750 word evaluation

750 Word Summative Project Report Extended Practice 603 Alex Patrick

Beginnings At the start of the module I had planned my briefs rather loosely and didn’t have any proper set in stone ideas, just an idea of the briefs I knew I wanted to do. I knew that I definitely wanted to make work that was personal to me and that I would enjoy making. To start with, I only had 4 ideas for briefs. These were: Autistic Portraits – A brief in which I planned to find 4-5 Autistic people who would be willing to let me draw them. I planned to make A3 Illustrations of each person based on interviews I would later conduct.

After gaining a massive response to a poster advertising my project, it turned out most of the people who got in touch were female, so I refocused my project into Women With Autism.

Fan Art Project – I planned this brief to be a small side project where I would be able to have fun and just enjoy making 2-3 fan art posters. I wanted them to be spontaneous and not pre-planned, but I also wanted them to work as a set and have a clear theme with similar colours and motifs. After going through a spell of creative block with my other briefs, this one ended up thriving and becoming my final major brief after I ended up making four prints that all had a lot of detail, worked as a set and took a lot of time and effort. (see blogs) Competition Briefs – For my competition briefs I wanted to take part in Secret 7 and So Young. I managed to complete both of these and extended the Secret 7 brief to create an extra record sleeve of my choosing. I also created an illustration for the So Young competition and had a lot of fun doing so.

Extra Brief – The Diabetic Eye –This project started after some bad news (see blogs and presentation board) and formed a brief in which I created two oil painted wall hangings. The paintings feature detailed, up close images of my eyes. This brief was completely unplanned in the beginning.

27 Club – I hadn’t originally planned to take part in this brief but liked the sound of it and I liked the theme and the brief itself.

Things that went well‌ One thing that went surprisingly well for me in this module was my entry to So Young magazine. I got the brief just a couple of days before the deadline and dint really have huge amounts of time but I really wanted to take part. I spent 2 days on my entry and submitted just a few hours before the cut off point. The winners and the top 20 were announced a few days later and I was delighted to be chosen as one of the top 20!

Another success within this module was my fan art project. I spent a lot of time on my prints for this and got a lot of encouraging feedback and have sold a good amount on Etsy so far.

Things that didn’t go so well…

Unfortunately, a few things didn’t go quite as planned in this module.

Firstly, the 27 Club Competition ended up being something I had to rush due to leaving it so last minute. My final outcome was awful and I couldn’t bring myself to submit it. From this, I learnt that nothing I make last minute will be worth it and it pays to spend a lot of time n something. I find it hard to feel satisfied with my finished pieces as it is, but I realised when It’s rushed, its even worse. After doing this I felt a bit like it was a waste of time, but then again, I think it was helpful as I learnt not to leave things so last minute and to be a bit tighter with my time management.

Another project that didn’t go as planned was my Women With Autism Project. (see blogs and presentation board) I thought I’d really enjoy this project as it is a subject I am passionate about but I just couldn’t get into it. I felt very under pressure to ‘get it right’ and I didn’t enjoy it. The final outcomes turned out better than I expected them to but I am glad to see the back of this project,

Developed Skills A new skill I pretty much taught myself and got good at throughout the course of this module was digital software skills. Before this module, I had never done any sort of digital work and was very reluctant to try and use this type of software as I’d never been shown how and was scared id be unable to work it out on my own. I set myself the challenge of making some digital work for this module with the fact I’d probably find it too hard and go back to methods I felt comfortable with in mind. I never expected to actually find it fairly straightforward, never mind enjoyable too!

I am glad that I have learnt these skills as my practice isn't limited to just hand drawn/painted work now and this will mean there will be a wider variety in my portfolio and will hopefully open up some new opportunities to me in the future.

Conclusion To conclude this module, I will start by saying that I am happy that I finally feel satisfied with my work and the direction that it is going in. I feel like the ups and downs I have had throughout, as well as the new skills and development of old skills will aid me my future progress and has taught me a lot. Whilst I still have a lot to learn, I have this module to thank for helping me gain new skills and build several bodies of work that I hope to continue to develop after university. If I could go back and do the module again, I think I would have definitely tried my best not to neglect 603 as much as I did during the few months I was also working on my dissertation, as I think I would have done a lot more had I planned and managed my time more carefully.

After this module I can say that I don’t really want to be someone who makes work for other people as I had a slight taste of this within my Women With Autism project and it made me extremely stressed and a I just felt way too pressured. Instead, I think I will continue to produce work that I can then make into prints and accessories and sell them on Etsy, as so far, this is working for me and I hope it will continue to in the future.

From this module I have learnt that my strengths definitely lie within making personal work, as my best pieces were formed within the more personal briefs such as my fan art brief and the diabetic eye project. I have also developed a clear visual signature since discovering digital software and I feel my visual signature communicates my personality and my interests well. I am happy that I finally have some sort of style as I have struggled with feeling like I don’t have one throughout my whole time at university.