OUIL402 PPP Self Evaluation

1. What learning have you inherited through this module and how has it impacted on your own understanding of professional practice? Consider yourself as a student at University as much as an illustrator

I have learned the difference between image making and illustration. Mainly that illustration must have a purpose, an audience and an image to be classed as illustration but the purpose could just be “to make people laugh” rather than something deep. Knowing this has made me able to view the work of mine and others and judge whether I could truly class the work as illustration or whether it's just “a drawing”. It has made me think a lot about context. I have also learned that illustration can be found in many different places – almost everywhere which made me think a lot about context as well as it made me see that illustration potentially could be used anywhere! Exciting. Through the tasks I have learned to reflect on my own development as a person and an illustrator as I have had to constantly look back in the year and see what I have learned over the course.

2. What approaches/ types of research have you found most valuable over this module? Why did they have such an impact?

Using pinterest and tumblr to find artists has been useful. By following a range of illustration blogs and boards I have been able to find artists such as Kali Ciesemier and “Lord of Masks” which appeal to my personal tastes but I had not heart of them outside the internet. The internet gives an important platform for illustrators to get their work recognised and can be useful but can also be detrimental due to art stealing and unsourced reposting of art. I have also found going to galleries and talks with artists, at Thought Bubble and creative networks valuable to my practice as I have been able to view different types of illustration and get tips from people in industry on how to live as a freelance illustrator – and some art techniques.

3. In what way has PPP informed the way your work in other modules and your illustration practice as a whole?

I have been able to self reflect a lot better due to the tasks in PPP. Though I am still not very good at capitalising on my strengths – something I would like to work on in the future. But it has helped me pin point weaknesses to work on. The artists I have found from blogging and pinterest have informed and inspired work that I have done in other modules.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your PPP submission and how will you address this in the future? I did not keep up to date with my blogging, especially about events – as I had attended galleries and talks but I forgot to blog about them right away (and also forgot some of the information given or how they had influenced me). The best way to address this would be to carry a notebook so I can take notes at these events to translate into blog posts so I don't forget the most important elements. I don't think I have been as committed to this module as I have to others. I definitely needed to spend more time on the tasks and reflection on the tasks, but as they were small and far apart I often forgot about PPP in the midst of other modules.

5. What communities of practice and professional contexts do you intend to investigate further as you approach level 5? Why do they appeal to you? I would like to explore more experimental work and branching out from my comfort zone. I would really like to make some zines and base my illustration work around things that matter to me such as feminism, gender related issues, the LBGT community, mental health etc as I think I will be able to present more of my attitude and personality in my work rather than just making work 'to meet a brief'. I love designing characters so I would definitely like to look more at character design in many different ways – comics, concept art for films etc. I'm sure many of the things I want to do can merge together for example I can create characters based around issues that concern me – and make comics or zines based on this. I think this will really help me find my tone of voice and thus be able to capitalise on my strengths better as there will be definite things that I am involved with rather than just being lost in the void.

ILLUSTRATED ME

Since one of my weaknesses is that I always hold myself back I just wanted to let loose with this project and go absolutely nuts with it, so most/all of my 10 images are an utter shambles. Although I personally am happy with a few of them, I know they are technically SO BAD and actually offensive to the eye. The most annoying part of these images are that they are all different sizes, like I could have incorporated some sense of unity into this but I didn't. I just let loose with it. 

(The light from my window ruined every picture too) 

* Look at things with a different perspective - I found some text saying "new possibilities" in a magazine and initially just stuck it down on the card thinking "Yeah this'd be great because looking at your work with a different perspective does form new possibilities". Also I feel like my approach to this project has opened up new possibilities and ways of working to me so I thought it was a very appropriate thing to add to the work. The hands were a mistake. 

Have a Good Time - I personally like this one because it is just so rubbish and lo-fi it makes me laugh and I think encapsulates the good time feeling! (other people I have shown this image to have just looked away in shame) With this whole project I just wanted to make art that looked bad for the sake of being bad though, I thought it would be funny! &perhaps this translates my personality a bit better than when I hold myself back from doing stupid stuff like this!

