This module has definitely been a journey for me, I feel my work has become more conceptually driven and I have moved away from being literal and started to visually represent the intangible.
I informed an opinion on Agatha Christie very early on which stemmed from my prior knowledge of her work and my initial research. My opinion is very two sided because her stories are a pleasant read, however this relaxed vibe contrasts with the dark things actually taking place and the bad feeling between characters that lies below the surface. This idea is something I have carried through my whole project from the very first mark making task to my final prints.
Drawing around a theme is something I find useful when becoming familiar with a topic and I think I have produced a broad range of work. This began in my summer work and continued in my visual journal, it helps me to get all my obvious ideas out of my head and I can start to look past them and consider more sophisticated ideas and concepts. Merging these drawings with my research led to the development of strong, informed concepts.
I think my prints and animation do work well as a collection. They are clearly linked through process, colour and texture and the key feature of the chess piece in each means they literally do form a set. The oval frame is something which exists in all of my outcomes and the vague symmetry of the composition creates consistent layouts as well.
The process of drawing and redrawing things, tweaking them each time is something that is just becoming a matter of course for me now. This has been especially noticeable where I have had to simplify my sketchbook drawings to make them appropriate for linocut.
I had never used AfterEffects before this module so I have learned a whole new skill from scratch. The only animation I have done before involved the use of individual frames so this is a totally new approach. I understand how the program works but the transition from a storyboard onto screen is something that took a while for me to get used to.
I am glad I loosened up with my mono printing this year. In last year’s workshop I stuck to my subject matter too closely and it inhibited my experimentation. This year I was more confident to try out new things and this is what sparked the use of textures within my work. I have kept a bank of textures now because I really like how they can change the aesthetic of an image so drastically.
Linocutting is harder than it looks, what I produced took a lot of concentration and this was a learning process for me. I had never cut lino before but I think my skills have improved as I got used to the tools and action, it just takes practice and patience. It would have been great if I had managed to print my finals entirely through analogue methods. This is my main regret with this brief, I feel like I settled for the easier option too soon.
I think screen print is something I will always be battling with. I don’t find the process enjoyable which is frustrating because I have seen how great the outcomes can look. It is just something I really struggle to connect with and I always seem to revert to digital processes when making my positives. Maybe the next time I use this process I should use hand drawn positives.
Colour is one of my main weaknesses. I love working with black and white imagery so adding a second colour was a challenge and as a result of this, the decisions about colour were left to the very end of the project. Part of me thinks I could have pushed myself more with colour by eliminating the use of black.
I have been really strict on myself with my blog because blogging retrospectively is really frustrating as I can’t remember what I was thinking at the time. For this reason, I blogged most days so my ongoing evaluation was running parallel to the development of my project. This allowed me to be as honest as possible and also meant there was very fewer things I forgot about.
Organisation and time management have been good for this module, I have kept a list of things to do on my laptop which I continuously have been updating, I then select things from this to do each day. I worked hard over the Christmas break to try and keep up with my workload, I did wear myself out and started feeling anxious that I hadn't got enough work and it wasn't good enough. Stress is something that is becoming more of an issue with me, deadlines have always stressed me out but I am finding it harder to manage the ongoing pressures of the course. I know I need to give myself a break, but I see how much work I have to do and feel that my time could be used more wisely. This is an attitude that I really need to change before I run myself down.
I lost a lot of confidence in my work at a few points in this project and sometimes found myself treating feedback as approval. Feedback is important but I want to have the confidence in my work to trust my instincts.
There have been ups and downs with my motivation for this project, I would be churning out lots of work and then have a phase where I just cant see how to progress. I guess this is just a part of being creative. I am normally driven by the pressure of a deadline as a project comes to an end but this time especially because I am really keen to up my game this year.
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