Art at Ashton Sixth Form College

ART at ASHTON SIXTH FORM COLLEGE

Watch our latest video here : 

https://youtu.be/E0sJ2u26iic

Picmonkey

If you are missing Photoshop , try PicMonkey - which works well on phones as well as PCs etc. It uses a lot of the same features as Photoshop such as layers, dodge, burn etc. Worth a go.

https://www.picmonkey.com/home/signup

WORK EXPERIENCE at the BBC !

https://www.bbc.co.uk/careers/work-experience

CELEBRATE ...!

CONGRATULATIONS !

Congratulations to all art students and especially Graphics students on a set of wonderful A'level and AS level results. So many of you will have achieved the results to gain your Uni places & will be prepping now for September. If you didn't gain the A2 grades you needed & it would help to have some advice, staff are in college to help -OR email me & we can talk your options through.There are many opportunities via clearing so don't give up !

Here are the exam grade boundaries that I have taken from the Eduqas website. It's very frustrating if you were only a few marks off the next grade but please remember that there are no resits / re-marks in the Art subjects.

Best of luck if you are off to Uni - can all A2 students please remember to collect sketchbooks by emailing Dan Riley on dpr@asfc.ac.uk AFTER the start of Sept. Best of luck too if you are looking for an apprenticeship - let us know if we can help. AS students - hope your summer work is coming along well - see you in Sept !

Mossley Hollins Taster Day

Year 10s from Mossley Hollins visited us today & produced some great work in under an hour ! Using the words of that great Graphic designer Saul Bass, they produced scaled up images of his face & quote - using half tones collages. Have a look at the film here ...


Mossley Hollins High School & Graphic design - a film !

Students in A2 have been feeling retro this week with Josh & Alex producing a series of film posters , looking back at Saul Bass & Pulp Fiction Book cover designs.  These are part of their development work towards their exam Unit.

The Art Department staff in their splendour for World Book Day

(The Mad Hatter, Lewis Carol, THe Cheshire Cat#1, The Cheshire Cat #2, The Red Queen & The White Rabbit.

The Sketched world

"Even in this highly digitized world, the stereotype of an artist always carrying a sketchbook around is still very much alive. And then there are creatives who take the doodles in their journal to the next level, making their sketchbooks into handheld art exhibitions.

Most of the creative types would tell you that their journals are way more personal that the finished result one sees in the exhibitions. See, a sketchbook for an artist is like a visual diary of sorts, where they get to freely express themselves. Or simply document the things that inspire them throughout the day.
If you get to take a look at such a sketchbook, it can be like taking an afternoon trip to an art gallery and soaking in all that the art has to offer – creativity, roughness, inspiration and raw feeling – all within the parameters of a small journal. Take a look at some of the most impressive examples of an artist’s sketchbook in the link below."

https://www.demilked.com/artist-sketchboooks-mini-art-galleries/

Congratulations !

Congratulations to Michelle Lyons & Amy Winson who won a prestigious Graphic Design competition last week.

The competition was to redesign the logo & branding for the International Opticians' Association Michelle  won with her eye / globe design and Amy Winson was runner up with her quatrefoil design.

Both girls won a cash prize as well as a logo design book and are going on to study a Graphic Design degree at University.
Elaine from the organisation presented them with their prizes at college on Friday.

Huddersfield Uni Visit

It was great to see Huddersfield Uni tutors from the Art dept today - John from the Graphic Design dept talked to students about the 3 degree courses in Graphic Design, Graphics & Animation ; & Animation design . John talked about graduates , portfolios, placements & opportunities.

Inspiring stuff ! And we got an invite to workshops & taster days at Huddersfield .

Here is a link to the book that John recommended that you all read.

Recommended Book

Google-doodles

Jack Beech in A2 Graphics has produced 2 mini-animations as i-dents for Google as part of his A2 work on minimalism & logo design - have a look here , great work ! 

Results news

Congratulations on all the results in art - & in graphics this year . Good Luck to all students who are off to pastures new at University & those who have already begun work or an apprencticeship . If you are still looking , check out clearing at Unis & keep an eye out on out twitter as we always try to post opportunities that are useful.

Special mentions to A2s Callan, Jessica & Josh (amongst other successes) with A*s & As & -
to AS students Simon, Abu-Bakr, Mo, Sam, Amy & Leah for A grades.

The AS results were a little surprising as the Grade Boundaries have been moved by Eduqas & other exam boards . We had been given grade boundaries of :
A 80 B 70 C 60 D 50 E 40
The 2016 grade boundaries have now been set at :
A 87 B 77 C 67 D 57 E 48

Staff will look at marks & grades fully with students in the new term - remember that no marks from AS go towards A'level so its a clean slate if you didn't do as well as you'd hoped.
Finally, please continue to have a good break & look at the work given to you over the holiday (don't leave it til last minute !!).
Please email us if you have queries - see you in September.

Huddersfield Uni event

A2 students - applied to Huddesrfield Uni ? Why not pop to see their latest exhibition ? 

The Design process plus CHECKLISTS -updated versions!

This next week , the AS students are continuing with the design process. Having started initial ideas & layouts , we will be looking at further experiments & media - pushing & exploring skills. The design process (as shown in the image) is a cyclical one - one "round" of creativity & experimentation should propel you to the next.

The A2 students will be concluding the Research phase & moving swiftly on to the design & create stage by the end of this week.

Click the links below to find the updated checklists - update yours in your sketchbook please !

A2 Unit 4 checklist

AS Checklist

New worksheet on how to evaluate your practical work

That spring feeling....

It could have been the sudden sunshine that filled the studio today but there is some excellent exploration work happening in the Graphics department just now - with A2 students enthusiastically researching the new ideas for the Unit 4. Students have been marbling paper, screenprinting & trapping items in waxed teabags in the pursuit of a direction for the Art exam themes. Ellisa has been creating stunning intricate  paper cuts (& yes, she cut these by hand !!) whilst Josh has been looking at the theme of "Encased" and using colour psychology to convey emotions. Josh filled 5 pots with coloured inks that represented anxiety, anger, joy, truth & serenity. The large vase represented the dominant emotion. Thought provoking & beautiful. 

Jess's mood board of initial ideas for Unit 4

Class of 2015 - we salute you !

We couldn't be prouder of our Class of 2015 A2 students who achieved wonderful results again this year for Graphic Design. Joe Casey, Liam Rogers, Charlotte Kearney & Karolina Gliwa all gained A* grades in Graphics with Jessie May Roberts, Dimitris Solomou, & Aidan Robinson all achieving A Grades. Well deserved. 

There were many students who achieved brilliant results & will now progress onto their choice of University degree or career path. Thanks for all your hard work folks - you have been a great year.

Not to be outdone, the grades followed a similar pattern of success with 100% pass rate on both AS & A2 graphics design courses - once again , with good numbers across As & B grades ! 

Congratulations to all students - on both class of 2015 & class of 2016 on a very impressive set of results. Have a Big Summer Blowout to celebrate ! 

A taste of things to come ...

Visitors to the Graphics department had a taste of the type of work they will be trying in September by taking part in a workshop based around abstract typography. Using photoshop skills, Year 10 & Year 11 students took a basic font style & manipulated it with colour, reflection tools & invert tools to create a pattern / branding for "Size?" shoe retailer. They then applied the design to shoe boxes with some great results. Well done all - here are a few examples produced on the day.