My proper Five point action plan.

I had to create a five point action plan inspired by this project, the action plan must be SMART. Which stands for: Specific, Measurable, Acheivable, Realistic, Time-Constrained.


Time Management - I really need to work on my time management skills, I am good at keeping time, but only to a certain extent. I can keep to a deadline, no problem. I will never miss a deadline without a valid excuse, and I never plan to miss one without one. This frame of mind is good in some aspects, because it shows that I do have a good amount of drive, but I just need to be pushed further. I sometimes let my work all get on top of me, and I begin to struggle with it. So i need to create some kind of study timetable, and keep up to date with it, so that none of my work gets left behind or neglected.

Illustration Research - This project has made me realise that I need to learn more about my specialism and what comes with it. Lee mentioned in one of our seminar groups how it is scary how little some students know about illustration, which got me thinking, how much do I actually know? I do tend to go online, read blogs and illustration websites, but I don't really keep up to date with current happenings. There are a few artists that I follow, but I feel like I should do alot more research into it. I absolutely love illustration, just because of the freedom you can have with it, there are no limits. I have always loved drawings it sounds cliche, but I just enjoy it so much, and I need to get myself into finding out why I love it so much, and also all of the things about it that I have yet to discover, that can make me love it even more.

Skills Development - I have learnt that through this project, I am not adventurous enough with my work. I think that I play it too safe with my materials, I tend to stick to what I know and I don't think in all honesty, that this is very good for me. I think that it stunts the ability of my work to grow, I definitely need to experiment more with mediums and processes, for example this project has made me work with printing, and if we hadn't have had designated printing workshops for this project then I wouldnt have dared gone and done it all myself. Yes, I will admit I didn't really enjoy it at first, but at least it is something I've tried out, and another skill I have acquired. So I definitely want to create more work through different mediums.

Confidence Boost - I plain and simply just don't have enough confidence when it comes to my work. I know for a fact that this will hold my back from any success within the industry. I think that when you don't believe in a piece much, it can come across through you work. Because of this lack of confidence, I tend to stick to what I know, linking back to my previous point. I can't seem to take any compliments on my work, I'm not sure why but it is something I definitely need to work on. I can take criticism pretty well though, but perhaps, criticism sticks with me maybe a little too well? Maybe that is the problem, I focus too much on the negativity pointed out on my work. I need to stop this.

Aim High - Sometimes I feel that I do not aim high enough within my work, once again I suppose it links to playing it safe, and low confidence, but I do feel that sometimes, I play it safe with my work and I don't achieve to the best of my ability, I feel that my work could always be so much better than it is, this is in a way a good way to think, but I always seem to just settle for being "okay" I would like to push myself to do alot better within my work.

Final Pieces.

These images are photographs taken of my three final pieces done on A3 using ink. I am quite pleased with the way they've turned out, and I am pleased that I decided to use ink to create my colour with. I like how there isn't too much of a colour overload, but there is enough there for it to be eye catching as an image. Colour doesn't necessarily have to be present to make an image appear finished, but i think in some cases it helps the image's appeal and appearance. I did want my final pieces to contain some element of colour within them. I am pleased with my figurative drawings too, I wanted them to feature profiles of people really, so that it could look like they were watching the dogs. On one though, I decided to use hands clapping, I just really liked the idea, I thought it would go well, with the swimming dog, seeing as he looks like he is doing a competetive exercise, I thought it would be nice to look as if the owner is cheering him on. 

In some ways I wish I had experimented maybe a little more with my mediums, especially print, because towards the end and from the last time I went to the print room which was two days ago, I relly enjoyed the process, So I think I discovered the enjoyable side of print a little too late on in this project. I also wish I had experimented a little more with digital, but I am pleased that I used it to experiment with my colours. I didn't really like the final outcome though, which is what put my off using it for all of my images. I didn't really want to commit to using digital if it wasnt compulsary within the final piece, and if I wasn't 100% commited to creating a really great piece on it. I really liked using ink, I just love the simple effect it gives, it also allowed me to be slightly out of my comfort zone. I tend to enjoy making everything fairly neat, whereas with ink I found that it got a little bit messy, and I quite enjoyed that. 

silhouettes...

