Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL405 Visual Narratives	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	Hollie Smith

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them? This is the first time I've made work following one complete narrative, which I think is a skill I very much want to refine and develop as I greatly enjoyed working in that way. I tend to make comic strips mostly as they're much quicker but being committed to a sustained narrative and then seeing it develop into a comprehensible story is very rewarding.  Also i think I've also developed my time management skills, possibly as a result of Fred's sessions. I've started to plan my time more effectively and follow the plan where before I would've neglected it and been in a rush before the deadline. I managed to plan the work I had to do in accordance with when I could use certain facilities like bookbinding and print, and I stuck to these mini deadlines meaning there were no real  problems in the production stage.
2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process? i have developed my digital skills considerably during this module. I wanted to use analogue processes to make the line work and then digital to colour and finish it, which I haven't done since foundation. Since then I've improved at selecting colours and I have learnt new processes to make the work look crisper. I've become much quicker at working this way and I now use shortcuts instinctively. I think the end result of this new skill acquisition was successful. I received a lot of positive comments about the colouring and personally I think it works as the colours I chose are bright enough to be interesting but without clashing or appearing too busy or unconsidered. The placement of colour continued to develop my concept in that stage as I chose to make dramatic lighting using the colour, making my concept even more like a faux-dramatic horror film. Without the application of colour in this way many of the panels would have looked very bland and often objects looked like they were floating when they weren't connected to the ground by a shadow.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? The strengths I've identified following comments in the final crit are apparently humour, the narrative and the colour scheme. I wanted people to be as involved in the story as possible so I chose a simple, not particularly stylised  way of drawing that aimed to communicate the image clearly. I get very annoyed when a comic is confusing because of unnecessarily decorative or superfluous illustrations that fail to communicate the story, so I tried to avoid this and I think I've succeeded, as the comments were about the story rather than the style.  I dont think I used text based jokes as heavily throughout the comic this time as I have done before because the initial concept was the basis for most of the humour used. I tried to start with a silly concept so it would set itself up for amusing spoofed visuals and comically expressive faces. I think it was an easy topic to make amusing though, as silly things like this are just quite funny to start with, it's much less of a struggle than making the holocaust funny would be.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? I definitely didn't use my time effectively in the period between the start of this project and the end of christmas. Had I used this time better I think my book would've been much more developed, I'd have had time to redraft the story and make the panels flow, and I wouldn't have had such a busy three weeks at the end. Obviously I couldn't help the week I missed due to illness but had I been more organised at the beginning of the project and over christmas this would have been less of a problem. Next time I'm going to start immediately rather than leaving work until it absolutely must be done eg. starting my essay at 8pm Thursday night. I think I will improve at this if I continue to plan my time like I've been doing recently, as the main problem is that I just waste the time I have.  With regards to my comic making weaknesses I think there are two main ones; erratic panel arrangements that create a strange pacing, and sloppy line work. The next time I make a comic I will definitely allow time for a redrafting stage where I plan where the panels will fit on the page and how the story will flow so I don't just have to cram them all into the space at the last minute.  My linework may have suffered because I was rushing to finish, so perhaps I should've allowed yet more time to pay attention to this. I didn't realise how heavy handed it was until the images were scanned and magnified in Photoshop. It's mostly negligible but I think my finals would look much crisper and more professional if I put more care into my lines, maybe making them thinner, and directing the brush pen so as to make tapered line ends.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? 1. Plan my time evenly from the beginning of the project till the end. I hope in doing this I will be able to balance my life better between academic, social and domestic commitments, rather than having weeks of doing nothing, then three weeks of doing nothing but work. By the end I had pretty severe cabin fever and the sink was stacked miles high with my pots, a la Withnail and I.  2. Spend more time in the development stage. I think I managed to do a decent amount of development considering the time I had left myself, but there can always be more. I would have developed the flow of my panels so they weren't so cluttered and I would have tinkered with the story to make it the best paced possible, and I would have put more prior thought into the design of my characters  rather than just making them up on the spot. If I do this in future I think my comics will be more enjoyable to read and my characters will be more considered and believable, and I will have time to plan what they look like from different angles rather than, again, making it up on the spot.  3. I will use the colour proofing tool in Photoshop to check the colours I've used are available on the printer. This will mean I'm not initially disappointed when the prints come out slightly different to on screen, and I now know that using two different papers in one book can result in the print being two slightly different colours, only noticeable when next to each other. I will also know that the pages have to be printed onto one paper size bigger than what they will be in the end, meaning next time I will save money by designing my pages at dimensions slightly smaller than A. This was my first time using digital print so next time I will have a better idea what I'm doing and the end result will be more satisfying.  4. I want to use more reference in my drawings and improve at drawing the human form. I've signed up for the life drawing class so hopefully this will improve my understanding of how the body moves and falls. I think many of the poses and faces in my comic are stiff and unconvincing, so hopefully practise will remedy this. I need to start using reference images to draw details like computers, but by this stage didn't feel I had time so made things up. Something drawn from a reference photograph would have probably been more believable. As well as this I intend to improve my drawing of perspective and the falling of shadows. I've taken out a book on perspective and I want to try drawing objects in dramatic light so I can see where it falls, instead of just guessing until it looks right. I think all of this will help to make my comics look like they take place in an actual environment.  5. I will use better quality paper as the card I ended up with allowed a lot of bleeding. Next time I'll get Bristol Board of the right size in advance to avoid this. I also want to may more attention to the execution of my drawings, sketching out each panel more than once and spending more time on crafting my line work. Although I do think I rely too heavily on black line work, so for the next brief I would quite like to try something more shape-based, perhaps a screen print  This will hopefully save my work from becoming tired and repetitive  Brush pen is now my go-to tool so I don't want to wear it out before I've mastered it.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance			x
Punctuality			x
Motivation				x
Commitment					x
Quantity of work produced				x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group				x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

A copy of your end of module self evaluation should be posted to your studio practice blog. This should be the last post before the submission of work and will provide the starting point for the assessment process. Post a copy of your evaluation to your PPP blog as evidence of your own on going evaluation.

Notes