Visual Narratives 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?
The main skills I have learnt during this module are related to Photoshop as I had never really used this before and it ended up playing a vital role in the production of the imagery for my final book in studio brief three. I also used a Wacom tablet to speed up my work pace on Photoshop. I intend to use Photoshop to enhance my work in many future projects and maybe at some point experiment with a wholly digital piece. Screen-printing is also a new experience for me as I have only ever done this with stencils before. Learning about exposing screens and the level of detail that can be screen-printed made me realise that this is a really valuable method of producing a lot of work very quickly. Making the picture book pushed my skills of drawing with gouache, as I had never really used this medium in such an expressive way before. Book binding has also been a new thing I would like to try more of, I enjoy working with a needle and thread so I think I would find learning about other book binding techniques using thread quite interesting. I have also learnt how to use InDesign, I now know how to set up a document with or without facing pages, add a bleed and slug area and use margins and guides.
2. Which approaches to research have you found most valuable during this module. How have you interrogated your research to identify appropriate ideas?
I had never really appreciated the value of research straight from the source before. In studio brief one, I found it quite challenging to get into the mind set of getting information from my surroundings but once I got into it, I really started to see how these observations could inform my work. I used to get caught up with taking photographs on location and drawing from reference later on but there is a lot to be said for drawing on location and recording a whole experience and not just visuals. I felt my first research day of the tell an untold story brief was quite frustrating as I had a lot of information but no clear direction but looking back at this now, I can see how my sketches from Café Nero have informed my images in my final picture book. My methods for selecting which ideas were appropriate to take forward were simply whether I found the topic interesting or not. At one point I had a lot of ideas but nothing that particularly excited me - I knew this was a long project so I wanted something I could get really stuck into and would enjoy learning more about. A lot of my research ended up being from online sources due to the topic of my book being based in India. Watching short documentaries and news clips have been my main source of reference imagery – I prefer this to just using found images because seeing movement makes it one step closer to seeing it with your own eyes.
3. What strengths can you identify within your submission and how have you capitalised on these?
I think I have done well with evoking emotion in my imagery in studio brief three. I think I have been expressive with ink and gouache and my feedback from the final critique shows that people had an emotional response to my book, which I was very pleased about. I think my composition skills have improved during this brief as well. I have tried very hard to keep pushing my compositions because I see this as a weakness of mine. Working within the frame and storyboarding ideas has proved invaluable to pushing my ideas for composition and the use of Photoshop has also played a large part in this too. I also think I have done well in getting across a clear message purely through the use of image because, to me, this is what illustration is about. I slightly regret adding text to my final picture book because I feel it takes away from the power of the image but in fairness, by the time the reader reaches the text, they will have seen the sequence of images anyway and hopefully understood the concept from them.
4. What areas for further development can you identify within your submission and how will you address these in the future?
There is still a lot of room for learning new digital skills and efficient ways of doing things on Photoshop. I feel I took the long way round with a lot of my functions on Photoshop in studio brief three because I am not aware of what all the tools do – I feel this may be why the production of my images took a lot more time than expected. I also need to learn more about type and which fonts are appropriate for different contexts and purposes. Although I don’t think the type used on my picture book was massively out of place, there are probably some which would be more appropriate.
5. How effectively are you making decisions about the development of your work? What informs these decisions? What problems have you identified and how have you solved them? In the one week book project, decision making was quick because we were working to a tight deadline and because it was a group project, we could discuss options and decide on a plan of action effectively. However, decision making was difficult for me in studio brief two purely because of the breadth of research I had with no clear direction to go in. It probably took me longer than it should have to come up with a plan of action for my picture book. In studio brief three I had similar issues with my media experiments and being quite indecisive on which direction to go in. Group critiques, tutorials and one to one chats with tutors have informed my decisions a lot and this is why I find them so useful. It gives me a chance to see an outsider’s view of my project and makes me realise aspects that I am often neglecting. Most of the problems I have faced in this final brief have been technology based which I have solved by asking my peers and tutors for advice and tips on how to do things.
6. How effectively have you managed this project and organised yourself during this module? I have tried to stay organised with these projects by writing to do lists every studio day for studio briefs two and three. I have also tried to plan my time outside of the studio as effectively as possible, often working into the night to stay on top of my workload. I think I have done well I organising each of my days but in future I need to work on organising the full length of the project by breaking it up into small chunks. If I had done this for studio brief three, I would have had more time to create my final images and they probably would have been of a better standard.
7.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					
Punctuality					x
Motivation				x
Commitment					x
Quantity of work produced				x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group			x

