Visual Narrative OUIL405 Self Evaluation

1. Which practical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice?

Although I have used gouache before I feel like I'm really getting the hang of it now. I invested in some new gouache from the library which works much better than my old ones and has been really fun to use. I am finally getting better with consistency and creating flat, block colours with it.  During the One Week Book brief I did some screen printing and since we were in a group it went a lot smoother than it ever has before. My ink pulling technique has definitely improved and I am excited to be able to do more screen printing. I am much more confident about it now than I was last year although we have only done one session.  For my picture book I used Photoshop to edit my images which included piecing together several scans to make one image. This was an new experience and most of it went smoothly but I did have to expand my editing skills when things didn't line up properly. The heal tool is a god-send and before the Photoshop inductions I never used it but I have found it very useful in this project. I have not used Photoshop much in these projects but the small bits of editing I have done have been successful.  Using In Design is another skill I have developed, I have previously used In Design but I find that things are much clearer now and I'm not as lost doing things in it. I have learned the importance of bleed as in my final picture book I did not factor in a bleed and ended up slicing a little too much off my book. Bleed is important.  Not sure if this is strictly a skill but I have been doing a lot of folding due to the fact that I chose to do a concertina book. Using a bone folder was new for me but really improved the quality of my folding (although my book still ended up wonky)

2. Which approaches to research have you found most valuable during this module. How have you interrogated your research to identify appropriate ideas? Doing primary research was really valuable to all the briefs in this project and has been a lot more exciting than it has been in previous years (A-Level, GCSE etc) probably because the course is more self driven. Being able to go off and explore places individually was great. Primary research was great for being able to draw from life and actually experience something and have an emotional response from the place.  Secondary research has been valuable too for extra bits of information - as I researched woodlands I actually went to a few woods but I also did research via the internet on wildlife, reference images of trees and various other things that didn't actually end up being relevant - a danger of the secondary information.

I wrote down literally every idea that came into my head and tried to weed out the good ideas from the bad. Sometimes this involved further secondary research like when I thought I could do something related to paganism but then realised that I was pushing out a little too far for my time scale and brief. Other times I would just sketch out the idea as having a visual helps me to decide how well this might turn out.

3. What strengths can you identify within your submission and how have you capitalised on these? During the Visual Journalist / Picture Book briefs I did a lot of visual research and media testing. My image making really drove my book forward. I I really did an exhaustive amount of research for this project - much more than I have ever done in other projects. I feel as if I've gone through a really explorative journey with many twists and turns in the road, it's been exciting.  I feel like my roughs are much clearer than they have been previously as I have done several different plans for the book and annotated a lot of them for future reference.

I am very pleased with my overall final book I think a strength of mine was that I put a lot of work into this. My gouache skills have improved vastly and the image quality and colour scheme is probably some of the best elements of my work.

4. What areas for further development can you identify within your submission and how will you address these in the future?

I think my crafting is better in this project but it could still be improved. I definitely need to take more time to refine my work and get things crafted more precisely. Especially folding if I am going to be making more books. I think to improve further on my crafting I should be practising all the time within my degree and also for a hobby as practice makes perfect.  Time management is definitely another thing I need to improve - I have talked further about this in point 6. I will be using a diary and trying to plan my days so I can get the most out of them.  Based on the One Week Book brief I would like to develop my ability to work collaboratively, as sometimes I can be a little shy and not used to working in groups (although I may appear deceivingly social). I worked well in my group during that brief - it all went well but I feel as if this is something I do need to improve on.

