OUIL402 End of module self evaluation

1.  What learning have you inherited through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied it? Consider differing approaches to contextual/professional research
I think I have inherited more of a sense of my taste in illustration throughout this module through, not only the tasks that have been set for us to go off and find a set amount of images, but through trying to remember to post regularly to my PPP blog practitioners who I find interesting/inspiring. I think research into the professional world of illustration is better left as a natural process in which you get lost looking at various sources of information and pick out what is relevant to you. That’s why I found it hard to complete some of the tasks in which we were forced to find really specific areas of illustration. I was able to be more reflective when left to myself to find and post illustrations I was into.
2. What approaches to image making have you developed during this module and what informed such ways of working?
I have really developed my ability to work on one sustained drawing for a period of time. My final resolution was the result of several hours of intricate work that I surprisingly did not find as tedious to complete as I thought I would. I went back to using purely line with my brush pen for the first time in a long time which I think was informed by a reflection on my year as a whole and wanting to see how far my drawing skills had developed since the beginning; this process was probably the best way to go about it. I also think the vector Soul Skate poster is a good example of my developed skill in using vector and shape to create image. The fact that I was also able to incorporate line in the drawing is a huge plus for me. This was definitely informed by some of the shape-based artists I have looked at over the module.
3. What strengths can you identify in your practice and how have/will you capitalise on these in the future?
I think that I have shown a real strength in willingness to develop my work – after compiling work for my slides in the PPP presentation, I realized just how varied some of my work was for the year and all the different processes I had taken to making it. I feel like I can capitalize on this in second year by taking the processes, which I feel, have worked really well or I have enjoyed doing and develop them and make them a bigger or my integral part of my practice. I also feel like I’ve become really good at informing my practice through research, a skill which I developed well in the COP module.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your practice and how will you address these in the future?
I think that I still have a lot to learn in terms of composing illustrations and scenes. A lot of my work this year has not really had much composition to it, and when it has, it’s been quite weak. I think I can address this in future by spending more time studying composition and producing thumbnails. I also need to be more confident in diving in and making more composed illustrated scenes as I currently find the task quite daunting.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
·      I think maybe I will try and produce a series of posters as I think the two posters I produced (Soul Skate and Theo Parrish) are both really strong on their own, but have left me thinking that they would work so well in a set. ·      When initially designing the image I will try and make sure that it fits to the format that it will be printed at – this will mean that I won’t have to awkwardly find a way to box my design within the poster as I had to for the Theo Parrish piece. ·      I think maybe I might try and exploit the zine idea further. I have been saying to myself all year that I want to make a zine, and while I did make a small one this module, it could’ve worked in a set quite nicely.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation					x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group		x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

OUIL401 End of Module Self Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I think that I have most effectively developed an ability to interrogate a subject and figure out how I can best illustrate it through investigation of its themes. I think this is most evident quite early on in the topic where I was able to evolve my subject matter logically through research and creatively through visual play. I was made aware of this when delivering my Pecha kucha and my feedback suggested that I was going in a good direction by starting broad at the subject of May 1968, and then narrowing it down continuously into something more specific such as de Gaulle, but still giving myself room to play with the idea and inspire myself to go further. I think that the evolution of incorporating today’s struggles into my work and the approach I took to developing and creating the final resolutions in my own way and manner is a testament to that.

2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?

I think one of the most important moments in my development of this brief was when I decided to use collage. Since at the beginning we were told to simply “make images” using whatever means we could, I took that as an opportunity to be open with any and all methods of image making this year had introduced us to. Though the collage was very self-contained and appeared only once, the crazy and messy aesthetic that came with it was very powerful in my opinion and really inspired the direction I wanted to take – focusing on the tumultuous nature of the era. I didn’t think that one media experiment would be so influential to my work, especially in terms of concept rather than process.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think my investigation of media early on in the project was very good and worth doing again for future projects as it can really help inform the direction of my work. I also think that my screen prints turned out well, both fulfilling my own personal quality standard, and also attracting praise from my peers which had been encouraging. I would basically like to be able to be as thorough with all projects as I was with this one. I will keep in mind my developmental process for this project in future when working.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I think that I had a hard time getting my illustrations to be truly applied. I designed them early on with a poster in mind, but never really put them up on walls. By the end of the project I forgot about making a piece of work that really worked as a poster and ended up not being able to apply it anywhere, which is what all the work of the 60s that I’ve looked at this module was made for. I think in future I really need to keep in my mind how my illustration will work in a wider context and how I can get it out there in the world.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

