Brief
For this assignment I had to prepare a presentation of my work that I believe is engaging and varied in addition to reviewing the work completed during part 2 of Visual Exploration and thinking critically about how I work.
Key words from the brief:
- Look back through all of the work you have produced in this part of the course, especially the final outcomes of each of the seven exercises.
- Make a Powerpoint, Keynote or other slideshow presentation that selects and presents what you think is an interesting and varied collection of work.
- The slideshow could be seen as a selective sketchbook or portfolio that underpins some of the thought processes and decisions you have made throughout this part of the course.
- You could add notes from your learning log or a voiceover to explain or discuss your thinking in more detail.
- illustrate your commentary by showing examples of your work and also how you work
- These should draw on your visual responses to the exercises so far, but can also make reference to your previous work.
- Use the slideshow to visually present your creative making process, which may include showing your working space
- Five to seven minutes long
For the presentation I looked at various ways I could present such as filming myself, creating a PowerPoint presentation and using other presentation software. Finally, I settled on using Adobe Express as I felt this gave me a way to present my work clearly and be able to talk about my work using a voice over. Below is my presentation.
Presentation
Reflection on the assignment
What have you learnt about your practice by reflecting on creative processes?
Upon completion of the work I have created in part two, I have come to the realisation that I am motivated by illustrations that trigger feelings or somehow communicate a message.
However, I’ve also recognised that I found some of the work difficult, like beginning the collage project. As said in the presentation I have not enjoyed collage in the past however, after I gave it some context, I started to like it.
What I enjoyed about this part of the course is it has made me experiment with new ways of working and each one has helped me to generate new and exciting ideas.
How did the experience of making a video go for you – did it communicate you and your practice successfully?
Creating a presentation using Adobe Express was a technical challenge for me as I have never used the program before. It was difficult to know how long to talk about each slide without talking too much. To overcome this I typed out what I wanted to say for each piece of work and made sure each slide didn’t go over thirty seconds. Once I got to grips with it I found it enjoyable and exciting to see a show about my work come together.
Animating some of the work and text made the slideshow more interesting visually and I hope it captures the viewers attention. Being able to add my voice to the presentation allowed me to express myself and explain my working process. Hopefully this helped me to connect with my audience at a deeper level.
As all the work had been completed when creating the presentation, I decided not to do a live video as I didn’t think it was necessary. However, in the future I would like to create a similar video but add in a couple of short clips of me drawing or painting. I think this would add an interactive element to my presentation allowing viewers to witness my creative process in action.
Reflect on your outcomes but more so on your creative process – what worked for you, and how might you adapt these approaches for future projects?
Exercise 3 was enjoyable it is something I have not done before and got me really thinking about what I could draw whilst having a constraint. Only having the word ‘making’ to use as inspiration was quite challenging, yet I was pleasantly surprised at the final outcome.
Exercise 4 was a fun activity where I had to generate a series of mind-maps to generate associations based on a single concept. It was surprising how many ideas I was able to come up with and proved to be a useful tool for the future, for example when having a mental block.
It was enjoyable to experiment with digital painting and to gain new skills, but I am disappointed that I still have a lot to learn in this area. Due to my lack of technical understanding in this field, it will take some time for me to make a digital drawing that I am proud of. However, I will continue to practise this whenever possible.
In the last month I have recently purchased an ipad and bought the drawing program Procreate which I am excited to learn to use as I think it will be beneficial for my illustration practice.
Exercise 5
For this exercise I had to play the word association game using Word on the computer. I have never done this before and it was quite interesting to see what list of words I came up with. I also enjoyed making some of the illustrations such as the sea scene.
Exercise 7 is a debatable one for me. On one hand I have never liked doing collage work or looking at other artist collage work. Yet, by doing this exercise it has pushed me outside of my comfort zone and I have been able to express different thoughts and messages in my artwork. I was able to do this by carefully thinking about the composition of mixing textures, colours, and illustrations. It allowed me to open up to new ways of thinking and spark creative connections.
Which pieces of work do you feel have been most successful and why?
Exercise 4
Exercise 4 led to a successful outcome with the creation of a fantasy illustration of a wizard. It has shown me how effective mind-mapping can be in sparking creativity and generating ideas. Being able to overcome mental blocks when they arrive and finally being able to turn it into a positive and imaginative result I think is a success.
Overall all these exercises have pushed my creative boundaries and I can see they are valuable for my personal and artistic growth.
Have the exercises helped you to think about things in new ways or try out new ways of working? What have they been and how has your viewpoint changed?
Yes these exercises have helped me think about new ways of working and have created successful outcomes by doing them. For example, the mind mapping exercise, the word association game exercise, the cutting up exercise and the collage exercise have all been able to enhance my creative problem-solving skills, overcome mental blocks, and discover new approaches to my work that I can take forward in my practice.
What area(s) would you like to develop further?
The reason I am on this degree is not only my love of illustration but that my aim is to illustrate children’s books and book covers in the future. With this in mind there have been a couple of fantasy illustrations that I have drawn in the unit and I realised I became totally absorbed when drawing them. I would quite like to have another go at this perhaps for a fairy tale children’s book and spend time experimenting with ideas and creating an array of character designs.
As said above in exercise five, I was able to express myself, be imaginative and create art that had meaning. This is something I would like to do more of but perhaps not in the form of collage.
Visual Skills 2 