Summation feedback and reflection

 Final Reflective Statement

This Illustrating sketchbooks module has been quite fun, I got to do a lot of observational drawings which I’ve always liked to do, however it a bit different as I had to go out in public and outside which I’m not usually comfortable with, but it wasn’t too bad. Gave me a little more confidence and practice. There was a lot of research in this module which I didn’t mind as most of the artist’s work were a joy to look at and talk about. One of the best parts of this module is that I got to explore my style and storytelling in a few of the exercises. I’m hoping my interest in these exercises have shown.

Over the course the use of mark making has been more of a focus, I have found new ways to create textures and darkness or shadows using things like lines, cross hatching, dots, and general squiggles. In the storyboard exercise 4.2 you can see the shapes I have created through mark making and the adaptions I have made in pen and then in pencil changing from harsh lines and shading to lighter pressure lines. The use of coffee for mark making was also experimented with by using more water for a lighter effect and then building up the image with a less diluted cup of coffee grounds so the colour was darker.

As for my ideas of the everyday have evolved in the way that I now can use artist techniques I’ve researched and techniques themselves like pareidolia and also making a character or drawing into something lese using SCAMPER. I tried out gouache for the first time and that was interesting. Along the lines of finding faces in things I now think about backstories and narratives to everything around me and how I can create characters and images.

• What does visual language mean to me?

Visual language to me refers to any piece of art that communicates whether intentionally or not, the narrative or meaning could reflect something in particular but can perceived or even be changed/ manipulated into a whole new illustration or narrative.

As for my feedback during this unit I'm quite happy with it, I feel like I've developed my skills over this unit, experimented and prioritised a lot of my time to following up after practically doing an exercise or assignment. I've become a lot more reflective and using a lot more research use alongside everything which gives a lot more context into my work. 

However, there are still a few things I need to work on and improve, such as adding as much depth to a task as I possibly can, trying out all variations, techniques and squeezing out as much creativity I can to make every assignment the best rather than playing it so safe or not reaching my fully potential. For example, this assignment 5 being a but disappointing style wise as my work building up to it could have worked a lot better than my actual final drawn pieces which were a little dull in comparison. Also, in general I think i could be a bit more reflective as it might provide a better insight into the process and feeling towards the tasks.

Looking back at my action plan I think I have achieved my goals; I have added more colour which was a big one, experimenting and mark making as well as keeping some elements interactive. Finally, I still have another thing I need to fix and that is to make is the navigation of my blog as I’ve been told through feedback that it can be hard to find things.