·       I will not slack off during the Easter break as much as I did – this seriously stunted the amount of work I was able to produce, and seeing how enjoyable I found this project, I’m disappointed in myself. ·      I will try and make my final resolutions be more communicative/true to original intent. This will give my work much more impact and versatility ·      I will try and prep my artwork to be screen printed more in advance – I exposed my screen and made all my prints very last minute, which was quite stressful. If I had given myself more time at the end, I might be able to make some last minute evaluative decisions to improve the artwork.

OUIL406 End of module self evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I think what I have taken the most out of this module was the discipline of working to very specific formats and through specific methods. This was most evident in studio brief 3 in which we had to produce three different sets and I feel that each of my outcomes worked in their specific format quite well, although the small scale of the stamps is still something that stumped me, with such small scales definitely being harder to design for. Although I already knew the basics of Illustrator coming into this module, I have definitely developed my skills in using it – being more efficient with my use of its tools and making image through shape which I hope will influence some of my other work done through other means. In the group project I made a club leaflet with Illustrator as well out of both line and shape. This was more in vein with how I traditionally work, but the experience was good nonetheless and the leaflet came out well.

2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?

In the cities postcard brief, knowing that I would be using Illustrator, and that I wanted to make image through shape, I found myself working in my sketchbook with sharpie markers and making coloured shape blocks with them, so that I could get a better idea of the process with which the final outcomes would be made and how I could potentially construct them when it came to it. I think with studio brief 3 I also developed an ability to think about how I could re-appropriate imagery I’ve already created for different formats – Each set shares something with another – either the Alice character portraits, the backgrounds, or the sketchy pencil texture. This re-appropriation of elements could be an interesting skill to develop and good time-saver.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think the variation of approaches to my creation of work this module is a strength. I’ve developed a lot of skills across a breadth of media this module, which makes me feel confident that I could capitalize on these new skills in the future. I think I used shape intelligently for the post cards brief. This has made me more eager to incorporate it into my other work, which is a sentiment I felt by the end of visual language as well. I think this is an area that I really need to devote time into exploring and experimenting with in my image making process.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I think the weakest things I have produced this module were the stamps for the final brief. I think a key thing I need to work on is just try and be a bit more open-ended with what I produce; perhaps I relied too much on my re-appropriation of other elements because I didn’t want to spend more time developing separate images for the stamps. Maybe I should have done a bit more research into interesting types of stamps .

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

·      Each project probably could have used more research in order to better inform how each outcome was composed – i.e. stamps ·      When working in a group project, put more consideration into the subject matter and how well we can collectively respond to it in a group. This will speed things along much more nicely and make decision making easier both individually and as a group. ·      I will invest more time in going back and improving things done early on in the module that could use tweaking – The first post card I made of the Louvre is much weaker than the rest. If I had left myself time at the end to fix it, the set would be a lot nicer. ·      I will not try and create a traditionally drawn look digitally like I did with my SB3 poster. Drawing all the little lines to create tone must’ve taken well over 8 hours and was not fun. I only just realized how much easier and quicker it would’ve been to draw it out in A4 and scan at a higher resolution as I have done for COP more recently.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation				x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group			x

OUIL404 End of Module Self Evaluation

1.  Which practical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice?

In terms of expanding my image making process, I think that looking at shape in depth has been great. I am most comfortable and adept at using line to make images, so this introduced a whole new way to work. I am now a lot more interested in using shape to build images, but also really want to find a way to incorporate it with my line work. I have done so a little bit with one of my iguana images, which features a wash of brusho with minimal line work for definition. I think this sort of simple application has a lot of potential I could tap into. 

