Authors - Tuesday Feedback

I came into the studio today feeling like I really needed to talk to someone about my work because I was feeling lost about which direction to go in and it was frustrating me to try and figure this out by myself without asking for anyone else's opinions. 

Chat with Georgie

Georgie and I swapped sketchbooks and had a mini 1-to-1 crit about out work so far. She brought up the fact that from my drawings so far, it is not clear that it is about murder mysteries. I take this on board and maybe I need to think more about sneaky and conniving undertones to convey this because I don't want my imagery to become obvious or cliche. She suggested to think about showing death, plotting, subtlety and secrecy more too. I think the idea of secrecy could be interesting to work with - maybe I could use my images of locks and keyholes as a starting point for this. 

Feedback from Ben

I spoke to Ben in the studio because I wanted to get as much feedback as possible about my work today so I could go away with a better idea of how to continue with the project. He said my ideas were good and the point where I started thinking more metaphorically about things is where my ideas really start to take shape. I am glad he said this because I was worried I was straying too far from the starting point but maybe this is what needs to be done to create innovative imagery and make something that hasn't been done before. 

His suggestions were to keep experimenting with media and continue drawing object alongside continuing with my metaphors so that at some point I might reach a moment where I want to combine them. I found this really helpful because it assured me that I wasn't going off topic because my ideas are still very relevant to Christie's themes, and they do make sense. 

Feedback from group crit

Self Evaluation

What do you think works well?

Metaphorical ideas. 

Thinking about how my images can be used for print. 

My extensive research. 

How will you capitalise on it?

Continue to think outside the box using metaphors and not be afraid of pushing my ideas a so far that they don't really make much sense anymore, I can always take a step back again.

Maybe research more into print processes and artwork to see if I can draw some more parallels between my sketchbook work and printed artwork.

I feel like my work so far is already well informed from what I have read and seen but I need to make sure I continue to research alongside my development work because it may keep giving me new ideas.

What do you think could be improved?

I think I could research more into animals and how their traits can link to human characters in Christie's books. 

My media experimentation could be improved by moving out of my sketchbook onto loose sheets so that I am not restricted by the quality of paper in my sketchbook. 

How will you benefit from this?

It will improve my character design work which is something I usually struggle with and therefore try to avoid. 

Experimenting with different media can lead my work into new directions, working on larger sheets will also make me consider scale better as my prints won't be as small as the work in my sketchbook. 

What would you do differently next time?

Not focus on drawing objects directly from the story for so long. 

What would you achieve from this?

It would have given me more time to spend on my well thought out ideas and develop these. 

What have you learnt by responding to this brief and why is it important?

Thinking metaphorically is the key to moving away from generic imagery. This is important because you can't make obvious and cliche work all the time because it doesn't make you stand out - people want inventive and interesting ideas. 

Draw, draw and keep drawing even if it seems like you're not going anywhere with it. This is important because at the time it may seem useless and a waste of time I may reach a point later in the project where I can look back and think that a little sketch is actually really useful. 

What have you gained from the peer feedback session?

I feel like I not have a direction to go in with this, its not yet a narrow pathway because I am still keeping things open but I know I am on the right track. My peers in the crit have given me things to think about that I probably hadn't considered in enough depth, for example, colour psychology, how my work can be used in animation and that I need to think about the scale of my work more.