End of Module Evaluation OUIL402

1. What learning have you inherited through this module and how has it impacted on your own understanding of professional practice? Consider yourself as a student at university as much as an illustrator.

I now feel I properly understand what illustration really is after completing this module, and I can form a proper opinion on what makes certain illustration better than others. I know where to find it and how it works as a sort of business, rather than just something I am studying that involves drawing some pictures. I also feel I know how to study it better in a way; where to look for good contextual reference, for example Pinterest, and how I can improve and further my own practice by doing this; in short, I have become much more aware of the illustrative world around me, and that can only ever help me get better at it myself. 


2. What approaches/types of research have you found the most valuable over this module? Why did they have such an impact?

I found online journals such as ItsNiceThat are perfect for keeping up to date with the latest popular illustrations news stories and releases; they are constantly updated every day and show a wide range of different practitioners work. Because of this, I now know much more about actual illustrators (I pretty much only knew Quentin Blake before) and have started to form little collections of which work I like to refer back to later. I think this has also positively impacted my own practice because when I look back to the briefs throughout the year, the most successful ones were where I had looked at a lot of other work from these journals, for example the gifs. It was also interesting to go and properly dig through all the amazing books in the college library - theres something about books that you can't get from an online journal, especially ones like the Blexbolex 'Seasons', full of lovely prints and textures that work better on paper than on screen.


3. In what way has PPP informed you work in other modules and your practice as a whole?

It has definitely helped me realise that I needed to organise my work sessions much better, so I could get as much out of them as I could; I was previously wasting a lot of time when sitting down to get on with a brief, before realising I needed to do a hundred things before I could even properly get on with it. Making the lists cleared my head of all the madness that first year brought and seeing them on paper helped me work out what tasks were most important and what I should be focusing on, like keeping a critical and reflective mind about my work the whole time, to make evaluations and blogging easier. From looking at other practitioners work, I understand better what a 'tone of voice' is and why it is important for me to develop one if I want to be successful; this is something I aim to crack over the next year. 


4. What weaknesses can you identify in your PPP submission and how will you identify them in the future?

I have not blogged enough of what I see out and about this year; there is so much going on in Leeds and London that I could have spoken about, but just didn't out of laziness! From now on I will record interesting pieces and things that I go to straight away in some shape or form (the Blogger app is really useful for this). I also think that I have struggled with the tasks involving creating personal advertisements and found it difficult to word what my strengths are (which shouldn't be a problem!) From now on I will stop comparing my work to my peers and worrying about what is expected from each task, and start to really look for what I am good at. In the last month or so the confidence with how I execute my work has definitely increased - I just wish I could have said the same for earlier on in the year. 

5. What communities of practice and professional contexts do you tend to investigate further as you approach level 5? Why do they appeal to you?

I would like to be able to use type within my work much more effectively than I do now in the future; typography is a weird alien world, and I feel once I understand more about it, the work I create demanding type will improve drastically. Good type is something not everyone can do, and although it falls more into graphic design, it is definitely worth looking into. I am also very interesting in working more with print; digital work can be time effective and create some lovely bold pieces, but so can analogue print, as well as having the lovely aspect of each print being different slightly from the last and creating some crazy textures. I especially enjoyed the monoprint sessions this year and want to look into it more for proper projects next year. Printing onto textiles and creating some crazy patterns could also be great fun and create some successful work; I am going to ask my peers on Printed Textiles if they could help me create repeat patterns over summer, so I can come back with the knowledge and just crack on with it when I want to. 

Final piece!

My final 10 felt heads!

I am really happy with how these turned out, considering it was such a weird stretched out module that required quite a lot of thinking and realising about my own practice. I feel like I have successfully combined the most important things I have learned over the year with the people who have had most of an impact. I really do want to take on these points and use them to further my practice next year; most of them seem to be about just letting go and having confidence and fun within my work. I am also pleased this will be my exhibition piece; it is different to anything I have made this year, and maybe even the most interesting! 

Presentation Slides

Slide 1 - intro about beginning of year and this mask.

Slide 2 - how I came to this year knowing nothing about working digitally; the benefits of analogue methods for me and why I think so. What new ones I discovered and which ones will I/won't I use in the future.

