SWOT

In todays PPP session we did a SWOT analysis. Something I have done before a lot, from working in management we constantly had to asses competitors and our own business to further ourselves, so I definitely appreciate the importance of it and is something I strive to do constantly within my own practice as an illustrator. I found the second half really useful, with the variations of the SWOT, as I hadn't really heard of them before. I will look to include these when assessing my practice in future. 

Elliot Lim

Today we came across an illustrator/animator called Elliot Lim. Not only are his illustration insanely good, but his animation is even better. He produces all his work on after effect, same as we are going to, but there's not a chance in hell mine will look even a fraction as good as his. I plan on looking through more of his animations and breaking them down to see if I can suss out some of the techniques he uses and try to emulate them in after effects. Good luck.

Monoprinting

I have talked a lot about bringing a more handmade element to my work, and I think monoprinting and just print in general is a really effective way of doing it. I can do it at home so its super convenient and I think it definitely brings out the best in my work.

I need to now find a way of effectively bringing together the graphical side of my work with this less clean cut method.

OUIL402- PPP- Module Evaluation

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

NAME Matthew Mercer


1.  What learning have you inherited through this module and how has it impacted on your own understanding of professional practice? Consider yourself as a student at University as much as an illustrator
One of the amin things I have learned throughout the module is how my own personality and taste can influence my practice. I have learned that experiences withing my life dictate my work and the direction of my work as much as my own likes and dislikes and what I think 'looks nice'. I have learned a lot about understanding WHY i like an image or an artist, rather than just yes I do like it or no i don't, this has definitely come in handy when identifying what I do and dont like about my own practice.

2. What approaches/ types of research have you found most valuable over this module?
Why did they have such an impact?
For me, the main way I have researched throughout the module is by investigating other practicing illustrators and seeing what they are doing. I did this through browsing the library, visiting websites and goign to galleries and exhibitions. I think the reason this imacted on my work so much is because I liked the overall aesthetic of an image or artist, was able to identify WHY I liked it, and tried to emulate certain ideas, techniques, or processes within my own work.

3. In what way has PPP informed the way your work in other modules and your illustration practice as a whole?

Again, using proceses/ aesthetics from other illustrators to influence my own work has been a huge part of the module for me. I think being able to critically respond to where I want my practice to go has definitely influenced what I have produced in other modules, as PPP made it much easier and clearer for me to understand who I want to be as an illustrator and what I want to say with my work.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your PPP submission and how will you address this in the future?
I think the biggest weakness within my sumission is not things that I have included, but the things that happened to ifluence me that I just didn't think to include in my blog/ mention within other modules. I think being more reactive to what happens around me is key to not only being successful within the course but as an illustrator in general. So I guess to address this I would have to work on documenting my work and experiences much more.

5. What communities of practice and professional contexts do you intend to investigate further as you approach level 5? Why do they appeal to you?

I want to continue to investigate creating image swith depth using simple shapes and textures within my practice, as this is something I have been increasingly interested in throughout the first year of the course. I think vectored shapes and texture can definitely be used to create interesting images with lots of depth, and I've heard this denied quite a lot through this year. I really want to start looking into other ways I can develop skills not just as an illustrator but as a creative in general, as I feel there is a lot of crossover. I like looking into other ways an illustrator can make a living not just as an illustrator, looking into different fields I can go into really intregues me.

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 3
Punctuality 3
Motivation 3
Commitment 4
Quantity of work produced 4
Quality of work produced 4
Contribution to the group 2
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

OUIL402- PPP- Presentation

OUIL402- PPP- Illustrated Self- Final Poster

Below is the final draft of my completed poster.

Unfortunately I couldnt upload the image in a high enough quality for the details to be seen so I have cropped some and made them bigger below.
This is a framed picture of a drawn penis, referencing the first brief we did at the start of Visual Skills, and some grey clothing (the only clothing I own).
 

OUIL402- PPP- The illustrated Self- Further Development

Once I had created the elements to go into the image, I decided to get some ideas down for the things I wanted to say and what I wanted to go into the different departments.

I listed words and phrases related to retail and also those related to the course in general and began to match them up to things that work.

OUIL402- PPP- The illustrated Self- Developed Ideas

After roughing out the ideas of how I wanted the poster to look, I begun to develop the images digitally and experiment with the layout and the different elements that I wanted to include in the final image.

OUIL402- PPP- Illustrated Self- Initial Ideas

As I said, I want to carry on with a similar idea as to where I left off with my context of practice work as I was really enjoying it in the end.

There were a lot of different elements that I wanted to address with my A2 poster, and I was trying to think about a unique way in which I can show numerous elements in one image.

After some quick roughs, I came up with the idea of my experience being like a department store, lots of different departments and categories which can be looked at and addressed.

I already know how I wanted the elements inside the store to look, as it was roughly what I was doing in my COP work, I just need to look at how the structure of the store is laid out.

