module evaluations. .

VISUAL SKILLS

Module evaluation.

In the past 8 weeks that I’ve spent studying Illustration, my mind has been opened not only to its concepts and the way it works but also to the power and effects it can have. Initially I thought that it was simply about making a pretty picture that either went onto a product or alongside a piece of text. However I’ve now learnt that these images can say more and have more power in relation to their context when you take into consideration elements such as the media used, the scale and format of the image and the subject or content of the image. I think my naivety to the subject was particularly evident when I approached the ‘Initials brief’. I brainstormed ideas at first and gathered that the person whose initials I was illustrating was into things like Disney, Bob Marley, cleaning and was a generally fun and easy going person, and so my initial idea was to simply draw her initials in plain type and to have Disney characters incorporated into this. However I soon realised that the simplistic way I wanted to draw the characters and to just only have the characters only said how Alice likes Disney and nothing more about her character. It was only in the later stages of development that I realised I needed to incorporate more elements of her character. I eventually ended up with drawing a Disney character wearing a Rasta hat and using a hoover. Although the image was an improvement on what I initially intended I feel like my development of my final image and concept suffered because I spent too long getting to grips with how I needed to fulfil the brief; I feel like my final image could have been stronger if I had spent more time brainstorming different ideas, developing it and experimenting with media.

This is something I took on with my second brief on ‘editorial illustration’. Here I spent much more time figuring out and brainstorming ideas which I feel is evident in the quantity of development work I produced. I also feel like I spent more time experimenting with different medias as well as making a conscious effort to use a style that was more impactful in the context of the piece. This style was out of my comfort zone, however I feel that it benefitted the image much more than how I would normally draw something and so I feel like I’ve learnt and benefitted from stepping out of my comfort zone. Nevertheless I still feel like the quality of my final resolution suffered because of my developmental planning; I still believe that it could have been much better if I hate spent more time in experimenting and developing my final idea. In the case of this project I think the final resolution would have been better if I had spent more time in experimenting with the method of stencilling and also with the format and scales of the final images.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the past brief on illustrating a quote. Although it was nice to have no constraints and limitations, I found myself taking into consideration things like the content of the images as well as the media, size and application of colour much more than before. I spent much more time experimenting with the colour, media and format of my final images which I think has helped give much better results. Although I still think the final resolutions could be improved, I prefect them to previous brief resolutions and I have also learnt that the process in producing these illustrations could be endless and it is about  exploring them as much as possible. 

VISUAL NARRATIVES

MODULE EVALUATION FOR OUIL405

This brief has been a challenge, however I feel that I’ve learnt a lot from it which I can apply to other future briefs. The newest challenge that came with this brief was the research part and actually sourcing information that would inform my work not only in its content but for my processes as well. I feel that I took this challenge on well and that I went about my research thoroughly with looking through books, websites and youtube videos and going out into my surroundings to see how that would inform me. However I also feel that I could have recorded this research in a more visual way sometimes by doing more observational drawing from life or by taking more photos. Despite this, I’ve found that the research has helped my image making skills because I knew more about the subject and so I could therefor pick and choose what I wanted to amplify in my work. For example I want to tell the life cycle (story) of a tuna fish and this informed how I went for a perhaps more childish process and feel to it.

I feel that the format is one of my stronger points in this brief. With the project being a book I felt that you could be quite restricted with how you delivered your images and I wanted a format that would enhance them and help engage with the reader. I worked hard on trying to achieve the perfect format by doing drawings and prototypes until I finally achieved a format which I felt helped enhance the flow and narrative of my book as well as to grab peoples attention. Conversely I think this could have been even more successful if the images themselves were more successful. I feel like I could have experimented a lot more with my image making and media experimentation in this project rather than spending so much time on the research. This not only applies to my experimentation with other medias, but actually also to my chosen media, collage. I feel like I could have experimented with creating different textures with paint onto the paper and well as using other papers and different ways of cutting the paper. I think if I had time to do this I could of perhaps achieved a cleaner and more assured and sophisticated result. When it comes to future briefs I will now know how to go about my research a lot quicker and so I will be able to focus much more on the artwork; something which I feel is now much more important.  Despite this I am particularly pleased that I decided to go for a process of image making which is entirely out of my comfort zone. It has made me look at image making in a different light and is also something that I would like to develop on and refine more in the future.

Overall I think that I have learnt a lot from this project and gained a lot; the skills and aims that I will take away from it include how it is important to be constantly experimenting and grafting with the artwork, how much research can inform your work and how documenting the processes and research of you work is incredibly important to its development.