Slide 3 - Introducing digital! Why it is great and has furthered my practice so much,  what I want to achieve with it next year (better at vectors etc.)

Slide 4 - My visual mind map of what I've learned; why it is hard to try and summarise this mental year and what I feel like I have learned even since making it. 

Slide 5 - How my tastes of what 'good' illustration is have changed; how my eyes have been opened to all sorts of new stuff I didn't even know existed and how I can appreciate other practitioners work much better. I have formed proper opinions on what I like and don't like. 

Slide 6 - Using online journals to keep up with what is happened in contemporary illustration and why I have found this useful. Some of my fave things I have found and how they inspire my own practice.

Slide 7 - my struggles with making a personal ad and why it was hard! I need to get better at this - what I am going to do to achieve this.

Slide 8 - Explain concept behind final piece and how I feel about it. What is successful/what could be improved on.

Slide 9 - explain each point in full and expand. 

Heads in the making

Making the heads! It is surprisingly going very smoothly and I am currently on schedule to finish for monday hooray! I can also see my stitching improving as I work on each head; I would have practiced more before hand if I had more time to make them, but it isn't a massive problem. 

Advice gathered from friends and peers to stick onto heads:

Melissa: "Don't give a fuck but at the same time do give a fuck."

Tilly: "Be more confident".

Sophie E-S: "Have more hugs and watch more clouds."

George: "Be really experimental."

Okus: "Eat your greens."

Hannah: "Be playful."

Sophie: "Try more."

Abigail: "Enjoy and have fun."

Joe: "Don't be afraid of your ideas."

Becca: "Go to the pub more."

Thinking about the final 10 illustrations and presentation!

AFTER TUTORIAL: IDEAS FOR 10 ILLUSTRATIONS

I want to do something that I will really enjoy and am pleased with for this project, as it is the last one of the year and will be in the exhibition. I have been happy with most of what I have made this year, but not over the moon about anything, and I want that to change! SO, I am just going to focus on what I like doing and what I want to do, rather than what I think I should be doing and trying to create something 'illustrationy' - I think it's a trap I keep falling into when trying to create my own tone of voice, and it just ends up with final outcomes I don't feel that passionate about. It is going to be kept simple, with a good solid concept behind it, and hopefully look great at the same time!

Using the information gathered in previous sessions, I want to somehow combine and summarise what I have collected through image, from the lists focused on just university work to the others focused on lifestyle. One of the biggest and best things that has happened this year is the really lovely and interesting people I have met, from all over the place, who all create really different but brilliant work. It is great to be in such a creative environment and I honestly think I have learned as much from them as I have from the course itself. 

TOP IDEAS AT THE MOMENT:

• A zine, concertina pull-out style, showing my journey through the year. Include favourite places, people, briefs and things I have learned. One long image, printed simply in black and white, covering 10 main points.
• 10 badges or stickers; same concept as the zine, only individual illustrations rather than one big one. 
• 10 felt heads of my favourite people I have met, where they are somehow giving me advice for next year.*

*The felt heads idea is based on a character brief I worked on during Foundation, where I made a weird felt head and really really loved it. As PPP is all about learning from past experiences and using them to inform your current/future work, I feel I can use this past brief and adapt it to fit this one. It isn't a complete cop out as it is basing an idea on my own work; people take inspiration from other illustrators all the time, so I'm taking it from something I was previously pleased with. I know I can successfully complete it in the the short amount of time left and it will be good, as well as knowing I really will enjoy it! 

STUFF I COULD LOOK AT FOR PRESENTATION:

• People I have met/want to meet.
• Places I have been/ want to go.
• Specific ways of working I have learned (Photoshop, Indesign, screenprint etc.)
• How research has played a part in developing my knowledge and understanding.
• How I have managed my time (work/play balance etc.)
• What I think has changed about how I work over the year (positives and negatives.)
• How my view of Illustration itself has changed.
• Favourite and least favourite briefs and why.
• The lists and how they have helped clarify what I need to do to improve.
• What I want to achieve next/realisation (evaluation.)
• What will I do differently next year because of this
• What I want to get out of summer (keep drawing and gathering etc.)
• How have I adapted to uni life (cooking, mouldy bread etc.)
• How has PPP helped me understand and break down my own practice, and the industry we are trying to enter after the degree, and what I need to do to get there.