PPP Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have developed time management skills and I think I applied them very successfully especially after Fred gave us a talk about time management. I also know how to use pinterest now and it really benefits me especially when I do my research and I like to go on that website whenever I am bored. I know how to draw frogs from different angles and have learned something about them.

2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?
I have developed a different way of producing my style of illustration by mixing traditional and digital medias. I have used a variety of traditional medias such as different sizes of felt-tip, marker pens, ink and have used Illustrator and Photoshop to digitise my sketches. I think  mixing these media makes my final outcome stronger and unique. For the exhibition I will refine my illustrations, add my name on my hotdog book and screen print them.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I had a lot of ideas and I was not scared if my ideas went wrong as I had a lot of back up ideas. I managed to fill my sketchbook in 2 weeks which impress me and showed me that how I enjoy the last moment of PPP. I never gave up on drawing frogs even though I keep drawing them wrong. My comfort zone of drawing is by using a black pen and I think it is a great strength because I can note down my ideas whenever I have my pen and sketchbook with me.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
In general, I think I am lacking  in experimentation. I also left my PPP to the last minute as I am not very keen on writing but this module has helped me a lot in terms of informing that there are different fields, styles, media and techniques of illustration. Most of my research is from the internet and I think in future, for the research, I should look at more from the library instead of the internet.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
Not to leave everything to the last minute especially the study task. In future I should complete each study task within that week so my workload will not become excessive. Be playful with my ideas - does not have to follow the real - be imaginative. I want to add more textures and patterns to my work by creating my own pattern instead of using an image traced from a photograph in Illustrator.

My presentation + note

My presentation + note

I wish I spent more time to do this presentation because I think I did not reflect as much as my friends did.

Unsuccessful ideas.

These are some ideas that I thought was strong for my hotdog book but I did not include them for technical problems.

Toilet

I found it extremely difficult to draw the frog in that position so I decided to change my idea to something else, I think I changed it to a frog in a piggy bank.

Ring box

I had an idea of a frog in a ring box but I do not think it make any sense as frogs are bigger than ring boxes. So I decided to give up on this idea to a frog stuck in a phone.

Frogs in a cup

I found it difficult to get the composition right. I changed this idea to a frog in a bowl of soup.

A frog in a shoe

I found it extremely hard to get the right pose of the frogs even though I did thousands and thousands of sketches. So I decided to stick with the same idea but change the angle of the shoe and the frog instead like below

Evaluation OUIL401

1. What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I have developed my writing and reading skills I had to write a 3,000 word essay with 500 word tasks every week. As well as that, I also had to read plenty of books, articles, journals in order to complete the tasks. I think these two skills are very helpful as I will be using these skills for the rest of my life. I also know how to and feel more confident about writing a bibliography.

2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?

For COP part 2, I tried both digital and traditional techniques. For the digital technique, I used  Illustrator and for the traditional techniques I experimented with ink, watercolour, tea bags and felt-tips. To be honest I tried traditional techniques first as I thought I wanted to run away from my comfort zone and I found it hard as I am more at home with digital technique; however it went wrong. I think this was due to my illustrations and lack of an appropriate  style to illustrate my essay on propaganda. So what I did was I changed my whole idea completely although I only had five days until the deadline.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think my final designs have some strengths. Firstly, I used Sergeant Stubby as my main character and he is a good world war symbol. Secondly, even though I created my final designs using only digital methods, they still gave a sense of a World War One poster  after I printed them as my posters were printed onto paper on which I had spread tea bags. Thirdly, by redesigning Uncle Sam posters this made people recognize that my theme was World War One as Uncle Sam posters are well known propaganda posters.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

To be honest I do not know what my weaknesses are. I think time management as I only did my semiotic analysis two days ago as I was busy with another module so left this module until the last moment. It took me forever to write a 500 word task as I think I  lack subject knowledge and also English is my second language. this has been a valuable learning opportunity which has helped me to express my opinion. This is a skill I need to work on

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

I want to screen print my final design! I used a limited colour pallet and screen printing technique to  give an older and antique feeling towards the illustration/final outcome. Manage my time more and don't leave everything to the last minute. To be honest my time management for this module was not as bad as my other module and I expected to create a to do list or a timetable. I want to keep all my sketchbooks together as I left my research sketchbook at home or maybe I lost it but fortunately I had already blogged it.

Printtttttt.

I printed my hotdog book in A3 and in A2 size and I  think i will stick with A3 size because it looks cute suits with my illustrations style. 

Also for the exhibition, I want to screen print my hotdog book and A2 is pretty big and I am afraid if I will be struggling to screen print it.

So after I printed my work, I was pretty happy with it until i realised that I forgot to put my name on.

So on my sketchbook I wrote some letters for my name(below)

Scanned it in.

Editted it in Illustrator (image traced) and Photoshop (Changed the Level, colour and put my name together)

I'm thinking where should I put my name either to align with the title or not. But I decided to put my name align with the title (top left).

Because I already print my final design, I will screen print my hotdog book again (with my name on) for the exhibition.

