OUIL403 Evaluation.

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
Independent skill to finish off this brief and time management skill. I think this is because I am going back to my country soon and that was my motivation to finish off this brief. I think I have improved my Photoshop skills as I found new tricks and that was very helpful. I have started to realised that Photoshop is a very powerful tool to manipulate materials/images for example I started to mix 3/4 sketches to create an illustration. I have develop my cutting skills as before I was so scared of using a scalpel as I thought it was sharp. It is sharp but I think as long as I have got a cutting mat and concentrate then I will be fine.

2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?
I have experimented with a variety of different medias, techniques and processes. I went completely  outside my comfort zone as I didn't use vector at all except to image trace my line illustrations. I experimented with lino, acrylic paint, a roller, ink and a marker pen etc. Each media created a  different effect depending on how they were applied. I love lino and I am looking forward to playing with it more in the future. I mean the fact I can press something to a piece of paper is just my new happiness. I am really glad that I did not go to Illustrator as much as I did. I do not think my methods informed my concept well. I think for this module I insert a lot of textures as one of my feedbacks from my PPP presentation was to make sure that I add some textures/pattern to my illustration and I think now I am obsessed with adding them in my work.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I went outside my comfort zone, before I used vector a lot but for this module I used paint most of the time and I love the effect that it has created. This has made me realise that there are more methods that suit my tone of voice and I am excited to explore more techniques, medias and processes.   I managed to get this brief done on time (right before I leave this country) which is good especially as I didn't have peers to crit me. This made me realised how lonely it is to be an illustrator but overall I enjoy being alone as this meant I had to decide without anyone's help as I am not good at decision making.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I don't think my ideas for studio brief 4 are strong enough to communicate the quote. Maybe in the future I need to do more idea generation and understand the quote a bit more. I just realised that I am not good at drawing on a massive scale. For instance to overcome this I drew a small scale of a panda then I scanned it in then printed it out to the actual scale that I wanted it to be. After printing it out, I then traced it using a piece of tracing paper. After that I scanned and manipulated it in Photoshop/Illustrator. I didn't print my final designs from studio brief 3 on quality paper because I don't have enough money for this month as I have been shopping for Malaysia. I also did not have time to print my finals for study brief 4 because the print room had already closed by the time I had finalised my designs. Perhaps, in the future I should try to work quickly especially when it comes to idea generation.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
I will do more research into contemporary illustrations so they will inform me about the current tone of voice of illustrations. I want to screen print so badly; in the future I will email/phone the screen print staff to find out if the workshop is available for me to use or not. Do not afraid to try new techniques and I want to explore more new techniques, medias and process. Be imaginative and use a lot of unconventional tools and I think the outcome will be more interesting and imaginative. I think I should look at more do it yourself (DIY) stuff, as I think they helped me a lot especially making my mind think outside the box. Overall, I really enjoyed this module so much even though my experiments went crazy most of the time.

Fail. Fail again. Fail better.

So my chosen quote is 'Fail. Fail again. Fail better.'

I am thinking of illustrating things that I am normally fail at ? or pick an object that I  can't draw so I have to draw it multiple time + improve my drawing skill.

I made a spider diagram to expand my ideas.

To be honest, when I heard this quote 'Fail. Fail again. Fail better.' the first thing that popped out in my mind was these ideas:-

Fail - broken circle illustration

Fail Again - not so perfect illustration

Fail Better - perfect circle illustration.

These are two pieces of graphic design that have some typography inside circles. I like how neat they look and I also love how the typography and the circles connected together by placing the typography inside the circle. 

I like the dimention 200x200 ( from studio brief 2) so I decided to use that dimension for this experimentation.

These are the original sketches. I used ink and dip pen. I am honestly not good at ink and a dip pen but it was worth to have a go though.

For future references whenever I want to use a dip pen and an ink, I shall apply in on a piece on paper instead of on a sketchbook as the ink will make the paper on sketchbook stick together. 