Whilst walking through the atrium into the owen building at uni, I found some examples of figure drawing printed onto the wall, thought their shapes and positions could be quite useful towards research on my figurative final piece designs...

Incorporating figurative drawing...

We have been told (on plan too) that we have to incorporate figure drawings into our final three dog ideas. We have to do about 30 figurative drawings anyway, so I was looking through mine to see which ones i could maybe choose. It doesnt have to be the full body of a person, but just an element of the figure. Like hands, face, feet etc. I would like my human figures to be watching the dog ideally.

 I really like the idea of using clapping t my figurative image, because two if my ideas are inspired from sporting events, so I thought it would be nice to put in a bit of this element. I also like the idea of encouraging the dog to exercise

 I think side profiles are a good idea to may incorporate it in as well, because it will look like they are watching the dog.

I just think that this figurative drawing is very interesting, it's drawn in starbucks and is a girl sitting funnily on a chair with her back to me, I liked the shape.

I really liked the pose of this one. Was so hard to draw out quickly though!

another side view of a man working on his laptop in a cafe, so he always kept the same pose. I really like the idea of using a profile.

this one I drew on the train the other morning when I was coming back to sheffield. She sat still for AGES! I was really pleased because I wanted another profile of a person, to put towards this figurative drawing within the final pieces. So I think I managed to get a good image of her, unfortunately after a while she did realise I was drawing her and then she kept moving, I'm not sure if it was because she wanted me to draw her in a better pose or what...I really dislike when people try to look natural because they know you're drawing them, even though they dont look natural at all. This figurative drawing has definitely taught me to be sneakier when I am sketching people.

Experimenting with print!

As you might have gathered I am really not a plan of print. But I decided I would do some quick experimentations with my dog ideas. So I went to print and created these basic quick ideas...

The images are quite bold without having to really be, I did like the effect that they gave off, but I still don't really think they are for me. But part of my five point plan was to explore different mediums, to develop my ideas and experience. So I am pleased I did it. I also would like to experiment with inks as well.

I dont think there was supposed to be that much excess ink on my prints as there were but I quite liked the effect that it gave off. Oh well! it's all in the practise!

Idea three/developing

For idea number three, I based the idea around sporting exercises, and I chose to have my dog swimming, and once again my first idea, didnt really have any kind of machine incoporated into it.

 I think my dog also had too many human characteristics, and his expression bought humour, to the piece, along with the swimming cap and goggles. I also was told by my tutor that the look of determination whilst he was swimming was appealing, which I was pleased about because I did want it to look like he was working hard. However, for this project, we didnt want the dog to have noticeable human characteristics and he needed to look more...well doglike, really. So I had to draw from resource!

I actually found it quite difficult to find an image of a dog swimming, especially sideways on, I struggled looking through books in the library aswell. I'm sure that many people don't really see dogs swim sideways on anyway, as their bottom half is submerged in water. But I tried to draw the above image anyway....

...And this was the result. I wasnt best pleased with it, I really struggled with the water, and the image as a whole I suppose, it was just difficult to do. I've never really drawn water before, it is definitely something I need to practise on as I would love to be able to draw it! Anyway, the shape of the dog was alot better that my original. But I still wanted a side on veiw of my dog swimming...So I took a little inspiration from idea number, and copied some of the same shape work of the dog, but I just changed his legs a little bit so that it didnt look like he was powefully running, but instead he was just treading water and doggie paddling along.

i think it worked quite well! I was really pleased with this developed doggie! I had got rid of his human features, and yet still managed to keep him secretly smug and have that determined look about him! I like how you can tell aswell that he is working his way through the water with some determination. I experimented too with his swimming hats and drew several different ones from resources. I just thought the more elaborate the hat, the funner the image. I also wanted him to keep his trunks on! 

Just a few of some of the designs that inspired me! I drew a few swimming cap ideas in my sketchbook. 