5. How effectively are you making decisions about the development of your work? What informs these decisions? What problems have you identified and how have you solved them? Some of my decisions have been based on time constraints like if I needed to get something done quickly then I would just have to make a decision without lingering too long on it. I find that a lot of my decisions are based on feedback from other people, I will weigh up my options and then ask for others' opinions which feed into my final decision as well as feedback from crits. I found this helpful because I was able to get a few people's opinion on my work before coming to a final decision myself.  My project took a massive turn from my project proposal as I was intending to focus my book on a contrast between trash in British woodlands and tropical animals kept in man made environments. Part of my decision to change my idea back to just woodlands was the fact that when I tried to explain my idea I couldn't do it very well - people didn't quite understand it and it felt as if I couldn't actually connect with my project. This kind of decision came from some feedback but also just from a gut feeling and I changed it at a point that I had enough time to backtrack my project.  One of the big decisions in my book was deciding on a media to use. For this decision I had to do a lot of experiments with different media and weighed up the pros and cons of the media/technique. In the end I went for the one that looked best for me, and other's agreed.  I had wanted my book to be double sided but was told I couldn't do double sided if the page was over A2 which I thought it would be (but it ended up being printed on a smaller stock so I could have actually done it double sided). Because of this I had to change the direction my book folded - so the end pages pointed outward - allowing artwork to me on the front and back of the book. Due to the lack of double sided, I also made a 'belly band' for my book to act as  a front cover.  6. How effectively have you managed this project and organised yourself during this module? I have managed my time in this project better than I have for other projects though I still think I could improve a lot more. I have started using a diary and lots of to do lists that I keep with me - my main problem is sticking to those plans and getting stuff done on time. The best time managing I did was when my digital print induction was on Tuesday afternoon and I was seeing Slipknot that evening, so I managed my time to be able to print off my final book for Tuesday so I could enjoy the concert to the max.  Perhaps this is not the most efficient way of planning but it really motivated me. I think I will have to motivate myself with rewards or events so I can manage my time around them. I am going to continue using my diary as it has definitely improved how I work.  Setting aside time for blogging is something I need to work on to as I often have to back-track my project or I leave stuff in drafts for weeks. In future projects I will strive to blog more regularly.

Hellen Jo

In this piece I love the attitude, the characters shine out even though it's just a single image and not a sequential comic. This is the kind of feeling I wish to communicate with my work - as I am not great with narratives but do love making characters!

{Late} Thought Bubble {Post}

This is only the second year I've been to Thought Bubble, I honestly would not have even known about it if my foundation tutors hadn't told me. This is the first year I have been to any of the panels and I found them really interesting in regards to my practice as illustrators discuss their techniques in creating work and working as a freelance illustrator.

Sketching Spotlight:
At the sketching spotlight was Babs Tarr, Emily Carroll, Boulet and another person I do not remember the name of - first name Dani, I think. I took some notes of what they said about working in the industry.

{Whats a general day like working as a freelance illustrator?}
 Since they run their own timetable most of the panel agreed that they wake up slowly and then work until they fall asleep. (Boulet says: "I watch cartoons until I hate myself and then I get on with my work")

{Media}
A lot of the artists use a combination of traditional and digital methods to create their work. A technique I'd like to try is scanning ink washes into photoshop to add colour onto linework digitally. The moderator said something about photoshop being cheating; the panel retorted that photoshop is not cheating but just another tool used for making art.

Boulet likes to use watercolour because it's quick, cheap, 'lazy' and people will think you're cultured when you use it (his words not mine)

{other}

Doing things for fun like webcomics can be adapted into books if they're popular enough (and earn you some money)

Drawing from life informs your practice!

Having an intern is really hard because "you can't wake up at noon and say to them 'well I'm just going to watch Buffy today' you have to actually do some work" - Boulet is a comical man.

Diversity In Comics
I lost my pen and couldn't take any notes here but it was really interesting and relevent to my cop project as there was a lot of speak about women within comics.

Donya Todd said that living in an internet age makes it easier for women to get involved with comics as there are more self publishing opportunities if you aren't interested in going into mainstream comics.

Another thing I remember is talk of the new female Thor comic. One of the panel members found that there were no women actually working on it and while it's a step forward having the character female - it may have been more interesting to her if the comic had women working on it.