Ways of seeing
During the three weeks we discovered different ways to look at images, and, although I felt like it was t times difficult, I feel like it was a good first step towards learning how to analyse images and things around me more thoroughly.
I think the core thing we were introduced to during this brief was that our ideas are way more important than the look of our work and should always be our main focus since it's what differentiates us from other artists.
Moreover, it was an exciting beginning as we had loads of workshops and it made me try to look at the world it a different light. It also was a good introduction to what this years is about as we created pictures inspired by the world around us and started looking at how to build a thoughtful piece of artwork.
Both the Rashomon workshop and the Abstract Fictional Character one were the most impactful for me as they got us to reinterpret a piece of media given to us with no context, which served as a good exercise in finding different interpretations for the same thing.
Overall, between all the life drawing and the evaluating of images, I think that for me, this brief was a great way to transition from first to second year.
Amplify
'Amplify' was a challenging project from me from the beginning. It was the beginning of trying to juggle multiple project at once as it overlapped with both optional module and our formative presentation from the 'Contemporary Issues in Illustration' module.
I think the biggest challenge I experienced was trying to find a topic that is meaningful to me and also representing it visually. I was not used to having complete freedom over what topic I choose to work with in an academic setting, especially since before university I was studying theatre design which consisted of me working with already-written plays.
I felt unsure about many things during this project since the theme that I went for was very vague. Even though we also had to prepare a well-researched presentation about our chosen topic, I still was not really able to figure out what exactly I wanted to say through the booklet.
Towards the end of the brief I was still not sure about what my exact message was, so I just decided to try to visually convey my experience. Because of all my struggles with the general theme, I also found it difficult to come up with imagery, since everything felt either too obvious or cliché, or too vague and abstract.
During this brief, I realised that I find it really difficult with a theme that is quite personal, which is something that I would like to get better at in the future, since I think personal experiences can add a lot of nuances to storytelling, which I don't feel like I did here.
On a more positive note, during this brief I was able to learn a lot about creating a book( which I tried my best to make cohesive). Moreover, since I faced many challenges along the way it made me realise some of the areas where I am lacking.
Because of the feedback that I got, I started considering combining traditional and digital means of working to be able to better control what I want the highlight of my work to be and to be able to achieve a cleaner look.
This brief might not have gone so well for me but, subsequently, I have started to try to get better at planning the initial stages of projects, since I think my biggest mistake was not having a clear idea and not knowing what exactly my message was from the beginning. Going froward, I think I should also learn when and how to keep things simple, since in the past I've struggled with both overcomplicating an idea and with overwhelming compositions with too much visual information.
Optional module - Publishing: experimental formats
Although it was not a part of the main module, I felt like it was one of the highlights of my second year and influenced my work on the main module in many ways.
The optional module forced me to try out many different methods of creating, some of which I didn't know were offered. I was able to try: photography, foiling, embossing, book-binding, vacuum-sealing, embroidery, digital printing and more. I feel like doing all this now provides a good base for me to be able to explore more and get to know everything offered by our university so that I can create more diverse work going forward.
Moreover, this module helped me see things differently and learn more about what a piece of published work can be, and, because of the extended amount of time we were given, I got to focus on making many iterations of every idea to figure out how to deliver a message in the most effective way. It forced me to push myself creatively, making it a really enjoyable experience that provided knowledge that I can use in the future.
Overall, this module provided many opportunities to experiment in completely new methods, which was a good opportunity to practice both technical and thinking skills as we were encouraged to use the media we were provided to find as many ways to tell a story as possible.
I believe the main reason why I was satisfied with my work for this module was because I was forced to approach the briefs in many different ways, which lead to a smooth development later on. Going forward, I will try to incorporate what I have learned here in my future work, specifically doing as much experimentation as possible for the projects I take on before starting to develop an outcome.
Ways of living
At first, this brief made me feel quite all over the place since it felt like it was never the priority, as there was always something else going on.
I enjoyed this brief because of the amount of workshops that were going on. I feel like throughout it I was able to get out of my comfort zone and try some new things which was thanks to the extensive amount of workshops.
