PPP- end of module evaluation

PPP- end of module evaluation

I’ve never been good at analysing illustrator work and applying it to my own practice which is what this module is teaching me.  I’ve started keeping a blog this year which was new to me. After finding it new and easy to forget at first, I now see it as a visual diary to be updated frequently. My blog shows how my work have developed over the past academic year and how it’s been influenced by the works of other illustrators. This module has taught me about all the different areas of illustration there is and has made me question for my illustrative style lies in the future. My biggest improvement as a result of this module is my huge improvement in organisation and time management. This has reduced the amount of work and stress near deadlines and has left me happier with the quality and quantity of my work.

It’s safe to say that this module has been the one I’ve struggled with the most this year. Not only do I find to difficult to analysis illustrations and apply it to my own practice, I’ve also noticed that I’ve neglected this module. Because personal and professional practice is the module that runs alongside a number of smaller modules, it was easy to neglect and forget about it, therefore resulting in me falling behind. There is also a lack of documentation for this module.  I’ve neglected blogging many of the briefs and lectures for the module. Disappointedly, I don’t feel I’ve fallen madly in love with many illustrators work this year. There’s been a few such as Olivier Kugler and Lucinda Rogers that have influence my developing line quality but nothing really has a huge impact on my work. This may be due to my lack of visits to the library and exhibitions, which I expect to change from now on. Through this module I have learnt to apply a more analytical range of vocabulary to my own work and others to an extent, but it’s just not a strong point of mine and something to work on next year.

I’m happy with my final resolution for studio brief 2 (the practical task). I feel like the overall finished piece is visually strong.  However I feel it would have been stronger if it was informed by a larger body of research and a clear concept. This could be due to my choice of interest at the start of the brief and I couldn’t something interesting to say about ‘skiing’. I’m also so pleased with how my PPP presentation went. Presentations are something I’m not at all confident in because I get so nervous and tend to mumble.  After a disappointing CoP presentation only weeks before, I was surprised with the positive feedback I received for my PPP one. My feedback was encouraging and has left me feeling slightly more positive about future presentations and talking in front of people.  It was interesting to look back on what I’ve taken from the year and I’m happy with my progress.  I’m particularly happy with how my line work has developed and how I’ve improved with combinbing analogue and digital process to my work.

I need to start pushing myself with experimenting with media and expanding my practice. I don’t do enough drawing for fun so drawing for fun I need to start producing my own work beyond uni and development my tone of voice further. I’m hoping I’ll find my illustrators that influence my work during the summer and next year and apply it to my practice. This will be achieved by me making more of an effort to find illustrators and go to libraries and exhibitions.

5 things to work on:

·         Be playful and experiment with different media

·         Research- look at more illustrators and whatever else interests me

·         Keep up to date with my PPP blog

·         Continue drawing- draw for fun

·         I need to improve on analysing work

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.

Visual Language 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?

Throughout this module have development many different practices. The skills I have learnt and developed have been applied to not just my visual language module but also my other modules. This module has forced me to work with media that I wouldn’t usual choose, such as collage and camera. When started a brief I’ve learnt that there’s a lot more to consider that I used to. Not only the shape, texture and line, but also the composition. I now think about how my illustrations can have a strong composition, colour and line of sight. These are things that I have always considered in the past but now that I know the importance of thumb-nailing, it’s become a lot more important. By considering the frame, composition, line of sight and depth it can change o dictate the effect of an illustration. I applied what I learnt to my visual communications brief when designing my city postcards.

As well as this, this module has made me think more about the medium I use an why I use them. Different tools can create different textures, or even moods. For example, black ink would work well to create a feeling of sadness.

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 the principles I have found most valuable during this module is the idea of shape, composition, depth and line of sight. I’ve been employing this by doing extensive thumbnails or different compositions before choosing a favourite. This is now something I naturally do for any project I am given. During this course I have been given different set frames to work with so thumb nailing and composition is important to think about.

As well as this I enjoyed looking in t the use of line quality, particularly thickness of line. In the past I’ve used fineliners which are very thin. Not only has been line quality become quite lose and fluid but I’ve learnt that going back in to the drawing with a thicker line and applying it to just a few areas and bring out the image and tone. I’ve employed this in to the work in my other modules such as visual narrative. Also, I took what I’d learnt from the use of shape and collage in to visual narrative by making textured strawberries out of simple shapes.

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

I think my strengths lie in my exploration of line and the quality and value I got from using different types and sizes of pens. Although what I made was very simple, I think my work looking in to shape was successful. By simplifying it I made something that I found quite hard to actually show a lot of information. For example: the shapes of the girl in the pool. I’d of liked to look further in to colour because I enjoyed the last task and I’m really happy with what I came up with.

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

I think I need to develop on my use of medium and move on from just using fineliners. I’ve started playing with a brush pen which I don’t feel like I have as much control when using it but it has a lovely loose effect. I was stubborn and stuck to what I knew in case what I produced didn’t look good. However visual language was all about playing ad learning with how to make images. I will address this by simply having fun with different mediums, by telling myself that I’m not allowed to use a fineliner.  I also struggled with the shape and texture tasks. I’ve never really considerate these in the past and isn’t my usually way of drawing. The best way to address this is to practice and it’ll become a natural thing to consider.

