Leeds College of Art Level BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION Credits OUIL402Personal & 20 Professional Practice 1 End of Module Self Evaluation
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NAME
Bronte Hall
1. What learning have you inherited through this module and how has it impacted on your own understanding of professional practice? Consider yourself as a student at University as much as an illustrator This module, specifically the latter half, has enabled me to see how me as a person, my interests, and my work have all gathered to form the beginnings of my illustrative practice. The mind map and illustrated diagram are the accumulation of the creative values and ideas I have learned over the year, examples of work (visual and otherwise) that have had an impact on me, as well as my experiences as a student here. I think one thing that this module has highlighted is to be proactive in terms of keeping up to date with events, exhibitions, practitioners, happenings that relate to you and to illustration. I think I would benefit personally from these things (going to new places) as well as creatively. 2. What approaches / types of research have you found most valuable over this module? Why did they have such an impact? I have found blogging and the other reflective tasks from sessions helpful to my development in this module. By reflecting on work you enjoy, the work you’ve made yourself, and the progress you’ve made it allows you to take a step back and observe your work to-date as a whole, looking at the bigger picture. Documenting this reflection and evaluating progress also highlights what you aren’t doing, and where you may like to take your work. Reviewing these things at regular intervals is useful because you can see moments of change in your thinking and your practice, as well as seeing how things directly influence you as a person. I’ve found that part the most interesting. The mind map was especially helpful because it is where you actually draw together all of these threads and make connections between areas that started out as separate things. 3. In what way has PPP informed the way your work in other modules and your illustration practice as a whole? For me, PPP has reinforced the idea of taking inspiration from an array of sources and referencing all forms of visual culture, even those outside of illustration. This idea has been central to my work in other modules, and is something I’d like to continue with in order to make my work more informed, with ideas that come from interesting places of inspiration. Looking at the contexts of illustration has also been something that has made me begin to think about my work when it comes to making a resolved piece/product. I have thought about the finished formats that illustration can take on – from books, zines, and other narrative-driven areas, to editorial and even applying illustration to packaging and products. These varied outcomes influence how you think of approaching the production of your final pieces (for example, redesigning something to fit a book format).
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your PPP submission and how will you address this in the future? At the beginning of the module, I was quite stuck with what to document on my blog. I wasn’t sure which visits I could blog, or if any of my work outside of class was worth putting up. I’d like to have had a consistent level of blog posts about visits and other practitioners; however this only seemed to surface later on in the module when I felt more comfortable with sharing my likes and things I had found. I will address this at the next level of PPP by embracing this process much earlier on, and blogging about any type of ‘discovery’ that I not only enjoy, but ones that inform my work. Making a conscious effort to continually document these things will mean I look at them speculatively and evaluate them against my own values as a student / aspiring practitioner, instead of just looking or reading without that crucial analysis. 5. What communities of practice and professional contexts do you intend to investigate further as you approach level 5? Why do they appeal to you? I wish to continue exploring narrative-based illustration, and to become more immersed in graphic novels and alternative comics. These focus on not just standard storytelling, but conveying a story in an unconventional way. Self-published / self-initiated work done by others is something that appeals to me (I mentioned this in an even wider context with outsider / folk art) – not only the creation of personal work but its distribution. I would like to be able to carry out some personal projects over summer in order to keep the creative thinking going during my time off. I think this will benefit me in the run up to level 5 as I will continue to draw and make, and hopefully completing these little projects will help me to maintain a self-sustaining flow of work outside of the studio.
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.
A copy of your end of module self evaluation should be posted to your studio practice blog. This should be the last post before the submission of work and will provide the starting point for the assessment process. Post a copy of your evaluation to your PPP blog as evidence of your own on going evaluation. Notes