative enterprise as we will guide you through not only developing your art practice but also, supporting you to promote yourself to local, national and global audiences. The course will cover a broad range of creative illustration, art, graphic and animation processes, such as: printmaking, observational drawing, traditional and contemporary painting techniques, narrative image making, sequential design, character design, concept art, motion graphics, life drawing, image capture, book arts and digital graphic design. The course will also cover the history of creative illustration/visual communication, as well as contemporary illustration practices. Learn to tell stories using visual images by developing a personal language, which can engage the audience and promote an idea or sell a product. HND Art Practice students will learn how to develop strong visual language skills by following the design cycle. Study how to manage the whole creative process from: developing initial ideas based-on a client’s brief, through to refining/experiments ideas, and presenting dynamic outcomes. The course will also teach skills in planning, managing time, budgets and resources through to delivery creative projects in professional manner. Practice activities and creative workshop are backed-up with Illustration theory such as: semiotics, colour theory, audience perception to allow students to develop conceptual ideas. Study and investigation skills will be taught alongside workshops to support theory lessons. A part of any creative practice is reflections, evaluations and critiques, which will be part of the programme. As a trained illustrator, you might find work creating images for multiple platforms, including: magazines, books, films, video games, and for the internet/social media. A portfolio of original work will be important to your success in finding work, whether you're applying to large corporations, publishing companies, or small boutique design firms; also many illustrators choose to be freelancers or take freelance jobs alongside regular design work. With a strong portfolio students can progress on to University to complete a ‘top-up’ to gain a full degree. The course prepares students to go directly into the Illustration industry by teaching skills to self-up as a freelance illustrator and to sell creative work and skills to a global audience.