2. Which principles/ theories of image making have you found most valuable during this module and how effectively do you think you are employing these within your own practice?

I think in general, this module has been great for improving raw drawing skill. Most importantly I have developed my skills in creating illustrations as opposed to simple drawings – this is in terms of composing and finishing a drawn image. These skills are feeding into the work I produce in my other modules and also personal image making. I feel like I am able to formalize my image making much better than before and even find the extended process of making illustrations enjoyable.

3. What strengths can you identify within your Visual Language submission you capitalise on these?

Looking through studio brief 1 and 2, I’ve noticed that there is a very clear improvement in my ability to compose images. In studio brief 2, all my images are composed and what I would consider illustration, as opposed to studio brief 1 in which hardly any of the images have context. I feel like my thumbnailing and ability to produce roughs in preparation of a final piece is strong. I think in the last two pieces, the headless man and flying car, I nailed line of sight pretty well. I really want to continue developing this skill through reading more Loomis.

4. What areas for development can you identify within your Visual Language submission and how will you address these in the future?

My blog is very black and white in terms of colour. I don’t feel like I do enough colour tests/experimentation. Also I should probably try and use more kinds of media. I think it was good that I completed the flying car completely with watercolour as opposed to going digital and that I used dip pen for the drawing part of the headless man.

I think I need to develop traditional practices to drawing and usage of traditional media rather than relying on digital colouring/drawing techniques. I definitely need to step away from using fine liners and my brush pen. Also I always feel that my general drawing skill can be improved. I still have yet to study Loomis’ “Figure drawing for all it’s worth”.

5. In what way has this module informed how you deconstruct and analyse artwork (whether your own or that of contemporary practitioners)?

I now tend to look at an image and think about it in terms of whether it uses shape or line primarily, or a combination of both. When I find such images, I find it easier to pick out what I like about it, what inspires me and how I can potentially apply it to my own practice.

I also try to consciously identify a line of sight and pick apart what it is that gives the image that direction. After having drawn an image myself, I often try to identify where I have used such methodologies myself and how successful I have been. Sometimes I try to come back to an image a while after having done it and see what sort of impact it has after I’ve forgotten about all the conscious decisions I made while drawing it. I think this has given me a much more objective view on my work, making it easier to evaluate and improve upon. 

STUDIO BRIEF 3 - Creative Strategy 1 - Presentation

My journey in discovering shape based illustration and a recommendation to buy Daler-Rowney Ebony Sketchbooks

Final resolution

Slightly modified from one of the posters in the previous post - Barbican word mark and text now align.

• Pleased how this turned out - I think I exhausted a lot of possible type layouts and came to a good one at the end
• Little disappointed I had to box the design like that at first, but now I actually think it works, thanks to type layout. Actual drawing has me pretty pleased too.
• Working to the Barbican's type layouts really helped to achieve solid typography - being restricted to certain fonts with certain weights and sizes was an interesting challenge. This project ended up being more graphic design-oriented than I predicted it would.
• Not sure whether it communicated the spirit of Theo's music but at least it's not a cliched DJ gig poster
• Happy that I got it printed glossy as opposed to matte, definitely makes it look more poster-like.

More "Barbican"-y

After looking at the updated Barbican guidelines:

 

Requires for Barbican word mark to be vertical, reading bottom to top, at either half screen size, two thirds, or one quarter. I have chosen two thirds size. The guidelines specifically said not to try and re-create the type yourself with Futura, so I e-mailed the barbican design team and was sent an .eps file of the type to put on the poster:

Type layout tests - I think the way the lines going straight up end is awkward. Wouldn't be possible to fix without redrawing a large chunk of the background though.

Playing with the boxed image again with Barbican guidelines:

I think it makes for a much more uniform composition and layout - the proportions of the boxed image don't seem to cause as much trouble as before. The layout also seems to work pretty well with the Barbican word mark. I think one of these last 4 could potentially be my final resolution