I have thoroughly enjoyed this course and have developed good working processes to answer briefs and manage deadlines. I feel the feedback I have had from my tutor has helped me see things I had missed and increased my self-confidence in that it has also frequently echoed my own thoughts about each piece. For example, I had felt the menu card exercise result was appropriate and my tutor’s feedback that the watercolour and pencil technique worked well for the brief reinforced this. Also I had been dissatisfied with my editorial illustraton brief and my tutor’s comment that it was confusing motivated me to readdress the concept I was trying to visualise.
I have become more aware of my tendancy to rush towards an outcome, especially with a deadline looming, and know this is something to manage in future work. It is better to get more involved in the exploration phase of image making. Having said that I have thoroughly enjoyed using different techniques to complete exercises which has encouraged me to use my mixed media skills to produce images. I think I can develop this further in the future.
I do feel the course has given me a good insight into the illustration world, particulalrly through the research we have had to do for each exercise. I enjoy researching and know this has been quite a strong feature of my approach to exercises. Going forward I am enthused to find out as much about an illustration career as possible.
I have learned and discovered some good techniques for developing visual solutions. Sometimes I can take a more ‘safe’ approach to producing images however, e.g. my first attempt at the organic biscuits exercise; maybe this is why the first submission was so poorly resolved. I think I can challenge myself a bit more in this regard to improve results.
In reflecting on work, especially soon after completion, I tend to focus on the things that haven’t worked as my tutor commented. However, I intend to also highlight the things that are working as I think I have done in this reflection. Feedback from my tutor has certainly helped me to identify which things are working and why.
