OUIL505 End of module evaluation

Sam Metcalf
OUIL505
End of module evaluation.


So with OUIL505 been a unit where I got to explore the area of illustration I wanted to heard my interest in. With me been such a big fan of music I attend quite a lot of live shows, listen to music most of my day and have a keen interest in the alternative music scene. So this is the market I am going to try and get involved in in my professional career, Its perfect for my as I like to draw the alternative things in life and skull are a massive part of the alternative scene and I love to draw skulls.
But with this brief I tried to bring my other interest in to the mix as I spend a lot of my free time outdoors ether walking/hiking or down the pond or lake fishing. I take loads of photos of the British wildlife and have for some time now wanted to bring it into my illustration work but for some reason I was nervous about doing this but with this project I have found the confidence to apply it.
For this brief I wanted to come up with designs for band that they could use across a number of different garment that could be used to promote and advertise the band at present.
I was thinking if I come up with the art work say for the album/record or advertisement image I could then use this t o try and brand the band and they could use the designs on a number of garments if they choose to.
Firstly coming up with the right idea for the artwork, the thing with band artwork is it has to be eye catching and aesthetically pleasing on the eye but also something that you could see that band in. So what I knew I had to do was create something dark but not offensive, as I want it to be aimed at a wide audience.
I was ask if I could do this project with out the use of human skulls with I did successfully do but I use the animals skulls, I was willing to give this ago but I found that to aim these products at the rock/metal music fans that skulls will sell and we all love a good skull.
The main concern I had whilst doing this project was the method I choose to do the illustration in. With me using dots, pointillism?  It takes so much time to do the designs that with a tight deadline this could be a real problem and I should really think about using this method. The end results with using this method I’m over the moon with and if I had more time would love to know the limits would be for me.  Where I have tried to uses the dots and the computer together such as the building of the scales background, I could do with some more practise. If you look closely at the scales you can see they go slightly off line from each other and if I was to do this process again I would send more time drawing and scanning more neater images so they lined up better at the final stages. This is something I will not loose sleep over but something I will consider next time around.
I feel like me confidence with how I have worked on this project and the way in which I build up a image has really become apparent to me on the project. I feel I’m starting to slip into a way of using my hand drawn images and the computer software to best aide me in making successfully illustration. It has become apparent to me over the last few projects that I have a way of first roughing and drawing in my sketch book and then by using Photoshop it is aiding to help construct and finish of my images to a more professional standard.
But with both my computer skills and my drawing skills be it just pencil or sending hours building up dots I need to put the hours in practising these skill. I think its said to become a expert in a field you need to study and practise for at least 10,000hours at it. So with this been said I feel I have many more hours of practise to do but im well on my way to this.
The area I need to work on is my drawings and taking more care into the early stages as marks and mistakes could cost me later on if care is not taken to correct these at the time.
Im happy with how this project has gone although I would of liked to have come up with more design s at the end it was down the to method I had chosen to produce the images that held me back so I just need to get quicker at that skill.