VISUAL LANGUAGE

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?         Throughout this module I have learnt and developed many different practices and methodologies, from          different aesthetics and applications of illustration, to how it is formed. This include different approaches         to forming line, applying and using shape and collage through different mediums. It also includes how to go about the composition, line of sight, depth and frame of an illustration. I feel that the latter methodologies have been highly influential to my practice as I can now see how the composition or depth or the frame of a picture can completely change or dictate its overall effect or the atmosphere it creates. I have put this into practise with my own work by doing little thumbnail sketches. Sometimes doing this completely changes my intentions for a piece or the initial atmosphere I wanted to create. Furthermore This module has made me think much more about what media’s I use and why I use them. For example, exploring different tools has made me much more aware of how different medias can create different textures, or suit different audiences better. However the practice I have taken on most with my own work is the idea of shape. I have learnt that an image can be just as communicative and effective if it is made up with just shape and no line. I applied this idea in my visual narratives module when making my book up of paper cut out illustrations. Overall I think the practices and methodologies I have employed the most in this module are the concept of shape in an illustration and also the different compositions of an image.

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? The principles I have found most valuable in this module have been the idea of shape in an image and also the different ways of composing an image. I have been employing the idea of composition into my practice by     continuously doing thumbnails and scamps to see which work best and how different compositions can create a different effect or atmosphere. I think this has been effective for two reasons ; 1, It has now become a natural step in my own practise, and 2, because I feel that the latter illustration I have done in the module convey much more of an atmosphere and have much more depth and tell a narrative better. The concept of using shape in an image has been really effective in my practise in the way it has opened my preferences up to a whole different tone of voice in illustration. It has also been effective because I now look at my approach to illustration in a different way. In particular in my visual narratives module where I used paper cut outs and collage as my choice of practice. 3. What strengths can you identify within your Visual Language submission you capitalise on these? I think my strengths lie with my exploration or line, shape and collage. In my exploration of line I exhaustively explored how different lines and mark making can create different textures and patterns, something which I have began to employ in my own practise. I also exhaustively played with the practice of shape through collage. I did this by playing with different inks or paints on paper and applying different textures through different tools like a stippling brush, the end of a pen and big decorators brushes to see what textures I could achieve. From this you can also say that I have exhaustively practised the concept of texture in illustration and that that is also one of my strengths. 4. What areas for development can you identify within your Visual Language submission and how will you address these in the future? I think my main area of development is my use of colour. This is something I have struggled with in this module , in particular in the last task. I have struggled with the idea of using a restricted colour palette and also selecting which parts of an image need colour. I think that the best way to address this is to simply practice it and do many different tests so that I can find a colour palette that works best for that image. 5. In what way has this module informed how you deconstruct and analyse artwork (whether your own or that of contemporary practitioners)? From doing this module I now take much more into consideration before I start an image. I think about the atmosphere I want to create, or the key information I want to convey, or the audience of the image before I begin it. Taking these things into consideration effects the different compositions, choice of media or colour I use because I feel it has to be appropriate for the context of the image. For example, if I want an image to convey a narrative between two figures I have to consider the composition of the figures and how that can tell the narrative; do I put one more in the foreground because they are more significant? Furthermore I have to consider the colours to convey the mood or atmosphere between the two figure; if they are having a happy conversation then I should use happy colours, if they are arguing I should use darker more explosive colours. 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 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. Visual communications. .  1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them? During this module I have learnt how to use Adobe Illustrator, which I think was very valuable to my practise not only in studio brief 2 but also in my general practice. Using illustrator made me think about how to use shape in an image quite literally. Because I was so inexperience in Illustrator I decided to take the concept very literally and to make my images out of geometric shapes. I think this idea of shape and also the concept of taking illustration ‘beyond the page’ has definitely influence my COP brief where I decided to work in 3D to communicate an idea. From this I think I can happily say that through working in illustrator and through working collaboratively and beyond the page in ‘studio brief 1’ has definitely been employed in my practice beyond this module. 2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process? I think that working at the different scales in ‘Studio brief 3’ has definitely been valuable to my practise. I found myself considering the line quality and the thickness of line in my images much more because of the different scales. For example I knew I had to reduce the complexity and detail of the images for my stamps because they are so small and so therefor the line quality would become compressed and loose any value it had. In contrast I found myself continuously trying to thicken up or intensify the line quality for the A2 poster because it is much bigger. Furthermore I think it has been really valuable learning how to use Adobe illustrator because I now know that when making a vector based image I can scale it up and down as much as I want and the quality will remain the same. I also think that the concept of ‘thinking beyond the page’ in ‘studio brief 1’ has also become useful and employed in my practise because its making me start to think about how I can communicate an image or an idea beyond the page. For example the 3D work I am doing in my COP module. I also find myself suggesting more outlandish formats or concepts to other people for their own work. For example I suggested to someone the other day about blowing up their poster and putting on the side of a building. 3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? I think most of my strengths from this module have come from ‘Studio brief 3’. I think that my choice of the graphic line drawing is relevant to the era of Hitchcock. I also think I have managed to capture Hitchcock well and his characteristics, particularly in the postcards. This is something which I felt was important to this brief not only because he is a famous person and so he should be easily identified by the viewer, but also because he is so famous for his personality, in particular for his attitude towards his leading actresses and for his imposing, stubborn and awkward nature.  