Hotdog book layout

So after I digitised all my illustrations, I need to place my illustrations on the hotdog book layout.

By using the grid and a rectangle to measure and making sure that everything are align.

Copied and pasted the illustrations onto the hotdog book document (in Photoshop)

Done !

Cover illustration TO BE CONTINUED

The making of front and back cover illustration.

Reference image for covers:

From Mr Google.

Opened the sketch in Photoshop> change the level.

Cmd+W for magic want tool then go to select>Modify>expand

By using the bucket tool I coloured them in however at the edges of illustration is not clean > greasy edges. After I had a long thought, I decided to..

Go on Illustrator and 'Image Trace' the sketch (The one that I changed the Level in Photoshop). I then copied..

and pasted it as 'Smart Object' in Photoshop.

Add some colours

I found out that the edges are softer and neater. 

I scanned a page of typography from my sketchbook and changed the level in Photoshop as well as Image traced it in Illustrator.

I realised that the typography is in such a mess - not align and different font sizes.

As usual I am using the grid tool to  make everything align.

Cmd+T to straighten the letters.

This is the outcome.

Which cover design should I pick for the front cover?

Hmm. I think the most successful one is the top left as all my illustration have not got any background colour and it stands out more compared to the top right.

Back cover.

Back cover illustration.

At first I wanted to put 'beware !' on the bubble speech but then I changed my mind and decided to ut 'I could be next to you'. So the image above is the typography that I wrote on my sketchbook using a thick felt-tip.

I also had to image trace it.

Now after I got all the letter done, it's time for me to sort the sentence out.

I am having trouble of arraign the typography, this is due to a big amount of typography in a small scale of speech bubble. Well, I could change the quote from 'I could be next to you' to 'how about you' (?)

Changed the level of the typography;s photograph in Photoshop (Above left) then moved it to Illustrator to live traced it (Above right).

I used the grids to make sure all letters are the same size and align.

I changed the layer to 'Multiply'  and I used the magic wand tool and the bucket tool to change the font colour to blue.

Illustrations. to be continued

These two books (above) were my main reference for frog images.

Phone.

Reference Image: My phone (below)

Debating weither I should make it outlined or without outlined.

Piggy bank :- 

Reference Images: my piggy bank (below)

not align

 the lasso tool > Cmd+T> move it around to make it align.

Playing with colour. I think to improve this illustration is to add some text e.g. '£1' or '50p'.

Sketches from my sketchbook

I edited it in Photoshop (changed its Level) and Illustrator (image traced).

Copied and pasted the '£1' illustration into piggybank illustration document in Photoshop.

Change it to 'Multiply' and coloured it in.

This is the result.

Hoodie.
Reference Image: I don't have any, I draw from my imagination.

I forgot to add the hair details.  So I decided to start over by adding the head

From sketch>scanned>in Photoshop> Cmd+L.

Moved it to Illustrator to image trace > copied it

Create a new document in Photoshop >A5 size> pasted.

Paste the illustration as 'Pixels'.

Now, it is time for me to add hair details as I did it on a separate peace of paper.

Changed the level and as usual I image traced it in Illustration to get smoothes lines effect.

copied and pasted it on the head illustration

Tadaaaaa.

Magic wand tool (W)>Select>Modify>Expand>Okay> the Bucket tool (G) to colour it in but on a new layer. I need to make sure that I change this layer to 'Multiply'

Beautiful.

 Even though I Image Traced the sketches in Illustrator, I still need to edit some part of it in Photoshop ( I am zoo obsess of making my artworks look neat.)

Image traces one of my texture that I created in Illustrator.

I am impress.

Laundry.
Reference Images: 

Original sketch but I realise it does not work as a set with the rest of the illustration so I decided to redraw it again.

Tadaaa.

shoe

Reference Images: My aunty's shoe

Sketch> In Photoshop> Change the Level>copy> Go to Illustrator>paste>Image Trace (so I got the perfect smooth outlines)>copy> In Photoshop>Open a new document>A5 size> paste> colour them in with magic wand tool (W) and the bucket took (G)

After I image traced it.

I did tried to change the colour scheme but I decided to stick with the original colour that I picked from the beginning which are green,blue and yellow.

Bowl.

Reference Image: 

I thought of colouring the soup in yellow but my peers was disagree as it looks like urine so I decided to colour the soup in blue.

The illustration look so much better without the outline.

I wanted to create a pattern for the other side of my hotdog book as I think it will be ashamed if I leave it empty. So I looked back on my sketchbook to see if I can find any interesting sketch and I found this (below).

I was like 'Oh, this will look good if I make a pattern'

Using the same steps as before

Sketch> In Photoshop> Change the Level>copy> Go to Illustrator>paste>Image Trace (so I got the perfect smooth outlines)>copy> In Photoshop>Open a new document>A5 size> paste> colour them in with magic wand tool (W) and the bucket took (G)

To create this pattern does not take long, it took me not more than 10 minutes.

These are patterns that I created using ink, felt-tip with variety sizes and marker pens