I have learnt some new skills in this module and also developed some existing skills. For the Christmas card brief and the Illustration Friday brief, I tried to build on my digital skills, choosing to design the card entirely digitally and editing most of my weekly images on Photoshop. I also used a Wacom tablet properly for the first time which was not a successful experience in my eyes, the coordination required for this and the unusual way the pen contacts the board just wasn’t working for me. I like to feel a physical drawing tool in my hand and seeing directly what it does to the paper. Digital media is growing on me but I still prefer analogue at heart.
In addition to this, I have worked with pattern briefly for Illustration Friday and a lot more in my substantial brief for Fever Tree. This something I really enjoyed and want to use more in my personal practice. I have learnt some new processes for this even in the short time after completing these briefs so I am definitely keen to continue with it.
Preparing presentation boards for the submission of this module and submission to YCN is quite new to me. It is hard to be make decisions about what should be included and what shouldn’t. Also, preparing them to be A2 scale but working on a Macbook screen is difficult when it comes to choosing text sizes and how big or small the images will be, I feel the contents of my boards would be of an appropriate size if printed full scale. For the pdf submitted to YCN, I aimed to keep things minimal and to the point, choosing a simple theme and keeping my visuals big and text at a minimum. I felt this looked quite professional in the end.
Colour is something I have tried to embrace in this module. I am very comfortable working in black and white media and felt I needed to push myself out of my comfort zone and try something different. My initial ideas for Fever Tree were in monochrome and this is what I envisaged my final outcomes to look like, however they ended up being very bright and colourful. A lot of my Illustration Friday responses were in full colour too. Part of this is down to rediscovering gouache paints. I use them very similarly to how I use ink and I am becoming more comfortable with them as a colourful medium to work with. I think I still have a lot to learn about colour, I feel I have the technical knowledge but am lacking the confidence to execute it in a strong way. I suppose its a case of being brave and not being afraid for it to all go wrong.
I feel I have been successful in experimenting with a range of media, from pencil crayons, pens, gouache and inks, to digital media, photography and stop motion animation. I think it has done me good to have numerous projects going on at the same time, although this has been very stressful at times, it has taught me that I need to get used to switching between working styles and also helped me understand what I like and dislike.
After completing my designs for secret seven I was unsure whether the project was a success or not. However, after looking back at this with fresh eyes I can see that this has been a success for me. I worked with a style and brief very much out of my comfort zone but I think I tackled it well. It was a risk but I feel it paid off in the sense that it has helped me understand my practice more, but maybe not in the sense of actually succeeding in the competition.
I think the main thing that went wrong with this module was time management. This is something I am usually really good at and I always strive to keep myself organised but I feel this fell apart in this module. After the stresses of the process and production module, I felt I needed a change of approach considering how much pressure I put on myself. This is probably why I started this brief with quite a laid back attitude but this soon wore off, its just not how I work.
I had good intentions with my time plans and lists of things to do but I didn’t utilise these very well because I didn’t stick to them. I think this was a fundamental downfall for me in this module because it led me to feel like I wasn’t succeeding and I wasn’t capable of completing these briefs which I can now see is nonsense, but at the time it was demoralising and caused my to lose motivation. This also led to a lack of enjoyment of the module, when really I should have capitalised on being allowed to choose my own briefs and having fun with them.
I think most of my brief choices were appropriate to my practice, secret seven was something a bit different and in hindsight, I think the Orchard Pig brief probably wasn’t right for me. I have learnt that choosing the right briefs is key to the enjoyment and learning experience you get from it.
I feel I lacked professionalism in parts of this module. In my individual briefs I was disappointed that I was lacking the motivation to treat these briefs as a real job. Looking back at my experience, it has made me want to treat other modules more like a job and adopt a more formal approach to being in the studio and working. I think I conducted myself most professionally in the collaborative brief, turning up to every meeting (except when ill), delivering work on time and encouraging the group to keep organised by planning ahead. I feel my attitude became less professional when I started to become a bit impatient with this brief, mainly towards the end. Working in a group is hard especially as I know that I work better alone, although I did try really hard to make compromises and be a team player.
All in all, I don’t feel I have made the most of this module. I don’t have any confidence that any of my final outcomes have the potential to win anything. It hasn’t been a negative experience although my evaluation may make it seem that way, for me, this module has been a learning curve and I have learnt more about the way I work and what kind of briefs I like responding to. It has given me an insight into my own future practice which is an achievement in my opinion.
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