Don't take yourself too seriously - This is my favourite. I don't take myself seriously and I just wanted to do an image taking the mick out of myself (you can't see in this photo but I've accentuated my arm hair). Not taking myself too seriously has made it easy to take criticism and learn from them, as I know I'm a joke. 

Plan your time - I think this image is terrifying and definitely reflects my time management skills (which are terrible, no matter how hard I try) The clocks as iris' are subtle but they look really creepy. My biggest problem with this (and the image below) are that they look like they've been done by an A-level or GCSE student, equal parts disturbing, hilarious and "oh my god why"

Experiment - I do not feel like I experiment enough, so I took this chance to do it! This (somewhat ironically) looks the absolute worst, but how would I have known that if I did not experiment to get to this horrific final image. 

Have No Regrets - Another personal favourite of mine as I get to laugh at myself and my terrible life choices! This is pretty bold and up front. It perhaps shows a side which is not apparent in my college life, the disgusting side of me. Making the photos for this collage was really fun! Making all of this piece was really fun and I loved making something really terrible and chaotic. 

Start with an idea - I have a habit of getting carried away with drawing and sacrificing good ideas for the sake of making a good drawing / meeting deadlines etc. So I should start with an idea. This piece was going to be a lot busier with ideas springing out everywhere but then I thought that just the simple iconography of the light bulb would communicate this better. 

Keep up to date with blogging - An image depicting the consequences of NOT keeping up to date with your blogging. This is fairly self explanatory. I'm not sure how well the image and text go together but I do like the colours against the black background, I think that's pretty cool. 

Take Care of Yourself - As alot of the other images have been based around soul destroying experiences I wanted to do something with a calmer feeling for some soul healing(?). I don't know how I feel about this it's not the best thing I've ever drawn. I like the differences in textures, but at the same time it makes it look kind of A-level-ey again. 

DO THE THING - I hold myself back and should just do the thing. This is meant to show the indecisiveness of my brain and the constant questioning of whether I should do something. And then the answer "JUST DO IT" I like the simplicity of this image! 

While absolutely none of these pieces are my best work I did really enjoy making all these. I got out of my comfort zone with this project and it was fun!

Presentation Slides

Roughs and Stuff

I thought the layout of this would be pretty cool - light shining back through the page shows the literal glare of the blogging screen but also the contstant blogging battle that stretches back through time and space. 

Referencing poltergeist, as blogging can become terrifying when you leave it all until the end. 

I thought for "have a good time" I would draw a mans ruin, but more of an Amber's ruin, with tea and dungeons and dragons dice and Yu-Gi-Oh cards instead of hard liquor and women. 

Presentation Planning

10 Slide Ideas (probably will add more)
1. Introductory slide - Some kind of funny picture for me to say hello on.

2. Strengths - *internal screaming* - I have found it's difficult for me to capitalise on my strengths. Maybe this is because I haven't found a 'calling' or a tone of voice yet - and as I develop my practice more I will be able to find more strengths.

That being said I do think my sense of humour is a big strength of mine.

3. Weaknesses - I have plenty. I am very bad at time management - I have started using a diary and timetables etc but I am still bad and end up rushing things.


4. Artists who have inspired me - Babs Tarr

5. Artists - I should LOOK OUTSIDE THE Illustration bubble.

6.  Places I have been - Thought Bubble, Creative Networks, Galleries etc

7. Inspiration via peers - Share my love for Mel & her wacky collage ways

8. I got wild at THE END of this year, SHOULD HAVE EXPERIMENTED MORE during other projects, missed opportunitys and stuff. Never again will I miss an opportunity I will just DO THE THING. - Holding myself back etc etc.

9. Make Mistakes - Show some awful things I have made and why they are awful

10. Make some great stuff - Show some of the great things I have made and why they are great

11. HAVE A GOOD TIME

12. BYE.

(other slides to add)

*About vectors and how I thought they were actually Satan
*how I actually enjoy a cheeky vector.

OUIL401 Context of Practice Evaluation

What Skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I have developed my research skills, using both academic sources and other sources to find information. I think I have applied this well as most points in my essay were backed up with quotes and evidence found through my research. Learning to write a discourse analysis on an image in the beginning was a really helpful skill to learn as I learned how to write about an image and back up my opinions on what it communicates with quotes from others. I was able to apply this skill in my essay as 3-4 images had to be included and analysed within the essay - I think I did this successfully. 

