Response to Tutor Feedback Part 5

As I mentioned in the previous assignment and I am repeating here - so that the assessors are aware: 

 Overall, your response has shown a determination to get the work done despite medical difficulties. You are to be commended for what must have been a difficult task to achieve. This shows an excellent commitment to your studies.    Your illustrations are developing in a bold and dynamic way and your type exercise exploration is good fun and appropriate. 

You have selected relevant work for your gallery and you have presented your selected illustration and the design process very clearly. Your gallery shows a range of illustration styles ranging from the bold to the delicate. 

  Your chosen illustration has been applied to a range of products in a convincing manner and you have researched production methods. 

For the first exercise we were to select our favorite work completed so far and pick one to develop further. I chose my stag tattoo and found it looked pretty good on different products. My tutor suggested trying it at different sizes and maybe trying different colours as well.

The travel guides exercise was quite out of my comfort zone and I ended up doing a lot of research so that I could get an understanding of the cities we were to illustrate for.

In the end I chose to go with quite a bold, vibrant look to reflect the atmosphere of the city.

The text and image exercise was an interesting exploration of how different type faces can be illustrated to communicate specific words. My tutor suggested trying them in different layouts to see how it changed how they looked, this is something I need to explore further.

I'm quite pleased with how my final drawing came out for the biscuit packaging. I found this exercise quite challenging but like the final outcome.

I wasnt sure how I would get on with the exercise working for children. However I quite enjoyed it and am interested to explore this type of illustration further.

Assignment 5 was a fun one and I enjoyed coming up with an idea for the seven days. My reading challenge for the bookshop Waterstones seemed to be well received by my tutor and she suggested ways to try out different colours for the bags and look into putting the design onto other products as well. I was really pleased with how this illustration turned out and with a bit more work it could be even better.

Response to Tutor Feedback Part 4

Overall, your response has shown a determination to get the work done despite medical difficulties. You are to be commended for what must have been a difficult task to achieve. This shows an excellent commitment to your studies. Hopefully the work has been a bit of a positive distraction for you too. 

 You are showing the design process that you have undertaken well and this shows how you move from research, to mind-mapping, to initial ideas and final pieces. 

 As I will mention throughout the comments it would still be beneficial to experiment with more media and materials.

Part 4 and 5 were completed at a much slower pace because of my diagnosis of breast cancer, however I found having the work to focus on really helped me get through my treatment and I am pleased to say I am now well.

The first exercise identifying tools and materials I found quite difficult. I always struggle with looking at other artist's work and using elements to creating something new. I don't think I did this exercise particularly well.

Museum posters, this exercise I was really not looking forward to doing. It came at a point when I was feeling very unwell from the treatment but knew I needed to push through. We visited a local museum and actually had a good time looking round. I decided to focus on an area of the museum that appealed to  me to help me complete the work. I chose their wildflower bee garden and worked digitally to create the poster. This is one of my favourite pieces Ive done so far. I really like the sketchy, natural look and think it looks quite eye catching overall.
My tutor reminded me about the use of all capital letter titles and so I have updated the poster with a new font which I feel still works very well.

Creating book covers for children was an interesting exercise. I did some research into what children these days find fun and eye catching and developed ideas from there. I went with a very bold, primary colour scheme which is not a look I particularly like but suited the target audience. Overall I am pleased with how they came out.
My tutor encouraged me to try different mediums and colour schemes for the designs and again develop my ideas further.

The menu card exercise was good. I found myself doing a lot of research for this before I started and decided on a bold, simple theme for the logo.
I needed to work on developing my ideas a bit more for this and doing a bit more experimenting to improve the overall design.

A tattoo, this exercise was another favourite of mine. I really enjoyed the research process and coming up with ideas on what the tattoo should contain and look like. I have since added the greeting card mock up and body mock up based on my tutors suggestion.

The visual distortion exercise was an interesting one. At first I found it really awkward trying to do things in a way I wasn't used to but I found as I developed the image further I had ideas of how it could be developed into product illustration which I really liked.

