National 4 Art & Design

The Purpose of the Course:

The National 4 Art & Design course aims to offer a comprehensive and hands-on experience of Art & Design. The course places a strong emphasis on nurturing creativity in its students. Candidates learn about different artists and designers and their work, which gives them a better understanding of Expressive and Design processes. They also learn and apply various related skills. The course provides a platform for candidates to explore their creative potential and push their limits through their work.

Course Overview:

The course consists of 24 SCQF credit points. The notional length of time for candidates to complete the course is 160 hours of teacher contact time and an additional expected self-study of 80 hours notional over the full academic session.

Expressive Portfolio:

• Candidates produce a portfolio of work based on a theme of their choice. For example, Still Life, Portraiture, and Landscape. 

• This Unit helps learners to develop an understanding of the factors that influence and inspire artists’ work. They will also consider how artists use art materials, techniques and/or technology in their work. Learners will research and develop their personal thoughts and ideas in 2D and/or 3D formats in response to given stimuli. They will produce observational drawings and studies and develop their expressive ideas and compositions by experimenting with and using art materials, techniques and/or technology in creative and expressive ways.

• This work is sent to the SQA at the end of the year

Design Portfolio:

• Candidates produce a portfolio of work based around graphic design. This is also a theme/ genre of their choice.

• This Unit helps learners to plan, research and develop creative design ideas in response to a given brief. Learners will develop their creativity and problem-solving skills as they consider the design opportunities, issues and constraints of the brief. They will develop their understanding of designers’ working practices and the factors that inspire and influence their work. They will also experiment with and develop media handling skills when producing their design ideas in 2D and/or 3D formats. 

• This work is sent to the SQA at the end of the year.

Assessment of work:

• All work is ongoing internally assessed at Ellon Academy for National 4. They will be assessed on a pass/fail basis within centres.