Self Evaluation for OUIL404

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Self Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL404 Visual Language	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	KATIE MAY WADE

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? PHOTOSHOP – Learnt the basics which then helped inform my personal practice. Now much more comfortable with it which allowed me to play around with composition, colour and other things learnt in this module. WACOM – I had never really used one of these before but I used it at various points across this module. I am now more comfortable with it and it now impacts my personal practice. USE OF PENCIL – For one of the tasks within this module we were required to use just pencil, I didn’t like it initially but now I have seen what can be done with it (through what I did myself and what other practitioners have done with it) I will definitely be employing it more within my own practice. OBSERVATIONAL SKILLS – We also had a module on observational skills, it really improved these skills. It helped me both to draw faster and to draw more accurately slowly. It helped me be less precious about my work and to just record things I am seeing around me. I have been using this skill already in my personal practice and it has really informed my sketchbook work already.
COLLAGE – I didn’t like this but after looking at other practitioners helped me open my mind to collage and see how it is a useful sketchbook tool and how to arrange things in a more aesthetically pleasing way. Now I have seen what can be done with it I will be using it in my own practice to record my findings, among other tasks.
2. Which principles/ theories of image making have you found most valuable during this module and how effectively do you think you are employing these within your own practice?
COLOUR – Learning about colour was a real turning point in this module. I had never before heard about accent colours and had never really noticed colour palettes in films I had watched but after learning more about it I found it was one of the most valueable things I  gained from this module. I now think about colour palettes before I start most of my work and consider accent colours, it has already informed another module I am working on and I hope that it will also inform my own practice so I will be producing more considered work. FRAME – This was also another key transitional moment in this module, learning about frame completely changed how I work. I learnt how to work to a frame and what frames suit what I am doing as well as learning to work to a frame.  Thumbnailing is now something I am constantly doing in my work and putting a frame around my thumnbnails helps me consider Line of sight and composition before I turn it into a larger image. I am already using what I learnt about frame in my own personal practice and it is very successful thus far. COMPOSITION – Composition opened my eyes to illustration, I had never before considered anything more than a background but now I consider it much more. I think before I make, I think about materials and how the size of things within the frame suggests different things. Using thumbnails before I make a big picture is something I do often now to establish different compositions and view points before I actually make the picture. This module also helped me to look at other practicioners work and identify foreground, midground and backgrounds before going away and considering my own.
3. What strengths can you identify within your Visual Language submission how can you capitalise on these?
FRAME – my work is always considered within a frame (after frame lesson)         Working to dimensions the rest of the module improved my outputs        Thumbnailing improved the way I considered things MARK MAKING – Tried variations of mark making within the submission               Tried new things and produced interesting work as a result               Helped me think about ways to show tone using hatching etc. COLOUR – Much more considered after the lesson on it           Create colour palettes before most things I make now           One of the first things I consider and my work within the module improved as a result.          SHAPE – After the lesson on shape it helped me be less precious with my work and to know that there is a time and place for mark making. When I am thumbnailing I now just use solid shapes rather than worrying about shading or details. Work is now stronger as a result.
4. What areas for development can you identify within your Visual Language submission and how will you address these in the future?
PENCIL USE – I enjoyed using it but I need to practice how I use it to suit my personal style of work. I will do this by using pencil more in my own personal work and looking at how other practitioners use it to see if theres a way it will suit me. COMPOSITION – Although I am good at composition I could be much better at it, I will keep practicing through the use of thumbnails and thinking about new ways to show the background of things. Looking at more artists will also help inform my work as now I know what it is that I am looking for. COLLAGE – Initially I didn’t like this but now I will be using it as a means to record things in my journal. I will keep a record of artists such as Nick White and Caitlin Hazel and see how they use collage to create something that is collaged but considered. COLOUR – This was also both strong and not strong in my submission, some pieces of work have a colour palette that really works for them and others don’t (screenprint). I think I will have to keep looking into accent colours and keep it in mind more as I create work.
5. In what way has this module informed how you deconstruct and analyse artwork (whether your own or that of contemporary practitioners)?
After this module I can now look at a piece of art work and see the considerations in it. Now when I look at illustrations I see that they aren’t just made- they are a product of various considerations. Looking at other artists helped me see how different people employ line of sight, composition, colour etc to their advantage and to suit their own style to it. Now I can look at a finished piece of work and identify areas that I need to improve on (composition, colour) and know where to look to help improve my work. Analysing my work constantly through this module really helped me think about what I was making and to understand further why I was doing what I was doing. It also helped me to visually engage people by seeing how other practitioners do it and to learn about the visual devices that will engage people (colour, viewpoint, line of sight etc).  I will continue to do analyse my work and see each time where improvements can be made so I can become a better illustrator as a result of it.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance				x
Punctuality			x
Motivation			x
Commitment			x
Quantity of work produced		x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group					x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.