'Image trace' them in Illustrator

Some typography that I did and I used a dip pen and blank ink. I had to write the words few times just to get the font and word look good and readable. 

I divided my quote into 3 sections.

1. Fail.

2. Fail again.

3. Fail better.

So the illustration in the 'fail better' will look neater/legible compared to the 'fail'.  

In Photoshop, I manipulated the circles and the typography together but I did not think the typography are suitable with the circles probably because I don't think the typography look neat enough.

So I went back to my sketchbook to see if I wrote my quote with different style of font and I found this. (image above). As usual I went in Illustrator to image trace it.

Tadaa. This is the outcome. However I do not think that this idea is strong enough to communicate the quote which is 'Fail. Fail again. Fail better.'

I went back to my spider diagram and after I had a long thought, I decided to go with my second idea which to draw an animal using my left hand (I am right handed).

For some reason, I wanted to draw an elephant's head. I imagine my 1st drawing using my left hand would be pretty bad and would improve as draw for multiples time. 

At first I used a biro pen then I got bored. Then I start go back with a dip pen and ink. I realised that I am good at drawing with my left hand so I decided to give up on this idea.

I went back to my previous studio briefs (OUIL403 studio brief 1 and 3), you know to see what I have done and stuff. I really enjoyed experimenting with lino like using scalpel to make shapes, using a roller, painting and stuff - reminds me of rubber stamp.

This is the time where I want to retry my studio brief 3 unsuccessful experiment(s) (the one that I used cardboard and roller). 

So first of all, I got all the materials such as a piece of cardboard, a craft knife, acrylic paint and a cutting mat. I want my final illustration designs to have a rubber stamp effect.

This is the elephant head. I created like a handle at the back to make my life easier when I dap it on a piece of paper.

Reference Image.

These are letters that I made using a piece of cardboard and these are letters that I need for my quote. I recycled the same letters throughout the quote. e.g. A,T and E.

These are some tests that I produced using my cardboard letters and elephant that I created. I like the textures that acrylic paint generated. I also love the fact that they are not in perfect shapes and still look beautiful and unique, plus I can manipulate them in Photoshop. Now I start to see the bonus of having a pretty good skill in Photoshop :P

My hand when I was playing with paint to create my letters and the elephant head.

This was a spreader that I created using a piece of cupboard to spread the paint onto of my elephant/letters.

In Photoshop I set a document 200x200mm with 300dpi.

Copied and paste the chosen illustrations. I had to change the Level and used the erase tool to erase some bits and bobs around the illustration.

On a separate layer, I created the elephant's eyes by using the brush tool and the stamp tool.

By using the 'Hue/Saturation' I experimented with colours. I played with blue, black and red because that what normally rubber stamp colours ink are. I think  for my final design, I might go either with blue or black as I wanted my quote 'Fail. Fail again. Fail better.' to be in red. 

I don't know if you can any differences but I am looking for the right tone of red for the quote.

These are some layout ideas for the quote and the illustration.

The quote is too straight. Hmm maybe I should make it a bit wonky.

Yes, this is what I am talking about. The typography looks better when it is wonky like in a piece of paper. It is usually not straight anyway.

Frame around the rubber stamp + I might add some frame

These are how my quote looks like after I added frames. I still think that I need to edit the letter E and R or perhaps make the word 'better' smaller.

I made the word 'better' smaller and changed the Hue/Saturation of B and R to make them brighter as I think they were too dark compared to other letters. Maybe I need to move the word 'fail' a bit to the right as I do not think that it is centred enough. One second. 

Trial black:-

Trial blue:-

I think for my final designs of 'Fail. Fail again. Fail better.', I'll go with the blue ones as the audience can see the texture more compared to the back one.

Image as communication - an image and it is telling a story

Type and image - Illustration + typography work together to make the artwork making more sense for the target audiences.

Type as image - an illustration made out of typography.

 I think for my illustrations I might go with 'type and image'. Actually I am quite fancy illustrating 'type as image' but not now, maybe in my summer brief ?