I think my creative approaches to visual experimentation improved over the course as I learned to really trial new and different ways to be creative and this helped me see how much can be gained from experimentation from even the most random things. I definitely would not have been able to come up with these things from scratch and I think this is the biggest lesson I learned.
I believe I understood well the different elements of colour, line, tone and shapes etc. though at first I struggled to pull these together in a way that made sense to me as I was thinking too much about these individually and not enough about how I wanted to use them to fit my needs, particularly for line. I think this shifted though towards the end as I started developing my own way of doing and presenting the work.
I was most inspired by the idea that even random objects or images can be redefined or used or adapted in many different ways. Creating a ballet dancer dress out of random kitchenware is a case in point. Not painting and drawing in the classic sense that I am used to from school was so freeing that I really enjoyed the process.
Looking at other creative practitioners’ work has been quite inspiring to see the depth and diversity of what is out there and how specific their practice is to each of them. I think when you start out doing something art and design specific you feel the pressure to do everything perfectly with no mistakes when actually, it’s about building your own practice to work for you. This is particularly poignant for me as I finally managed to bring my social justice interests into my final assignment in a way that made sense to me and I really tried to use what I knew to construct my best version of it.
Linked to this and in terms of moving forward: I started out this course to better my skills and explore how I could bring creativity into my work and areas of interest. As I progressed, I can see areas where I would like to focus the next years in terms of my social justice interests and illustration in relation to changing narratives and campaigns for social justice or supporting positive behavioural change. I am really interested in how images and visuals and infographics can help better show meaning and convey an idea. I also really liked the mapping exercises and I think this connects a lot to how to design information for an audience to understand and be moved or convinced or impacted somehow by it.
In terms of the course learning outcomes and assessment areas. I think I managed to really lean into research and experimenting and had more fun with it than I expected. I definitely improved my capacity to work with digital tools and photography as I wanted to focus on this since I had already completed the drawing skills course. I think that my critical reflections in this course got better as I researched others’ work and tried to let myself really guide my own practice more, which I struggled with in the past as I am not used to working in this way. Thus I think I have a good awareness and appreciation for visual dynamics and how I can harness them in my work. I did manage to trial various areas of research and media while applying critical thinking and creative ways to come to and communicate my final ideas and outcomes that were more self-led, though I look forward to hearing the feedback from my tutor.
Jo's Illustration Learning Blog 