PPP EVALUATION

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL402 Personal & Professional Practice 1	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME

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 the main thing that I’ve learnt through this module is that it is really important to be researching and exploring the world of illustration all the time. Doing this has given me a much greater understanding of the subject and also driven me much more with my work because I have found illustrators who have really inspired me and therefor driven me a lot with it. I’ve also learnt through this module that it is important to be informing myself beyond the practise of illustration. This can by having experiences, going places and doing crazy things; or it can just be done through listening to different music, watching films and reading books exhaustively. Doing this can be just as beneficial as looking into other practitioners. However I also feel that it is important to filter everything that you take on because Ive felt quite overwhelmed at points during the year because Ive have informed myself of so many illustrators and processes. Doing this has led me to be quite experimental this year with my work, however I feel that It has almost been more beneficial to me to look at practitioners that will help me enhance the way I naturally draw rather than ones that completely change the way I draw. I think I have applied the concept of artist research well to my work but I do feel that I have maybe lost sight of the point of it sometimes when Ive become so interested in practitioners that work completely differently than how I do.
2.    What approaches to image making have you developed during this module and what informed such ways of working? I think the most beneficial part of this module was encouraging me to work and develop my digital skills. Ive come to realise that pretty much all illustrators have to put their work through some form of digital process to make their work look professional. Whether it be completely making a piece of work digitally, applying only the colour or just simply tidying up and enhancing their work. I think learning and reasearching this has helped me with my practise because Im able to be a bit bolder and different with how I use colour now. Working like this has also helped me to consider colour much more; something I rarely did before. However I now think about what colours to use much more and I also think about the relationships between colour, line and shape.
3. What strengths can you identify in your practice and how have/will you capitalise on these in the future?
I think my digital skills have improved massively and I aim to capitalise on them by just working with it much more and more exhaustively through adding colour to drawings or maybe trying out making a completely digital image. I also think that it has been to my benefit with how exhaustive I’ve been with looking at other artists and letting them inform my work ect. Doing the PPP module and also the blogging of it has also made me so much more critical with my work and I evaluate it much more and take things into consideration much more than I did previously like colour, line, composition. What weaknesses can you identify and how will you address them in the future? I think sometimes I have been too critical of my work and I think it has caused me to become quite low and demotivated by it, particularly in briefs Ive not enjoyed so much. I think this comes from all the evaluating skills I’ve gained from PPP and also with the constant artist research. However Ive learnt that I need to filter all the illustrators I look at and that just because I like their work, doesn’t meant I have to employ their processes into my practice. I also think Ive got quite confused at points with how to go about all the tasks in the module. Sometimes Ive not really been sure of what I am meant to be looking for and where I look for it. However whenever Ive felt unsure of this I just try and find illustrator I like or I just generally look at work and I document this instead. Through doing this I have been able to find the illustrators and practitioners which apply to the tasks that have been set. I also aim to improve on this in the future by exposing myself to the illustration world beyond the internet and go to more exhibitions and read more books.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
-       Research further than the internet -       -read more books and go to more exhibitions -       Not take on board the processes of every practitioner I look at; just because I like it doesn’t mean I have to work like that. -       Evaluate the illustrators much more as I go along -       Have more confidence with my own practise and be more bold with it.
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.

Final Presentation CREATIVE STRATEGY

In my presentation I wanted to tell the story of my year through the development of my practice and I thought that the best way to do that was to almost compare my first piece to my most recent and to show how Ive developed and changed between the two. I wanted to show what artists I looked at which influenced this development and also what I struggled with along the way. 

'TIED UP' film poster commision

I was asked to make a poster for a student feature film at Falmouth university. The film is a dark thriller so I wanted to convey this with the colours I used and therefor the atmosphere I created.

The Illustrated Self

To conclude out PPP module we were given a brief where we had to reflect upon the year and what we have achieved with the year including how we've developed as an illustrator, the things we have become interested in and the illustrator we have been looking at. 


We kicked this off by doing a map of understanding of what we were interested (contents and subjects) and also the formats and processes we were interested in. The aim of this was to generates as many ideas as possible. 

I generated alot of ideas from doing this exercise and there could have been alot that I would have followed up. However I chose to follow up an idea about my grans village in cornwall. I decided to explore all the secrets and little unknown things about the village that tourists and other people don't really know about it.

I know quite alot about the village myself but to do some further research I rang my gran and talked to her about it and she told me some things that only someone who has lived there their entire life and see's everthing thats going on would know about.

--Branching on from my research I decided to make a book about all the hidden secrets of the village. 

The hidden secrets include

- The secret beach (leck rock) just beyond the village and along the cliff path

-th lighthouse

-the seals coming in from the deep water

-the shell house

-the seagulls stealing ice creams

- the sea glass on the beach

-chaple pool

- fresh water and the watercress.

Illustrators I looked at.

