OUIL406 Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
This was my first time working on a collaborative project and I gained a lot of experience e.g. developed team working, communication, time management skills; especially time management skills. I found it hard to pick a time to meet everyone as each one of us has our own timetable.Even though I am good at Photoshop and Illustrator, I also learnt new skills and techniques which was really helpful and saved me a lot of time. I think I managed my time quite well for this module as I did blogging while I was making my final work and it saved me a massive amount of time.  

2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?
I tried to experiment with ink and I had fun with it but I thought ink was not suitable for brief 3 as the outcomes had to be from stamp size to postcards and to an A2 size. I developed different styles of illustrations by using felt-tip and traditional collages (tea party poster). I found it interesting to learn other people's style of illustrations and the tea party’s style is completely opposite to my style.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
My illustrations are vey simplified and legible. I think it is as brilliant as good illustrations are when audiences get the message just by looking at it. I also picked the right colour schemes by using pastel and contrasting colours. As well as that, when it came to making my final designs, I was not afraid to fail as failure is a stepping tone to success. One of my other strengths is I was not afraid to ask people around me their opinion about my work as I think people's opinions are extremely valuable. I also used social media e.g. Facebook and Whatsapp to ask people's opinions and that was really helpful; it gave a massive impact to my final outcomes especially on the Korea postcard for the studio brief 2.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I think I have worked with Illustrator a lot and I did not let myself explore other media,techniques and processes. I always gave up half way whenever I was exploring new medias and I think this is a bad habit. I think I am lacking in research in terms of looking at contemporary designers. For my next module, I will do my best to look at other illustrators and perhaps go to the library and not only the internet. My other weaknesses were (in studio brief 1) I was afraid to give my opinion as I think I was not so confident especially as English isn't my first language and I did not really know my team members. I also think that I was lacking in ideas and sketches. I do not know if it me that was lazy or this brief does need lots of sketches.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
I want to try a new style of illustration as I am already bored with Photoshop and Illustrator.I would love to do screen printing technique more as I did a bit on studio brief 2 and it was fun even though it took forever; I think that due to screen printing I could use 3 colours. Basically I just want to run away from digital stuff and go back to traditional methods of drawing. I want to try to playing with depth and composition in drawing even though I am pretty bad at it; even though I know it will take me forever to develop this skill. Maybe I should look at more contemporary designers, maybe not only from the UK and US, perhaps from Russia, Japan - look at different illustrators from a variety of backgrounds. I wouldn't be able to cut the edges of the stamps as they are too small.

Final crits and final refinement.

I really want people to comment on my poster as it looks quite empty but in peer feedbacks they only have commented on my blog e.g. how organised and up to date my blog is.

So I decided to ask other people, I showed some of my development works and they like my poster with the Union Jack as the frame. They advised me to:

• Change the typography to his inventions' and the date. 
• Add the Union Jack at the portrait's background.
• Zoom in invention's illustration at the poster's background.

These are some sketches.

Left sketch - zoom in inventions' illustrations at the background

Right sketch - Union jack at the background

As well as that, during the crits we were discussing how important of having all these finals to work as a set. This makes me realised that no matter what happen, I need to make sure that my finals work as a set; and it is okay to try and error.

Anyway, so I start off with adding the Union Jack on the background.

I start of by illustrating a union jack. Copied and pasted into the background.

Cmd+A and Intersect

Tadaaa. Nice.

Now, I played around with the typography. I was thinking where is the suitable place to put it.

At the bottom ?

I delete Brunel's name and put the year's on the invention have been created in centred. But it look wrong

I tried to make it align left.

I tried to put the year above the name but it still look wrong. I think this was due to the year is too short and its name is too long. So I decided to stick with my original idea by putting Brunel's name and his inventions'.

I also changed the typography colour to a blue colour, the same colour as the poster so they work as a set. Hopefully these are my final postcards and I don't think I have enough time to change my ideas as the deadline for this module is a day after tomorrow. I still got OUIL401 to do.

I like the Union's Jack colour and the portrait, the colours really compliment each other. I believe this is my final A2 poster. But I think the Union Jack is too up.

So I moved it down a bit then I realised that both side was not equal...

and I also refined the edges of the portrait as I thought it is essential because this poster will be in A2 (big scale) print so if I had a tiny mistakes, the audience would be able to see them clearly.

