OUIL406 Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL406 Visual Communication	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	Molly Halson

1.  What have you learned about visual communication during this module and how effectively do you think you have applied these ideas?
·         I've learned to think in simpler terms about image-making, especially during the 4 Cities brief. By this I mean reducing things down to their basic parts and using shape to communicate the message rather than focusing on lots of complex detail. ·         There are a lot of ways to communicate things, sometimes it's best with simplicity and reduction, and others better with symbols.
2. What approaches to/ methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?
·         I've improved my proficiency with Illustrator and vectors, which relates again to the reduction and communication of ideas - sometimes simple is better! ·         I've enjoyed learning how to make GIFs, even though I did struggle with the brief as a whole.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
·         I'm starting to loosen up my drawing style and take more risks within my work, being less concerned with perfection. This can actually work to my advantage, as with the Persons of Note brief. ·         I do still like and think I'm good at the process of roughing and getting better at drawing multiples of things in order to improve my general drawing skill. ·         I'm gaining confidence in my work and my practice through each brief as I try new things.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
·         Probably the quantity - within some briefs, like the GIF brief, I wasn't really exhaustive in my approach to the task, and didn't really create that many ideas. ·         Similarly in the Persons of Note brief I didn't experiment that much with colour or media, I was kind of set from the beginning on what I wanted to do and didn't push any other ideas further. ·         I regret that I didn't really put my whole heart into the digital GIF. It had so much potential and I could have learned a lot more if I'd made the effort.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
·         I say this every time (and I do really try) but I want to manage my time better. I need to start coming up with schedules or something and have dedicated time to working on briefs and not procrastinate. ·         Work with a wider variety of media. ·         Push myself to try different approaches to image-making and media, like digital.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance				x
Punctuality				x
Motivation			x
Commitment			x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group				x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Persons of Note outcomes!

What went well:

• From feedback, I did set out what I wanted to achieve - the comics made people laugh!
• I was a bit rushed for time at the end so some of the colouring with ink is a bit messy, but I actually quite like it - this brief has let me loosen up a bit and try some low-fi work which allows the idea to be communicated simply and effectively.
• Use of roughing in my sketchbook to flesh out ideas and practice the skill of drawing multiples until I get it right

What didn't go well:

• I started the whole project a bit late and spent a lot of time roughing out ideas so by the time I'd narrowed them down to the ones I wanted to use I didn't have loads of time!

What I'd do differently next time:

• Better time management - not staying up until half 6 the morning of my print booking
• More experimentation with colour and media in my sketchbook
• More research/sketching of the other two people I was given

Ideas refinement

Now that I've drawn out most of the ideas I had in roughs, I thought it was time to narrow them down to the best ones. I decided to pick 20 comics - 16 for the poster, 3 for the postcards and 1 for across the stamps:

Then I started playing around with colours.

And a couple of the comics! They've been well-received so far:

Tutorial feedback

When I came back from the holidays I had my tutorial with Jamie. Since I missed the first crit, no-one really knew what I was up to with this, so it was good to explain my ideas to someone and get a bit a feedback on what could be improved.

Jamie gave me the idea of having a comic strip across the stamps, like each stamp is a panel, which I liked.

I know I'm not as far along with the project as some people in terms of the quantity of work, but at this point I'm definitely focusing more on the ideas. I just need to start moving away from pencil roughs and on to inks!

I'm pretty sure that for these comic strips I want to kinda emulate the style of Kate Beaton, as in just using simple inks or watercolour, again so that the focus isn't pulled away from the humour and idea within the comic.

I'm gonna use an orangey brown palette because many of the pictures of Valentina that I looked at have her in her orange space suit or brown jacket. Also it's kinda similar to soviet propaganda.

Jamie also liked this sort of thing in my sketchbook, where I was experimenting with just trying to draw straight on to the paper with pen (still something I struggle with!). He liked the line quality and said there's humour in it - I'm achieving what I want to achieve! Wooo

Finally, Jamie gave me some artists to look at:

Dan Berry

I do like this, as he has the same kinda low fi comic style as Kate Beaton, although his work reminds me a little of Quentin Blake, and Kate's reminds me of Bryan Lee O'Malley with manga influenced eyes (big eyes).

Jon McNaught

I do like the colour palettes that McNaught uses, although his work is quite melancholy and scene-focused rather than humour and character based which is what I'm doing at the moment.