Northbrook MET
Creative Industries Festival
Art & Design
Level 1 + 2 Diploma
The Level 1 and 2 Diploma in Art & Design provides students with an introduction to art and design, enabling them to both re-engage with education and acquire the requisite knowledge, skills and understanding to progress to further education or employment in the creative industries.
The Level 1 Art, Design and Media includes 7 units and the Level 2 Art and Design includes 8 units - they have been developed to provide an opportunity to explore the materials, methods and processes that support art and design activities, and to begin to develop some related technical skills for students that have an interest in art and design.
The programme is delivered through practical studio based activity together with research into contemporary and historical design practice. There is a focus on the development of analytical drawing skills and transferable skill acquisition.
Student Work - Final Major Project
For our Final Major Project the students have developed and produced a personal project in Art and Design under the theme of “Our Planet”. They have identified their subject matter within this theme through spider diagrams, researching and generating several possibilities and ideas, experimented with materials and methods through workshops and created a test piece in order to create their final piece.
The students have tackled this project in 4 stages by following the Design Cycle - Investigate, Plan, Create and Evaluate.
Despite the difficult circumstances with COVID19, the learners were able to adjust their plans to continue working at home with limited equipment. Well done.
Metamorphosis Project
Alfie Dunnell
The design I made for this FMP was these anatomy drawings e.g a hand, an apple, a lip, a nose, an eye, an ear and a foot in high and low showing spotlights and emotive tones. I also want.
The meaning for my work was for people to look at my work from a distance and see this human/ complex face but when the viewers would go closer they would see surreal features on all of the drawing and high shadows.
The way my works relate to the theme of "our planet" was anatomy, I wanted anatomy to link to surrealism as well because surrealism is also in my theme/ project and I wanted these mysterious drawings to look/ feel like a dramatic sense is happening or going on and I wanted the drawings to also feel like a surrealism movement.
The research I did for this FMP project was a load of Surrealism artist such as Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali and Leonardo Da Vinci. I also look I at different articles that had inspiring words/speeches.
Alice Palmer
I have made a sculpture display and a backdrop painting for my final piece. The meaning of my artwork is to show us humans how we are affecting the environment with plastics that we are dumping into our oceans and how this is affecting our sea creatures. My work relates to the theme “Our Planet” because my subject matter is a global issue and affecting our planet in many ways. I have researched the artists are Ma Li, Aurora Robson, Angela Haseltine Pozzir, Alexis Rockman, Fred Tomaselli and Stephen Bird. I have also researched some articles from Pewtrusts, Worldwildlife and National Geographic.
Alicia Walker
I made a painting of the ocean's pollution. The meaning behind this is that our land and sea look somewhat clean but underneath all that our fish and coral reefs are being ruined due to climate change and our rubbish being dumped into the sea.
In order to show this I painted a clean island and a nice ocean surface to show underneath there are dead fish and dying corrals with rubbish here and there.
My work related to the theme ‘our planet’ by me showing a little awareness of the damage done to our ocean by pollution. I did a few artist researches but the one that mainly gave me inspiration was Alexis Rockman because his work showed a variety of polluted oceans and lakes and even the land he painted fish and objects in a strange setting but the message was clear to see with his work so I decided to try something similar with my own art.
Brandon Boughton
I made a sculpture out of plastic bottles of a turtle which I made 4.
The meaning of my artwork is to show that turtles are endangered by plastic like plastic bottles in the sea and that due to being endangered they want humans to know so the 4 turtles I have made in different sizes represents a family with a Dad, a Mum, a Son and a Daughter and the Dad turtle is going onto a adventure onto our planet to teach the humans about the dangers they face in their lives to protect himself and his family from danger.
My work relates to the theme “Our Planet” because I made my piece a turtle which is an animal on our planet and I also made a message as well to relate to the dangers turtles face with plastic which is a problem on our planet.
My research is on a artist who uses plastic bottles to create sculptures of animals called Veronika Richterová as well as on articles on turtles such as; https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/science/sea-turtles-plastic.html
Ellie Dyer
I made a large canvas into a broken wildlife scene. It is made up of paper, materials, a mask and tissue paper.
