PPP - End of Module Self Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL402 Personal & Professional Practice 1	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	Adele Pierce

1.  What learning have you inherited through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied it? Consider differing approaches to contextual/professional research
I have learnt how to be really open to all aspects of Illustration. When first starting the course I think I had a very closed view of what Illustration was. I looked around at my peers here and they were all different. We all have very different skills and interests which often lead me to feeling out of place, or unsure of whether I belonged. But now I see that that is a strength, and I can use them to bounce ideas off and better my work. I think that constantly looking at illustrators and the practise on a whole pushes you to want to be better, and personally for me makes me want to complete my work to a higher level. I think looking on websites has been really useful, setting up a Pinterest and Tumblr account in particular for me has been a breakthrough. This allows me to search really specifically for areas I want to look at. For example, in the past I would visit the AOI website and have to sift through lots of illustrators’ portfolios before finding one that I really liked. Now I can be specific with what I search, and come up with lots of illustrators that create work reflecting my interests immediately. I have used the library quite a lot here too, to take out books whether they are about illustration or just contextual research in general, which has been very beneficial. I also really enjoy the ‘Big Heads’ skype sessions, listening to professionals talk so personally about their experiences gives me a great idea of what to expect and what to aim for.
2. What approaches to image making have you developed during this module and what informed such ways of working?
I have used my research skills to look at illustrators work that I would like to be as good as, or work that excites me and motivates me to want to make imagery. In particular for this module at the end of the year I have came out with work that combines all of my interests into one. For the final brief I researched into poetry quite a lot because this has been a running interest of mine from the start on my blogs. I then decided to look into weird and whacky humans who maybe have body issues and wanted to make work that was charming and relatable from this idea. I looked into circus freaks and people with exaggerated body parts, then created poetry from images I’d found on the internet. I was happy with the results of this and decided to carry on the poetry and illustration idea. I thought of how I would like to perceive a character in a media I would be comfortable with which was a watercolour painting. I then decided to challenge myself and create character development borne purely from my imagination, in a quite animated style in book form. This was a real struggle, and something I would be embarrassed to show anyone but really informed my thinking. I then decided to study on one character in particular from the book which was of a giant. From this I challenged myself to create poetry based on this one character and I feel exhaustively thought about who this character was, what he would wear, all the angles of his face and posture. I feel I definitely could have done more of this having had more time, and experimented with more media for it. I started to create a book on this but felt my drawings were becoming restricted so needed to work on larger paper to figure out the character first. I then experimented digitally with my outcome, drawing and re-drawing my idea until I was happy with it, then scanning it in and colouring it digitally for the final piece. I added text (a poem) on Photoshop and battled with the composition, and font style to suit the illustration.
3. What strengths can you identify in your practice and how have/will you capitalise on these in the future?
I think my strengths are recognising work that I can appreciate as good illustration, but also finding work that I am passionate about and that really motivates me. For example, I could spend hours finding illustrators work that I ‘like’ but there are few that grab my insides and make me think, yeah, I want to do that. When I find those, I print them out and have them beside me as I am working so that I can reflect on them and think ‘how did they do that’ ‘what makes this so successful?’ ‘maybe I should try those colours’ ‘I am going to try do that with my linework’ ‘what makes this so funny?’ ‘that looks really professional.’ And this allows me to constantly question my own work which I think is a strength. I think I have really good ideas, I am a thinker and a dreamer and this comes across in my work. I think that I am good at pin pointing really original funny ideas and creating work that makes people feel something. I am the concept, I think my ideas are what makes my work successful. I am able to make work that I know people will relate to, find recognisable, and sometimes even get involved with. I think in the future within the illustration industry I will create work that sells well because its open to a mass of people and is not just for a specific niche.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your practice and how will you address these in the future?
I think my weaknesses are how I am not experimental enough with my media. I think sometimes I am too many ideas and not enough ‘doing.’ Or maybe I do lots, lots of research lots of drawings but none that really inform my practice. I never spend long enough on getting something right to a standard I am happy with because I don’t have the patience, I’m too busy coming up with other ideas. I think I am too restricted with using fine liner at the minute especially when creating character because they all end up looking the same. They are all outlined, and when it comes to colouring this on Photoshop there’s only so much I can do without it looking stupid all outlined in black. I really need to work at shape and colour within my work and finding illustrators that do this. I would also like to challenge myself to look at collage more because I’ve found some really nice work in collage and think I would love to be able to structure an image in that way. I think another weakness is sometimes being too ambitious with my outcomes that in the end they become rushed. Doing too many things at once when I should concentrate on getting just one right. I think particularly for the summer show I would love to spend three weeks on one painting, to make it something I am proud to display.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
Next time, though I say it all the time, I really will be experimental with my media. For this brief I think I have improved because I used books as a way of collecting my thoughts, I looked at poetry, character development which I fought with, a little bit of paint, worked on larger paper and really small paper and then digitally to finish it off. But next I will work on paint more, maybe a little bit of ink, try not to draw in fine liner at all and really work on my drawing practice. I need to do more research into illustrators and try discover which area I would like to go down and what do I see myself as? A visual entertainer – is that enough? Can I always entertain? Because sometimes I don’t want to be funny, sometimes I want to make work that is quite emotional, or charming, or just a really nice painting. I will continue to stay behind on nights where I can to get work done because I feel this has been really successful so far. I will continue to blog as I go as well to avoid an overload of work at the end of a brief.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance			x
Punctuality			x
Motivation			x
Commitment			x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group			x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

A copy of your end of module self evaluation should be posted to your studio practice blog. This should be the last post before the submission of work and will provide the starting point for the assessment process. Post a copy of your evaluation to your PPP blog as evidence of your own on going evaluation.

Notes