This first list is based on me revisiting the list-making PPP sessions.
I also went through my entire blog and picked out key moments which I thought were critical to my learning and development this year.
Made me think about my use of line and how varying the weight of my lines could have drastic effects on my work. It gives an image a lot more depth and helps highlight focal points to the viewer.
Using roughs was relatively new to me and I had never really considered composition this much before in my own work. I was still making my roughs more labour intensive than they needed to be and it was only until the big heads session with Josh Cochran where he showed us some of his initial scamps that I realised that even the professionals produce really scribbly drawings to get an idea straight in their head before progressing onto refining their idea.
Illustration should have a purpose. Learning the difference between doing a drawing and making an illustration has been key to the development of my work. I ask myself, now, what is the purpose of the drawings I am doing? What am I trying to achieve? Is this image getting across the point I am trying to make?
I have tried to move away from using reference imagery as something to copy from and instead, using it to help me do my own thing with an image. I think this has been beneficial to my work because it has given me more freedom and helped me to discover new media and methods of working which were outside my comfort zone. I think this has been helped by drawing the same thing over and over again in different ways and seeing how an image can develop through different stages.
I admire her bravery with media and colour and how she manages to capture movement and drama in her illustrations. It made me realise that to get these results I need to experiment more and understand that it is okay for things to go drastically wrong because you can pick up a fresh piece of paper and try again. This leads me to my next point of bad drawings.
I think one of the most important realisations I have had this year is that its okay to make bad drawings. Its a good thing to make mistakes because it gives you the opportunity to identify where things have gone wrong and work to try and solve it. I had it drilled into my head that the images I make must be successful because that is what makes me a good drawer but the reality is that unsuccessful drawings will probably be more useful to me in the long run.
Keeping my work organised in folders has helped me to structure my workload and has definitely cut down on stress levels when it comes to assessment because I now know that everything for a certain module is together. It also helps me to keep my workspace tidier which is more helpful for thinking clearly and not getting distracted by other pieces of work.
I write a list of things I need to do almost every day, even non work related and this helps me to stay on track with my workload and other tasks in life that need to be completed. Towards the end of the academic year, I feel I have got better with managing my time as the pressure of multiple modules has crept up on me. Spacing my workload out over the week encourages me not to avoid certain modules and then writing a list each day breaks down the workload into manageable individual tasks.
I have been saying for a long time that I need to keep up with current affairs but I have never really had the motivation to sit down and read about it. However, being at home over Easter I have made more of an effort to watch the news and have actually taken an interest in the general election which is something I never thought I would pay attention to. Staying up to date with this kind of information will be key to my future practice because I will need to know what’s going on in the world for my work to be relevant and relatable.
I have taken an interest in reportage illustration and have been reading through a few blogs about illustrators who specialise in this. One who particularly stood out to me was George Butler who has been to Syria, Afghanistan and other significant places in the news right now to document what is going on there first hand. Looking through his illustrations from his visits have really inspired me to spend more time doing observational drawing. It has made me more keen than ever do go ands visit different places and explore new environments and cultures.
My idea of making the most of the day was to stay up as late as possible to try and cram as much in as I could. I realise now how ridiculous this is and if I organise myself effectively and avoid procrastinating, I will be able to allow myself enough sleep to actually be able to function the next day. I have learnt from running myself down that sleep is very important.
I was quite stubborn at the beginning of the course as I wanted to battle against digital media and stick to analogue image making techniques. I feel I really broke through with Photoshop during the visual narratives picture book brief and I learned that even though you are using Photoshop, your work can still have a handmade feel to it. Also, it helps to make life a lot easier with editing and correcting little mistakes and generally makes my work look more professional. Before, I saw it as the enemy and now I see it as a necessity for an illustrator.
Illustrator is something I have been battling with since the illustrator workshops. I don’t feel that this program is one of my strong points because I find it difficult to think in a way that makes you work with shape rather than line but I think this is something I will become more used to as I keep experimenting with it.
The group crits and tutorials we have has really helped me to evaluate how my own and other people’s work is going. I think this is something I need to do more often by myself because I need to learn when its time to take a break, step back and look at what I am doing and decide what needs to happen next.
These were some ideas for potential layouts to present my 10 final images.
I like the idea of repeating the 10x10x10 brief because it links the start and end of my first year at university. It would be easy to draw a comparison of my development over the past year and also pinpoint the new experiences I have had and how I have changed. My only concern for this is that the headings for each of the illustrations might restrict what I include in the final 10.
My roughs aren’t particularly inspiring me at the moment but I think if I move away from just pencil sketches and experiment with some alternative media choices, my ideas may have more life in them.
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