Stage One Evaluation

From the very beginning of the foundation course, it was unclear to me where i stand in terms of pathway choices. However, due to my methods, choice of creative processes and advice given to me over the course of stage one, I am slightly more confident as to where I belong not only artistically, but at the university. It goes without saying that on day one, when I learnt we were to begin on the drawing program I was extremely apprehensive as drawing has never been one of my strong points in my opinion. I was actually well known in my A-level class at my old school for avoiding drawing with pencil and pen at all costs. I'm not sure where the aversion to it originated from, however the drawing program in the first two weeks forced me to come out of my comfort zone and practice drawing in a more free environment than I had experienced previously, and in contemporary experimental ways that weren't simply observational drawings. I particularly thrived in the life drawing classes, which directly juxtaposes my view of where I saw myself as an artist at the end of A-level studies, as I never imagined myself being good at drawing people and life forms. I think this is down to the encouragement from the tutor to not necessarily draw the figure as exact as possible, but to treat the classes as a time to experiment with new techniques and challenge our perceptions of drawing as a practice.

I started my creative journey on the design project, where I quickly learnt my ability to work well under pressure with a very limited amount of time. I was only in for the first day of the design project during week one as I took a few days off, due to illness. Therefore I did not receive the talk through of the self led project brief, or partake in any group activities designed to outline the suggested materials and methods, creative strategies and design specific processes. However, in the second week when I returned for the self led workshop days, I made good use of the time allocated with the tutors to catch up and initiate my personal project for the design rotation. What I liked the most about the design project was the vast array of possibilities of outcomes within the brief. I discovered this at the project review when we were able to walk around and look at each others work. For me, this was the first time I had done a project in such a short time scale, and overall I was pleased with my presentation methods and ability to communicate my idea visually without needing a verbal aid. This along side the strong aesthetics of my design work portfolio are what I believe led to my overall success in this project. I combined my love for abstract colour and pattern work with a more practical design element of furniture to produce my outcome, and although arguably it wasn't the most exciting outcome, I was thoroughly please with what I had produced in the allocated time.

The progression onto the media project was a successful for me, as I took forward my bettered knowledge of the creative process on the foundation course and therefore knew a lot better the way in which I would be working. The shear range of resources available to me, both analogue and digital, was quite shocking to me, especially when I learnt that we had access to all of them. This allowed for a huge surge of freedom in my work, which I embraced to the upmost effect, producing interesting and engaging responses using my collection of newspaper faces. I particularly enjoyed working with the instant cameras such as the polaroid 600 black and white camera, which I took forward and chose as my material for the production for my final outcome. The media project allowed for a strong development of my digital skills also, as inductions into premiere pro and photoshop aided my work thoroughly, particularly when I wanted to manipulate my polaroid imagery on the analogue day. This bettered knowledge of the digital software allowed me to radically update my work, introducing new mediums into my creative vocabulary.

The art project was arguably where I struggled the most, as I was not able to engage in a specific self initiated project as quickly as hoped. In my belief the main reason for this was the suffocating amount of freedom available to us, as I have now learnt about myself that I am a student who likes to work to some form of brief, or have a small hint as to the kind of platform and medium we should be working with. In the end, my minimalistic graphic design style outcomes with the date stamps was really aesthetically sound, and in my opinion there is huge opportunity for me to take this forward and develop it into a broader idea. I worked successfully under the influence of lateral thinking processes, embracing chance into my work, allowing it to question my methods as an artist and help me expand my artistic methods and practices.