Visual Skills Brief 2 - Final Evaluation

My final 3 editorial illustrations for the article 'The age of loneliness is killing us'.

I found this brief quite challenging, although fun too. Initially I came up with quite a few ideas for each piece, but I know I may have focused too much on one idea that may not have actually been the best way forward. The first image of the man running towards his family and away from a pile of smashed computers was born from a singular phrase in the article - 'lone ranger' - which was identified as being too distant from the article and overcomplicated in the first halfway point crit. Although I tried to edit the idea to fit in with the article more, I think got too caught up in the narrative aspect which was unnecessary for this brief. In the future I need to be confident enough to scrap ideas that I may have loved at the start but in the end are inappropriate.

I think the design and concepts of my images work well, as by looking at them you can tell what the article is about, particularly in the latter two. The colour I used suits the article, as blue is a colour often associated with sadness, loneliness and even social media, which the article gives reference to briefly. However, the yellow and orange in the first one, as I mentioned, was more me trying to present a narrative happy ending, which didn't really work well.

I did initially want to use Photoshop for this brief, but in the end didn't manage my time very well, which I need to improve on. I experimented with watercolour initially, which now that I look back, could have worked better for the article I had, as the wash effect actually seems more vulnerable and 'sad'. I chose to use Copic markers and coloured fineliners, which do have an aesthetic appeal. Even though you can see some of the pen marks, I think it actually suits the article, as it has a sort of broken and messy quality, fitting the tone of the article. 

I found the concept of roughing very useful in this brief - just getting ideas down and not worrying about getting the perfect drawing. It was quite hard to draw 'badly' at first, but the concept has really grown on me and it's definitely useful for figuring out composition without being too precious.

Next time I definitely want to experiment with more media, and even though I believe I came up with quite a lot of initial ideas, I could always do more! I definitely need to manage my time better too. I identified this in the last brief and have failed to act on the information.