Nicholas Jolly-

I really likw Nicholas Jollys work because of the texture he uses and the atmosphere he manages to create with that. I like the idea of the line work.

Liek Van der Vorst. . . 

Again, I really like the line quality and sense of texture in this work and is something i aim to carry on into my own work.

Owen Davey. . . 

This is something a bit different and I really like the sense of shape and texture in this. I have opened up alot more to shape this year and I think it could be a good thing to carry on into my final project.

Thumbnails.. . 

Thumbnailing is something I have struggled alot with this year so I decided to do lots of exhaustive thumbnailing of each page so that I could get more of a feel for the book and layout before going into its aesthetics. I wanted to get the compositions for each page sorted before going into the crafting of the book.

Exploring the aesthetics. . . 

I did some thumbnail ideas for aesthetic of the images inspired by the illustrators I looked at.

I really like the combination of the line quality with the watery textures and I think they are appropriate for the the voice I want for the book however I think it could be quite difficult to keep this consistent with all the images throughout the book. I want to find an aesthetic which will be appropriate for all the images.. . 

After having difficulties with the aesthics with the line quality I decided to do some more research on illustrators who have tackled this sort of thing before.

The most interesting thing I looked at was the old railway posters from the 50's. Most of these posters were hand painted but I really like the use of shape and colour in them and is definitely a starting point for my images. 

Looking at these images has been really inspiring and driving for this project. I love the use of colour and shape and the ocasional relationship between line and shape in some of the images. For the poster I looked at illustrator like Austin Cooper, Frank Mason, Tom Purvis , Frank Newbould and Gregory brown who were all practising illustrators for the british railways companies and newspapers during the 50's and 60's. I also looked at childrens book illustrator Margery Gill. I love her use of colour and shape in her images as well as the relationship between line and shape in these. 

Photoshop play. . . 

This is a first try image I did with trying to achieve this style I really like how it has come out but I think I can do some more exploration and work to sharpen it and also experiment further with the colours and the use of shape. At the moment I think the lines are too soft and fuzzy in some areas. I also think I can work on the colours 

To try and sharpen up the lines and to generally make the image cleaner I drew the image out again and then used the selection tool on photoshop to segment out all the tones and colours.

I think doing this has defnitely made the image look much cleaner and less fuzzy. Howeber I still think there are ways it can be sharpened and made better as an image. For example I think the colours could be worked on to make them sharper and more eye catching. 

Cropping it to just the window 

Overall I quite like this image and I think it is effective in its composition and selection (how I just want to show the windown but not the whole house. However I want to experiment with taking the block and shape application of the colour and mixing it with the line.

I want to do this because I dont want these images to simply mimick the old railway posters but to take on a voice of their own but to still evoke that era.

Font research. . 

Because my chosen format of my final images is either posters or postcards I thought I should do some research into what fonts would be appropriate. I really struggle with using font in my images and looking at the old railway posters has really helped and I thought this would be a good starting point again for the font research.

GILL SANS. . .

Futura. . .

Garamond. . 

PLAYING WITH THE LINE. . . 

I wanted to experiment with different line qualities. I didnt want the line quality to be too clean but at the same time I thought if it was too sketchy then it could be quite messy.


At the same as playing with the line quality I wanted to experiment with which areas should have line and which should have block colour   

With this image I wanted to see if it would be effective if the foreground was block colour outlined with a thick line.

After experimenting with the fineliner I wanted to see how the dip-pen and ink would work.

Overall I liked the effect of it but it was a little bit mess and I couldnt get the clarity of line quality I wanted in all the places.

After deciding on a line quality I wanted to further my experimentation with it as well as playing with the colour block. 

I really like the effect of it with these studies of women below. I think it would work best with strong and minimal colours.

I like the effect of this because I think the minimal and strong block colour emphasises the line quality without detering from it. 

After experimenting with different line qualitites view points and compositions I decided to play and further this idea. I want to use the fineliner over the dip pen and ink because , although the dip pen has a nice scratchy quality to it, I dont have as much control over it and I cand achieve some of the looser or finer lines.

First image attempt.

I started with this image, I didnt want to go overboard with the line work because I wanted to leave some space to add detail with another colour

When I was drawing the image out I then put it under a lightbox and did separate block outs of the different ares of colour and highlights. I then selepcted these on photoshop and used them to create the areas of colour. I wanted to do it like this rather than just applying the colour on photoshop because I still wanted an analogue quality to the image and not the thick and fuzzy lines that you can get in photoshop

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Overall I am quite pleased with this image and it is started to evoke what I wanted to achieve with the images. However there areas I think need improving with it. For example I think i need to neated the areas of white and make them less sketchy. i also need to play with the linework and see if i can intensify it in the foreground.

2nd Image attempt. . .

With this image I aimed to make the foreground much more intense. I did this by adding more detail to the shrubbery, making the flowers bigger and being more heavy handed with the linework.

