Higher Art and Design

Higher Art and Design

The Higher course award consists of three components: Design, Expressive, and Art and Design Studies.

Design

The aim of the design programme is to further develop creativity and paper engineering approaches while responding to a design brief. The Higher Design process aims to challenge learners and provide them with innovative problem-solving skills. These skills will include planning and writing a coherent personalised design brief for an appropriate target market, using ICT to develop research and communicating ideas and sources of inspiration concisely. Learners will develop design vocabulary to improve their portfolio, experimenting and exploring problems through a wide range of drawing and constructions.  Learners will carry out sampling and model making, producing a high quality three-dimensional final resolution and using a wide variety of materials and techniques. A final design portfolio along with an evaluation will be submitted to the SQA for marking and is marked out of 100. 

Expressive

The aim of the expressive programme is to build on learners’ previous observational and practical skills, enabling them to document the world that they live in. The Higher expressive course is designed to ensure that pupils develop from prior learning in terms of subject content, practical skills, individual research approaches and development processes. Learners select and resource a personal theme, which allows them to visually communicate their own individual interests and ideas. The structure of the expressive course aims to teach learners a variety of skills such as various drawing, painting, mixed media and printmaking techniques. Pupils will experiment with composition, colour mixing and scale using the visual elements to produce a high-quality final portfolio that will be submitted to the SQA for marking and marked out of 100. 

Expressive Art and Design Studies (Critical)

Students study the work of one influential artist/movement and answer an SQA question paper to test their knowledge of the topic under exam conditions.

The students will also study the work of one influential designer/movement and answer an SQA question paper to test their knowledge of the topic under exam conditions.

Candidates will sit an exam that is marked out of 60 and is worth 23% of their overall Art and Design course.