final major project evaluation - animals

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.