You have taken an appropriately experimental approach to this exercise so it would be good to remember some of techniques in future projects. It is great that you have made it into a company logo and shown it in context.

I found the character design exercise quite difficult, it's not something I have done that much of before, certainly not in the sense of making it look more 3d.

You have shown the start of some character development for this task and taken this through to 2 final digital solutions. 

 Some points to consider • to help with the drawing of fictional characters it might help to create them in 3D with plasticine or clay (or even cotton wool for the snowman) so you could get more of a feel for the solidity of the form. You could then draw from these models. 

 • it would also help to try them out in a variety of media and to look at the characters from different angles and at a variety of sizes. 

I like the idea of trying them out in clay so get a feel for different angles, this is something I will keep in mind for the future.

Overall my feedback for assignment 4 was quite positive, again I need to explore more angles for composition and test out different ideas and colours.

I have also explored different typography books which I got from the local library and referenced in my bibliography.

 

Response to Tutor Feedback Part 3

 Overall your response to part three has shown a determination to get the work done. You have tackled the exercises and assignment and it looks like you have enjoyed yourself along the way. This is a really positive step forward.

You are starting to present a greater variety of mixed media starting points but this is still an area to keep developing.

You are also starting to develop a delicate colour palette – just be careful that your work doesn’t start to look too similar because of the colours that you are using. Think about your audience and test your colour schemes out carefully.

I enjoyed the first exercise on exploring composition. It was a fun way to test out the ideas by printing the elements at different scales and mixing them up to see how that influenced the final feel of the picture.

The next exercise was to describe elements of an illustration including the most prominent elements and my tutor seemed pleased with how I approached this task. I found it quite enjoyable and not too difficult.

I found the image development exercise interesting. It was fun to see how you could develop an illustration from something completely different and then turn that into a poster. My tutor advised me about not using all capitol letters for titles and this is something I corrected on future work at the final stages.

For the abstract illustration exercise we were to create a piece based on listening to a specific piece of music. This is something I thought I would really enjoy since I have worked this way before in my college course and also in my own personal work. Perhaps my work has evolved since then as I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought and found it not as easy either.

I liked the colours and strokes I came up with but wasn't sure I like the final piece. I was also trying out different mediums and wasn't used to how they performed so found this a little frustrating on my first attempt.
My tutor suggested I consider some different crops of the image to test against the one I'd chosen.

I really enjoyed the giving instructions exercise. It was the first time I had done an illustration in this way and wanted to use digital painting to complete the final piece. I started with a sketch I created in pencil which I then transferred to my tablet and continued to completion.
I was really pleased with how my final illustration came out, it was one of my first more detailed digital pieces and although it needs a bit more  tweaking and cleaning up I really pleased with the outcome.
Based on my tutors advice I changed the font to something more readable.

The view point exercise I chose to do pencil drawings of strawberries at different angles and crops. I like working in coloured pencils and like using the cross hatching technique.

Learning about creating visuals for the next exercise was really challenging for me. I found simplifying the illustrations really hard and my tutor suggested I could simplify them even further still. This is a skill I need to work on and get my head around how to effectively do this without losing information for the final piece.

Creating a mock up for a book cover was one of my favourite exercises so far. I chose to re-create a book cover based on the Prayer book by Timothy Keller. The original design had quite a masculine feel to it and I decided to make it more feminine to appeal to a female audience. I wanted it to have quite a heavenly, soft look and so used my oil painting as a background mixed with digital text to complete the look. This is one of my favourite pieces of work so far and I took on board my tutors comments to make the text stand out by the use of shadows, so I added those in and I also added some other colour ideas based on my tutors feedback.

Assignment 3 was again another of my favourite pieces of work. I chose to create a music poster for one of my favourite singers and used my knowledge of her personality to choose the colour scheme and feel of the overall piece.

