Hi guys! It is Niina and you are watching Fairychamber Channel.
I got a video request
from one of my viewers to make a video how to apply abroad
to study art into an art school.
I moved from Finland to Britain to study art about
three years ago into the university.
This video is of course from my perspective
but maybe it can help those of you
who are planning to
move abroad to
study.
Application process it varies depending on the
country and the art school/ college / university.
In the UK they'v got their own application system
which you can find when you google British art universities.
You will make a list of all the universities that you are interested.
(My Finnish is rusty).
I was originally planning to move to Scotland.
I had three Scottish unis on my list and
this Welsh uni where
I currently study.
For the application I had to write little introduction of myself.
One A4 sized paper.
Not a difficult task. Of course I had to write it in English.
I had to write there stuff like: who am I
where am I from, what are my artistic interests,
and plans for the future.
Each university that I applied asked for baccalaureate
which felt really silly to me
because
I graduated from high school
about 12 years ago.
I had to change all the Finnish degrees
into British degrees.
I think I just checked the British degrees from Wikipedia
or somewhere and just changed them.
Baccalaureate it didn't really have any purpose
in the applying process because
when you apply into an art college
portfolio is the only thing
that matters and your introduction essay.
If you apply to study chemistry or biology
or history abroad I guess maybe then
your degrees on the baccalaureate
matter way more.
But it doesn't really matter when you are applying to art school.
Portfolio is the most important thing if you are applying into art school.
That what kind of portfolio you
need to make completely depends on the
area you wish to study.
Are you going to study illustration?
photography? fine arts?
painting? what you are going to study?
If you wish to go to study photography
fill your portfolio with photographs you'v taken.
If you are going to study
illustration
add illustrations to your portfolio. Do you want to study
children's book illustrations or graphic novels?
I applied to study children's book illustration so
into my portfolio I added illustrations about
children
because children's book illustrators need to draw and paint lots of children
and cute animals.
I also made some..
what is the word...
night time scenes.
day time scenes
and different kinds of backgrounds.
Different kinds of people.
People with lots of variety in the skin colors, people from
different cultures.
Different looking children.
Kids who had eye glasses, kids who had blonde hair,
kids who had dark hair, kids who had curly hair. All kinds of
children.
I'd recommend to plan your portfolio that way
that it speaks to the
person who is going to browse through it.
People who are going to browse your portfolio online.
Your (possibly) future teachers.
Your portfolio needs to
be related to the area you
wish to study.
There was also a third task where one had to
pick illustrations from illustrators that one admired.
I think I put some illustrations from
Mauri Kunnas
and Ilon Wiklund
from Tove Jansson.
I think there was something from Mary Blair as well.
Niina's all time top illustrators!
I also received
invitations to come and visit these art schools.
I should have paid trips myself..
well I always have to pay the trips myself.
But then I was thinking what if I don't get in
does it makes any sense to go and visit these schools
and back then I
was still working full-time
and there was only certain times I could have traveled.
There was also a possibility
if teachers were uncertain
are we going to take this person to study here or not
there was a possibility to have a Skype interview
but so it happened that the Welsh school where I had applied
just few weeks after
the deadline
I got a message
that I had been approved
and I straight away approved
this approval (lol).
Then I moved during the following autumn
into Wales and here I am...still.
Definitely there are lots of art students in Finland
who apply abroad to study.
I definitely support this
because
in Finland the
situation of the art colleges is not particularly good.
In Helsinki Aalto university is probably only one
that's on the solid ground.
They closed down the art college in
Kankaanpaa and
art college in Tampere in Tredu few years ago.
They are just being shut down.
Finnish society in general isn't particularly
encouraging what it comes
to art or creativity
politics included.
Which is very sad.
Then in different countries and in different part of Europe
in some countries there is more
and in some countries there is less appreciation
towards artists and
art schools.
It depends a lot from the country
and the culture.
Still couple years ago Britain
was number one country for Finnish students
to study abroad but now thanks to Brexit
it is not
even on the list anymore.
It has gone down like this. ..
It is also good to think about how will you pay
for your studies abroad.
I can tell you that in Finland students get student allowance for studies.
System has changed a bit.
I don't know how it effects to the students in Finland.
But if you study as a Finn abroad
you still get student allowance and you get
all mighty 20 euros extra each month!
Which
is not a lot.
Considering the fact that UK is an expensive country.
Depends a lot where you are living.
North Wales is way cheaper compared to London.
But it is the same
if you compare Helsinki
to other Finnish cities. It is always more expensive.
In Finland of course we don't have any kinds of school fees.
Though many still need to take student loan.
Depends on the school of course.
In Britain
there are school fees.
But that was not always the case. 30 years ago
there was no school fees.
After conservatives started to
rule in politics there has been
school fees. Now they are
rising with Brexit.
There are less and less foreign students coming because nobody wants to live in a country where there is so much racism.
That will lead for higher fees
for the British students.
This school where I study Glyndwr university
is very good.
Apparently
this art course I am in
it is one of the few courses in the world where you can
study children's book illustration full-time.
If you definitely know that you want to study
children's book illustration or comics
this is a very good school for that.
But it is good to think how you are going to financially manage
and how will you manage in this
disturbing political atmosphere.
For me it is very valuable that
I study in international environment.
In my class
there are Finns (that's me), Brits,
some of them are Welsh-English,
some are Irish-English,
some are Welsh, then
there are Bulgarians, Chinese.
Then there is one Finnish-Chinese
and at the moment we have two
exchange students from the Netherlands.
We have very small class. It's about 10 people.
It is really nice when you constantly hear
different languages and different accents
and there
are also different nationalities among teachers so it
is very creative place to be.
In my first year I had lots of problems with housing.
First I lived in school dorms for a while.
Then I moved into a friend's place. Then another friend's place.
I'v lived about year and half in this current place
(and I love it).
Housing system in Britain
is quite strange
compared to Finland
because in Britain you need to renew your rental agreement between 6 months.
When in Finland you do that once a year.
You need to fill huge amount
of papers here.
This many papers
every time when you change apartment, when you change your phone system,
Last time when I got myself a
wi-fi I think I had to fill and sign like
20 different papers.
Bureaucracy in this country
is something insane compared to Finland.
Finland is very bureaucratic country as well but in
Finland everything is done digitally.
Here it completely depends
who you are
dealing with.
You have to fill tons of papers
if you want to live in the UK even for few years.
Definitely good sides are that you will meet new people
you will learn to speak language(s) better.
Biggest difference I'v noticed
between Finnish and British art schools
when I made
art in Finland
when back in Finland I studied to become
visual artesan (many years ago)
often I felt that I just could make all the mandatory stuff
and I get through
and that's it. But here they pay way more
attention to the sketch books, all the artistic stuff you do on your free time
sometimes even more that what you are doing in the school
because
I study illustration and
most illustrators work as freelancers
for different publishing houses.
When I study to become an illustrator
I need to have lots of self-discipline.
We are expected to draw and paint constantly
and to do something creative constantly.
But I have also noticed that
if I compare my current artworks to the ones I
made three years ago. New ones are million times better because
I'v had to practice my technical skills
so much.
I hope you liked this video and it helps some of you
who think about studying abroad.
I have a feeling that after I graduate I don't go to any
schools for few decades but one should never
say never.
Thank you for watching. Remember to give this video a thumbs up
if you liked it.
Subscribe to my channel if you wish to hear more about art, studying art and
making art
I will see you soon )O( Bye bye
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