Response to Tutor Feedback Part 5

 'Overall your response to this assignment has been focussed and in depth, showing a clear sense of your personal interests and the development of your design process. It's great to see you beginning to broaden your research, through looking at artists from other disciplines, for instance painting here, and in considering the historical context of christmas cards, e.g through looking at victorian examples. You mention that these have impacted your approach to design which is great. Perhaps add in a note or two on how your research has inspired your own designs in your evaluation in order to make this evident. As mentioned, you do well to break down the illustrators and artists' use of different techniques e.g gold leaf in the Victorian Christmas cards. To push this further, remember to consider and detail how the illustrator uses these specific techniques in order to help to communicate a feeling, story or to symbolise something. E.g. the gold perhaps communicates a sense of warmth and luxury which the illustrator wants to bring to the cards.'

For this last part of the course, I feel like I am finally making some strides in the right direction for research, planning projects and being more descriptive in my reflections.

Choosing my own brief for the assignment and being able to shape it to my voice was surprisingly challenging. I wanted to push myself creatively and make something I haven't made before - washi tapes.

Designing them and even designing the card was more challenging than I expected. Perhaps I had too much expectation and that resulted in putting pressure on myself to make the 'perfect' designs.

I intentionally made sure to be thorough in my research and my designs for this project, especially since I was to make these washi tapes, I wanted to make sure I was really happy with the designs. I was also conscious of not just drawing the flowers straight from reference but putting my own spin on them and using my own colours. When trialling the initial colours I went for a more natural palette and this just didn't work for me. The colours were too dark for the look and feel I wanted to bring. I like to use pastel, slightly muted colours with a mix of brighter pastels for a nostalgic look and feel.

All in all I was really pleased with how my designs turned out and the first of the washi tapes should be arriving to me in the next week or two. I am really excited to see them in the flesh.

I am ending this course having created a huge body of work, in so many different types of illustration and with a good idea of the kinds of projects that I want to work on in more depth going forward. My interest in narrative and digital art is where I would like to focus my efforts and really take time to explore and learn this area more closely.

Practicing with client briefs I have learnt that I do have a good understanding of audiences and how to break down a client brief to the fundamentals. Now I need to apply that knowledge in my own work and really think about the creative decisions I am making and how this communicates to my audience.

 

Response to Tutor Feedback Part 4

 Overall, Your work shows good exploration of each task. You take on Research, sketchbook and assignment tasks well and there are some fully resolved pieces here which show a sense of your developing creative voice. 

As you move into your final project it would be really good to see you fully integrating these different ‘sections’ of work into single exercises / projects in order to clearly show how your research and sketchbook work are linked to and inform your final pieces. I think that this would really help in making things clear to assessors when you submit an assessment. 

Make sure that your research / exercise and finished works are clearly linked together. In each subject you do make relevant research, however to develop, make sure that you are researching a broader range of illustrators; linking historic and contemporary and also exploring a range of relevant styles in order to reflect on different approaches to a certain subject / technique.

Part 4 was quite a challenging section of the course for me. I was disappointed to leave the narrative section as I felt that I was just scratching the surface of it and wanted to explore it further. The range of exercises in this part was diverse and I did struggle with the change of materials. However, I did put my all into each one and found myself quite interested in the street art, self publishing, pixel art and ceramic exercises. 

At this point in the course I was aiming to do broad research and choose different illustrators but still forgetting to go back further, rather than just looking at contemporary ones.

I found myself getting quite immersed in the research tasks and did find it hard to organise my research clearly and not go down rabbit holes. I will aim to clean this up and make clearer for assessors.

Self Publishing exercise feedback;

'You show real engagement with this exercise which is great. As you move forward do continue to allow yourself to focus on an develop the exercises, themes or topics that really interest you and to recognise this, in order to help you begin to recognise and develop your interests. This will enable you to begin to develop your personal style.'

 This is something that I am aiming to do more in future exercises. I see my voice emerging and want to build confidence in it.

The pixel art project was one of the research and exercise tasks that I seemed to flourish in. I enjoyed researching and looking at the history as well as contemporary takes on pixel art and how it has developed over the years. I still need to elaborate on why I like certain illustrations and explain more about the communication side. Learning to create pixel art using today's technology was a fun experience and the pixel icons I created from that were challenging but also a great form of self expression. Choosing the right colours and using a limited palette was also challenging because I needed to work out which colours would work well for shading, highlights and mid tones and how they would work next to each other. 

Overall, I feel I am headed in the right direction but still have a lot to learn and implement. Going forward I will aim to be more thorough in my research and reflections.

Response to Tutor Feedback Part 3

 'Overall this is a good response and its clear that your techniques and illustrative style is developing as you challenge yourself to explore new techniques. 

Your character work and illustration style is well executed and its great that you’re developing your personal style including ways of working and colour pallets. Do continue to build on this whilst also allowing yourself to take creative risks and to experiment, spending plenty of time in your sketchbook, in order to keep expanding your practice. 

Its good to see you beginning to develop your illustrations into more complex narrative pieces. As mentioned, it would be good to see you developing your skills and awareness of communicating narrative and story in your illustrations in order to build upon your confident use of individuals characters: 

In your earlier exercises, for instance the .Gif and plasticine modelled duck your characters are diverse and strong. It would be great to see you combining these with scenes of with other characters, considering how compositions and postures etc can help to convey interactions between them. In the comic book exercises and assignment you begin to do this well. As you move forward, whether working with comics or not, it would be great to see you developing this attention to narrative.'

Part 3 coursework saw a big turning point in my illustrations and my understanding of visual communication. I began to uncover a passion for narrative work and a hunger to learn from other comic book and graphic novel illustrators.