What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your practical outcomes?

I have found ways of finding academic research, such as searching for journals via google, searching for books via google and using the library to find books. Having many different sources stating similar facts makes the findings of my essay more reliable. I have also watched a few of Anita Sarkeesian's online videos, which informed my essay but I didn't reference. 

I learned that art and other such things can inform my practice without being completely related to it, for example the classical paintings where one was pictured as a subject and the other an object held relevance to my work without being related to geek culture or anything like that. I think that in the future researching various things would help as I could find relevant information where I wouldn't even think about looking. 

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

Finding academic sources on my topic (Misogyny within geek culture and how this affects a female audience) was a little difficult to begin with, I think one of the strengths was being able to track down these sources so my essay would not just be based on what bloggers write. My essay was quite niche but also broad at the same time, giving me a lot of options to go with. For example focusing on 'Geek culture' allowed me to encompass comics, video games, the internet, conventions etc rather than just limiting myself to 'comics'. This meant I could gather information from a wide range of sources and reference several different things. One of the most helpful sources I found was a book called 'How Geek Girls will Rule the World' which had loads of interviews with women working in several different areas of 'geek culture' and their experiences in the field. 

I think it was a strength of me to use a topic that I am passionate and opinionated about as it made the research fun to do rather than a chore, my essay was able to communicate my opinions as well as being backed up by facts. It has led me to ask more questions about female sexuality too that I can investigate further in the future. 

What weaknesses can you identidy in your work and how will you address this in the future?

I struggled a lot when it came to making the ideas from my essay visual. 

I don't think I gave myself enough time to investigate my ideas, as I found the idea of sexual object vs sexual subject really interesting and would have liked to have based my visual diagram around that but I found it very difficult to come up with ideas for that short notice. I definitely should have given myself a lot more time to investigate this as then my final image would probably be more successful.

My visual diagram is not my best work - again this comes down to not giving myself enough time - it is rushed and the technical image making skill in it could have been much much better if I had set aside more time for this. 

My essay is a little short - it still meets the 10% under 3000 words but if I could have written more it would have been better rather, I should have found just one more point to make rather than padding out the rest of my essay. 

This isn't really a changeable problem but due to my visual stress I am a very very very slow reader so reading through all of the research was often tiring or difficult - it was difficult to pick out important points from these massive blocks of text, this hindered me as I was unable to read as much as I would have liked to. 

Identify five things that you feel will benefit you during next years context of practice module?

• My research into women as a sexual subject or a sexual object is something I would definitely like to investigate more next year - including female sexuality. I have already got ideas and sources in mind. 
• Since I know I will have to make sense of my essay through drawings start drawing during the research stage as well as after the essay is written
• Better time management, especially when it comes to the final image. 
• Have some kind of reference masterpost so I don't end up trying to add all the references at the end & don't forget to image reference. 
• Work on it little and often rather than in  big rushed chunks. 

Development / testing

I thought about making a little felted version of myself to use in my images but I had never felted before so I made this as a test

It came out pretty successfully and felting is fun. 

I started to felt a tiny person but sculpting the body was just horrifying and it would have been too time consuming to finish the whole person as much as I would have liked to!

I knew I wanted to use some photos of myself in a collage. Initially I thought I'd draw over the faces on the paper to give it a more comic-like effect but then I thought it might be a cooler idea to just draw straight onto my face - and give myself comic book style makeup! I really love doing makeup so this was super fun for me 

(me in the trash where I belong) 

The Illustrated Self initial Sketches/ Ideas / lists

Trying to figure out vectors - initially I thought they were actually satan, now I quite like them.

I started without any real ideas I just drew things that had happened - mostly negative things that I was finding funny at the time

I'm not sure I realised how dark these drawings were until I looked back at them. Really I was just throwing my feelings into the void to begin with. 

my first real idea was to have a list of top 10 regrets, but shown as '#NoRegrets' because I have absolutely no time to be regretting my stupid decisions. Plus I thought this could be quite funny, as most things I should regret I like to laugh at. 

 This skeleton speaks the truth.

Ok so I need to get some solid ideas down rather than just throwing various things onto the page. START WITH AN IDEA.