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.