2013
Course overview
Integrating theory and practice, this MA will equip you with the entrepreneurial and commercial skills to assist your practice to reach its full potential, coupled with the practical and intellectual skills required to thrive as a practicing artist. The course will promote engagement with a diverse range of creative ideas and possibilities, from traditional illustration techniques including drawing and printmaking, to digital and lens-based activities. Ideal for those of you who wish to further explore the art of illustration and visual communication, this MA will inspire and encourage you to create innovative solutions to demanding industry briefs.
You’ll benefit from the expertise of our BAFTA and Association of Illustrators award winning tutors, who aim to provide a stimulating and interdisciplinary postgraduate culture relevant to your individual needs. With an emphasis on professional practice, we will support you to develop your personal technique and style, whilst underpinning your creativity with a strong awareness of industry techniques.
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Course content
You will focus on a major project, providing the opportunity to explore an area of personal interest and to produce a body of original work. Each unit will develop your key skills, and prepare you to complete a final major project.
Research Methods
As preparation for research this unit will require you to undertake a number of tasks related to your discipline. These include a précis of an article, a critical commentary of two
book reviews, your own book review, and a proposal for your dissertation/critical research paper with an annotated bibliography.
Navigation and Exploration
This unit will allow you to work within conventional industry related definitions such as sequential narrative, editorial, reportage and fiction/non fiction book illustration.
You will be required to produce a proposal of study based around an open ended project brief supplied by the course.
Discovery and Consolidation
After examining and questioning the traditional roles of the illustrator in the previous project
‘Navigation and Exploration’this unit will
develop, extend, deepen and focus lines of inquiry by lookingat the contemporary, expanding role of the illustrator as a ‘maker’, ‘a producer’, ‘an exhibitor’, ‘an entrepreneur’ as an ‘industry of one’.
Critical Research Paper
You will be required to undertake an individually researched seminar presentation supported by a critical research paper which will demonstrate an in-depth, comprehensive and detailed knowledge of your chosen area. You will need to identify a question, debate or hypothesis arising from your chosen field of enquiry, critically review the evidence, debate the relevant issues, present original concepts arising from your research and provide supporting conclusions.
Final Major Project
The Masters Project is where you will design, execute and present an individually demanding piece of work that deploys a systematic and in-depth understanding of the skills and debates relevant to your particular discipline of study. The template for the Project will be negotiated via a proposal that will be discussed with the supervisor to ensure that a researchable project exists.
Assessment
You will be assessed via a wide variety of methods, including studio projects, workshop and media outcomes, group and individual case studies and written assignments.
Key career skills
Creative thinking, writing, presentation, project management, working to deadlines, problem solving.
Projects/work experience
Although the course does not include a formal work placement, live briefs and commissions set by our industry partners, reflecting industry specific time frames, will enable you to produce a professional portfolio of work to be shown to prospective clients, and to develop a digital presence so that your work can be viewed online.
Solent's special features
A Work Based Learning Ethos
The MA Illustration promotes an outward looking perspective towards the world of work through the establishment of an in-house publishing press; 'The Unsinkable Press'. The press brings together our industry standard digital and traditional printing resource areas and provides a platform for established and emerging artists to produce artists books, portfolios of prints and editions of prints. Through this press and using traditional and digital methods, you will have the opportunity to conceive and make work in a range of formats which can be widely distributed.
Guest lecturers
Numerous high profile illustrators, designers and publishers regularly visit to lecture, conduct workshops and offer current, industry informed feedback on your work and the opportunities for employment. Lectures have recently been delivered by; Brian Grimwood (renowned illustrator, founder and director of CIA illustration agency), Darrel Rees (illustrator, founder and director of Heart Illustration Agency), Christopher Sharrock (illustrator, designer, sculptor, Dean), and Deirdre McDermott (Walker Books).
You will also benefit from the expertise of renowned illustrator John Norris Wood, who has been appointed as a honourary professor of Illustration. A Professor at the Royal College of Art, he has exhibited widely including at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum, and his natural history children’s books have been translated into ten languages, selling over two million copies.
Award winning students
We have a strong record of success, producing many award-winning students and graduates, including winners of the prestigious Yellow Pencil Award from D&AD and the Association of Illustrators Critics Award. You will be supported and encouraged to enter major design industry competitions such as the D&AD Awards, the Association of Illustrators Awards, and numerous related competitions.
Field trips
You may have the opportunity to participate in national and international study trips. Our undergraduate students have previously visited London, Oxford and Brighton, and further afield we have visited Florence, Prague, Paris and Amsterdam, visiting Estudio Mariscal in Barcelona and curating a staff/student show in the heart of Berlin.
Staff expertise
Our highly qualified, research active staff are committed to developing your creative futures, skills and talents, and you will work closely with specialist tutors who match your specific research interests. Our tutors have strong professional profiles within the industry and use their networks to attract other high profile practitioners and academics to engage and associate themselves with the course.
All of the illustration course tutors are practising illustrators and designers with extensive experience in industry and academia. They have a broad variety of specialist disciplines, with professional illustration experience in the areas of Editorial, Sequential Narrative, reportage and adult narrative.
Please see the following examples of our tutors' work:
Peter Lloyd, Principal Lecturer
www.eyestorm.com/peter-lloyd.html|
Ceri Amphlett, Senior Lecturer
www.ceriamphlett.co.uk|
Jonny Hannah, Course Leader
www.stjudesprints.co.uk/collections/jonny-hannah|
Paul Osborne, Life Drawing Tutor
www.galanthusgallery.com/artist_detail.asp?artistNo=76|
Charles Shearer, Printmaking Tutor
www.emmamason.co.uk/cat_works.php?art=47|
Chris Arran
www.pvuk.com/artist/chris_arran-image143_18_1.html|
Tobias Hickey, Editorial illustration Tutor
www.tobiashickey.co.uk/work.html|
Salvatore Rubbino, Sequential Narrative Tutor
http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1720|
Louise Weir
www.louiseweir.com/portfolio.html|
Catell Ronca
www.catellronca.co.uk|
Special facilities
The Faculty of the Creative Industries and Society offers a modern, industry standard environment. You will have access to:
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A dedicated life drawing room
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Well appointed Printmaking workshops
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The latest digital production and printing facilities
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Well equipped 3D workshops
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Photography studios
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In-house publishing press.
Our workshop facilities will enable you to experiment with a wide variety of media, including intaglio and silkscreen printmaking, photography, digital imaging, drawing and painting.
These facilities are supported by a dedicated team of technicians, who will provide you with advice and technical assistance to support your studies.
Fees
Fees for the 2012/13 academic year are:
Full-time
UK and EU students: £6,500 per annum
Overseas students: £10,000 per annum
Part-time
UK and EU students: £3,250 pa
Overseas students: £5,000 pa
2012
Course overview
Integrating theory and practice, this MA will equip you with the entrepreneurial and commercial skills to assist your practice to reach its full potential, coupled with the practical and intellectual skills required to thrive as a practicing artist. The course will promote engagement with a diverse range of creative ideas and possibilities, from traditional illustration techniques including drawing and printmaking, to digital and lens-based activities. Ideal for those of you who wish to further explore the art of illustration and visual communication, this MA will inspire and encourage you to create innovative solutions to demanding industry briefs.
You’ll benefit from the expertise of our BAFTA and Association of Illustrators award winning tutors, who aim to provide a stimulating and interdisciplinary postgraduate culture relevant to your individual needs. With an emphasis on professional practice, we will support you to develop your personal technique and style, whilst underpinning your creativity with a strong awareness of industry techniques.