The whole point of my final major project is to emphasise the pain that wild animals have to go through due to selfish humans.The main piece of this project is the mask in the center , it shows half a women’s face and have a tigers face and it is supposed to make the viewer think about how close we are to animals and how cautious we need to be about their habitats. The background is painted to look like a forest fire that goes on for miles, the fallen trees and the destroyed parts of nature is a reality that we do not see often however it is happening.
I chose to create the canvas as the title of the project ‘our planet’ initially made me think about the environment and all the plastic waste we create , however after having very little ideas for a underwater piece I decided to work on land. Once figuring out the base of what I wanted to do I took to pintrest and made a mood board of forest fire paintings and the animals situation after the Brazilian forest fires and in Australia.
I looked up artists that had previously made 3D sculptures of animals and got the idea of using a mask and decided to add a human face to the piece.
Freya Bastable
For my Final project I decided to do five 20cmx20cm square canvases to show the major evolutions of history on “Our Planet”.
I decided to do this out of the box mini theme of “History” as I have always had a large interest in the subject and an extensive knowledge of times in history that I developed into inspiration for this piece.
For my research I looked into well known artists to try and grab an idea of what it meant in those times to be an artist and how it helped our planet be developed into what we know today. I also looked into articles of all the major evolutionary times in history to grasp an idea of what times were like, what was important to them, what they did to survive, and how the times changed from then to now.
Gene Hebbes
Hallam Kemp
I made an A2 collage painting of the earth for the FMP as I looked at the briefing in a more literal sense rather than a base idea.
My artwork shows that while the earth can be peaceful it is also chaotic and busy which is shown through the road maps and the stars in the background.
It relates to the theme 'Our Planet' through both being artwork showing our planet but also showing that it has life through its use of the road maps to create the land.
I mostly made my artwork from my own ideas but I was inspired through Astrid stoeppel's work when she painted the earth and also her usual work where she does a lot of mark making to create various different things which can be seen as the main part of my artwork.
Holly James
I based my piece off of the ocean by using a flowy skirt that I had of which I didn't need anymore.
The descending levels of the ocean show different wonders of the ocean. I based it off of the ocean and I wanted to convey the wonders of the ocean using both realistic and handmade objects of the sea to show it's both an artist piece and it had natural wonders I wanted to base my techniques and some styles off of Alison Willoughby.
Isobel Platt-Higgins
My piece is an acrylic painting that I painted on a wood plank with LED lights that I used at stars in the background.
The meaning of my work has changed throughout the process of making the piece but I think that the final meaning is just the uncontrollable element of time, my piece is just an astronaut falling through space and I feel that correlates to the feeling many people go through of feeling out of control and just sort of free falling through life.
My piece relates to the theme “our planet” as my piece is space related and our planet is in space and I have a small relation to the aspect of time.
I researched into many different artists before doing my project and I feel the main one that impacted my process was Robert McCall especially his piece”peace on earth-peace on space”, I was really inspired by his art and it helped me in my process of making my piece.
Jacob Thomas
I made 6 drawings, 3 charcoal and 3 pencil and made a notepad that contains 50 pages of animal information from a book that I have at home and the name of the book is in my sketchbook book references.
The meaning of my artwork is to express my theme of animals in my drawings and writing to describe and display that humans are harming nature and animal homes that lived and changed before us.
My work relates to our planet because animals help keep the planet in balance from birds eating flies to dogs loyal to mankind and that continues everyday.
In my final piece I wrote about humans destroying habitats with deforestation for fuel, Biodiversity and the amazon clearance of trees for increasing human population.
In my sketchbook I provided a page of animal research with names e.g Stephan park,Carol Gillan, Richard Symonds, Suzie Marsh and Wayne Westwood.
Jarred Whitwell
For my final project I decided to use a 30 cm x 40 cm canvas that greatly shows ageing from the leaves which shows the effect of climate change.
I took inspiration from Andy Goldsworthy because I thought it would be a good idea to use natural and recycled materials for artwork.
My artwork was all about climate change, and also it was about why our planet is quite fragile and weak, and there is hope if we chose an optimal path that will save our planet and also our species.