 It would be good to see your mind-maps extended further by making links between other areas in the mind-map. You could highlight the most interesting parts and then extend these as additional mind-maps or lists of words.

• it would be good to see more alternative layouts being tested in your sketchbook and then being moved onto digital testing. This can also be recorded in your sketchbook.

• it would be helpful to see a greater variety of mixed media backgrounds being tested before you decide in your final. This could test other marks and colour schemes

• it would be beneficial to see other type styles and positioning tested. Try and avoid the over use of capital letters and test out the type in a variety of sizes.

I did try to develop different layout outs before getting to the final design but I think this is something I still need to work on to develop further. I again forgot about not using all capital letters so this is something I need to improve on.

I still need to work on developing my ideas, I tend to get an image in my head of what I want the final piece to look like and then struggle to test out other ideas. This is something to continue to work on.

My tutor sent me some links to explore which I looked into as well.

Response to Tutor Feedback Part 2

Overall your response to part two has covered all the exercises and the final assignment. You are showing your design process effectively and you have started to tackle more sketchbook work.

Your black and white cut-out is particularly bold and shows a good level of craft with the cutting. This approach enables you to focus on the essential pieces of the image so it may be worth pursuing this style a little more if the opportunity arises.

I got off to a good started with the first exercise and my tutor seemed pleased with my approach to writing a brief for an illustration. She suggested adding a bit about what the mood of the illustration would be but otherwise was pleased with the description I had offered.

For the second exercise we were focusing on generating ideas. I knew this was something Id been told to work on more and tried to push  myself to explore further ideas on the spider diagrams. My tutor suggested pushing them even further and I asked how far can you push them before they become irrelevant and my tutor advised me to push it as far as I could and not worry too much about them becoming abstract ideas as long as it can relate back to the original idea.

Your emotional response to the different words is interesting and you could explore this further.

I found this response from my tutor interesting and kept that in mind for future work.

The next exercise was about generating ideas through sketches and a moodboard. At this point I was still learning to develop my ideas and so perhaps didn't explore these as much as I could have. 

You have presented a range of initial ‘exotic’ images that are potential starting points. It would be helpful to see an initial mind-map and see how that could be explored beyond literal associations to loosen up your ideas. You could then explore these in a looser and more experimental way.

The moodboard could be explored with maybe zoning areas more and looking at alternative layouts – you could photo potential layout options.

I found the 1950's research exercise really interesting but also quite challenging. I enjoyed finding the visual reference, this was something new to me, a new way of working than I was used to.

Your final image of the girl in the chair listening to a record can be clearly traced back to your initial research. The elements that you have included have a link to the 50s and you have considered the colour scheme.

• a range of other, initial ideas and thoughts including mind-mapping

• a range of different layouts – how could the elements be used differently at a variety of scales / positions / viewpoints

• some alternative colour schemes

In terms of your design process it would be beneficial to see:

• a range of other, initial ideas and thoughts including mind-mapping • a range of different layouts – how could the elements be used differently at a variety of scales / positions / viewpoints • some alternative colour schemes 

I was pleased with the concept for my illustration but was definitely lacking the skills to deliver what I had envisaged in my mind. I really like the quirky, fine line style of illustration and would like to develop this further in the future.

Again, I still needed to work on developing my ideas further and exploring alternative options.

For the mark making exercise I used different papers and mediums to see how they reacted. I did struggle with this exercise as I am not great at exploring other mediums in an in depth way. My tutor suggested drawing the cupcake from different angles and sizes to further my tests.

The observational drawing tested my ability for drawing from reference. This is something I need to develop further and practice. My tutor suggested using a real life object rather than a photo to help with defining texture and including details you couldn't see on a photo.

For the college piece I quite enjoyed making this. It was out of my comfort zone but I enjoyed trying to make the paint tube look real but using obscure textures for the collage. I was pleased with how this turned out. Again, I needed to explore further ideas before jumping to the final piece.