These are my final stamps.

Next : I need to print all these finals into special piece of papers. I probably need to be in college pretty early because print workshop usually very hectic with all these deadlines from all over courses.

OUIL404 Evaluation

1.  Which practical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice?
This module gave me opportunities to try and experiment with new things. I learnt and developed quite a lot of skills such as composition and depth in drawing, and experimented with a variety of medias, techniques and processes such as etching and screen printing. I learnt how to create gifs for my mutant task. That was easy and it made me realise that illustrations are not all about drawing. Illustrations could be anything and could be applied to anything. I don’t know how effectively I have employed these skills but I know I gained skills and have become aware of different techniques and media that I am surrounded by.

2. Which principles/ theories of image making have you found most valuable during this module and how effectively do you think you are employing these within your own practice?
The most valuable theory was the use of composition, depth and lines of sight. They are an eye opener and they have made me think about my drawing in more depth. I found it hard to draw with composition, depth and line of sight as they are new to me and it is probably going to take a long time to develop these skills. Plus I have started to add some depth in my personal work too. I think I am doing well and now automatically think about the line of sight, composition and depth whenever I am drawing. 

3. What strengths can you identify within your Visual Language submission. How can you capitalise on these?
My ‘tone of voice’(style of illustration) has started to appear and I have realised that my illustrations are more shapes, bold colours and collage rather than lines or painting techniques. I am good at producing ideas and my weaknesses are drawing from different angles. One of my other strengths is I like trying new things but at the end of the day I will end up by using Illustrator or Photoshop. However, lately I have tried to mix traditional and digital methods together. For example for my transport task, I drew the illustration on a piece of paper and coloured and edited it in Illustrator/Photoshop and I think that was a good start.

4. What areas for development can you identify within your Visual Language submission and how will you address these in the future?
I think I have developed my human figure drawing skills. I still remember that I could not draw a male figure but now I am quite confident to draw it but I still think that I need to develop more so I started to go to a life drawing class. I think the life drawing class was helpful even though I found it boring. My illustration was more bold colour until recently I started to apply shades, tones and textures which make my illustrations more realistic and professional; however I still need to develop these skills. I need to learn how to apply shades and tones to illustrations more by looking at other professional illustrators'  work. I have only recently started to enjoy visual language and I wish I had enjoyed it earlier. At the beginning, I think the subjects given were too broad and I found it difficult on decide things to illustrate.

5. In what way has this module informed how you deconstruct and analyse artwork (whether your own or that of contemporary practitioners)?
This module has helped me a lot especially when it comes to analysing my own or professionals’ work as every week we learnt different topics and subjects. For example this week I learnt about shapes and next week I will be learning about lines and there are different types of lines e.g. crosshatch,zigzag and curve. Plus every week after a briefing, I have worked in pairs to analysis some illustrations then discussed findings with the rest of the group. This has helped me to be more confident about my answers and know different viewpoints from other people about the same illustration. 

A2 Poster

Create an A2 size document. I pasted his portrait. I want to put his name and his occupation 'English Mechanical and Civil Engineer'. I also want to include all my ships and bridges illustrations.

I start off by adding his portrait and some typography. I learnt from my ED Graphic Design that for posters, it is essential to design portrait rather than landscape.

I start to playing around with layout. I do not know how to connect the illustrations of his inventions, the typography and his portrait.

No, they all look awkwardly positioned.

I went on behance to look for inspiration, then I found this poster by Nicolas Carmine. I thought it looks interesting so I want to have a go.

But no. The layout does not look professional. Maybe I should do portrait instead. 

No.

No.

Hmmm, Got some potential.

I designers a poster for my sister and it have a reunion flag at the background so I though it might look good at my Brunel's poster and it does look good. 

Union Jack = United Kingdom = Brunel an engineer from the UK.

So I decided to try on my postcards so they would look as a set.

I don't like it as there are too much colour. So I decided to not do this idea.

I tried to change Brunel's blazer's colour to the same colour scheme as other illustrations (ships and bridges) but it looks wrong ( too colourful). I decided to stick with the original colour portrait.  I just don't know how to make the portrait, the stamps and the postcards work as a set. 

This might be my final A2 poster and I do not think that I could develop this further.

Proper final postcards

So basically I am trying to add Brunel's portrait to my stamps. 

