As A Practioner...
5 strengths
I think that one of my strengths is definitely drawing, particularly in a technical sense. Of course, there is always room for improvement in that area but I do think that I am working at a high level in terms of representational images, both in terms of drawing from observation or life, and from reference. I am usually able to draw whatever I might need to in a way which is accurate and clear and never find myself having to give up or change a conceptual idea because I can't translate it visually.
I find that I am able to work in a variety of visual languages, and can translate an idea or single, original drawing, into a multitude of variations, through using different processes to create a different aesthetic. The best example I can think of is how my original line drawings of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for the picture book brief evolved into brightly coloured, bold shape driven compositions made from cut paper, or the different practical responses (in my sketchbooks) to the persons of note brief, which began with very straightforward pen and pencil sketches of Erno Goldfinger's buildings and ended up as ,again, bold, shape driven compositions, this time rendered in layers of undiluted acrylic paint, gradually masked off with masking tape, and then overlaid in Photoshop.
I am starting to narrow down a sort of conceptual tone of voice, mainly focused around abstracting the subject matter through. Most importantly, not altering the subject matter through the actual stylistic traits of my drawing (as in cubism/ impressionism etc.) but rather allowing uncontrollable influences to create the abstraction naturally, such as the perspective, or way I have framed the components of the image, or the limitations of a particular process, or both in combination. This notion has become a trend in my work which has gradually been developing since my foundation course, but has begun to solidify and become noticeable to me over the course of the last year. The fact that it has become a very intuitive trait in my work, almost subconscious, instills a confidence in me that it is genuine and not forced, therefore worth developing and honing.
I maintain a very strong interest in music, and to a lesser extent, film and TV, which i think helps with a general creative outlook and allows me to pool inspiration from a wide range of different influences. The way in which practitioner's of different creative ilks approach their own work, and their methodology, can provide me with ideas I might not have come up with if I only attempted to draw inspiration from other illustrators/fine artists etc.
I am usually able to find something in a brief which interests me and which I can focus my research on in order to remain inquiring. This means I don't usually get bored of a brief/project or resent the restraints it might involve and I don't get overwhelmed by very open briefs as I can become absorbed in the elements I am interested in and want to pursue without feeling like I have to view something in any one way.
5 Struggles
whilst I feel like i'm narrowing down a conceptual tone of voice, my practical application of ideas fluctuates wildly and I definitely don't yet have a preferred visual aesthetic which would make my work recognisable as mine. I'm not too worried about this at the moment as my practice is still very much in it's infancy, but I do think that now, perhaps more than ever, there is a pressure on illustrators to have one way of doing things visually and that it has become more important to build a client base and get consistent work. My thinking is that these visual traits evolve out of problem solving and just general experience so I would hope that with time I will develop more of an identifiable practice almost automatically.
Although i do reflect on my practice, I don't think I act on my reflections enough. This has been difficult this first year because most of the briefs have been short, and each new one has me wanting, or in some cases needing, to try a different approach, so I don't often go back and re visit particular processes, techniques etc. and try and improve them in new contexts. In the future, I need to try and take everything forwards with me and review what's working and what isn't more consistently, and try things more than once in a variety of scenarios. In other words I'd like to stop thinking in 'briefs' so much and take a more holistic view of my work.
I think maintaining authenticity is something else which is hard. I sometimes worry that the work I'm making (in some cases) might be contrived or perceived that way, and sometimes when I think I've made some kind of a breakthrough, I might find another practitioner or artist etc. is already doing something very similar and then I become unsure of whether or not i should be doing it as well, or try and find something more original. Working with short amounts of time exaggerates this struggle because, I think, it can often take quite a long time to produce something which is properly original. A certain amount of time is needed to digest the various influences, let them stew, and then fit them together in a way which is individual and feels honest.
Having to create a 'final outcome' is always something I struggle with. I am often happier with some of the work in my sketchbooks than I am with the end product. This is probably because, in a sketchbook, I can mess around and there is a sense of freedom, but when there has to be something at the end, which is greater than the sum of it's parts, that puts a lot more pressure on creativity and makes me feel a little trapped perhaps. It would be nice to be able to approach a 'final' piece of work with the same attitude as a sketchbook, but I'm not sure that ever happens, particularly in an illustrator's realm where working to briefs requires a specific end product.
I often get a really frustrating feeling like a kind of creative constipation, where I end up with loads of ideas going round my head and I can't untangle them or see how to fit them together and get them out. It's the same kind of feeling as having a word on the tip of your tongue. I get the sense I'm about to have a eureka moment, and then it all slips away. I'm not sure how to handle this really, or whether it's just something that happens to people who make art. I suppose blogging more often and consistently, or even just jotting things down in a notepad would help. It might at least give me some room, and help me establish a point I could come back to at a later date.
I don't often find myself getting stressed by uni work (that might change in second year) and can usually enjoy making work without worrying at all about what kind of grade I'm going to get etc. I wouldn't have thought that people study art to get a 'first' but I suppose some people do. I am usually good at prioritising feeling relaxed about things and keeping myself entertained and interested.
