PPP Presentation

Social Media profiles

I think Social media profiles are a really good way of getting work seen. Things like tags can be added to reach a wider audience

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Promo Pack Development & Outcome

In the PDF is the production of my promo box as well as the final outcome. If I had more time, I would have put my name on each of the things inside. I'd have also printed the box double sided instead of putting an insert in. The box would also have had my name on the front. 

Tumblr

http://abbygll0ver.tumblr.com/ - This is my tumblr profile although I don't use it that much. I think next year I shall have to work on it a bit more to reach my target audiences.

Instagram

On my instagram I only really post pictures of my work, It's been a part of my practice for a few years now.

OUIL 504 Evaluation

(I think I deleted the last one from my blog.)

Abby Glover

End of Module Evaluation - OUIL 504 Process and Production

   For me this module was a challenging one. I had to learn how to do a few important processes for the first time, including the processes used for animation and screen print; Everything was new to me, the whole printing process as well as new software like dragon frame and after effects. They are quite difficult processes to get used to, and are also quite long processes to carry out in order to get decent final outcomes. This is especially because there are a lot of unexpected problems that can arise, as they did for me.

Both my animations and prints took longer than expected to produce, and I think that this is because I didn't have a large enough understanding of the processes and what I could do, even when I looked at existing work (I didn't think it would be possible to produce such a high standard of work on my first try) so for this reason, I felt really stuck on how to approach the briefs for a while. 

  This became stressful, and made it harder to be motivated. 

  I tried to develop my ideas in a way that would allow me to use more processes/ content that I like using. For moving pictures I tried planning stings that would allow me to use digital painting, in order to develop my existing skills in the process by getting more practise at it. This benefitted me because I think it did help me learn to paint faster, plus I liked the outcomes when they were not moving images. When it came to moving elements of them, it became more difficult to get on with, (again, because I found the software harder to understand) and also because I don’t think I’d researched enough ideas to get an understanding of the many different approaches that could have been taken. With this in mind, I do think that I have capitalised on my existing skills in image making by using them for different processes. These processes are ones I knew nothing about before, so I'm proud of myself for completing them despite not being entirely happy with the final outcomes. This is because I could have potentially made my animations look more finished.

  Screen print has been a step up for me also - I feel that my line drawings are stronger, as well as now being rather confident in the screen print process (I'm no longer intimidated by the print room!)

Both studio briefs 2 and 3 pushed me to organise my time more effectively than usual, too, because of the higher potential for things to go wrong I felt like I needed to be more control over the time I had – this will benefit me in future projects because I’ve learned that having enough time to fix things is important. For instance, I struggled with preparing screens; they took me most of a day to prepare, and problems did arise in the emulsion stage – It would come off the screen in the wrong places, and run into the designs if it hadn’t dried properly, so I had to work around this by re exposing images. In one case I had to intricately tape up the holes in the design, as I had lost a couple of drawings after this happened to a screen towards the end, so I had to use the bad screen because I couldn’t re expose. I feel that the blogging side of things went okay, because I learned last year that keeping on top of documentation is useful and it prevents me from being overwhelmed by work, and I can keep evaluating my progress as I go.

I wish I'd done more research, because it would have helped my ideas progress further. I believe this is because I get scared and make snap decisions without taking enough time to go through options – this is one of my main flaws as a practitioner, and it’s what I really need to try and work on in the next project. 

If I had the time again, (as well as more research,) I’d test ideas as soon as possible; especially for my moving images. I was too intimidated by the new process and didn’t believe that I could do anything well, so I tried to ignore it instead of improve.

I’d also have made my work more cohesive. I think that my screen prints might seem a bit irrelevant to my project – because I was going for a general sense of ‘magic’ rather than making it explicitly linked to my author Neil Gaiman. In the future I shall make work that makes sense contextually as well as being about something I’d like to produce. Saying this, I am really happy with my screen prints (for a first attempt!) So I still think they were a personal success.

Beauty and Brokenness Exhibition

My housemate is the president of Leeds College of Art's Christian union. They put together an exhibition called Beauty and Brokenness, and asked me to be involved. I entered one of my star sign prints to be displayed in the church. 

The above picture shows the print, posted to instagram by someone who enjoyed the exhibition and my work! 

Society6

Society6 is a website that lets artists set up their own online 'store'/ page to upload their work. Anything that gets sold gets printed and produced, packaged and sent by society6.
They have base prices for all of the products they make (Prints framed/unframed, cards, phone cases, pillows, bed covers, shower curtains and more)

I don't think the prices are brilliant to begin with, to get much of a profit the price would have to be increased a lot.

I love the website, it is well designed and easy to use, there is also a lot of lovely work. I also think that it's great how only the pictures need to be posted, resulting in immediate convincing mock ups of the products. When I uploaded my images it was exciting to see them in that context.  

I will keep society6, although I think that I will also make an Etsy account, as I'd have to pay for listing and keep all of the profit my products make. During my research for 505 product and packaging, it seems that other professionals were doing this. 

Commissions for Responsive

Although I didn't particularly get on with responsive, I enjoyed the commission part a lot. Spending a bit of time doing really detailed painting is something I've missed a bit since doing this course, so it felt rewarding to do this, especially since I got paid too! 

I also benefit from doing commissions because the more I do, the more my work gets seen/ recommended to others. I also put them on my social media, which further increases viewing. 

It has paid off, because I have been asked to do a handful more over the summer.