Picture Book - Final Crit Feedback and Evaluation

Final Book

Feedback

This crit was open to more than just first year illustration student so it was good to get some valuable feedback from a wider range of people who haven't seen any of my other work. 

Response

I am really pleased with my feedback and the only comment I got which suggested change was that I could have chosen a different font for the back cover. I do agree with this and I think type is something I need to work on in the future, such as learning which fonts are appropriate for different contexts and tones of voice. The words 'moving', 'emotional', 'eye-opening' and 'hard hitting' all show that my images have been effective in evoking an emotion within people and making them think about something that may not have considered before, in my eyes this makes my book a success. Most of the comments about the aesthetics of the book were about my use of analogue media which I am pleased to hear because although I feel like I have battled a lot with Photoshop with this brief, I didn't want the outcome to look wholly digital. The comments about my brushwork and ink line drawings make me happy that this is still the dominant thing that shows through in my work. 

Evaluation 

One major breakthrough I have had during this project is that I have learned how to use Photoshop. Aside from workshops we have had, I have never used Photoshop before and I was quite scared when I realised this book had to be produced digitally. I decided to set myself the challenge of learning some digital skills and I am so glad I did because I feel it will be a great benefit to me in future projects. Also, using the Wacom tablet makes controlling a brush a whole lot easier. I feel I have been exhaustive with experimenting with media such as pencil, graphite sticks, ink, gouache, collage, tea, pens, etc. I think moving away from the realistic drawing style using pencils was a pivotal point in my project where I started to focus more of evoking emotions within people through my images. If it wasn't for my ink and gouache drawings at this stage I don't think I would have produced emotional images like the ones I have now. 

An improvement I could have made in this project is my ability to make effective decisions quickly. Although I was still working towards my final imagery, I spent a lot of time playing around with different options on photoshop and not being able to decide which brightness looks best, which colour screen to use or which brush would work best. Towards the end of the project I started to rely on Photoshop more and more for thinking up new compositions and manipulating my drawings. I realised that I need to go into Photoshop with a clear idea of what I want to come out of it with, this way I can be more efficient with time and not get too distracted with other possibilities when I am trying to work to a deadline. 

Picture Book - Front and back covers and using InDesign

Front and Back Covers

I want the front and back covers to be simple and subtle, using colours and simple imagery used throughout the book.

Experimenting with original ink drawing (top left) and addition of a title. I didn't want the title to give away the underlying theme of the book which may sound strange but I want people to start reading this as if it is a typical book about how people love drinking tea and then they begin to realise the reality behind it. 

 I think the back cover can be more factual. I was very wary of including text because I know this is meant to be a picture book so the images are meant to do the talking. However, by this point the reader will have already seen the images inside the book and if there is any confusion over what they have just seen, the back page clarifies this for them as a final punch of information. 

I am not very good with choosing typefaces so I chose one which I felt was appropriate for factual information and would get the point across effectively with no nonsense decoration.

InDesign

All of my Photoshop files were made to the correct size including the bleed which made arranging everything on InDesign very simple. All of my pages required a bleed so I made them 203mm wide and 146mm high to accommodate a 3mm bleed on the top and bottom and a 3mm on one side edge. 

Problem: I wanted the cover of my book to be printed on thicker paper than all the inner pages as I felt this would make the book look and feel more professional. 

Problem Solving: After speaking to some of my peers who had already been to print their book, I realised I needed to separate my book onto two different InDesign files so that they could be printed on different paper. I had to create a four page document with facing pages which is where i placed my cover designs and my end pages - these would be printed on one A3 sheet. The other 12 pages of my book will be printed from another document. 

