Project Report (750 words)

At the beginning of the year I felt under a lot of pressure to make my best work to date. Because of this, entering into the final studio module was really daunting and came with a lot of anticipation about life after university, which up until now has been a bit of a cushion to fall back on. I think this made me more determined to work to the best of my ability and push myself further than before. One of the things I was most looking forward to was having the freedom to choose my own briefs. By doing this, I started to feel more in control of my own practice and where it was heading, which was a very exciting prospect for me. I was also able to identify the skills that I wanted to improve, and work out how I could utilise the rest of my time at university in order to complete all the briefs I wanted to do.

During third year I have found that I enjoy multitasking with projects. I think this is due to the fact that the most exciting time for me is at the beginning of research and roughing stages, when my ideas are flowing and there are endless possibilities to what I can create. This means that later on in the project I can get a bit bored or frustrated if things aren't going to plan, so being able to jump from one to the other helps me to stop this cycle and get a bit of distance when needed. My aesthetic style has definitely become more consistent through the means of combining, experimenting with and developing my digital and practical skills. I found that using handmade textures and painted elements alongside digital paintings gives them more depth, character and tone.

Informing my practice with literature or general research into particular details is very important to me, I enjoy creating images that could exist within their own world. Therefore, a viewer is able to look into them and think about what could be happening before and after. The idea of being able to suggest a full narrative within one image is something I am fascinated with and will continue to explore.

A turning point for my practice this year was working on live and competition briefs and having my work applied to publications and promotional material. I found that the excitement of seeing my work out there helped me to build a lot of momentum and made me more confident that I could work in the creative industries. Tackling briefs put forward by real clients helped me a lot when thinking about how to write my own briefs. Especially with the Wizard of Oz and Momo's Mishap projects, I found that I could make the best use of my time by creating book proposals rather than the entire outcome. The good thing about doing this is that I now have the opportunity to revisit these projects in the future. I am starting to feel a lot more like a professional now and less like a student, which is something I hadn't anticipated at all at the start of the module.

A lot of the things I have learned during the extended practice module I will take with me after university. Although very scary, I feel more prepared than ever to work in the creative industries and am looking forward to taking the next step. So far, I have a few live briefs on the horizon in sectors that I aspire to work in. An author approached me to create a picture book for children in hospitals, which is something I feel really passionate about and can't wait to develop further. This kind of brief brings me a lot of joy, and I definitely want to look into doing more projects like this. I am also creating the promotional imagery for the Left Bank Opera Festival, as well as running a workshop during the event. There is an opportunity to do further work for the northern opera group here, so this is also something I am really looking forward to. During the summer, as a result of the Stratford Literary Festival competition, I won a work placement at Penguin Random House. I plan to make the most out of this experience by taking my portfolio with me to discuss my work with the art directors there. Overall, I gained a lot from this module, and am feeling hopeful about my future as an illustrator a a result.