Summative Evaluation

Summative Evaluation 

This project has definitely had it's ups and downs throughout the months I've worked on it, I feel as though I have been pushed, and pushed myself, further than I would have thought possible and for that reason I am proud to have finished it. 

Beginning this project I really enjoyed Murakami's work and the stories and tone of voice he used to tell them, however quickly found through summer work sketches and initial drawings once I had joined level 5, that the images I were creating felt overly repetitive and over done. They all felt very cliched, and I didn't want to create just another set of portraits about sad women, as I felt that was all anyone who tackled Murakami's work to come away with. Because of this ambition to push past the obvious, I feel as though I've grown a little conceptually. I've always had ambition in my ideas but feel as though my final pieces rarely manage to fully communicate them; they often become overly complicated or loose the spark and energy they started with. With these final pieces however, I feel proud to have successfully communicated a new side to Murakami, the best feeling is people getting excited about my work BECAUSE of it's concept and fresh viewpoint!

Practically I'm also quite pleased with my outcomes! Often my finals loose the energy they had in my sketchbook and this is something I've often wrestled with; trying to create pieces that look high finished and crafted without looking robotic or awkward in their execution. This project has shown me how PROCESS can effect and finalise a piece. Using images from my sketchbook that have that raw energy to them and taking those images through another process can allow for a replication of that same energetic, fluid image making with a higher level of detail and crafting. The combination of elements from different images to create a final piece is also something new I've discovered this project which came in helpful during the making of my final compositions and images.

The processes themselves have been a learning curve this module, trying to not merely understand but become GOOD at a process I've not done before in detail, or in the case of After Effects at all, is something that has continuously challenged me throughout this project. Though, at points, I felt as though the project was failing because I didn't feel comfortable and confident in the work I was making, I've learnt this can be a GOOD thing! Because I pushed my work but practically and conceptually in ways I didn't feel comfortable with I feel my work has grown immensely. Understanding how to adapt the process to meet my needs has been very important; while I didn't want my work to be dictated by the processes or programs I was using, I also had to find a balance between what I wanted my work to do and how I could use the processes//programs to help make it come to fruition. 

On a lesser positive note I feel something I have really struggled with throughout this project was time management. In the last couple of months 2015 especially I felt myself becoming very overwhelmed with workload both from this module and others. While I tried to pick myself up from this multiple times through vigorous time planning and organising myself, I still felt a little lacking in lustre. This leads to another struggle I've had within this project and that's keeping my momentum going. I feel I both started and ended this project on a high, but there were definitely dips throughout the middle part of this module. Largely I think this was down to my own personal mental attitude. I let the workload get on top of me a lot and rather than take the time out to really breathe and take a break from looking at this project so I was able to organise myself objectively, I pressured myself too much to get too much done. This has been one of the biggest things I've learnt throughout this entire project, it's just as important to know when to take a break from a project as it is to know when to pull up your boots and really tackle it!

Overall, though at times it may have got me down, this project has resulted in work I feel extremely proud of. I have pushed myself a lot in terms of demanding more from my work and I'd like to think that has paid off. I've learnt so much in so many different areas throughout this brief and feel I am leaving it a stronger illustrator and a happy person.