So, Assignment 1 is done and under my belt. Getting back into higher education has been challenging and rewarding in equal parts. I have myself three weeks for this introductory project, and that would have been ample time if it hadn't been for the fact I was pretty ill for about ten days of it!
I think this really illustrates why people can't estimate - we only really think about the best circumstances and only the parts that are in our control. For the future assignments I have given myself about eight weeks to complete them (as they are about double the hours needed for the first one). Assignment two is a little longer, because Christmas ;)
The Blog
Generally speaking, I am happy with how the blog is going. The main purpose for setting it up was to use it as a Learning Log for the course - I really do work and think better when I can put pen to paper, but that posed two problems:
My writing when in flow can be pretty unintelligible!
I'd have to mail my learning log for each assessment - in this age of technology that kind of lead time seems silly (and scanning is a chore for that kind of content)
I received some good feedback from my tutor about the pitch and tone of the content on the blog. I initially struggled with what and how to write the content for a learning log. I did research on other student blogs, but ultimately I decided to write how I felt best. My approach was to write as if I was the reader - that is, someone who wants to be, or improve as, an illustrator. I have the privilege of being able to do this course, and that's not something a lot of people get. What if I could write in a way that opened the door into what it was like to study Visual Communication?
There were a few specific points of feedback to help me improve the blog:
Numbering the exercises and assignments effectively is going to be important the more I do them. I've already taken this feedback on board, and future exercises will be based on the assignment they relate to e.g. 1.2 being the second exercise for the first assignment. I'm also going to prepend with the module (e.g. Illustration 1).
It will be more useful for my tutor and examiners to be able to go to the exercise and assignment posts easily. These were already there - all my blog posts have categories you can filter by, and I made specific ones for exercises and assignments. However, I realised that these important categories were hidden in the drop down menu, with less important categories "above the fold". I've fixed this, and gone one better to add a drop-down menu to the navigation bar that link to the assignments and exercises respectively.
I should use Harvard referencing for the sources of photos. I did add copyright ownership, but didn't think to add the sources. I will try and re-source the images and fix this retrospectively. Also, it's been a long time since I have done citation like this - I think I will need to brush up my skills!
My Process
One of the key points of feedback that I took away from my tutor's report was that I really need to explore greater variation. This applies to ideas as well as media - for this section I am going to talk about ideas; I am going to cover media later.
I struggled with coming up with alternatives once an exciting idea had lodged itself in my head. It actually felt like a chore sometimes to come up with variety. I really think that I need to find a way to have more fun with exploring different options. If I take it as a 'be more critical, do the process', I know I will just rebel. I need to make fun a central part of it, then I will want to experiment.
Assuming I don't break through my comfort zone with media immediately, then my tutor also recommended that I "test different lighting effects". I definitely didn't try different lighting and rendering approaches to the last assignment, and this is something I will be conscious of moving forward.
My tutor also gave some really useful insight about considering the assignment holistically - if I am making a greeting card, then it is useful to think about it as a card - what goes on the inside?; the back? I started working through an amazing book called Illustration Workshop (McDevitt, 2018) before I started on the course, and the first exercise is to design a card too. Looking back I think I made a lot of the same mistakes. I never finished the exercise in the book, so I think it might be a good opportunity to revisit the challenge, and take into account of the feedback from Assignment 1 - watch this space!
It will also give me a great opportunity to think about using different paper stocks and finishes, then building up prototypes. Something I hadn't even thought about before my tutor's feedback. I wonder, given it's November, if I can combine the exercise with the impending Christmas season?
Media
I think media and the artistic process is still the area that is causing me the most anxiety. So much anxiety in fact that I think it makes me scared to experiment. The three-week (more like two weeks when you consider illness) didn't help. With limited time, you want to make sure you can hit the deadline. So you stick to what is more comfortable because you know how quickly you can work in that way. I am always going to have some sort of deadline, so I am really struggling with how to reconcile this.
One of the great new resources at my disposal has been exploring the OCA student community. The official forums are a little dead (but interesting with interacting passively) but I have joined a number of the Facebook groups and a Discord channel set up for other Illustration & Visual Communications students. They have already proved great for helping with that feeling of isolation. I think I will reach out to those communities to see if people have thoughts about how I could tackle this dissonance.
Assuming that I can overcome the anxiety (I must, so I am convinced its a matter of when, not if) I am attracted to some particular media:
Acrylics - I used to use these a lot painting miniatures (models) and used to be very proficient with them in that context - I would like to explore how to use them in a more thick, buttery, impasto way.
I really enjoyed doing collage when I did a short illustration course over the summer with City Lit, and when I went to the AOI World Illustration Awards exhibition, there was a particular piece (which for the life of me I can't find, even in the official book) where the author created a collage digitally by scanning in marks of different traditional techniques and media, and then cut and manipulated them digitally - I think that would be a fun experiment (both digital and by hand)
I would also like to explore block/lino printing - I did a little bit of this for my GCSE Art & Design but never explored it as much as I wanted.
I'd also like to explore how I can use pastels in my work to add texture. I'm really not comfortable with that medium.
Lastly, my tutor recommended I explore different paper finishing techniques. Whilst I was familiar with the names, I admit I don't really know what there are and how they are performed. I think this could be a really useful and fruitful area to conduct some research and experimentation!
Overall, I have really enjoyed myself, and I can't wait to push myself more in the next section. There was a key point in the last assignment when I new I was doing the thing I was 'meant' to - it was my birthday and a brand new video game was sitting on the kitchen table. In the past I would have been playing it for hours. Instead I was immersed and absorbed in making the best art I could. To me, that says everything.
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