One think that I still needed to develop was the fact that I still didn't have a machine within my design, So i thought that maybre he could be chasing something, something that is making him swim faster to catch up. My tutor suggested maybe something like a duck or something. So during development I took this duck idea and thought of maybe a mechanical duck. But then I began to think about what dogs really enjoy chasing, and of course the majority of people will answer with "Cats" so I thought of the idea of maybe having a scubadiving cat, which I thought would be quite funny, however it wasnt really a machine. Then I had another idea, that I thought to be quite witty, I thought I need something that swims in water, but could also maybe look like a cat. So I thought of a CAT fish. Just to add a little bit of humour. I know that cat fishes ususally look like this.

 But I thought it was a bit of humour to use a pun on name. And that maybe I could make it look  more like an actual cat, with a fish body. So I designed mechanical wind up cat fish for the dog to chase through the water!

Idea two/developing.

For idea two for my final design, my idea was a little silly, but it was basically a concept based on dog racing, except my dog had a little mouse actung as a sort of jockey, riding it and making it exercise, it was a little silly...

this was my first rough idea, Pretty basic, nothing to it, and I know what you're thinking: No machine right? Where's the machine?! Well, as much as I liked the idea, it needed to be developed! My dog wasn't realistic at all, or the mouse! So first thing was I needed to find images of dogs races.

I ideally wanted an image from a sideview.

Here is a scan of one of my illustrations based on the researched images I found, the dog's pose was much more powerful than in my original idea, In my first rough sketch, it basically looked my dog was prancing. And this dog needs to look like it's working hard and exercising!

Then I began to think about how I could incorporate a machine into this idea...

So i thought of maybe having the little mouse rider dangle a bone on a stick infront of the dog for him to chase...but then I was thinking a real mouse probably wouldnt do that, SO I considered maybe, mechanical mice? Mice that were programmed to do this, then technically they would be machines! It's a little far fectched but I think it is a fun idea. I also tried drawing a mouse from resource, seeing as mine are a bit more "cartoony" although I think that's okay, especially if they're going to maybe be mechnical mice....

Idea one/ developing.

For idea one, the basic concept was a piece of string with a ball attached to it, spinning round and round on a pole. It might not sound exciting, but I bet if you were a dog, it'd be pretty good!
So I started off with the basic idea...

Quite basic, and it's obvious that I didnt spend much time on it, however it was only a rough first idea! but you can tell that I haven't used any resources at all, it's all just from memory...

Then I started looking into the form of an excited dog, especially it's stance, I didn't want it chasing the ball properly, I wanted it to look like it was watching the ball excitedly...

I found this image anyway! 

I thought that it's stance was perfect! It looked like it was watching something intensely and was ready to move at any given moment, so you could sort of tell that it was an action pose, without having to properly imply it...so basically from the photo you could tell the dog was alert.

So I then drew my own version of the dog, it isn't exactly the same, but I wanted to focus on the stance more than anything, as I think it's a hard stance to get right, I didnt want to copy the image completely. I think it worked quite well!

I then decided to focus on the machine itself. I was basing it on the idea of swingball, which is sort of like tennis, of any racquet game, except the ball is secured to a rope on a pole.

You get the idea! I also liked the idea of this base that turned into a little storage case and carry case, for convenience. I began to start to think about other things that could maybe be on the pole, like other things a dog would want to catch,...

this was a quick and basic idea, from when we were told to develop our three ideas for the first time, So I began then to think about different things to place onto my machine. As you can tell, my dog is a little improved!

this was  better image of my machine from my sketchbook, i put a ball on it, a bone and a squeaky cat toy. it came complete with a carrycase base, and also I developed my machine to have a motor, because I had to think about what would actually make the objects spen around, So there is a motor that turns the top of the pole!

Last few days...

The brief is beginning to come to an end, and I am trying very hard to manage to balance everything! today I picked up some prints that I had done in the print room. The images where my three dog ideas, but in  basic print form. I dont really want my final piece outcome to actually be done in the medium of print, however one of my aims is to experiment with different mediums for this project, so I thought that it would be a good idea. I also unfortunately did not attend one of my print sessions and therefore wanted to still produce work that I would have done within it, and keep up to date with the techniques we were being shown. For this one I simple spread out ink, placed paper over it and then drew my image on the back of the paper, making my paper indent into the ink, creating the form of my lines. I really liked this technique it was simple to do yet very effective, it made my images have a bold, striking effect. I have done more figurative drawings and am beginning to incorporate them into my final piece designs...

