At the start of this module I was worried about not being
able to find brief’s I liked or enough brief’s to do however once I started
creating I realized more and more with each brief what area I wanted to move
towards and the brief’s naturally become more adapted to what I needed my
portfolio I looked like. At the end of this module, I feel proud of what I have
achieved as an illustrator. I now have a project and a way of working that will
progress after the university experience, as well as having the skills and know
how to compete in more competitions and to a higher standard.
I progressed many of my skills throughout this module, my
most important discovery was using gouache. I’d only previously used it for
line drawing but using it to create solid images was a new approach for me that
really works. I have also been trying to progress my digital work which I feel
I have done to a good level but it is something I want to work on in the
future. I have now started to research properly before projects and to mock
them up at the end, which is something I haven’t ever done previously due to time
constraints or not having the skill to do so. At the end of this module I can
finally say that my organizational skills have really improved, there is still
room for improvement but I am very rarely scrambling at the end of a deadline
now.
I enjoyed using gouache the most in my projects because it
gave me a good sense of colour palette, I enjoyed the storyboarding aspect of
my Final Major Project. Storyboarding is not something I’ve done much of before
but it has really helped me in how I see compositions and flow of a story. This
year I enjoyed going to tutorials with tutors, I went with questions and really
tried to learn as much as I could. In previous years Tutors have always been
more of a check in than a place to ask questions but this year I found the
range of tutors I could speak to really helpful and it has molded the way I
have worked, from using layout paper to how I paint my pieces, their advice
came in hand on a number of occasions this year and really pushed my practice
forwards through hard patches of creative blocks.
My biggest problem this year was my confidence and having
the confidence to stick with one way of working long enough to enjoy it, I have
dabbled in many areas this year from animation, to projection to editorial and
used a big range of methods to do it (ink, photoshop, water colour, pencil
etc). I was feeling lost until a few weeks ago when Ben Cox encouraged me to
find something I enjoyed doing and to keep at it until I produce something I’m
happy with. Instilling that sense of determination in me was crucial to my
final outcomes of Extended Practice, I think that’s the most important thing I
will be taking away from this module.
Working in gouache is something that really works for me,
both compositionally and colour wise, adding digital elements to my work will
naturally progress as I have more practice with my Wacom at home. The next step
for me is to continue working in this way and build up more pieces for my
portfolio in this way so then I have something I can show to a client that is
100% the way I work, at the moment the only thing I was being commissioned for
is my line work which isn’t very descriptive of me or the practice I want to
achieve. I want to create more editorial pieces and continue my FMP into my
future practice.
