Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION OUIL402 Personal & Professional Practice 1
Level
04
Credits
20
End of Module Self Evaluation NAME
Jay Stelling
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: Considering where I want to go and what I want to do after University has been a big part of this first year. I think it’s important to have a clear goal and direction so that I can strive towards this future objective. Throughout the year I’ve tried to make work that builds towards this and have been using my PPP blog to learn more about the industry I’m going into. I’ve learned about different types of illustration and where illustration exists. Although my intentions, aspirations and direction have changed throughout this first year, this module has helped me to understand how I can achieve these goals and follow in the footsteps of artists I admire. I’ve reviewed my own internal criteria for success. By standardising this list, I know how I can improve my work and celebrate my progress. I’ve learned how to sell my work on Etsy and have successfully made a profit from this! I’ve sold several dolls; I’m really proud of these sales but I’ve also learned that people are willing to pay more for OOAK art, so need to learn more about price tags and advertising. I’ve had to work independently and motivate myself to conduct research without the constant direction of a tutor or brief. 2. What approaches/ types of research have you found most valuable over this module? Why did they have such an impact? I’ve used Pinterest to gather a collection of reference ‘boards’. This has been an easy way to quickly explore themes, searching for artists who make work around a similar subject or artists that work with a particular media (paperclay dolls) or art form that I’m interested in (e.g. costume). This has been useful to collect, revisit and review my interests. I think that the more interested I have become in art forms, the more interesting my work has become. By looking at a wider range of artists and finding passion for them, I’ve become much more passionate about the work I’ve produced in response. I’ve enjoyed going out to visit galleries, exhibitions and performances such as ‘Moominland Midwinter’ in Manchester and Noel Fielding’s Art Exhibition in Harrogate. This has given me a chance to see the how different forms of illustration exist in the real world and to analyse them from a first-hand experience. Speaking to artists is another way that I’ve been able to understand how they work. Eleni Kalorkoti visited our course to chat to us about her practice and I enjoyed hearing how she set briefs for herself when her work wasn’t in demand, a very personal and sensitive issue that you don’t hear artists speak about in interviews. Attending Bigheads has been valuable because it’s allowed me to see inside the working environments of these artists. I particularly enjoyed watching Studio Mamma Wolf since they are artists that I’ve followed for years and it was exciting to finally see behind the work I’ve admired for so long. I’ve used my blog to document my research and then analyse subjects in depth, evaluating the work to decode how they have been made and what makes them successful. Since my blog has been so personal and pivotal to my development, I’ve been reading other artists’ blogs, like that of puppet-maker Alison Duddle, to investigate how they have tackled creative issues. The library has been useful to access books and journals – I even requested a book for my own interest ‘Mr Finch – Living in a FairyTale World’.