Final Major Project Evaluation – Animals
For my sketchbook I
think it was more of a gradual thing rather than me finishing it and then
starting all my other sheet work, although I do think I could have had better
time management even though my time management I believe has improved. I also could’ve
done more work at home to help me manage everything else on top of it. My theme
was animals I decided to look at animals because I wanted to do something with
more detail and although I have done a similar project in the past it was more
set out for you whereas with my final project I could look at anything I wanted
to as long as it related to my project. I also wanted something to challenge me
and I didn’t want to look at portraits as with animals you can get more primary
research. For research I had quite a few pictures hidden away of animals at the
zoo that we took when I was younger also some newer pictures of other peoples
pets as well as observational drawings at college and at home and they really
took me out of my comfort zone I was using media I don’t normally use as well
as being timed to use them it definitely made me get a bit stressed. I also
looked at secondary research mainly for some of the wilder animals so I could
get a more varied look at my project.
I developed my
research through my sketchbook, my mood boards and my designs later through the
project I think I only began to use secondary research for design sheets and
design development sheets. The artists I looked at all mainly work in detail I looked
at Paul Jackson, Julie Rhodes, Sid Frissell and I looked at Joanne Kitson in my
sketchbook I especially like Paul Jacksons work as it is immensely detailed as
well as being accurate, as well as Julie Rhodes draws incredibly lifelike
pictures. I did all of these as critical studies except for Joanne Kitson’s
work I used pencil where as she mainly works in watercolour. I found Paul
Jacksons work the most difficult to replicate I believe he uses pencil and fine
liners for his originals I can’t be sure but on his website it doesn’t tell you
what media he uses though I saw a picture of one of his works and in it there
was a pencil and a fine liner. I also found Julie Rhodes’ work difficult to replicate
as I couldn’t quite get the right shade but I think I did a good job on both
even if it was painstakingly slow to replicate them.
In my designs I don’t
think my artists influenced what I did other than Joanne Kitson as I did a
design sheet with a horse on it and her specialty seems to be horses. I was
interested in horses from the beginning which is why I think I went for it as a
final piece. When I was deigning I wanted to use oil paint for my final piece
but I hadn’t worked with it on this scale before and so it was quite daunting
considering using it for the first time on my final project. As I was doing my
design sheets I was unsure what to pick but others seemed to like my horse
design so I thought I should go with that and see where it gets me I also
thought it was the design that was best represented with my project. For this
project my main constraint was time and research which was my own doing really I
became more stressed as time went on but I managed to achieve my goal in the
end.
I did various
experimentation I started with the observational drawings as well as silk
painting which had again brought me out of my comfort zone and it wasn’t going
well either the colours were leaking into one another and the picture became
messy, it made me agitated I then continued with various different methods of
drawing I used the pen and stick, I used white chalk on black paper as well as
felt pens all were under a certain time limit. I also sampled using mini canvases.
The problem solving I encountered was mainly lack of resources for instance we didn’t
have any white paint except emulsion so I brought some from home as well as blue
roll we were in dire need of it so we resorted to using some loo roll from the
toilets, but my main issue was time and although I had planned and had written
on my time management sheets I still found that I was rushing towards the end.
If I had more time
on this project I might’ve expanded my field into ceramics or woodwork though I
would prefer to do something in ceramics rather than woodwork as I haven’t really
had a good opportunity to do any ceramics yet as I have mainly been focusing on
painting. I also might’ve managed my time better as I have been busy with other
aspects of my life as well. The processes I used in this project include pen
and stick, sgraffito, white chalk on black paper, black chalk on white paper, I
have used long stitch as well as a textiles based collage I also used coloured
pencil, acrylic paint, oil paint, gouache paint, ink and various others. I think
that my project went well there were a few hiccups here and there especially
with my artist research as I believe it took far too long to reproduce I also
think my time management could have been better. Though it has improved over
the projects especially since I created my own action plan but I don’t think I kept
to it as well as I should have. For my blog I think I could be more active with
it I always put everything I need to on it but I could be putting things into
more detail as well as putting pictures of my work through the stages rather
than at the end with the finished product, I could also add things like
hyperlinks to YouTube videos or websites.
Overall I think this project went well as for
the workload I think I could have done more if I had planned my time more
effectively and had organised my work better but I am happy with what I have achieved
and I hope I will do better in the future.
