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Personal and Professional Development: Evaluation

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This blog was created to document and demonstrate my development and growth over the course of my years studying Ba Illustration. Over the course of the two years a lot has happened including the Covid-19 pandemic where it seemed the whole world was turned upside down. However, despite these external factors my growth and development as an artist has clearly shone through. I have really enjoyed the use of this blog during my time on my course, at the beginning of my projects I was excited to begin working on my blog alongside, as during my first year of study I found this really helpful for idea generation and identification of my strengths and weaknesses at the time. Due to this I was hoping to continue this throughout my second year. Unfortunately back in December I fractured my dominant hand which caused a lot of problems all round for the completion of my projects as I was unable to use my hand until late February. I was forced to take a step back from my blog and focus on my more ...
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Pictoplasma Magazine Response: Artist - Wilmer Murillo

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Following my explorations into the artist Wilmer Murillo from my review of the 'Pictoplasma: Character Portraits ’ book I decided I wanted to explore the creation of my own symmetrical character mask formed by inspiration from Native American tribal masks, as used by Murillo in his designs. I love how each of these designs shown in their Pictoplasma submissions have a face when the character is face both up and down. Through the use of symmetry and inspiration from Native American masks they have been able to create two characters in one and I found this extremely interesting and wanted to explore this myself. Although the colours used by Murillo are rather muted, I wanted to go with a psychedelic approach for my design as I felt I could create some interesting visuals from this. Originally I created the line work in black and converted it to white before adding the black background underneath as I wanted it to be clear against the vibrancy of the rest of the design. I create...
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Pictoplasma Book Review: Character Portraits

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The book describes the history of Pictoplasma and how they wanted to form a new collection ‘The Character’ to ensure over time, no matter what the character’s medium it can be collected and shared for generations to come, safe from adaptation and reinterpretation. I found this really interesting as it aims to collect all forms of characters and bring them together as one, building bridges and communications between artists of all kinds. I bought this book as I have started to obtain quite a collection of Pictoplasma character compendiums, I love the way these books incorporate a wide variety of visual mediums from photography to knitting! All characters count! Due to this I often gather a lot of inspiration when looking through these books and felt it would be the perfect time to revitalise my imagination since I am coming to the end of this year of university, to ensure I remain motivated during the summer. I chose to look at 4 artists from this ginormous compendium of characters ...
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Commercial Practice Evaluation and SMART Targets: Final Illustrations

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I am really impressed by not only the quantity of illustrations I managed to create for this project, but also the quality maintained throughout all of the designs. I have never before managed to complete multiple illustrations to such a short time period, this is definitely an area I want to continue working on as if I am able to work more quickly and effectively this will be beneficial in my future endeavours. One area I am especially happy with the development of was my front cover of the book, considering the quality of my illustration for a book cover during Level 4, it is clear to see the level of improvement I have achieved so far over this year. I am really happy with the narrative I feel I managed to achieve during this project, despite having to make multiple alterations to my script and storyline. I am heavily invested in continuing with the progression of this story and making alterations in future so I can complete the whole story I had originally intended with the use...
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Pictoplasma Magazine Response: Artist - Aman Khanna

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Following my research into the artist Aman Khanna during my investigations into the Pictoplasma magazine, #1 Face Value edition, I decided to experiment with the creation of my own clay characters. I wanted to go with something really simple for the design similarly to the style of Khanna but also I felt this would be the most appropriate starting point for my first attempts attempting this with the medium. I used polymer clay which needed to be baked once I was happy with the final designs of my little characters. I used the technique of scoring sections of my characters heads in order to bond their accessories successfully as this ensured the clay had a textured format to cling to once wet. I quite like the charm these characters came out with; I went for the theme of ghosts as I felt it was something simplistic yet could be developed in future to make more intricate designs if I wanted to. However I really like how it was Khanna who inspired me to explore the use of a new medium...
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Pictoplasma Magazine Review: #1 Face Value

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Some of my favourite artists within this edition include Jun Seo Hahm, Aman Khanna and Rilla Alexander. Jun Seo Hahm: The illustrations presented for this artist were eye catching due to their 3D forms contrasting such simplistic expressions. I love these illustrations as they hold a strangely childish appearance due to the overly simplified expressions on each of the 4 characters. I find it interesting how the expressions of the characters within the ‘globule’ creatures are barely visible to ensure the main focus is the outer creature first before allowing the viewer to explore the rest of the design. I would love to be able to work in 3D however in the past I have struggled greatly trying to comprehend these software’s, and currently don’t have access to a device capable of downloading one since I have to work from home during the pandemic. However, 3D character design would definitely be something I would love to challenge myself with in the future as I feel the visual results can...
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Contextual Studies: Evaluation

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I must admit I really struggled with the academic writing portion of this module as I found it difficult to discuss my topic from a 3 rd person perspective. However, I made sure to attend meetings with an academic coach at my university in order to support me through this. I found this really useful especially considering my limited understanding of how to Harvard Reference as they were able to clearly explain the structures and requirements to me. I also made sure to set up tutorials with my tutor as much as possible so we could read over my essay and make necessary alterations before my final submission to help me boost my grade further. I am unsure how successful I will be in this module as it is my first time attempting academic writing however despite this I am grateful for the amount of knowledge I have obtained through the research portion of this task. I found it extremely interesting being able to devise my research around topics I found personally interesting and using t...
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