Colour development, yet again

As part of my plan of exploring different mediums and ways to apply colour I used the medium of ink to experiment with, So I got an image of one of my dogs and began to draw him out with inks. I haven't used inks in a while, but I really enjoyed using them.

I really liked how bold it made my piece, without it being TOO colourful, sort of like a subtle colour. I liked the effect of not colouring the whole of the dog in, and just putting strokes of colour in places, to imply the impression of colour. I thought it worked really well as I had wondered whether or not to make my pieces really colourful. I am considering using this for my final pieces.

Charcoal

I really struggle to work with charcoal, but I'm starting to learn...especially through doing figurative drawings, It's quite an interesting medium, it gives you varying results. I have never really enjoyed using it, I always feel like I can't create a good result, but then I need to remind myself that every piece doesn't have to be clean cut and neat, like I might want it to be, sometimes it's good to get really messy! 

Creating the final pieces.

Our brief for task two states that we need to have 3 final designs that incorporate figurative drawing into them, so basically it is our dog ideas linked with our figurative drawings. I'm not sure if it has to be three different designs or whether they can be the same but with different figure drawings. I already developed three ideas previously so I think I will use three different dog designs and see how it goes with the figurative drawing aspect of things... Getting Quite STRESSED!

Development of Digital to Analogue and Colour...

as part of my five point plan two of my points touched on analogue to digital and also how to add colour. I though that these two linked together somehow because many people use the digital process to finish a piece, and sometimes colour is what finishes a piece, and I wanted to see how I would add colour and in what way I would do it, eg, paint, ink, digital etc.
So what I did was I drew a copy of one of my dogs...

I decided to colour within analogue at first and opted to use watercolours...

I do enjoy using watercolours and my hands more, I like to get messy it makes me feel more of a connection with my work. I just tend to enjoy working analogue more. I liked the shades within this piece, unfortunately the scan of this doesnt really do it any favours. But I was very pleased with it. I decided to then scan in my image and manipulate it digitally through photoshop.

this was the outcome. I was pretty pleased with it, considering the fact that I don't feel that confident when it comes to using Photoshop. But I suppose this is what I need to do to improve my work, I need to try different things and different mediums. Although I do prefer to work analogue, I do enjoy working digitally. Incorporating them together can be quite interesting, in the past I have done that. I find that even if the finish product does appear digital, I always start out analogue so for example by drawing it out on paper and then scanning it onto Photoshop for colour. I am pleased with this image, but I think that my final piece will end up being analogue both in colour and finished product.

Five point plan and self evaluation...

My five point plan in this project includes:

How to add colour

three conceptual images with figurative drawings

Consider Analogue to Digital

Explore more Mediums

How do I develop a final piece of work

Last week we had a checkup week for out work and were given a five point plan to work on for the rest of the project, it was just a plan to help us improve our work, or give us ways to think about how to improve. We are also supposed to self evaluate.
    I know that one think I am not good at at all is organisation, I let everything get on top of me and then panic, so I have tried throughout this brief as well as professional studies, to stay on top of everything by making lists making time for everything. I think I've coped alot better, but I'll admit I have still sruggled. I'm getting there though, and I realize it is definitely something I need to improve on especially going into the design industry, and ESPECIALLY into illustration. Tutors have told us about how fast some of the deadlines can be. They can be anything from 24 hours to 3 days, something that is very daunting to think about.
I need to work a little out of my comfort zone too, i am used to pencil/pen etc, and I need to broaden my mediums. This project was helpful with that because I experienced monoprint, I didnt necessarily enjoy it doing it. But I am pleased to have tried it, I did enjoy the process in some ways, but I don't particularly like working within it. On my plan I have also included analogue and digital, I tend to work analogue most of the time, I'm not brilliant on photoshop etc. So during my development process I would like to use photoshop and also watercolours, just to see what the different outcomes are like. I think it will be really fascinating to see the differences.