Evaluation: Personal Development Project

-

I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of keeping my blog updated alongside my other modules; I have used my blog as more of a journal, a way for me to document my process and development in an engaging manner.

The act of writing the blog posts really helped me look a lot more closely at particular areas such as the development of my independent cute characters, as I was not simply designing them and moving on. I was made to digest the creation and truly work out what could be improved and what worked well due to the use of SWOT targets and SMART analysis.

I feel that I will continue using my blog even after the completion of my modules and end of my first year at university as it has really helped me to process my thoughts and set targets for myself. I think this has been incredibly useful as it has challenged me, but also made me become much more critical and analytical of my work which has helped me make huge improvements to my work.

I found it interesting being able to document all of the independent studies I completed such as attending the presentation of the Association of Illustrators or visiting the Durham arts museum where I managed to locate an artist on display that later became influential to my commercial illustration project.

I feel at first my blog posts were rather minimal and focused too much on the journaling side; however I made sure to return to these posts and improve them to ensure they held all of the necessary detailing my most recent posts have. Once I made these alterations I felt much happier with the overall documentation and functionality of my blog as I feel it has a really good balance between project work and independent work.

I realise that some of my modules appear to have less posts for instance my 3D visualisation project, I feel this is because at the time I did not focus enough on my blog as I was striving so hard to get the 3D module completed due to it having a much closer deadline. However, when I have tried to return in order to improve this areas documentation within my blog I have had a lot of trouble with my memory, working out exactly which processes I completed and how.

In the future I feel my one downfall was not documenting everything immediately as I knew I had a longer deadline for my blog project; however this has hindered me when I have tried to return to certain areas and can no longer remember things. This has not been a major issue as I feel I have effectively managed to incorporate these elements however it is a point to take into account in the future to ensure I do not encounter the same struggles.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Character Design and SMART Targets: Illustration Attempt Two

-
Image
Firstly,  I am so much more impressed with the visuals of this design; it feels so much more appropriate for the chosen target audience yet remains visually pleasing to all ages. I am so glad I returned to the initial phases and removed the harsh black outlining on my design, I feel even just making this alteration alone greatly enhanced my illustration by making it much less harsh and more realistic to the eye. However, once I had removed the outlines from around my wall and floor I noticed the separation of the areas became unclear and flat. Due to this I decided to add a skirting board around the bottom of the wall as this is not only a common design feature so will remain recognisable, but also forced the two areas to stand out due to the heavily contrasting border. One of the other major elements which needed to be altered was the couch in the centre of the living room. I previously hated the appearance of this asset so I decided to remove all of the detailing so that I could ...
Read more

SMART Target: 3D Visualisation: Crab Noodle Box

-
Image
Following the completion of my first two concepts, whilst taking a break from artist research, I wanted to experiment with an entirely different creature. The new theme I have chosen to explore is that of molluscs and crustaceans. The first creature I have decided to create was the crab flavoured noodles. I really like how I have extended the design of this creature to have a more visible body as I feel it makes for a highly interesting design having all of the claws in view. I made sure to use reference material of both real life and cartoon style crabs to help inspire my design and help me form the correct anatomy for my crab. I really like how this design extends to the entire dimension of the box. However, once I managed to print out my design in order to check its functionality I found that due to the curved features the sides did not match up correctly and caused the design to be rather displeasing. Due to this I will explore the creation of this character in a square for...
Read more

Weekly Reflection: Life Drawing - Session 2

-
This session was much more relaxed, due to the people I was surrounded by and the calming music that was being played in the room. It really helped being given tasks which were aimed towards creating a humorous result rather than something which was meant to be more realistic. I found that by taking a less serious approach my drawings seemed to greatly improve. I also really enjoyed using the variety of non-conventional mediums such as oil pastels and transfer paper as I feel these mediums helped me focus more on the form, yet I did not have to be 100% accurate as for instance the oil pastels are quite broad whereas you cannot see what you have drawn at all underneath the transfer paper until you remove it. I really enjoyed this session until it came to drawing in very short time periods like 1 second, where I noticed my anxiety sky rocketed again and I became closed off due to the serious tone the class took on again.
Read more