Drawing BA(Hons)

Working closely with your tutors, and alongside internationally recognised visiting artists, you'll take on a series of projects to develop drawing-specific skills and concepts within a range of contemporary arts contexts. You'll also have opportunities to show your work in the studios and engage with peers across all three years.

Modules

Observing Worlds

This module focuses on drawing as a way of observing and uncovering the world. Through workshops, studio practice and field trips, you’ll explore the structures of your immediate built environment and the related social and cultural histories. 

You’ll develop your observational and technical skills through individual and collaborative projects, considering approaches to still-life drawing, composition and the anatomy of humans and animals.  

Practice in Context 1

In this module, which is shared with the Fine Art course, you'll benefit from a wider pool of ideas, perspectives and creative disciplines. Through lectures and group discussions surrounding contemporary and historical art contexts, developments and debates, you'll develop a self-reflective approach to studio practice.

You'll also be introduced to academic writing and research conventions. Through this, you'll develop your own critical analysis skills and learn to communicate your ideas professionally and effectively.

Sensing Worlds

In this module, you’ll take projects from concept through to completion as you explore drawing as a means for idea development and communication. 

Tapping into the expertise of professional drawing practitioners, you’ll work collaboratively to design a 3D object, as well as utilising innovative storytelling approaches to develop a book-based project. Throughout this work, you’ll begin to establish processes and ideas to develop your individual drawing practice. 

Practice in Context 2

This is part two of the Practice in Context module, where you'll have access to expertise from across Falmouth School of Art. You'll be introduced to a range of themes and trends that have shaped contemporary artistic practices, such as socially engaged practices and recent philosophical shifts in the role and value of artistic production. You'll also engage with a greater range of academic source material and strategies for analysing, researching, and writing about art.

In the second year of your Drawing degree, you'll be introduced to various strategies for developing drawing as a process. You'll plan and conduct your own projects with support from tutors, developing the ability to self-direct and manage creative projects. You'll also have the opportunity to work on a live and collaborative project with Fine Art students.

Modules

World Building

You’ll explore the idea of using drawing for ideation, creation, critical thinking and problem solving. You’ll be introduced to various strategies for developing drawing as a process rather than simply an end product, applying and extending the scope of your technical skills.

Sustained Personal Enquiry 1

In this module, you'll develop a broader critical and contextual understanding of the uses and history of the drawing discipline. You'll undertake a theoretical and critical field of enquiry, exploring new research areas and evolving your studio practice. You'll also prepare, write and deliver a presentation to peers and staff, developing vital professional skills.

Testing Ground: Collaboration

Through the development of a public arts festival, you’ll learn the skills to promote and elevate your work. Planning, executing and evaluating your arts festival in collaboration with other students, this is your chance to showcase your current practice while getting practical experience of group curation. 

New Territories

This module focuses on developing your ability to self-direct and manage creative projects. You’ll plan and conduct your own project; presenting a pitch, developing it with support from tutors and considering the conditions and issues of presenting your work. Throughout the module, you’ll maintain a journal alongside your practical studio work.

Sustained Personal Enquiry 2

This module will support you in creating a Research Portfolio. You'll develop subject specific critical and contextual knowledge and hone your reading and writing skills by studying a range of research methodologies.

You can choose to take an optional professional placement after your second year on a three-year programme, or after your third year if you’re studying for a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year. 

You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the employability team. 

Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying. 

How you’ll study during your professional placement

You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a business or organisation. This can be in one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks. 

You’ll develop in-demand workplace skills, deepen your insight into industry and grow your network of contacts, all of which could help you get ahead in your career after graduation. 

Throughout this year, you’ll develop a portfolio of work that includes critical self-reflection on what has been learned from the experience. You’ll be required to evidence your experiences, the skills you’ve learned and your professional growth. 

The modules in your final year give you the opportunity to demonstrate originality, skills and professionalism in producing a distinctive body of work and showcasing your ideas. You'll work on a project reflecting and building on your personal discoveries and ambitions, complemented by your dissertation and supporting personal tutorials. You'll also work on a major negotiated project, which will culminate in a public exhibition.

