OUIL403 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?

I now do a lot more development work using roughs and scamps before I decide on a final design I’m going to work on, taking in to consideration colour layout, medium and fonts. Working in the different mediums in the development stage can help me to see which one will better suit the style on the work I’m producing and I feel this gives added practise using the different materials, therefore building my confidence when using them on designs. Also once I find an image I’m happy with I can then work on it in different ways to see which best works, this helps me explore the different ways this image will look from the start of the final design.

2. Which principles/ theories of image making have you found most valuable during this module and how effectively do you think you are employing these within your own practice?

I have used reference material to get my ideas and shapes down on paper to then add and build on top of. Just doing a quick search on the internet or looking in a book can save heaps of time not having to try work out how something looks from memory as it is then in front of you. Scanning or taking photos of my images then editing them in Photoshop to play with colour schemes allows me to see which works best before adding any colour to my final designs. This also saves time and the results are instant with no waste.

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

I found that whilst working on the day in the life brief I really enjoyed the task of working to a story/article as it didn’t give too much of a platform to go wild with random ideas. Although that would have been nice it made me do the obvious and this seemed to work, working on similar designs just with little alterations gave me a greater idea of how the final images were going to look and work together as a series. I also used images to reference from to help me illustrate my ideas better and give them a more life like look.

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

When drawing up my roughs and scamps I need to start drawing them in the layout of the size the final image will be applied to so I can better see how the finale design is going to look in the correct format. I could do this b drawing a box using the shape of final designs formats and work to those limitations. I feel I need to work on the layout and composition of my designs, as it seems to be something I have never really thought about before this unit. I need to try and work out how best the imagery is going to look and work  out if the images and text are balanced right with the amount of negative space left

5. In what way has this module introduced you to the Ba (Hons) Illustration programme? It has been great starting point as I feel I now have a sense as to what the program is about and what time scale we have to do the different aspects of development to the final design. As well as getting an idea of what I am expected to produce in order to make the next steps not as challenging, leaving more time to perfect my ideas. The only issue I had is putting my work on the blog as it is a whole new system of working for me which at times can be frustrating and time consuming.