I thought it was a good idea to take inspiration from Andy Goldsworthy and make an art piece that shows leaves and other materials slowly degrading overtime. For my research I looked into well-known artists like Richard Shilling, Andy Goldsworthy, and Nils-Udo.
These artists helped me to get a better understanding by using natural materials and other objects.
Joseph Forrest
For this project I made a colored pencil drawing of the planet that opens up to show parts of the planet (mainly the five biomes). The meaning behind my design was to show how the environment has been treated by people and the differences between each five biomes from them being harmed to not being affected.
My final piece does relate to the theme of “Our Planet” as my design shows the five mayjar biomes that are in “our planet” and also some of the animals that live in those places.
Some of the artists that I researched to help me find the idea for my final piece were Philip Huges, John Constable and Laim Brazier. The artist Laim Brazier especially gave me the idea for my final piece even though I did not make it in the style he normally makes his artwork in.
A couple of articles that also helped me find my idea for my final piece were the “Renewable source coalition” with their “top problems” and also “the guardian” about “climate agenda for twenty twenty”.
Matt Cox
At the beginning of my project I researched artists such as Simon Stålenhag and Chris Foss to get inspiration from some science fiction artwork.
I decided to make my final piece space related with different planets so it relates to the theme of “Our Planet”. I made 12 different A4 comic book covers with a different creature and planet on the front. I used coloured paints on black paper to look like stars and then created the aliens on white paper with Sharpies to stick on top. Finally I used a black and white outliners around the figures to make them stand out. I’m happy with my final piece and think the 12 pages look bold together.
Phoebe Pinches
Riven (Bea) Valiant
Zach Grigsby
I decided to make a t-shirt as my final piece that connected to the theme of Our Planet through the designs that were featured on both sides of the shirt.
The meaning of my work is surrounding the notion of being lost in space. The T-shirt features a planet on and is representative of a galaxy.
The features of the t-shirt that represent this theme come from the similarities between landscapes on earth and what we know about the planets in our solar system.
Student Testimonials
Jarred Whitwell - Level 1 Art, Design and Media
“The best thing about studying Level 1 Art & Design was definitely the tutors and the teaching assistants, and also the high quality classroom tutorials that I was in on a daily basis. The relatively small class sizes coupled with how receptive the classes were made it easy to do art more efficiently, and their seemingly unquantifiable knowledge was no doubt an essential component of the success of my degree. I feel that over the duration of the course I gained a lot of knowledge and practical methods that will be beneficial to me, and those I deal with personally and professionally.
I found it to be an excellent course, Level 1 Art & Design really helped me understand the basics and the techniques of being a true artist. The reason I chose Level 1 Art & Design was because I was new to the college and it was a good starting point to get used to the environment in college. The staff were very kind and my tutor was very encouraging and always gave clear feedback. I was very happy with the flexibility of the course.”
Isobel Platt-Higgins - Level 2 Art and Design
The Level 2 Art and Design course is a good course for exploring different fields in art and a good course to take if you are unsure of the specific art course you’d like to take.
I personally was unsure of what course I wanted to take but I knew I was passionate about art, by taking this course, it allowed me to explore the different areas and experiment with different mediums and find my favourite type of art.
The teachers are encouraging and help aid in trying out new things and exploring ideas. After a year of this course, I feel that I have learnt a lot of different skills and that I have experience in different types of mediums that I can see myself using for different projects in the future. I personally really enjoyed this course and I believe that anyone who has a passion or an interest in art, would enjoy this course too.
At the beginning of the course, we had a lot of direction, which was a helpful set up for when we transitioned to the self directed study portion. I really liked the freedom of the self directed study and enjoyed the freedom of experimenting with different processes and learning different skills. Also the aspect of self directed study gives you an opportunity to learn how to work independently and learn time management skills which will be helpful in the future.
When working through the course, the teachers were very supportive and easy to contact when I was struggling or had questions about the course or topic we were learning.
We had many different workshops that allowed us to learn many different skills including life drawing, textile work, letterpress printing, photograms and many more. I feel that by doing these, it allowed us to find what areas we excelled in and what areas we enjoyed most. Also by doing these workshops, it gave us many options when it came to our final project.
Coming to the end of the course, I have been able to find my favorite field of art and I have gained many skills and have learnt many different techniques.