Having reached the end of Part 3, I reflected on the Assessment Criteria Points.
Demonstration of technical and visual skills – materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills.
One of the most significant realisations that I had upon reaching the end of this Unit was that I now almost always, at least initially, work in analogue. I believe this has had a positive impact on the quality of my work as I have to rely on my own drawing ability rather than having the safety net of digital tools. The repetition of drawing the same character or scene, allows me the time and familiarity to really think about any improvements that can be made.
I previously would work straight in Illustrator, for example, and become fixated on attempting to make the lines exactly ‘right’, distracting me from the overall goal and the work could end up looking clinical. With analogue, I try to accept ‘imperfections’, which I now understand add to the character of my work and help to develop my ‘personal voice’.
Further to the above I am pleased that I am continuing to combine analogue with digital, for example, adding colour in Photoshop.
I was also really happy to discover scratchboard in Once Upon A Time. This is something I intend to continue exploring and combining it with colour, perhaps digitally.
I believe my compositional choices are becoming more considered, for example, as in You Are What You Eat and Assignment 3. I have been trying to frame the content in the most effective way so that it communicates to the viewer as intended, removing any visual clutter.
As with the previous Sections in this Unit, I continue to build my awareness and knowledge of both current and historical creative practitioners, which feeds into my ideas for my work regarding, for example, concept and design choices.
Quality of outcome – content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas.
I believe I have continued to provide a logical and informative overview of my working process via my Learning Log throughout this section. I make sure I comment on both the negative and positive aspects of the creative journey for each piece of work, including the many frustrations, ‘mistakes’ and discoveries.
I have maintained the same structure for outlining my methods, which provides details of both the work I have undertaken and my thoughts as I proceed.
Demonstration of creativity – imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice.
I feel my imagination has been allowed to run slightly wild in this Section and it has been interesting to learn that if I embrace this and then rein it back in as necessary, there is generally a successful outcome. I believe my migration from mainly digital to analogue has worked well with this as I can scribble ideas down quickly and then refine them.
In terms of experimentation, this is an area that I still need to develop. However, as previously stated, I was introduced to scratchboard in this Section and I also spent a long time learning and experimenting with animation in the OpenToonz software.
As narrative illustration is my absolute favourite area of illustration, I have found this Section to be the perfect opportunity to develop my personal voice.
Context reflection – research, critical thinking (learning logs and, for second and third level courses, critical reviews and essays).
As with previous Sections in this Unit, I am continually introduced to new practitioners and concepts, all of which feed into my knowledge and influence my work. In most Exercises/Assignments, I will begin by carrying out research, as it is such an important element to grow my ideas from.