I wish I focused more on this brief since the beginning, since a lot of the asks from the workshop would have been really beneficial in honing my thinking skills, and they would have been even more so if I had given them more attention during independent study times. Besides this, I realise I should have been taking advantage of the fact that there is no final outcome needed, which meant that I could have done more exploration without the pressure of a final thing. If I could go back and re-live any of the briefs of this year, it would be this one since I feel like I did not appreciate it enough. To make up for this in the near future, I hope I can go back and practice some more of the stuff that we have been taught and also look trough some more of the recommended reading, such as 'The Path'.
I did not do as much as I would have wanted during this brief, meaning that I should still focus on getting better at managing my time and setting my priorities.
Despite all this, I feel like I was still able to achieve a good amount of explorative outcomes, while also gaining critical thinking skills trough doing tasks that were challenging such as all of the philosophy tasks which took me out of my normal routine.
This brief is also where I realised the importance of reflecting, especially right after a task, since the brief had no mandatory final outcomes, and a big part of it was based on challenging our way of thinking, which meant that at times there was very little visual evidence to remind me of everything that happened.
HKBU x NTU
I think the HKBU collaboration which was part of the Ways of Living ended up being the most enjoyable collaborative experience of this year for me. Both working with my assigned partner from Hong Kong and with the other NTU students taking part were enjoyable, which is probably because it is not a mandatory project, so everyone taking part is doing so willingly. Although it's still a long way until it is finished, we have been able to come together and start talking about what everyone thinks should be included in the exhibition and thinking about the title. In the near future ,I hope that I will have more time to be more involved in it.
I think what made this my most successful collaborative experience was our communication. Me and Kitson (HKBU student) established at the beginning that we would be meeting every Monday, which we kept up with for quite a while. It took us a while to figure out what we wanted to do, but, because of our consistent meetings, we were able to figure it out. This differs from my previous group work experience where it was decided that we would be meeting up once we thought of something to do, which didn't really happen because we never got together to discuss it. Moreover, we were both honest about the amount of work that we could do during different periods of time, which resulted in us being able to plan around it. Right now, my work partner is preparing to graduate, so we made sure to discuss the main part of what we want to do before he got really busy. Generally, this has been a positive groupwork experience, and I hope that in the future I can hone my collaborative skills even more.
Live Brief: Anorak
The live brief was our introduction to professional illustration. I think it was a good opportunity to try working professionally but without the pressure of failing a real-life job. I tried my best to treat it as a real-life commission to be able to get the most out of the experience.
Throughout the brief, I feel like I got better at understanding and creating work with an audience in mind since Cathy is strict with what she puts inside her magazine, particularly about keeping Anorak content appropriate for an older audience, as opposed to her other magazine, Dot.
I feel like having to work with a client and instructions in mind was a fulfilling experience that also came with some challenges. I think the biggest challenge I had to overcome was while making the final edits. Something that I am bad at is maintaining an organised Photoshop file, and, since I edited the images so much before submitting the final presentation, it was especially all over the place, which meant that making the final edits was more difficult than it should have been. In the future, I should be more organised, especially if working with clients, since there will more often than not be edits that I need to make. Moreover, I found one of the changes she asked for unpleasant to make, but this is also something that I will have to deal with in the future if I choose to work in this area. I'm not sure if Cathy is so nice to everyone, or if she was going easy on us since we are still students, but overall she made this a pretty positive experience of working with a client that made me consider this as a future work prospect, as she took the time to understand everyones' ideas and gave us insightful feedback that made me produce work that I would not have otherwise.
Something else that went well for me during this brief was my experimentation with digital collage. One of my aims was to get better at creating more polished work, which I feel like I was able to achieve through this brief.
Overall, I think this was a good brief to conclude the year as it helped me gain more insights into how to go about creating professional work as an illustrator. It was also really long for the amount of final pieces that needed to be created, which I tried to take advantage of by not being afraid to fail multiple times and to experiment. I'm still wondering if I would want to do children's illustration in the future, but this was a good place to start properly thinking about it through professional practice.
