1. What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively
do you think you have applied them?
I had never made a gif
before and animation was something I had never really considered trying so I
was pretty clueless when starting SB1, especially as I wasn't confident with
character design either. I learnt how to use Photoshop to make a gif and now
understand the importance of layers when doing so. In relation to this, I used
storyboarding a lot in this project which is something I don’t usually do. I
think I used storyboarding well, especially with the dog gif where I was trying
to work out the sequence, and all my ideas were clearly planned out before I
started working with them on Photoshop.
I really enjoyed the
monoprinting workshops as part of SB1. It was something I hadn't done for a
while so getting back into printmaking was good. I think I could have pushed
this more and been more experimental with my printmaking but it was good to
incorporate some new media into this brief by using my prints as textures
backgrounds.
I have got better at managing my own time,
especially because of the Easter break falling in the middle of the SB3 brief.
I took full advantage of this break to catch up on my blogging and plough on
with my development work for SB3 and I’m glad I organized myself effectively
during my time at home so I didn't feel like the break went to waste.
2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how
have they informed your concept development process?
I identify my research
in SB2 and SB3 as one of the key strengths of this module because it really
helped me to inform my work and create some strong, clear concepts for my
imagery. It was really interesting learning about different religions and the
jazz industry, I found myself discussing religion with my peers and listening
to jazz music while I was working which I was really happy about because it
meant I was really engrossed in the brief.
Continuing on from
this, I did visual research in the form of mark-making to music for SB3 which I
felt was really successful in taking research in a visual form and
incorporating it into my final images. I also found that during SB2, I was
learning about each religion through my drawings from reference, I realised
that I didn't actually read that much to get my information, most of what I
found out was through looking at images and drawing from them. I think this
proved successful because I didn't get too tied down by minor details, I just
wanted the image to be representational of the location.
I have learnt how to use Illustrator in the
workshops for SB2, I had used illustrator before very briefly but had never
really been taught the basic functions so it was good to get to grips with
these. I wasn't very confident to begin with, even after the workshops, but
battling with it in my own time and asking my peers for help meant that I was
learning new functions and by the end of the brief I was working a lot faster.
I kept my work for this brief simple because I knew my skills here were
limited. Deciding to stick to simple designs led me to using symmetry which I
figured was a really good tool for making all of my postcards work as a set and
making strong compositions throughout. I think this definitely worked in my
favour for this brief and I am starting to learn that there is no need to
overcomplicate things.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you
capitalise on these?
In SB3 I was doing my
ink drawings from reference without sketching them out first. I think this
helped me become less restricted in my drawing style and the drawings seemed
more instant and individual. Sometimes it took a few attempts to get a good
enough likeness but I am glad I did it this was rather than being too tied down
to my reference imagery. Towards the end of the project I did sketch out a few
outlines due to time constraints and I could tell the difference that these had
a better similarity to the reference image but not as much life and personality
in them.
I think I am getting
better at working looser in my sketchbook. I tried a different way of working
in SB2 because I thought I was getting too precious about my sketchbooks and I
thought I might work a bit looser on separate sheets of paper. In the later
stages of SB3 I really got into the brief and my sketchbook became a place for
me to play with ideas, scribble down my thought processes and not spend time on
making it look nice.
Leading on from this, I played around in my
sketchbook at the beginning of every one of these briefs. I wasn't working on
roughs or forming concepts, I was just drawing around a theme, almost like
researching visually. This then helped to spark ideas and inform my concept
development later on. A good example of this was my drawings of Ella
Fitzgerald’s hairstyles at the beginning of SB3 which I then developed as an idea
for my stamps. It is also clear in SB2 where I was drawing from reference but
then took some of these images and developed them into designs for vector
illustrations.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you
address these in the future?
Character design is a
weakness of mine and I think I could improve this by thinking more about what
personality I want my characters to have and then using this information to
inform my drawing.
During SB1 I decided to
move away from drawing and produce one my gifs using photography. I decided to
take the photographs for this at home in the evening but I hadn't considered
the lighting very well at all and because of the time of day I had to use
artificial light and this gave my photos a yellow/orange tinge. In the future I
will plan my time better to ensure that any photographs can be taken in natural
daylight or using the photography facilities at college. I became heavily
reliant on Photoshop to make my photos for the gif look acceptable which is
something I want to avoid in the future.
Colour is something
that I am still not very confident with, I know about colour schemes and I
learnt a lot from the colour theory lectures but I struggle to incorporate this
in my work. During this module I spent so much time getting the other aspects
of my images how I want them to be, I was always neglecting my colour choices
and leaving them to the last minute or just not considering them carefully
enough. I think I need to push myself out of my comfort zone and be more
adventurous with colour and maybe I will learn a few things, using Adobe Kuler
may help.
I think my media experimentation in SB3 was
lacking and this is something I need to push more, although my media choice of
ink, gouache and Photoshop achieved what I wanted them to achieve, I should
have tested some other combinations to see if I got get across the same meaning
more effectively.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what
do you expect to gain from doing these?
1. I will make sure my
roughs are at the point where I know exactly what I need to do on Photoshop
before I go on to use it. If I invest more time in my roughs and get better at
almost finalising an idea in rough form, I will be less inclined to design on
screen which is what I want to move away from. I found myself doing this is SB3
and had to take things back into my sketchbook to do more roughs to make things
clear in my head. When designing on Photoshop I seem to get distracted by all
the possibilities and focus less on the core principles of the image such as
composition.
2. I will take time to step back from my
workload, analyse the situation and my progress and identify my next steps. I
did this properly once in SB3 when I was analysing my research and deciding
what to do next and it helped me
get things straight in my head before moving on to the next stage. I am going
to try and do this at least twice per project in the future because I think it
will ensure that I am not overlooking certain ideas, keep me on track and help
with planning ahead effectively.
3. I will research other
practitioners’ work more. I don’t think I have done enough of this in this
module and I think it would be really helpful to continually draw parallels
between my work and other people’s work throughout my project rather than doing
a bulk of research into this at the beginning of the brief and sort of
forgetting about it as the project progresses. Becoming familiar with what is
topical and what other practitioners are doing will help my work to stay
current and may introduce me to some new ways of working.
4. When using illustrator,
I will not trace over photographs. Although the vast majority of my postcards
were drawn with pure shape or traced from my own drawings, I did trace a couple
of things from reference imagery found online (evidenced on my blog). I didn’t
like doing this because it felt like it wasn't really my work and I hadn't
invested my own craft into it so in future I will ensure that I draw things out
in my own style before using illustrator to give every aspect of my work a
personal stamp.
5. I will try to put more ‘character’ into my
character work. Character work is not my forte and I was aware of this before
starting SB1. I knew I was going to struggle with creating characters because I
haven’t really done it enough before to know how to tackle it. Although my gifs
turned out okay, I don’t think they are showing good character design because I
don’t feel like they have a personality. Aside from the anger of the pepper,
not much emotion is shown in my gifs and I think that’s something I need to
work on to make my character work more relatable and interesting.
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
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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Attendance
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X
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Punctuality
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X
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Motivation
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X
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Commitment
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X
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Quantity of work produced
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X
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Quality of work produced
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X
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Contribution to the group
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X
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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.
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