Modules

Agencies & Audiences

This module is centred around the variety of professional applications connected to the discipline of drawing, with an emphasis on its transdisciplinary nature. You'll have the opportunity to lay out the professional context for your practice as an autonomous or applied practitioner and develop a research project in relation to this context.

Critical Worlding

Through challenge and exploration, this module will enable you to understand and mobilise research as integral to a drawing practice - culminating in a set of outputs distinctive to your own critical concerns. You'll develop strategies for knowledge generation through making and align your practice with one of three methodological pathways: Practical submission and critical essay, written submission, art writing submission.

Realisation

This module aims to consolidate your ability to be an independent critical thinker; ambitious, rigorous, and able to confidently synthesise and articulate your practice. At this stage, you'll need to harness all the skills, knowledge and attitudes you've acquired across three years of study. You'll continue to follow a clear line of enquiry in your practice and research, supporting practical excellence with creative and critical thinking related to a professional and theoretical context of your choice.

Public Platforms

In this module, you'll apply your professional skills to the curation, presentation and dissemination of your drawing practice in social, public and professional contexts. You'll create a distinctive body of work that will be staged in a public exhibition at the end of the academic year.  

Why study an Integrated Foundation Year route?

If you’re taking on a new subject that you haven’t studied in depth before, have been out of education for a while or have a non-standard educational background then an Integrated Foundation Year degree may be the right choice for you. It is a four-year degree with an Integrated Foundation Year to start, which allows you to explore the primary elements of your subject before progressing on to the remaining three years of the BA(Hons) degree.

What you'll learn

If you choose this pathway, you'll study five core modules in your Foundation year. These are all designed to help you explore the foundational elements of your subject. You'll gain relevant technical skills, learn to experiment and take risks, develop an understanding of professional practice, have opportunities to work across disciplines and collaborate with other students on live project briefs.

Modules

Explore

You'll begin your foundation year by working collaboratively with others to explore themes of the future. You'll take risks, experiment through play and be supported to break through barriers.

Technique

You'll take subject-specific workshops and develop essential technical and practical skills in your area of study. You'll also enhance your analytical and organisational abilities.

Apply

You'll work with your peer group to think beyond discipline by addressing a societal or global issue. You'll then showcase your work to your peers and deliver an accompanying evaluation of your process.

Industry

You'll enhance your creative and practical skills in your subject specialism by responding to typical industry briefs, underpinned by focused research and experiments. You'll also gain industry insights through guest lectures and workshops.

Launch

You'll develop your unique identity in your specialism through the production of a self-initiated body of work. Your final project will be the bridge to your next year, fully supported by evaluative reviews and critical analysis of the work you have created.

After the Foundation year, you progress into Year One of the full three-year degree, equipped with a deeper knowledge of your subject, a clear understanding of your strengths, and develop a practical and technical skillset and the confidence to excel in your chosen subject.

If you apply for and enrol onto a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year, you’ll have the option to switch onto a five-year version including a placement year. That means you’ll complete the first three years of your course before completing a placement in industry in your fourth year and returning to Falmouth for the fifth year of your programme. 

This studio-based Drawing degree brings together practical approaches, structured learning, dedicated tutor support, and opportunities for national and international placements, along with optional visits to museums, galleries and other artistic locations, and elective study trips to European museums and gallery collections. As you progress, you'll take greater ownership of your work through self-directed projects.

Our visiting lecture series has featured speakers like drawing commentator Deanna Petherbridge, artists Anita Taylor and Jessie Brennan, and illustrator Sue Coe.

At Falmouth, we use a 'digitally enhanced learning & teaching' approach. Your experience will always be predominantly in-person, including seminars, tutorials and studio teaching, with some, more targeted elements, being online either live (synchronous) or pre-recorded (asynchronous). You can read more here.

100% of your assessment will be coursework. 

Assessment methods

• Foundation year assessments are 100% coursework based
• Continuous monitoring
• Twice-yearly studio practice
• Written assignments
• Self-evaluation
• Final-year dissertation, project and exhibition