OUIL402- PPP- Written Diagram

Below is my initial written diagram of my time over the first year of the course. I tried to keep it specific to things that I want to talk about/ discuss during my presentation. 

I a really happy with where I left off with my context of practice work, so want to extend that idea and develop it further.

OUIL402- Visual Communication Evaluation

Leeds College of Art
BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION Level 04
OUIL406 Visual Communication Credits 20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME Matthew Mercer


1.  What have you learn about visual communication during this module and how effectively do you think you have applied these ideas?
I think the biggest thing I have gotten from this module is how important simplification of image is. Especially in the last two briefs I wanted to work at using more ambiguous shapes and textures to relay an idea, which I think I did and successfuly developed this through the module. On a similar note, I have learned that what an image is trying to say doesn't have to be screamingly obvious, and that ambiguity is sometimes much more effective in communicating figure and narrative. I have tried to be more ambiguous in my work throughout the module, and have enjoyed the simplification that has followed.

2. What approaches to/ methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?
I really wanted to work with shape and texture throughout this module, and I tried to really experiment what shape (especially in brief 2) and texture (especially in brief 3) can do for an image. Using both shape and texture, I think I have started to move more towards where I want to be as an illustrator at the minute, and am keen to move forward and further develop my use of shape and texture. For me, digital software was used heavily throughout this module, meaning my images took on a more structured aesthetic. I really enjoyed producing work digitally, but think I definitely need to introduce some more hand made elements to my work in future.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I really like the simplicity in my images, even with a more complex use of shape in brief 2 I still felt the image looked quite simple overall. I think the use of shape has definitely influenced this, and as I said before I really want to further my use of shape. I think my work is starting to develop a voice and an aesthetic that is appealing to me. I also like my use of texture in SB3, I played with other textures that I'd collected myself rather than using premade ones, which I think really look good. I will continue to collect and implement these textures into my work.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I think I definitely neglected the development stage in a couple of the briefs. And I think a big part of this is working digitally and moving straight from roughs to the actual making of the image so very little experimentation with media was done. Im not sure weather working digitally necessarily needs this experimentation with other media if I know the aesthetic that I am going for, however I think handmade experimentation definitely has a place within other parts of my practice.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1- Concentrate more on experimentation, hopefully to create more 'refined' images.
2- Consider stock earlier rather than rushing into a shit print, then having to spend more time/money getting quality prints.
3- Create more uniformed roughs, my sketchbooks are messy. Which make sense to me but maybe for people looking in (markers) it won't make much sense and maybe translations of what I have produced from my roughs may become lost.
4- Try not to be too literal, ambiguity can be more interesting.
5- Create work that I want to create, not what I think others will like- start enjoying the things I make!!

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 2
Punctuality 4
Motivation 4
Commitment 4
Quantity of work produced 2
Quality of work produced 3
Contribution to the group 1
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

OUIL402- Visual Language Evaluation

Leeds College of Art
BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION Level 04
OUIL404 Visual Language Credits 20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME
Matthew Mercer

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?
Personally, I think my use of line has really improved throughout the year so far, and have begun to understand how to use line in a fluid but controlled way. Which I'm really enjoying and has totally changed my practice in a positive way. I have really enjoyed playing and experimenting with different medias, especially ink brush and cut paper. I have previously been quite stuck in my way swith the tools and media I used, but the module has really opened my eyes and inspired me to experiment with more media. 

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?
I loved the sessions about composition and the theory behind the images we make. I have always tried to implement these within my work but it has always been something I used intuitively. Learning and understanding the specific methods has driven me to think more conciously about the image I am creating, considering frame, depth, line of sight and so on. I am really trying to push how I use these principles within my own work in other modules, and I really think my ability to make pictures is growing because of it.

3. What strengths can you identify within your Visual Language submission you capitalise on these?
I like the way I have worked with the briefs during the module. I tried to focus a lot more on nailing my  understanding of each media and tool. In no way have I disregarded the specific briefs set but I definitely think I tried to move away from the specific tasks to experiment more with things I wanted to play around with, which I'm pretty happy I did. I think doing this lead to me understanding a lot more through just playing and experimenting with the media and creating images from that. I think some of my favourite work has come through just playing and not necessarily working towards a specific goal.

4. What areas for development can you identify within your Visual Language submission and how will you address these in the future?
I'm honestly very annoyed with myself that I didn't work MORE on each task and media. Unfortunately for me, I started to realise the importance of the module towards the middle of the module, and originally saw it as a suplementary module to the others. I then started to realise that I was gaining the most knowledge and enjoyment through the visual language module. By this point I had a lot of catching up to do. I think this was definitely something I'm glad I figured out, as it exaggerated the importance of experimentation for me, I just really wish I would have realised it much sooner.

5. In what way has this module informed how you deconstruct and analyse artwork (whether your own or that of contemporary practitioners)?

