OUIL 405: visual narratives- self evaluation

1.  Which practical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice? ·         Over the last module I have learnt how to use InDesign to effectively create a book. I also learnt about how to prepare a document for print, but still sometimes struggle with the concept of bleed and how to work it out. ·         Although I consider myself to know the basics of Photoshop, I've not had much experience using it as a tool to correct and prepare images for print, and I've been able to practice and develop this skill this module, e.g. using levels. I think I have been successful with this, as the final images printed how I'd like them (and sometimes even better than how the appeared digitally) ·         This project has been the first time I have really considered using coloured pencils. I've been exploring the use of textures in previous modules and in using pencil found a new way of utilising this. However I think there is definitely room to explore this more!

2. Which approaches to research have you found most valuable during this module. How have you interrogated your research to identify appropriate ideas?

·         This module has really taught me how important and valuable research on location is. I think I did well at recording visual information, both what I observed and thought of my location. However I was not brave enough to talk to people about the places, and I feel that I could probably have gotten a lot more out of my project if I did. ·         Researching two different locations gave me good scope for ideas and allowed me to be selective about what I chose, instead of working with something I didn't feel passionate about (that said, being able to do this successfully is also an important skill!)

3. What strengths can you identify within your submission and how have you capitalised on these?

·         Looking back at Studio Brief 1 I feel that our team's cooperation really shows in the book we made together. It was a new experience to work as part of a group for an artistic project but I felt I was able to act as a good team member. We all responded to each other's ideas and created a book that featured our individual skills as a cooperative product. ·         I feel that my final book was produced to a fairly high standard and I took care with the crafting of the piece, both in the image making and bookbinding. I also feel that the image making took a bit of a departure from what I normally do, both media and style wise, and that was something I had hoped to do since the last module.

4. What areas for further development can you identify within your submission and how will you address these in the future?

·         As mentioned before, I need to work on my research methods. I lacked research from talking to people and factual research too. Next time I make first hand research I will try to work on utilising these methods. ·         Although I feel that the images for the final book were made well enough, there's always room for improvement. I enjoyed the textures I made in the illustrations, but feel they could have been more refined, even if it  was something as simple as using a sharper pencil or spending a little more time on them. And although I feel that this work was different to what I normally do, I think there is still more room for variety. Particularly in regards to tone of voice.

5. How effectively are you making decisions about the development of your work? What informs these decisions? What problems have you identified and how have you solved them? ·         One of the biggest decisions I had to make was the theme/ place of SB2/SB3. I assumed of the two locations that the cave research would prove most fruitful but struggled to form good ideas from it. It meant I had to be open to the idea of using the park as a project theme, despite appearing to be the less exciting idea. ·         For the physical preparation of the book I had to make decisions too! For media use I found that making fairly 'finished' pieces was the best and really only way to tell how the finished product would look, even if those tests were smaller than the proposed final. That said, I dove straight in with the colour choice for the book. Luckily it paid off but it could have gone badly! ·         Deciding on compositions I found I could often get away with making smaller thumbnails and scamps, but had to be careful they were the same proportions as the intended final, as if they weren't the composition inevitably wouldn't balance out. Smaller thumbnails are good for being able to generate ideas quickly but I think I should have made some larger to scale sketches before settling on decisions.

6. How effectively have you managed this project and organised yourself during this module? ·         I found with this project that I was able to manage my time quite well. I worked efficiently and finished my book with a few days to go before the assigned crit, and met other deadlines as well. I felt a little behind with work during the Christmas period due to illness but I feel that with some extra hard work I managed to catch up.