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Overview
The Drawing Year is a full scholarship postgraduate-level course offering up to thirty students the opportunity to focus on drawing from observation for one year. There are no tuition fees for The Drawing Year – all students are awarded a full scholarship and receive a free studio space.
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Structure
Courses at the Royal Drawing School are divided into three main areas: Drawing in the Studio, Drawing from Art and Drawing London. The programme is full time and made up of three taught ten-week terms, and a final self-directed studio term culminating in an end of year show and open studios. As well as taught classes every week, students attend a Wednesday Core Programme day, evening forums and lectures, alongside personal studio practice days.
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Facilities
Our Shoreditch campus is located in a converted warehouse at the heart of East London’s art, design and fashion scene. There are two spacious, well-lit drawing studios on the top floor, a fully-equipped intaglio print studio, a reference art library, and a ground floor multipurpose studios and large exhibitions space. Individual studios for Drawing Year students are situated at Space Studios in Hackney, a short journey from the Royal Drawing School.
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Applications
Applicants for The Drawing Year will usually have completed a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art or a related subject, but this is not essential. Places are awarded based on portfolio and interview. Applicants are expected to show a strong portfolio of work demonstrating a commitment to drawing and a level of artistic professionalism appropriate for study at postgraduate level. Application deadline for The Drawing Year 2023-24 is 5 April 2023.
Faculty
Phoebe Barnicoat
"I discovered that obsessively drawing from life had provided me with new ways to draw from my imagination and I had expanded my drawing language, which I could then use in painting."
"Using the most limited of means, drawing offers some of the most demanding opportunities for growth to a contemporary artist, both visually and intellectually, allowing a free transition between mediums."
From the blog
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Oct. 24, 2022Three months in LA: alumna Beth Rodway reflects on her ESMoA residency experience
Drawing Year alumna Beth Rodway has just returned from a three month residency at El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA) in California. Here she describes her time there, and …
Aug. 25, 2022Jack McGarrity: The Denis Mahon Award 2022
Jack McGarrity is the 2021/22 recipient of the Sir Denis Mahon Award. Presented annually to an outgoing Drawing Year student, the award supports them in making new work and …
July 25, 2022The large-scale power of the mural
Murals are often a revolutionary act, a political statement, a public piece of street art that can be viewed and interpreted en-masse as people go about their everyday lives. …
June 8, 2022Drawing Year Alumnus Geraint Ross Evans: Artist-in-Residence at BBC Radio 6 Music Festival
Geraint Ross Evans is an alumnus of The Drawing Year and a tutor at the School on our public courses and Young Artists programme. Here he tells us about …