I think my critical thinking has improved tenfold throughout this module. Before, I could recognise that I like an image, however I am now able to recognise WHY I like the image and what specific elements I do and maybe don't like. I have loved looking through other artists work and ths module in particular has allowed me to grow my own visual library of elements I like in images made by others. It has also helped me to become much more critical of myt own work, which has definitely lead to an improvement of my work, both the aesthetics and the strength of the communicated idea. 

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 4
Punctuality 5
Motivation 2
Commitment 3
Quantity of work produced 2
Quality of work produced 3
Contribution to the group 4
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

Apologies again for the messiness of sketchbooks and lack of structure from the breifs.

OUIL402- PPP- YSP

Today I went to visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, to see the KAWS exhibit. I visit the YSP quite a lot as my mum live a 2 minute drive away but the KAWS exhibition was definitely my favourite I've seen to date.

Other than looking at all the amazing art, it really inspired me to see that an illustrator can produce work which can be produced in a gallery and be hugely respected and well known.

OUIL402- PPP- Eleni Kalorkoti Process

Today I found this really interesting blog post by Eleni which outlines how she makes her images. I have always been intrigued by how Eleni manages to create digital work that still looks handmade, turns out that because it starts out as a hand made image and is then 'filled' in digitally, whilst still keeping the original penned in lines.

I have played around with trying to make digitally produced images look organic and natural in the past, this is definitely something else to try!

http://elenikalorkoti.tumblr.com/post/31790790783/a-few-people-have-asked-me-to-do-a-process-post-on

OUIL402- PPP- 3 Posters

We were tasked with creating 3 posters. One to promote ourselves personal, one professionally and one to demonstrate our ambitions. One poster must be only text, the other only image and a third with both.

Personal


I chose to only use text as my personal poster as I don't think an illustration would be appropriate to demonstrate my personality as an individual.

Professional



Ambitions


My third poster demonstrates my ambitions to develop tools for artists and illustrators.

OUIL402- PPP- Colourblindness

So I've always suspected I saw colour differently from others. So last week I decided to check at the opticians and see what they thought, turns out I can't properly differentiate between tones of colours. Which is sick. So 'oranges' look the same as 'reds' and 'blues' look the same as 'purples'. Basically every colour that is similar looks the same.

Maybe I could just work in black + white. But that may get boring. Using colour has never really been something I have been particularly big on, maybe being colour blind is why? I don't really think I do too badly with colours when I use them, although I do always look for confirmation of what colours I have chosen. Maybe I should stop and just go with what I see?

OUIL402- PPP- Marie-Laure Cruschi

I think I may have found my new favourite illustrator. Marie-Laure Cruschi uses a lot of shape and is incredible at what she does. After coming across the book 'cabins' I looked more into her work and other things she has done.

Her work is hugely shape driven, with a really vibrant palette throughout most of her works and she has a huge portfolio, how have I not knowingly come across her before?!




She is incredibly versatile, producing sophisticated works for musicians and magazines, then going on to create really fun childrens books. I will definitely be following her stuff from now on.

OUIL402- PPP- Cabins

I stumbled across this book online and started flicking through the illustrations and I really love them, so I've decided to order the book.

Again, I really love the use of shape in the illustrations. The shapes are mostly flat planes, but the combination of others around them gives off some really nice lighting effects, I definitely want to try and recreate this technique in my fiture practice.

Below are some of my favourite illustrations and photographs from the book.

I love the composition in this image, the cabin is obviously the focal point and the amount of space around it with the trees and bushes draws the eye to it even more. Especially with the drastic contrast in light.

OUIL402- PPP- Where Am I Now?

OUIL402- PPP- Working With Shape

In this weeks Visual Language session we were talking about shape. My practice has always involved a lot of line work and really very little shape at all, but I'm really enjoying using shape as a drawing tool.

Even just roughing in my sketchbook ,messing around with different ways to use shape has really opened my eyes to a new way of image  making. I think the next brief I'll definitely try using shape and see how it goes.

OUIL402- Visual Narratives Evaluation

I really enjoyed the project in general, and have definitely taken quite a lot about using research. Using reference has always been something I have done, but having the opportunity to go out and produce a story from scratch has been great. I feel towards the end of the module I did fall out with what I was doing, but that was probably because of the stress of it all. I have definitely learned a lot about the way I work, and know I need to improve on a lot of aspects of it. 

Personal Reflective Feedback

I'm finding it extremely hard not to finish work. Even within my personal work, I seem to have a need  to make my work look finished and complete, rather than leaving draft work and sketchbook work at a point which I have gotten everything I need to from the drawing.

I completely appreciate the idea of using a sketchbook for creativity and developing and creating new ideas, I just need to start progressing my images by making more 'rough' images, rather than making 1 or 2 'finished' looking images.

Having spoken to Matt during the Visual Skills seminar last week, we spoke about how I might benefit from doing more observational work, which I fully agree with and will look to make observational drawing an almost side project running throughout the year to develop it.