I was so pleased with how my paper cut illustration came out for the black and white exercise. I put a lot of time and detail into the piece and the result was quite effective. I was already aware of the work of Rob Ryan and looked at the other reference my tutor suggested as well.

The choosing content exercise was a lot of fun for me. I love to use my imagination so to illustrate from some text of a story was an exciting task for me.

At this point I wanted to start incorporating digital drawing into my work as this was a skill I was keen to develop and very new to.

You have presented a clear design process for this exercise. It moves logically from research and moodboard to initial idea and final piece.

The final image has a good sense of mood.

it would be beneficial to see:

• a greater range of initial ideas that spring from a mind-map

• alternative layouts that explore the mood in different ways and from different viewpoints

• an exploration of light in the image – would the cigarette light up a little of his face? Is the strip in the background a strip of light? If so would it catch part of his profile?

I was really pleased with the final illustration, especially since it was my first digital piece. I thought about my tutors suggestions about the light but decided I liked the simplicity and kept it as it was.

The next exercise, drawing images to communicate a message or idea was quite difficult. I think this is something I need to work on in the future even though the people I asked could tell what I was trying to communicate with what I had drawn.

Again at this point my tutor was fairly pleased with how my work was progressing and continued to suggest pushing my mind maps further, developing my ideas more and looking at different angles, crops etc to make images more interesting.

At this point my sketchbook work has started to improve but still needs further development and my tutor asked me to consider adding more personal reflection on my learning log.

Response to Tutor Feedback Part 1

The first part of the course focused on getting started, overall your response has shown an understanding of the requirements of Assignment 1. You have made a good start on some referencing and a bibliography. On your blog you have also shown descriptive text and some analysis of your process and findings. This is all shows a thoroughness to your initial approach.

You have presented final designs that combine a range of mixed media and you have clearly shown this part of your design process on your blog.

Beginning this course I was quite unsure of my abilities and skills but was very excited to explore and see how things progressed as the course went on. I was really pleased with my tutors feedback overall.

For the first exercise I was quite unsure of how we were to interpret the brief of using other artist's work to create something of our own. My tutor picked up on this and suggested

It would be beneficial to see:

• a range of initial ideas and thoughts including mind-mapping

• some alternative idea developments

• how far can you push your illustrations so that they visually reference the 2 artists but aren’t such direct copies?

I am still unsure how you visually reference someone else's work? So need to explore this further. I put a lot of effort into research E H Shepard and really enjoyed learning more about his life.

For the next exercise we were to illustrate keywords from an article. I found this exercise interesting and also challenging. At this point my ideas weren't being explored far enough and I needed to work on more mind mapping and trying out ideas before committing to the final illustration. This is something I took on board for future work and continue to develop.

My tutor commented on it being useful to include the article with the work I presented and the keywords I had chosen. I had included this and my tutor had just missed seeing it initially, this was addressed and communicated via email.

Feedback on my first assignment was overall positive and my tutor liked my efforts to film part of my process and made suggestions on how to improve the video through editing it down to highlights to keep it shorter in length.

Again, the overall comments were about developing my ideas further during the research stage. This is something I wasn't used to doing but fully took on board for future work.

I included some sketchbook work in this first part and my tutor encouraged me to use my sketchbooks more, especially for idea development which again I took on board for future work.

For my learning log my tutor suggested adding links to the exercises so that they could be found easily, this is something I put into place right away and have maintained through out.

My tutor gave me some resources to check out to help me to improve my sketchbooks. I purchased 'Sketchbooks' by Richard Brereton and took a look at the links provided. These gave me more insight into how other artists were using their sketchbooks, which helped me to think how to improve my own.

My tutor offered me some pointers to consider for the next assignment:

This is an opportunity for you to develop your sketchbook process by showing lots of alternative ideas and starting points and visual experiments that then lead to the final designs. Don’t rush to end results quite so quickly – the journey that you took to get there is the most important aspect at this stage of the course.

This is something as mentioned above that I took on board and aimed to apply to my future work.