Induction week 1

Induction week 1

How are you settling in, how do you feel being a part of your tutor group?

Settling in is fine, I have enjoyed the beginning of the term as a way of introducing us to an entirely art curriculum, moving us away from the style of learning we had during A-level. Time management, in terms of travelling into university, has been my toughest challenge. I made use of the student services to help me though. The tutor group as a whole has been friendly and encouraging. Everybody is in the same boat and so everyone is kind to each other which is lovely.

What are your first impressions of the environment?

what are the differences to your previous learning and experience at A-level?

The environment is calm. Although that may just be because it is induction week and the rest of the degree and masters level students have not arrived yet. There is space to eat and plenty of time to do it, however when they return things will be harder to que up for food etc. I love the architecture of the buildings and the colour choices in the halls. Making it feel equal learning environment and art environment. The differences to A level so far are that there is much more creative freedom during lesson time and greater expectation for independent study. During A-level we would be set a task and shown exactly how to do it and would be expected to report our research findings in a very particular way. Including biographies of the artists we researched as well as a copy cat piece beside it in sketchbooks. During lesson time we would have very little opportunity to actually leave the classroom even to go around school grounds as it may “disturb the other students” meaning we could never really explore the idea of structures or look at various textures of the outside world during class time. Similarly the tutors in AUB allow us to make our own creative decisions and such. If we do not like doing a task we are not made to do it, only experiment. Compared to A-level where you had to do a little of everything to please the examiner.

What, if anything, do you need to find more about?

I needed to find out more about bus routes, however that has been resolved. Similarly learning room numbers and locations is going to take some time as the numbers associated with each room so far do not make too much sense.

Where do you see yourself currently in terms of art/design/media?

I see myself more in art under illustration, however i do want to try design and see if there is anything within that section that i could get to grips with and enjoy. I don’t believe i am within media much at all. Photography is not my strong suit and i haven’t the patience for animation.

What are your strengths?

I feel sketching is my strength with figures and life drawing. And printmaking in textiles is something i enjoy and have done a lot of. Lino-print, mono-print and poly-blocks.

What are the areas that you need to improve on?

I am not very good at environments, hands, colour theory. Things that can only be improved with practise!

what practical steps are you going to take to help do this?

Practise doing these things more often. forcing myself to draw environments and think of perspective before i can add characters into those environments. Similarly with the hands and colour theory i will only improve on these factors if i commit myself to practising doing these things in sketchbooks in my own time or with help during tutoring time.