This is an area I would like to work on further and develop my skills to create stronger illustrations that communicate well to the audience.

My tutor suggested I look into work by Scott McCloud, who has written about understanding comics in his blog and has published books.

In this part of the course I am learning how to broaden my research but still need to focus in on one or two illustrations and analyse them in more depth. Asking myself how the use of colours, textures and line work communicates to the viewer.

I am now narrowing down my focus for my critical review and am excited to delve deeper into my research on creative introverts and how art gives them a voice.  

Response to Tutor Feedback Part 1

 We began Part 1 by looking at other illustrators and identifying what they are making and how they are making it. This exercise helped me to take a deeper look at the illustrators I am inspired by and analyse their illustrations in terms of style, colours, themes etc.

My tutor pointed out that I need to look deeper still, understanding who they are targeting and what their use of colours, line work and materials communicate. This is an area to work on during the course and be more conscious of as I create my own illustrations and research the work of others.

I  was also advised to broaden my search into other locations, rather than relying on Pinterest or Instagram. This is something I need to make an effort to do as researching on social media has become quite a habit for me. I checked out the links suggested by my tutor for other places to conduct me research. I do tend to gravitate towards certain styles more than others and find some illustrations quite uncomfortable to look at, which definitely affects my willingness to go down those paths.

The term 'context' has become something I need to become familiar with. It's not something I consciously think about and yet it is important to my practice and understanding. I'll endeavour to deepen my knowledge in this area.

My tutor encouraged me to look at my mark making and line work in more depth. To understand how different types of marks say something different and influence the communication in a sketch. Again, this is something I have not consciously considered. I tend to use my marks quite intuitively and don't think too much about why I use the types of marks that I do. This is something for me to practice.

Working on my perspective skills is something that I wanted to address, so it was a good opportunity to do this during part 1. I definitely focused a lot on trying to get the angles right and didn't think too much about how the perspective of different drawings altered the communication.

I've learnt during this part of the course that I tend to do a lot of things unconsciously and need to make more effort to consciously make decisions whilst making and researching. I will continue to work on my observational skills and use the links mentioned by my tutor to help inform and shape my practice.

Part 5: Research Task - Client Briefs

Client: BBC2

Brief: Create an opening credit sequence for 'The Culture Show' that will surprise, inspire and challenge views.

Reflection:

This first brief contains all the information I would need to get started on this project of one or more 20 second credit sequences for 'The Culture Show'. Aiming towards 25-44 year old, 'discerning metropolitan minded people who genuinely have an interest and love of the arts culture.' The programme style is forward-focused, confident and has stylish presentation, so I would keep this in mind when brainstorming my ideas for the credit sequence.

This brief is very detailed, which makes tailoring the illustration easier. The client specifies that the sequence 'needs to surprise, inspire and challenge viewers as soon as they tune in' and to also include the shows main topics; fashion, art, architecture, music, film and TV. I would say this is a fairly closed brief but has enough room to put my own creative stamp on it.

I would begin my research by watching clips of the shows current opening sequences and some of the programme content, to get a good visual idea of the content and how I might proceed. There isn't any mention of colour schemes relevant to the programme so I would ask about that and the font style they use, would they want to update this as well or keep with their current font. This would give me enough information to get started. I would also need to know the dimensions needed for screen and resolution and the deadline for completion.

Client: Orange

Brief: Create your vision of future communications.

Reflection:

This brief is very open and needs some clarification on the purpose and use of the required illustrations and more information about the target audience.

Firstly, I would want to know what age their main core audience is and what these illustrations will be used for. Without knowing the use, it is hard to know where to start on this project. It is not clear how many illustrations are needed and when the deadline is. Once I had this information I would get started brainstorming my ideas and researching the branding for Orange to get a better idea of which colours to use and style. I like that this brief is more personal and creative but I would definitely need more information before taking this on.

Client: Sainsbury's

Brief: Create a piece of design or illustration for a limited edition range of Sainsbury's shopping bags.

Reflection:

This brief has specific basic requirements but there is lot's of room to be creative. Whilst the client gives specifics on the dimensions of the bag and that the design would cover both sides, with Sainsbury's branding on the side gussets they do not specify how many designs are needed and what age group they are for. Whilst there are guidelines on the company values that need to be considered, there are no specific design themes asked for nor any specific colours. I would clarify this information before beginning this project and brainstorm from there. This brief is open to creative freedom with brand value guidelines to be considered.

Part 5: Exercise - Writing a Rationale

Client: Sainsbury's

Brief: Create a piece of design or illustration for a limited edition range of Sainsbury's shopping bags.

Rationale 1:

A contemporary illustration featuring a bee hovering on an apple blossom as a repeating pattern on a white background with an apple green accent colour for the bag straps and edging. The illustration will be an eye catching, natural design, which embodies the brand values of sourcing their produce with integrity and respect for our environment. This theme also is on trend with the current popularity of bee related products.

Rationale 2:

As an expression of the brand values of being the best for food and health, I would create illustrations of four vegetables as a repeating pattern in vibrant colours, one of which I would use for the straps and edging as the accent colour and a pale green background to symbolise natural, healthily grown produce. I would choose well known vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, cabbage and parsnips.

Rationale 3:

For a Summer themed bag design I would illustrate a sprig of strawberries with a strawberry flower as a repeating pattern on a pale yellow background to symbolise the sun with an accent colour of red for the straps and edging. This would be reflecting all three of the brand values in a Summer themed design that is eye catching and cheerful.

Part 5: Exercise - What's Your Working Process?