Binding 

I had never bound a book before but after watching the demonstration using three holes, I went online to search how to bind with more holes. Now I have learned the basics of this I understand that this will work with any odd number of holes. I used embroidery thread for my bind and matched the colour to the off white tea pot on the cover. Unfortunately, where I have folded the cover, the ink has parted and you can see the white paper showing through but I think the binding disguises this quite well. 

Picture Book - Pages 10 and 11

Page 11

Problem: A had a problem with creating the shadow of the girl because it needed to be on the floor as well as on the wall. 
Problem Solving: To solve this I made two copies of the silhouette, cropped them both so one was for the wall and one for the floor and then used the free transform function to stretch the bottom one to make it look like the shadow changes angle when it meets the wall. Im not sure this has been entirely effective but it looks more believable than what I had previously. I think in general I need to learn more about shadow and where it should be cast in an image - especially on faces. 

I thought the grey wall in the distance was too light for an image which needed to be dark and intense to make people question what goes on in such dark surroundings. The image also looked strange with the lightest colours in the background when they would usually be darker if they are further away. I learnt how to use the patch tool and used this to copy the texture of the brushstrokes on the man to the wall. This was a useful tool that I am sure I will find use for in the future. 

Adding colours, shading and textures onto the decorative door frame - I used this as a symbol of a wealthy household. 

Page 10

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I was going to show an exchange of money and selling a human being. I really struggled with this concept and in the end decided to move away from showing a real life situation. To emphasise how traffickers see humans as products, I wanted to capture the idea of literally handing over a girl to a buyer. 

Reference imagery: photographs of my hands and images from internet of money. 

I also researched clothing for wealthy indian men to influence what the sleeve looked like. I added rings as another symbol of wealth.

All of these drawings were done separately and then arranged on photoshop. I needed an image of a girl falling - I wanted her to look quite distressed but also totally weak and out of control of the situation.

Reference imagery used for the girl falling from one hand to another. 

I decided to keep the figure totally white to match the lack of colour in the image on the opposite page. I feel it highlights the main focus of both pages effectively. I also shows how washed out and drained these girls must be and suggests a lack of identity. 

I am really happy with this image, I am glad I waited to the end to do this image because it has allowed me to use my Photoshop skills to the best of my ability. I personal think it is powerful and clearly gets across the point of human trafficking but I will wait for my feedback from the crit on Friday to decide whether it has actually been successful. 

Picture Book - Pages 8 and 6

Page 8

Composition experiments using ink drawings from my sketchbook.

I decided on this one because it has the oat information in. I feel that the more information I include in the image, the more chaotic and busy it will look, this will show what the streets of Delhi are like.

Original scan

Arranged composition

The focal point of the image needed to be the girl to keep the narrative going. I used the same colour for her as I did for the city - if these two components are both highlighted I am hoping the large scale of the city will contrast more with how small she is and how overwhelmed she must be by it all.  

I love how busy this image is, this is exactly what I wanted to get across. I think I could have made the city look more run down and scary - I think this style resembles the Leeds cityscape in the cafe window too much and there should have been more of a contrast. 

Page 6

Problem: I had already considered the composition for this page to a great extent in my sketchbook using cut out components and photographing them. I decided after all this that there was just too much going on in the frame and it was very difficult to look at and engage with. I needed to simplify it down. 

I decided to test my photoshop skills here and merge two of my gouache paintings (blue paint). I used the head (and stick and bag) from one which I was happy with to replace the head of another drawing which was out of proportion. I think this shows how I have improve my photoshop skills because I would not have been able to do something like this before. 

Problem Solving: I cut down on the amount of people in the frame and removed images of people actually picking tea to focus more on the other aspect of their working life. I added a subtle suggestion of a track which the people are walking on while doing their work and children are standing at the side of it. I am still not happy with the composition, the bundle the woman is carrying is to central and distracting. I moved her down and enlarged her as if she is the closest to the viewer which would explain why she is the most noticeable. I finally added colour, pattern and texture to keep the image balanced.

I think the reason I struggled so much with this image was because it wasn't showing a particular action or conveying a certain idea. I wanted this image to show what life in the Assam region of India entails but in future I need to set myself more specific targets to stay on track and produce a more purposeful image.