I keep a good work/ fun ethic, whereby a fair bit of the work I've made has been to a reasonably high standard but I'm not killing myself over it and still find plenty of time to do things which aren't work related, like playing guitar or going to the pub/ gigs etc. Since starting first year, and throughout, I've placed more emphasis on getting to know people and Leeds than work. I think it has helped me to make better work as well. If I was doing work all the time, I'd probably start to resent it and as a result I might actually produce lower quality work.
I'm never embarrassed to admit that I don't know what I'm doing, I'm confused, or need help. This trait proved particularly useful in the Visual Communication module which required using Illustrator and Photoshop quite a lot. I hadn't had a great deal of experience with Photoshop, and I'd had no experience with Illustrator (I'm also generally bad with technology) so I had to get a lot of help from the technicians. I'm glad I was so honest as well because I ended up fairly happy with the work I produced as a result.
I think I'm typically quite confident in my ideas, so I know when I've achieved what I wanted to achieve and can be quite critical, forcing myself to keep working on something until I like it. Whilst, as I mentioned earlier, I don't get stressed, I do think that, for me, and probably most practitioners working in the arts , it's actually difficult to stop working on something you've created until you're happy with it yourself. this can be a blessing and a curse, but I think it's mostly useful to care intrinsically about what you're creating, regardless of grades or deadlines.
I try not to compare myself too much to other students or worry about other people being better than me. I'm not particularly competitive and I think this helps me stay objective and focused, and ultimately, to hone in on what I need to improve about my work in order to achieve what I want it to achieve.
5 Struggles
Whilst my attendance is pretty good, I am always about 10 mins late, which, whilst obviously being a frustration for other people, is also frustrating to me. It seems such a small amount of time to be late by that I can't understand why I am that amount of late so consistently. I need to be more brutal with myself in morning and devise a way of forcing me out of bed. maybe putting an alarm clock on the other side of the room.
I am not very organised. I tend to work sporadically and inconsistently. I definitely need to improve the way I divide up my time so that I have a clearer idea of what i want to achieve, and when I want to achieve it by. I should start planning what i need to get done for each day.
I am a big one for procrastination. I often trick myself into thinking it's okay as well because I might be doing something like playing guitar for 2 hours, which i can convince myself is still productive, when in fact there might be quite a lot of uni wok I'm behind on.
I need to get into the habit of getting up earlier, and going into the studio more on 'studio development' days. I typically work at home unless I need the university facilities for something specific. Of course there are more distractions in my room, although I am sometimes quite good at just using the computer to play music and getting on with work, but it's more the fact that I think physically separating where you work from where you live is important and gets you more in the zone. Plus I sometimes feel like like I'm going a bit stir crazy if I'm in all day.
I need to blog more frequently and consistently. At the moment, I'm doing long blog posts at sort of random times. I think I would benefit from blogging a little bit everyday instead, that would help integrate my thinking and my working much better, and also keep me from having loads to catch up on right before a hand in.
I am starting to narrow down a sort of conceptual tone of voice, mainly focused around abstracting the subject matter through. Most importantly, not altering the subject matter through the actual stylistic traits of my drawing (as in cubism/ impressionism etc.) but rather allowing uncontrollable influences to create the abstraction naturally, such as the perspective, or way I have framed the components of the image, or the limitations of a particular process, or both in combination. This notion has become a trend in my work which has gradually been developing since my foundation course, but has begun to solidify and become noticeable to me over the course of the last year. The fact that it has become a very intuitive trait in my work, almost subconscious, instills a confidence in me that it is genuine and not forced, therefore worth developing and honing.
I maintain a very strong interest in music, and to a lesser extent, film and TV, which i think helps with a general creative outlook and allows me to pool inspiration from a wide range of different influences. The way in which practitioner's of different creative ilks approach their own work, and their methodology, can provide me with ideas I might not have come up with if I only attempted to draw inspiration from other illustrators/fine artists etc.
I am usually able to find something in a brief which interests me and which I can focus my research on in order to remain inquiring. This means I don't usually get bored of a brief/project or resent the restraints it might involve and I don't get overwhelmed by very open briefs as I can become absorbed in the elements I am interested in and want to pursue without feeling like I have to view something in any one way.
5 Struggles
whilst I feel like i'm narrowing down a conceptual tone of voice, my practical application of ideas fluctuates wildly and I definitely don't yet have a preferred visual aesthetic which would make my work recognisable as mine. I'm not too worried about this at the moment as my practice is still very much in it's infancy, but I do think that now, perhaps more than ever, there is a pressure on illustrators to have one way of doing things visually and that it has become more important to build a client base and get consistent work. My thinking is that these visual traits evolve out of problem solving and just general experience so I would hope that with time I will develop more of an identifiable practice almost automatically.
Although i do reflect on my practice, I don't think I act on my reflections enough. This has been difficult this first year because most of the briefs have been short, and each new one has me wanting, or in some cases needing, to try a different approach, so I don't often go back and re visit particular processes, techniques etc. and try and improve them in new contexts. In the future, I need to try and take everything forwards with me and review what's working and what isn't more consistently, and try things more than once in a variety of scenarios. In other words I'd like to stop thinking in 'briefs' so much and take a more holistic view of my work.