This time when I was doing the block outs for the colours I decided to use a heavy black pen rather than the grey marker because the separation on the previous image was quite difficult and I had to use the lasso tool which mean I lost some of the analogue quality. I still want to retain this so I decided to use the black pen.

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Overall I am much more pleased with this image than the previous one. I think that the line work is better and the areas of white are much neater and consistent. However I still want to play around with the colours and also I want experiment with blocking out the colours much more than in this image so that they are almost blocked out rather than drawn in.

The context of a poster. . .

I took inspiration for these poster formats from when I looked at the old railway posters. I wanted to take inspiration from these poster in terms of their use of shape and colour in their images. However I wanted my own pieces to have their own tone of voice which is why I decided to incorporate the line. 

My favourite poster format is the far right one because it still evokes the era of the old railway posters but it also is a bit more contemporary. My least favourite format is the central one because I think that the border around the image makes it lose the nice continuity and flow from the clouds to the surrounding area.

BLOCKING THE AREAS OF WHITE OUT. . 

I actually much prefer the method of blocking out the aread of white because it gives much more solidity and neates up the image. I also prefer this because tit brings out the pink of the flowers much more.

light beam ???

I like the idea of the light beam in the image however I know if it sticks out too much image and ruins it?

FINISHED PRODUCT?

I am really please with this outcome, I really like the colours and the line quality. I think that the balance of white is goof and I really like the 

NEXT IMAGE.. . .

With the next image I wanted to keep with the line quality and the use of colours. I also wanted to keep the format of the long and thin frame.

COMPOSITION. . .

because I'm depicting the shell house I wanted to be quite exhaustive with the compositions because I knew I wanted to focus on the detail of the shells but in doing this I thought it would be quite difficult to show the whole house.

So all of my composition experimentation has been focused on cropping the house down to the essential information.

FINAL 2 COMPOSITIONS

I have really struggled with the compositions of this image so i narrowed it down to 2 which I want to play with. 

Since I am relying heavily on reference to make these images I decided to can in my 2 points of reference into photoshop to then play with where they will sit in the frame and how big they should be etc.

COMPOSITION 1. . 

I like this composition because I think its more reminiscent of the old railways posters I have been studying. I think it could also work well in terms of colours because I can include the large expanse of sky like in the previous image. 

           

COMPOSITION 2 . . .

I think this composition works well because it shows off what I think makes the shell house beautiful (the shells) which I don't think the previous composition does. I also like the idea of including a group of people in the bottom of the image, Like a crowd. I like this idea because that it what you see whenever you go past the shellhouse in peak season. 

FIRST IMAGE.. . 

With this image I really struggled with what I should include and how I could create a sense of depth with the image. I also struggled planning out where the colours would go and which parts I would block out etc. 

However I ddecided that the only way I was going to create some depth to the image was to intensify the detail in the steps to create the illusion of a foreground. I therefore wanted to include less detail in the background. 

I also though that doing this I would be able to segment the areas of colour easier.

Overall I am really pleased with the outcome of this image considering how much I struggled with the composition and then with creating depth.I like the difference in detail from the steps to the area behind but I think this would be better if there was maybe a bit more detail in the background. I also want to re-do the floor because I think it is a bit messy and although I dont want it to have as much depth as the house, I think it should still have some linework in it. I also want to play with the colours a bit more.

- I like the concept of the green and yellow because it is reminiscent of what the shell house looked in its original state.I also think it keeps the vibe of the old railway posters.. .

when I go back to the image I want to definitely see if I can work some of the pink in these images into my colour scheme. . 

I also think I will see what the image looks like with making the green a more playfull green rather than a grey/green.

SHELL HOUSE TRY 2 . . .

With this image I added some subtle changes that I hope would enhand the sense of depth to the image.

-I added more shading to the foreground (the steps ) 

-I added some really fine details with a fine pen into the background

- I added some slight texture into the empty space so that it wouldnt look like an empty forgotten space

- I added some slight linework into the foreground .

 

PLAYING WITH THE LEVELS OF COLOUR 

    

  

   

FINAL PRODUCT. . .

    

FINAL RESOLUTIONS. . 

Overall I am moderately pleased with the outcomes however I wasn't as pleased with them once they were printed because the colours didn't colours didn't come out as strong as I wanted them too and so I feel like the 60's style I was going for has been lost slightly.

The way I want to change and improve this for the exhibition is 

-I want to make the colours stronger and more saturated. 

-I want to print the final pieces on paper thats got much more of a texture and tooth to it, like watercolour paper.

-I also think I am going to change the font to 'Rockwell' just because I think that looks better and more of the era.

-I also want to work on maybe including some figures or a crowd into the shell house picture.

Despite all the changes I want to make I am really pleased with the outcomes of this project. Ive really enjoyed making some more personal work and also having more ownership over the brief. To make it even better for the exhibition I just need to be a bit more confident and bold with my choices.