Self-reflection on Part 3.

I’m pleased with the feedback I received for Part 3. I’m happy with the results of many of the exercises and I have a lot of areas to focus on in order to improve and develop.

Particularly my tutor mentioned that she thought a few of the exercises were very beneficial for me personally and something worth repeating and reflecting on in future coursework, especially viewpoint and composition. There were a few instances where I was maybe neglecting the graphic design part of illustration and over focusing on the drawing, which I think is a fair point. I also need to think more about the broader context of illustration, marketing and publishing, and think about trends, audience, publishers, that sort of thing.

I was also advised to spend more time drawing on the go, from observation when out and about. I plan to look in more detail through some of the recommended reading on urban drawing and drawing from life. A life drawing class I attended last year may be meeting up again over the Christmas holidays, which would be great.

The next part of the course is about developing your own style which I feel is really beneficial for me. For the next part I need to be more self-reflective and write about what I have learnt from the course so far and how to implement the processes from the various exercises. Particularly in the coming exercises there is more opportunities to build on the knowledge I’ve picked up so far.

On the extra-curricular side the Discord server I set up for other Illustration students picked up lots of new members and some expressed interest in broadening the board for other OCA subjects. It’s nice to have a place to chat with other students so we don’t work through the assignments in isolation and it’s a really convenient place to ask quick questions and get feedback.

Finally the areas where I was told I was strongest was in secondary research, willingness to step out of my comfort zone and drawing characters, which I’m really happy to hear. My areas to improve involve analysing and using information, more thoughtfully reading the briefs and building on previous exercises when approaching the new ones. I’m also to draw from life and observation as often as possible.