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

Since starting this module I now know there is a lot to consider before making an image. I now appreciate what goes in to making an illustration and can see this in other illustrators work. I now see that people don’t just make pretty pictures but a well-considered illustration that took time and planning. I had never noticed how certain compositions work, for example line of sight but now without even think about it, I’m analysing artwork and putting what I’ve learnt in to my own work.

                                                                        

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.

Context of practice evaluation

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

During this module I have developed my research and analytical skills and have improved my knowledge of semiotics. I have taken this knowledge and understanding and have applied it to both studio brief 1 and 2. I have used my research skills and applied what I’d written in my essay to inform a practical piece that communicates my own understanding and ideas.

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

I have developed my photoshop skills; for example I was able create a dotted line using the brush tool and effects. I’m becoming a lot my comfortable with using photoshop and I really like the effect of combing my line work and digital work. This has become a common use of media in my practice, which I will continue to use in future projects. The representation of women was something that had been explored before and a subject that seemed popular in the class, therefore I found it challenging to come up with an original take on the subject.

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

My strengths definitely lie in the practical side of the brief. Once the initial research was over I really started to enjoy the drawing and making side of the module. I illustrated something I think is fun and creative yet communicate my view on the equality of women. Although I thought my presentation wasn’t very strong, and I feel that the vocal communication of my ideas wasn’t very effective due to nerves, I took the feedback my peers gave and applied it to the development of my work.

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

I feel my essay writing skills as a whole could be improved. I struggled to put my thoughts in to words and communicate my ides effectively. I addressed this problem by continuously revisiting my essay and attending study support sessions at the college. I also struggled with research. When researching for studio brief 2 I found myself lost in too much information and I didn’t know which path to go down regarding the point that I was trying to communicate.

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

- apply more of my time to research and treat is as an on-going task throughout the whole of my brief. This will inform my work and hopefully improve it.

- When writing future essays, attend study support sessions from the start of the brief to better my writing skills

- be more exhaustive with my drawing. I think I think of an idea and jump straight to designing the final outcome but I should play around with drawing and media first.

- Blog little and often. By continuously blogging I will keep my work organised and up to date, which will avoid rushing or panic at the end.

- Test the use of different media and line qualities. I’m very comfortable with pens and photoshop but would perhaps like to extend my practice further.

                                                                                                                         

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

Visual Communications Evaluation

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

The biggest skill I’ve learnt during this brief is how to use Adobe Illustrator. I only learnt a few things to start me off but I’m glad I know some basic things in order to produce some nice pieces of work that I’m proud of. I think was very valuable, not only for studio brief 2 and 3 but my practice in general. At first I struggled with it and I know what I produced was only using simple shapes but by applying what I’ve learnt about composition, I designed a set of visually strong postcards. I was so happy with what I produced in studio brief 2 that I took the skills id learnt in to studio brief 3 also.

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

I think working to different scales in studio brief 3 has been valuable to my practice. I had to think of what media and quality of line would work in particular sizes, especially the A2 poster. When working on the poster I found the line quality was very important in order for a good quality print so I tried working in a brush pen. This is something I haven’t used in a long time but I was really happy with the results. As well as this, I found adobe illustrator a useful method because I now know that when making a vector based image you can scale either up and down as much as you like and there’s no loss to the quality. This proved useful when making my stamps in studio brief 3.

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

I think that one of my strength is that I’ve become a lot more organised than I used to be and I think this comes through in my blog. I have also better at keeping my blog more up to date. This module has pushed me to use method of work that I would usually avoid, such as photography in the first brief then illustrator and even the use of ink and a different pen. This is something I still need to work on as I’m not going to grow as an illustrator I refuse to use anything other than a fineliner.

I also think in studio brief 2 my work has improved in terms of composition. This is something I learnt in visual language and is now forever in my mind as something to consider when making illustrations.

Additionally, I think my use of colour has greatly improved during the last two briefs. I’ve learnt that use of colour is very important and I think my use of colour in studio brief 2 worked really well. Sticking to a set colour scheme in studio brief 3 also worked well to produce a professional finish to the set.

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

Weaknesses in my work have come from my lack of enthusiasm for the briefs. This was particularly apparent in studio brief one. We struggled as a group because we had to rely on eachother but people were constantly ill. I don’t feel our final outcomes were successful in the end due to lack of commitment and enthusiasm. In the future I’ve just got to make sure I do my bit and but all my effort in to it.

I also went through a stage during studio brief 3 were I wasn’t happy with any ideas I was coming up with and I hit a wall. In the end I did overcome it and I’m now happy with what I produced. I think in the future the key to this is just to keep drawing and also I think looking at other work for inspiration can spark up an idea.

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

- spend a bit more time of research to give myself a strong starting point.

- try use different media and line qualities to suit particular briefs

- stick to a colour scheme because it worked really well in this module and it makes a big impact.

- Thumbnail and draw more because it’ll improve my drawing and the development of my ideas

- blog little and often. It’ll show my development process clearly and it’ll keep me organised.

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