End of Module Evaluation

1. Which practical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice?

• Combining collage with drawing is something I am very new to, I definitely want to introduce this more into my practice. Continuing to play around with media gives me a choice of where I can go in future projects.
• I have really embraced blogging in this module. Getting my ideas out of my head into more frequent, concise posts helped me to organise, project my ideas and develop further without confusion. This helped me to keep a clear head amongst such busy projects.

2. Which approaches to research have you found most valuable during this module. How have you interrogated your research to identify appropriate ideas?

• Drawing through thinking is something I have become accustom to, I found that actually drawing every little initial idea that came into my head led on to further finalised designs.
• Secondary research such as drawing from film, reading books and searching the Internet is something I started on Art Foundation. I got into the habit of drawing whilst watching films that inspire me, or make me feel a certain way. Looking at the different frames and angles found in particular film genres has helped me to visualise perspectives in my work.
• Talking to people, going to places and experiencing things for myself is what I enjoy most when it comes to research. I was introduced to some great people with incredible stories. I like being able to understand someone's personal experiences of a certain event/time period and then reflecting the tone of this in my image making.

3. What strengths can you identify within your submission and how have you capitalised on these? What aspects of your submission are you satisfied with?

• I feel that I have got better at researching in general. I genuinely enjoy the exploration and crucial development that relevant research can give to a project.
• Experimentation with media and compositions has been really beneficial for my own personal practice. This module has been a turning point for me in the way I approach a brief and the relevance of the media I use.
• I am slowly getting better at thinking more about ideas behind an image, rather than just focusing solely on the artwork with little thought for why I am making the image.

4. What areas for further development can you identify within your submission and how will you address these in the future?

• Continuing to develop ideas and treating a project like a journey, not just focusing solely on the finished product. I always find this the most difficult part of a project and want to learn how to make my ideas more concise and clear to an audience.
• Knowing when to move forward with an idea is something I also have struggled with in this module. I found that even though I had material I could have easily moved forward with, I continued to discover new things about my subject matter - most of which I did not use.
• Developing practical skills is an ongoing process and something I am constantly trying to achieve, with each drawing/image I learn something new.

5. How effectively are you making decisions about the development of your work? What strategies inform this decision making?

• Storyboarding quite early on was very helpful for me. Drawing out different ideas for narratives ultimately helped me to whittle it down to the final plan of what I wanted to include in the final picture book. This also helped me not to get attached to an initial idea.
• In a similar way, roughing ideas and making mini mock-ups of ideas helped. Although I did not see the true relevance at the time, it was very useful later on and I found that I was incorporating ideas from this stage into my final design.
• Peer and Tutorial feedback also helped me to recognise what direction would be the best to go in.

6. How effectively have you managed this project and organised yourself during this module?

• I did use the timetable we drew up towards the beginning, but I did start to get side tracked as the time went on and I started getting a bit carried away with researching and testing. Luckily, I had plenty of material to work with from this exploration. More time spent on research and experimentation was good opportunity to play.
• Having a lot to do nearer the end was quite stressful. This came with the decision to cut out the shapes manually rather than relying on Photoshop. Overall, I was happy with this decision and it has led me to think about making imagery in a different way. I found that shape has helped me to visualise something personally rather than just relying on a representational approach.