Drawing is integral to printmaking. During this course you will use observational drawing to develop a series of prints and use the potential of different methods of printmaking to move backwards and forwards between print and drawing. Using print techniques related to monotype (drawing into a field of ink with a range of implements), etching and drypoint (drawing with a needle into media such as plastic or metal); and various reproduction, collage and transfer methods, you will produce a series of prints which have moved through stages of development from observational drawing through to print and back again. Printmaking expands the possibilities of mark-making, allowing for repetition, iteration, variation and collage. It can provide the artist as a draughtsman with a degree of separation from the work they are producing which significantly changes the creative experience.

This exciting 4 day course includes learning specific skills to explore movement through drawing from a life model, painting, mixed media and kinetics in drawing and sculpture. Inspiration is taken from key artists in relation to the dynamics of natural flow and the moving body. The course proposes that everything is in a state of perpetual motion and change, and explores ideas and representations of movement, flow, and transition through multiple mediums. Students will apply their newly learnt artistic skills and techniques to expressing their own experiences of movement, helping expand their creative practice in inspiring new directions.

This course will give you an opportunity to work with video over 10 weeks and consider its final realisation for display in a chosen setting. The course starts with an introduction into recording material digitally and editing it with video and audio software. There will also be a special off-site workshop that will push you to work quickly in a group and respond to a new environment through time based media. The remainder of the course will be devoted to realising your own project in a chosen location, considering how site could affect and inform the work. We will also discuss how different modes of display can be interpreted and in turn how they can be exploited. You will also be encouraged to consider how culture today and our familiarity with the “screen” could affect the presentation, production and content of video.

This course is an introduction to the processes and techniques of textiles within the field of Fine art practice. You will experiment and explore different methods, materials and processes, including embroidery and the sampler tradition, wet and dry felting, latex and soft sculpture. We will use traditional and modern approaches to textiles in order to understand the qualities of materials, their construction processes and the meaning of using textiles in contemporary art practice. After initial experimentation with this process you will work on a chosen ‘Personal Project’ concept, further exploring these techniques under tutor guidance.

This course focuses on creating a figure sculpture with general reference to a model (rather than rendering a fixed position model study). The aim of the course is to teach you to use the human form to express emotion, energy and character. You will focus on understanding how to use different forms and compositions to express a feeling and to understand subtlety in the choice in forms, textures and materials. There will also be a one day workshop with Sophie Dickens, a preeminent contemporary figure sculptor. At the outset you will observe a life model, make wax maquettes and develop your ability to capture the character of a person, simulating a commission (as if they have been asked to do a sculpture of a particular person), using your understanding of the life model to design a figure sculpture which evokes the character of the model. These maquettes will then be developed into a finished sculpture, using the model as reference. Most of the sculptures will be up to 40cm high, but some variations in size and material are possible depending on your experience and level of ability. The idea is not to create a photographic, realistic figure, but to express an individual, emotional response to the subject. This will involve an attempt to connect very personally with the model, to intuit the qualities of that person beyond his or her physical form, and to explore ways of expressing these qualities using different sculptural approaches. The finished pieces will be mostly made in wax or plastilene on a wire armature, but there is room for exploring other materials, and one day during the course will be spent using a different method to further explore dynamic composition.

This course focuses on form and colour through reduction relief printmaking; a traditional and immediate sculptural approach to print utilising professional Japanese woodcut tools. This course is ideal to develop your colour skills, learning to apply multiple colour combinations to wood and linoleum blocks to expand your printmaking knowledge and develop a self-led project.

This course focuses on painting through etching; an intaglio approach to print, originally utilised by Francesco Goya to combine the tone of aquatint with the daubing and spraying of painterly brush marks, as beautifully demonstrated today by Norman Ackroyd, RA. Using a low toxic saline sulphate mordant, students learn to paint with sugar and etch both aluminum and zinc plates to realise a series of print editions. Guided by one to one tutoring from Sue Corke, Head of Print at The Art Academy, you will expand your knowledge and develop a self-led project.

An exceptional all-in-one opportunity to sculpt either a torso or a portrait head in clay from a life model, then produce a finished plaster cast of the work. This course offers a great opportunity to learn a range of different modeling skills and approaches, from fundamental technical skills to a more sculptural approach to creative architecture and mark making. The course is suitable for students of all levels, including beginner. You will be sculpting a torso at 3⁄4 size or portrait head, or if an advanced student, you could choose to do a life size torso during the first 5-weeks, but only if you are able to take on the moulding and casting with little help from tutors. Over the final 5 weeks you will learn how to make a 2-piece plaster waste mould, produce a plaster cast. Your tutor will show beginners how to approach setting out a portrait head or torso and work with more advanced students to push their work forward in their own way to explore a more personal, interpretive response to the pose. All students will strengthen their understanding of a range of sculptural language.