On a new document I tried to edit Brunel's portrait.

These are before and after I edited it.

Stamps are small (50x30mm) so I have to scale down the portrait and this happened. This made me decided not to put Brunel's portrait on my stamps and perhaps put it on my postcards.

Pasted it on the postcard's document and after had a few minutes thought, I decided to place the portrait at the top left. I don't know why but I think that is the best and most convenient place to put his portrait. 

Scaled down. The same situation happened when I scaled down the portrait but at least postcard's size is bigger than stamp's so the audience would be able to see the portrait and its detail more.

I had to change the weight of the stroke. The portrait and the bridges'/ships' illustrations are overlapping so I need to rescale and reposition them.

I thought overlapping illustration might look good but when I looked at this I knew I was wrong and definitely need to rescale and reposition the bridges and ships illustrations.

I moved the illustration down slightly and I think there is too much negative space at the top.

I tried to scale down the portrait.

I tried to make sure the portrait align with the bridge. 

Overall I don't like it, as the portrait and overall layout look wrong. What if I move the text next to the portrait.

I tried to make the typography and the portrait align.

I changed the portrait's background and frame colour to make it and the typography work as a set.

But it still looks wrong. I wonder how can I make these illustrations (Brunel's portrait and the bridge) connect to each other.

After a few hours in a battle to make everything look neat and align, I agreed that these are my final postcards and yes, I used grids to make everything neat. 

Stamps

Ideas for stamps. I am playing around with scales and macro.

First stamp - Royal Albert Bridge.

I like the layout

I prefer this one but there are some white spaces at the bottom of the bridge and maybe I should move it down a little.

No. What if I zoom in...

I like this one and it reminds me of abstract pattern.

I added Brunel's name and his invention's name at the bottom of the stamps.

Final 1st stamp.

2nd stamps - SS Great Western.

 I tred to reflect on my illustration to see if it looks different/better but I prefer the original ones.

I tried to zoom in and out, playing around with the layout. Out of these four, I think the stronger layout and idea is the bottom right (above).

I want my stamp to work as a set. Because my 1st stamp is quite abstract and macro, I want all my postcards to be the same.

I tried to decided which colour would suit the red and blue background. After I did this experiment, I decided to go with orange colour as it has more contrast compared to green.

Final 2nd stamp.

3rd stamp - SS Great Britain

I found it hard to find an interesting angle for my 3rd stamp as the illustration is pretty simple and not as complicated as the rest of my illustrations.

Final 3rd stamp.

4th stamp - Clifton Suspension Bridge

The stamp would look nice but the audience would not be able to read the typography.

Too much negative space.

Zoomed in and I think this looks better than than the stamp above.

This is nice, the fact that the audience can see the flow of the top main cable.

I really want to insert the tower on the stamp but again, the audience would not be able to read the typography. I think this is due to the colours used.

This is my final stamp design for my 4th stamp. I think this stamp suits well with the Royal Albert bridge's stamp.

The queen's silhouette for the stamps.

I print screen a queen's silhouette from the internet

I created it by using the pen tool in Illustrator.

I added grey colour as most my stamp's background is white so if I coloured this illustration in white, the audience would not be able to see it.

The edges of the stamps illustration.

I'm trying to create the edges of the stamps like the above stamp as most British stamps have got those sharp edges.

First of all I created a stamp sized document and created a rectangle.

Create Ellipse> Minus Front.

As usual, I created a rectangle as a guiding tool to make sure the distance between each gap is the same.

Copied> pasted.

After copying and pasting circles, I selected all (Cmd+A) and press 'minus front' and..

I came out with this. Basically this is a guidance tool, I mean after I print my stamps, I will cut the edges using this template.

--

These are my final stamps design. They have all got black edges because when I print them I will cut the black bits so the edges will look like a proper British stamps' edges.

1st stamp - Perfect.

2nd stamp - What if I move the illustration up a bit so the background of the typography is only one colour and the queen's silhouette moves a bit to the left.

3rd stamp - I need to move the typography a bit up so it is equal like the rest of the stamp.

4th stamp - I need to change the typography's colour to green so it would be the same as the postcard's.

These are my stamps after I refined them, I know maybe the audience cannot see any different but I could.

Oh wait, I am so tempted to put Brunel's portrait that I made. What if I add it to these stamps as I really like my Brunel portrait.