I think I capitalised on this by focusing so much on the portrait of him in the majority of my work. I also think I have used colour well in the final brief. This is something which I initially struggled with quite a lot until I did some research into film posters and book covers of the era and gave myself a set of colours to stick to. I think in doing this I made the set of images look much more like a set as well as much more professional than they previously were. I think in future briefs I will give myself a colour scheme to stick to much earlier because I think it made a really good impact on my final resolutions. 4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? I think a lot of my weaknesses came in the first brief. I had no experience in graphic design and making a GIF and so I didn’t think I could contribute to the practical side of the project. However I thought that I had good ideas and good organisational skills that were very useful when working collaboratively in a group. However, because I was reticent about making myself a group leader or about being bossy I held back quite a lot when pushing for Ideas that would have worked much better that the one we went for in the end. If I work collaboratively in the future, I think I will explore an idea further first so that I can pitch it and push it further much more and have the confidence to do that. In both studio brief 2 and 3 I think I struggled a lot with the colour. I found it very  difficult to decided which colours worked best together and were appropriate for the image, something which I think let my final resolutions down quite a lot initially. However I think this drastically improved after I did some more research for ‘studio brief 3’ and was very strict with myself when setting a colour scheme. I think this something that will improve over time and I will definitely employ and address in future briefs. In ‘studio brief 3’ I struggled a lot with my poster and ended up doing it several times. I think I struggled so much because I didn’t actually no exactly what my Intent was for it. I think to address this in the future I will make more thumbnails and brainstorming before hand 5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? Next time I will -Research and the stick to a colour scheme much more because I think that the colours you chose have a huge impact on an image. - Start considering formats and concepts that go beyond the page. In doing this I think that the concepts and messages behind some work could have a greater impact. -       Thumbnail more and make it clear what my intentions are for a piece before starting on the final thing. In doing this I think the process of making an image will be easier and faster. -       Do much more research into the aesthetics and visuals as well as the context before beginning to make the final images. -       Use illustrator as a starting point when having to make a large scale image because the quality wont change no matter how big you make 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. COP evaluation . . . . . . .             ........................................................ NAME COP EVALUATION. . 1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them? In the practical side of this module I have developed my practise into something beyond my comfort zone. I usually produce images using fineliners in various different lines and mark-making processes. However I managed to translate and develop this into 3D. By doing this I had to start to think about the use of texture and mark-making in a different sense. I think that doing this brief has been beneficial to my own practise because it made me start to think about image making beyond the usual page format; it also made me think about how I could translate my image making beyond the practise of illustration. I was particularly inspired by the animator Matt Saunders for this module; Saunders works in cut paper to make dynamic and narrative animations and in approaching this module in a 3D perspective I can now see how I could tell a story and evoke an opinion in something beyond a still image. Because this 3D practise was new to me I was quite tentative and unsure about how to go about it and so I think I wasn’t as imaginative and creative with the modules as I could have been if I had thrown myself into it much more. Therefor I think the images I have created aren’t as thought provoking as I would have liked but I am still happy with them. 2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process? In order to translate my usual process of image making into something 3D I had to focus on texture and a more diagrammatic image in the process building up to making the models. I really enjoyed this , especially the focus on texture and patterns I did to try and create the effect of the mismatched woods on the Hoovervilles. I think this practise has been great for my process of image making because its made me think much more about a loser line and mark making in my images. However I think I really fell down in the final thumbnailing of the images. I knew what I wanted each image to say, but I don’t think I was rigorous enough with the thumbnailling and figuring out of the composition for those images before putting them into the 3D format. 3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? I think my work for this piece is strong because I focused on trying to take the little houses from just being houses to the Hoovervilles. I did this my trying to coincide my own process of making the Hoovervilles with how they were actually made during the great depression. During the great depression they were made using any scraps of metal or wood that the people could find. I translated this into my own work by using the scraps of recycled paper and card I had around and the remnants of making the earlier house practices and sticking them down to bigger pieces of paper which I them made the nets out of. I think that doing this process helped me understand the key elements of Illustration which are important which is research and understanding and an opinion. I think that my research helped me to inform the Hoovervilles and try and make them different from just typical paper houses. 4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? I think that my main weakness in the practical side of this project was my lack of compositional thumbnailing. I think by not doing this so rigorously was the reason I struggled when it came to taking the final photos for the project. I think that if I did more thumbnailing then my images could have been much more enhanced and therefor the meaning would be more enhanced. I also think that my other weakness in this project was the lack of process experimentation with the houses. I could have tried making them out of more materials and processes to see what effects could be created. I think that doing this could have resulted in a different outcome which may have enhanced the research and meaning behind the project. 5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? - More compositional thubnailing to try and create more drama/atmosphere to the piece. - More material and process experimentation. -Thinking beyond the typical format of a page for an image and try to put it into context to perhaps enhance its purpose or the research behind the piece. -more testing of the final process before making the image. I struggled when it came to photographing the final images because I hadn’t put it into much practise beforehand -more research on illustrators who have experimented in my chosen process. 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.