OUIL406 Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Through this module I have developed many different skills. Probably the main skill that I have gained from this module is my skills on illustrator and even photoshop. All of my final pieces were produced digitally. Another skill that I have developed was that I learnt to juggle many different things at once due to the nature of the module, although this was not my strong point, I never fell behind nor did I miss any deadlines. Rather, I internally struggled to juggle figuring out the workload.

2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?

Especially on the last brief, creating lots of thumbnails and figuring out a solution whilst doing lots of drawing has helped me a great deal. It helped me to come up with more interesting and ideas. Using a pen to create ideas forces you to be purposeful with your drawing which creates quick and striking scamps. This helped me to work out compositions and layout for my designs. 

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I really like the gradients that I have been working with, especially in the last 2 projects. They have helped to improve my work a great deal and I have learnt a lot from them making me try out new things. I definitely want to work with gradients more so definitely for the next few pieces of my work, I will use these and build on my skills. Another strength is that I have been working predominantly in shapes, this has given my work a new feel compared to the start of the year and has made it more interesting visually.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

Something that I found difficult about this module was that it was very demanding as there was other modules and deadlines going on at the same time. This meant that I struggled to focus and distribute my time just because my schedule was generally very busy despite time management. Another weakness was that I have probably not took enough risks with my process of producing work. I feel that although I am trying out new techniques and processes, my finished work is not evolving very much. To help resolve this, I feel that I probably need to think through my idea more and also inform myself more than I do already from other illustrators work before I respond to a brief. 

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Try a new way of working- not let things look the same as my other pieces of work- this will help my work evolve and not stay at the same level it is.

2. Probably plan out my time a little more- instead of a day by day plan, a more detailed hour by hour plan could be good to organise my mind a little bit more.

3. Simplify my work- this will cut down on a lot of work and help me to work 'smarter', the work itself will be much more effective if carried out properly.

4. Try to not be too literal- my postcards definitely show my 'literal' way of working, I would like to employ puns into my work and clever use of combining imagery- a bit like the work of Jean Julien!

5. Blog a bit more- be more reflective. This will help me to organise myself in my work and help me to notice where I am going wrong and what is working well.