Friday 11 November 2016

Visual Skills 403 - End of Module Evaluation

I am pleased with how this module has gone, but feel like it has only just scratched the surface of what visual skills is and can be for me. I started knowing barely anything about how to respond to briefs similar to industry, how to generate ideas and tie in concepts with my work in response to such briefs. I now feel I have a better understanding of how to go about idea generation and in knowing which work responds to certain briefs more effectively than others. I have more confidence in attempting to answer briefs and solve the problems they set, even if I know that I have a very long way to go and so much improvement to make before I am totally happy with my responses.
I would say that the majority of my learning was about the substance behind my work, rather than new skills or processes. However, I did create a digital piece I was pleased with, which I hadn’t previously seemed to manage. Apart from that I feel like I stuck very much to the skills and approaches to image making I already knew, which is something I want to work on more in the coming modules, to push the way I create and learn new processes and techniques to create better images. I did learn a lot about the context of my work and how that impacts the ideas and substance to it. I was able to reflect more on how to generate ideas and to then translate them into a finished piece, through roughs and experiments and sketches. I very much feel like this is just the start of this process though, this module has opened the door and I am only just starting to step my foot through it.
I was mostly happy with my outcomes for the typology poster and my book cover. Both of these projects had a period of getting stuck and not liking what I was creating, but through feedback and perseverance I feel like I created successful outcomes for both, pushing through the walls to create something I was retrospectively happy with. I think both of these were very valuable lessons firstly in not giving up on work and to always ask for a second opinion and not getting caught up in my work on my own. I struggled with the editorial pieces, knowing how to respond to an article with a deep enough concept in an image that is thought provoking. The poster and book jacket I feel were looser briefs and allowed less complex ideas to be executed effectively.
I wish I had experimented more with media and process, being more free with image making and idea generation. I want to get rid of censoring ideas while creating, and allow concepts and inspiration to flow with no restrictions, being risky and imaginative. One problem I faced was not having enough confidence in my work and letting that block my creation. I was getting stuck with creating and not feeling happy or excited in what I was making. Doing stream of conscious writing daily helped incredibly though, and just by getting words down without thought or constraint was very freeing. I want to carry on this approach but in image and idea generation too.

In future project I will try and find a healthy balance between self-reflection and letting go of restrictions. To be able to freely create exciting images with thought out and considered ideas and concepts, but still with a final element of quality control and having the knowledge as to how successful certain outcomes are. I really want to carry on this exploration of the relationship between idea and image, expanding my knowledge and ability to unite them in my work.

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