PPP Final Presentation

Script: 

Introudction 

How was level 4? –  looking back at level four, I didn’t enjoy it that much, I found a lot of the tasks we were set were aimed at making ‘fun’, ‘playful’ work, I felt like I was making things that were quite childlike and struggled to engage with the course, my attendance was shitty, I left everything till last minute and I left first year feeling like I hadn’t really made anything that I was proud of

What did I expect from second year? – Busy busy busy, working all the time. I expected to have a much larger workload than I did in first year and too be under a lot more pressure. I expected that I’d be able to expand on the things I’d learnt in first year as well as learning some new stuff like print methods and more digital skills. I was also expecting that there’d be guidance on how to start presenting ourselves as proffessionals, how to start making contacts and begin to learn about things like pricing, contracts and all that other buissness stuff. My personal aims for second year included keeping on top of blogging, doing cop when I was supposed to do it, become more involved in the studio space, try and develop my digital skills and also start to define my practice abit more in terms of its content and tone of voice.

504 helped a lot in terms of the print proccesses I was introduced too. Mono printing and lino printing are something that I’m really keen on working with more, both proccess allow for professional quality finishes whilst still mainting character, personality, tone of voice, texture. I feel print has benefited my practice because it allows me to include an authentic, handmade feel to my practice that I’ve always been worried that I’ll loose if I move away from hand-drawn methods of image-making.

My digital skills have also drastically improved this year. I didn’t attend photoshop/illustrator sessions last year so felt quite behind in terms of that when I started second year. I started just playing around with colour and adding that to pencil drawings I’d done, before moving on to buying some of the kyle webster brushes and using a wacom tablet for the first time. I feel that using the brushes and tablet can still allow me to have a hand-made authentic look to my work whilst mainting a level of professionalism. I still don’t like vectors though.

OUIL505
getting to grips with photoshop allowed me to begin working digitally which is what I did for 505. combining photoshop brushes and printed textures from 504 allowed me to create work that had depth and personality and I finally feel like I’m heading in a direction that I enjoy working in. it also Allowed me to combine my personal interests with a uni module for once – construction of my own brief and proposal – time and project management (not too great) – digital media – first project using all digital techniques and image making – application – allows me to imagine what my work looks like in context – also allows me to develop more of an idea about where my work fits – cohesive imagery – I feel like I’m quite good at figuring out how I want things to look and then applying that aesthetic to the rest of the project.

Collaborative – I chose to work with a friend, I shouldn’t have, we did actually get on okay, we had one argument but sorted that out quickly but time management was an issue for both of us. I also find it quite hard to voie my ideas and opinions in a group setting, I’m not that confident sometimes so if someone’s a little overpowering with what they’re saying I tend to back down. A lot of was me not enjoying working around someone else. I can see some positives of collaborating but I feel that if I tried to do this again, I’d need to carefully choose who I was working with, and make sure it was someone who maybe had a similar style of work or similar intersts/proccesses.

Time management has been another big issue this year. At the end of last year I said I’d get on top of my time management but I haven’t at all. I feel that juggling a part-time job alongside the course hasn’t helped with this much but in a way its made me value my time in the studio more as I know that’s really the only time I have to work on things. I’ve left a few things till last minute this year, including the whole of cop, again. I feel that I’d have maybe done better in some modules if I’d managed my time better and this is something I want to get on top of next year, I definitley need to be more organised and have a more structured way of working.

Responsive. I have a love/hate relationship with responsive. I don’t hate it, but I don’t really want it to happen again. I did enjoy some of the briefs I chose to work on such as Batsford and the ohhdeer brief. I was really excited to work on secret 7, so it was a shame when they decided not to run it this year. Illustration Friday was slightly pointless but allowed me to experiment with different media, in particular, get to grips with digital much. I didn’t mid the penguin brief but I did struggle to engage with it a little bit. I feel like the worst part about responsive is juggling so many different deadlines at once, all the competitions want work in for different dates and in different formats so it’s hard to keep on track of what you’re doing. Responsive did teach me how to fully understand briefs that were set externally. I feel a lot more comfortable dissecting a brief and figuring out exactly what they’re asking of you now and feel that this will help when It comes to getting briefs from clients.

The Creative Report was a highlight of my year. Tallulah Fontaine is an illustrator I’ve admired for a few years now, I spoke about her in my presentation last year so I was really happy when I got the chance to ask her a few questions and learn a little bit more about her and her practice. I think one of the most valuable pieces of advice I got from this was to be patient with yourself. I feel like it’s easy on this kind of course to become frustrated with your work and your progress and that being patient with yourself is key to letting your practice develop.

Reflecting on the past two years I can see how I have progressed. I feel like in first year, you just float around abit and try out a few different things and just settle into the course. Second year has been completley different. Everything was lovely before christmas and then it go so stressful and busy when we came back from christmaas break. I feel like dealing with so many modules that run at the same time as each other and then dealing with all your deadlines being so close to each other, It’s difficult and it feels like you’re drowning under all the work and stress but I do feel like it kind of set’s you up for third year and whats expected. I’m hoping third year will be alot more enjoyable, I’m looking forward to working on more things and pushing my practice further and developing a professional identity for my practice.

Thanks for watching - any questions?