Thursday, 14 May 2015

OUIL505 end of module evaluation


Though it was quite daunting having such a open brief, I was looking forward to being able to explore a subject I was interesting in.  I wanted to be able to draw ‘things’, whatever I felt like drawing as I feel I haven’t had the freedom or time to do this in a while, so I decided to focus on celebrating ordinary life/things. I wanted this project to express appreciation about what we have and not what we don’t.

After speaking to tutors, I realized this idea was far to broad and I needed a defined outcome and a reason for the production of the outcome.
To narrow my project down, I began to focus more on ordinary scenarios people find themselves in rather than both people and objects.  I started by finding photography that show people in their natural habitat, scenes that would go unnoticed if the moment were not captured. My aim of exposing these scenes is to create a feeling of nostalgia, empathy and recognition because you have perhaps experienced or done them yourself.

Though I found some really powerful images these were not my own and I wanted to personalize the project. I firstly decided to take my own photography of what I thought were ‘unnoticed moments’, so I could make my work specific to my concept and exclusive as a publication.  However I felt this was unsuccessful as my images were not sharp enough thus making it difficult for me to show detail in my drawings. This instigated my collaboration with a photography student who could visually communicate and capture my ideas to the standard I needed.

i knew i wanted to create detailed figure illustrations to emphasize how individual and inimitable each person/moment is and how we do not see all these little details unless there are captured and bought to attention.
To create the focal point on the figures faces I experimented with using line drawings with specific detail on the faces and simplified details on the body and backgrounds.

before i started finalizing my illustrations of unnoticed moments, i wanted to be clear what format i would be drawing them for. i experimented with the idea of a book, i thought this would be a ideal way to show multiple ‘unnoticed moments’ thus adding to the concept that they happen regularly.  i also put together a mock up concertina booklet which i felt would again emphasize the idea that these moments are all around us . Though I like the idea that each page in the concertina is seen as a individual moment but also as part of one big scene, i found it difficult to jigsaw each moments together to create a believable scene.

As well as making sure my resolutions were created to a professional level, to resolve my brief, I had to think about my work in terms of its product, range, and distribution -not just a single resolved piece (book). Though I feel I have definitely become more aware of my work in context, especially after taking part in competition briefs in our responsive module where I was required to produce work for book covers etc. I found it quite difficult to personally give my work a purpose that would be plausible in the real world. After talking to tutors I decided to mould my illustrations for a charity campaign.
I think If I was to start this project again I would have decided on the application of my work first (charity campaign) as I would have been able to make the concept of my book more fitting to the charity’s perception and sensitivity, communicating a stronger link by illustrating issues the charity’s demographic can relate to.
 it would of also saved me time thinking about where to apply my work in the environment as I was able to quickly establish what platforms other Samaritans campaigns have used and where they have applied them, using this as a guide instead trying to impose my work onto as many platforms as I could which would not necessarily be in places the charity’s demographic would be most receptive.


I feel this module has been a big eye opener in that it has allowed me to appreciate that i do not necessarily have to produce new illustrations when I need to publicize and apply my work to different platforms as I can reinvent existing illustrations by cropping, removing or adding elements to maintain recognition to the original pieces whilst still making them look individually created for other formats. For example my poster resolutions, I transferred the figure illustrations only from the book and added the paired quote in a appropriate area. This is something I can definitely use in other modules and in later life such as self-promotion, instead of creating new work to promote myself such as business cards, I can take crops of existing work giving It a new feel.

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