I think maintaining authenticity is something else which is hard. I sometimes worry that the work I'm making (in some cases) might be contrived or perceived that way, and sometimes when I think I've made some kind of a breakthrough, I might find another practitioner or artist etc. is already doing something very similar and then I become unsure of whether or not i should be doing it as well, or try and find something more original. Working with short amounts of time exaggerates this struggle because, I think, it can often take quite a long time to produce something which is properly original. A certain amount of time is needed to digest the various influences, let them stew, and then fit them together in a way which is individual and feels honest.
Having to create a 'final outcome' is always something I struggle with. I am often happier with some of the work in my sketchbooks than I am with the end product. This is probably because, in a sketchbook, I can mess around and there is a sense of freedom, but when there has to be something at the end, which is greater than the sum of it's parts, that puts a lot more pressure on creativity and makes me feel a little trapped perhaps. It would be nice to be able to approach a 'final' piece of work with the same attitude as a sketchbook, but I'm not sure that ever happens, particularly in an illustrator's realm where working to briefs requires a specific end product.
I often get a really frustrating feeling like a kind of creative constipation, where I end up with loads of ideas going round my head and I can't untangle them or see how to fit them together and get them out. It's the same kind of feeling as having a word on the tip of your tongue. I get the sense I'm about to have a eureka moment, and then it all slips away. I'm not sure how to handle this really, or whether it's just something that happens to people who make art. I suppose blogging more often and consistently, or even just jotting things down in a notepad would help. It might at least give me some room, and help me establish a point I could come back to at a later date.
As a Student
5 strengthsI don't often find myself getting stressed by uni work (that might change in second year) and can usually enjoy making work without worrying at all about what kind of grade I'm going to get etc. I wouldn't have thought that people study art to get a 'first' but I suppose some people do. I am usually good at prioritising feeling relaxed about things and keeping myself entertained and interested.
I keep a good work/ fun ethic, whereby a fair bit of the work I've made has been to a reasonably high standard but I'm not killing myself over it and still find plenty of time to do things which aren't work related, like playing guitar or going to the pub/ gigs etc. Since starting first year, and throughout, I've placed more emphasis on getting to know people and Leeds than work. I think it has helped me to make better work as well. If I was doing work all the time, I'd probably start to resent it and as a result I might actually produce lower quality work.
I'm never embarrassed to admit that I don't know what I'm doing, I'm confused, or need help. This trait proved particularly useful in the Visual Communication module which required using Illustrator and Photoshop quite a lot. I hadn't had a great deal of experience with Photoshop, and I'd had no experience with Illustrator (I'm also generally bad with technology) so I had to get a lot of help from the technicians. I'm glad I was so honest as well because I ended up fairly happy with the work I produced as a result.
I think I'm typically quite confident in my ideas, so I know when I've achieved what I wanted to achieve and can be quite critical, forcing myself to keep working on something until I like it. Whilst, as I mentioned earlier, I don't get stressed, I do think that, for me, and probably most practitioners working in the arts , it's actually difficult to stop working on something you've created until you're happy with it yourself. this can be a blessing and a curse, but I think it's mostly useful to care intrinsically about what you're creating, regardless of grades or deadlines.
I try not to compare myself too much to other students or worry about other people being better than me. I'm not particularly competitive and I think this helps me stay objective and focused, and ultimately, to hone in on what I need to improve about my work in order to achieve what I want it to achieve.
5 Struggles
Whilst my attendance is pretty good, I am always about 10 mins late, which, whilst obviously being a frustration for other people, is also frustrating to me. It seems such a small amount of time to be late by that I can't understand why I am that amount of late so consistently. I need to be more brutal with myself in morning and devise a way of forcing me out of bed. maybe putting an alarm clock on the other side of the room.
I am not very organised. I tend to work sporadically and inconsistently. I definitely need to improve the way I divide up my time so that I have a clearer idea of what i want to achieve, and when I want to achieve it by. I should start planning what i need to get done for each day.
I am a big one for procrastination. I often trick myself into thinking it's okay as well because I might be doing something like playing guitar for 2 hours, which i can convince myself is still productive, when in fact there might be quite a lot of uni wok I'm behind on.
I need to get into the habit of getting up earlier, and going into the studio more on 'studio development' days. I typically work at home unless I need the university facilities for something specific. Of course there are more distractions in my room, although I am sometimes quite good at just using the computer to play music and getting on with work, but it's more the fact that I think physically separating where you work from where you live is important and gets you more in the zone. Plus I sometimes feel like like I'm going a bit stir crazy if I'm in all day.
I need to blog more frequently and consistently. At the moment, I'm doing long blog posts at sort of random times. I think I would benefit from blogging a little bit everyday instead, that would help integrate my thinking and my working much better, and also keep me from having loads to catch up on right before a hand in.
No comments:
Post a Comment