As well as commissions, I have been asked to paint a wall mural in a Northampton cadet training centre. 

This should ensure that I have plenty of work to get on with over summer.

Wrapped Co.

Personally I found this so lovely to see. It's the first time I've seen my work up on a website  My wrapping paper submission for Wrapped Co. looked professional, and it was for a good cause.

Advert - Celebrity Cats Product

Once I was finished with my 505 submission, I also put an advert on social media for my Celebrity cat products, to try and sell some extra stock.

Portraits - Commissions Advert

This is the advert I put on my social media profiles in order to get commissions for my responsive project. 

The Hepworth Print Fair

I took the remaining stock from the colours may vary exhibition and got involved with the Hepworth print fair. We took shifts on the stall selling work over the weekend, I stayed throughout saturday. Again, a few of my prints sold so I was happy. It proves that my work is worthy of buying, I just need to find out the best and most effective/ profitable way of selling. 

I also made business cards for this event/ as part of creative presence. They went very rapidly, particularly the lone skull. I noted this and because it was popular I chose to put it in my promo pack. 

The fair its self was helpful for my practice because as well as increasing my creative presence, it was also helpful to see how everyone else was selling their work/ what they were selling. There was lots of beautiful work being sold, and a few stalls in particular caught my attention. It was interesting to see the range of what was being sold and gave me ideas for product and packaging for my future practice.

Colours May Vary - Off the Page Exhibition

Off the page 

Setting up our own exhibition was a great experience. Everyone worked really hard to make it the success that it was.

It was a good opportunity to meet the owners, as well as getting our work seen by the public. 

I sold a few prints so it was also really good to sell something and feel a bit more professional!

It has inspired me to try harder with getting my work out there, and more excited to do work on my creative presence. 

OUIL505 Applied Illustration End of Module Evaluation

OUIL 505 – Applied Illustration Evaluation

I found this module much better than any of the others this year. From the start I was excited about making products; my research supported my development and helped the ideas for the project to grow, as well as my interests. 
The themes I chose to explore are closely linked to other projects that I have enjoyed in the past, such as Context of Practice. The fact that I find this so enjoyable really helps me to keep motivated with the project, and it made me more likely to experiment and push it further. The things I find harder to do have generally always been things I don’t like doing – this was apparent even through school - (I did really well in art but I was only average in maths!)  This is why I found responsive harder than  this module – I wasn’t interested in the subject matter, so It was harder to complete as well as taking more time.

  I much prefer the freedom to take on my own project and I felt like product and packaging would be a good choice for my practice, so that better ideas and more enjoyment would take place. The ability to plan my actions from the beginning, and produce my Celebrity Cat packs in my own time felt rewarding. The outcomes were exactly how I wanted them to be, and I loved them.

  I am really happy with the end products! The colours printed so brightly – which was one of my concerns at the beginning – I thought that they wouldn’t be very bright and wanted to screen print, but ended up changing my mind to digital print in order to save time for production and documentation / blogging. The workshops we had for digital print were really useful in order to know some of the ways to ensure a high quality print.

If I had to do this project again, I’d prepare all my files to print at the same time – I wasted a few mornings in digital print because I forgot some bits each time.
The final products could be slightly better – I noticed that on my lady gaga print that there are a few smudges left on the Photoshop file that I didn’t notice before. I also forgot to print one of my Katy Perry magnets (I’ve printed them now, but need to hopefully run home and grab the magnets before submission if I have time!)   Also, on the tabs that I will fold and staple onto my packs, I forgot to say that It includes 3 post cards as well as the rest of the items. These are small things that I will change if I sell any Celebrity cat packs.

  From this project, I have learned that I really like the Project and Packaging area of illustration; it is probably what I’d be most likely to do with my practice when I leave. I think it suits me best, because I prefer to make images that are well crafted as opposed to work that focuses on a narrative – as with traditional illustration.

   I ‘ve also learned how to make professional digital prints; this is good for me. For the OUL504 module I became more confident with screen printing, now I’m confident in both print processes, I will be able to develop my work to produce even better products. I won’t be afraid to go for it next time either! The more experience I have with printing, the more efficient I will be when I come to do it next time around.

  The context/ research I have conducted for this module has helped towards researching creative concerns that I’d love to explore in Level 6.  The social impact of celebrity image links in with my Context of practice research on the subject of how our relationship with the media has an effect on the way we construct our own identities.
  I want to research these themes for my dissertation, and I think that this project can be extended into my third year. It is great to feel that my work is pulling together contextually, and my practice is becoming stronger and better informed. I am also happy with the fact that I am enjoying what I am doing, especially since the 3^rd year will be more self directed. It makes me feel more confident that I can do well, because I personally want to continue this work as for as long as I can and to the best quality.

OUIL501 Cop End of Module Evaluation

For me Context of Practice was more enjoyable this year, as opposed to last year. The fact that we were able to choose our own subjects to investigate was really helpful, as I felt I could choose something to research that is more relevant to my practice. Caring about a subject area makes it so much easier to read about, therefore I felt it was less of a task. The essay was relatively easy to write, especially when referring to examples; the issues I discuss in my essay are in almost any form of media.

 The reportage part of the practical was hard to get into, as I find it difficult to draw fast enough to capture what I want. I've always preferred to draw people, which can be really challenging - I prefer to spend time on getting a person's features right for instance, this means a lot of sketching and rubbing out. I don't think I possess the skill to be confident in my lines and get it right the first time like many of my peers do. For this reason I don’t think I did as much as I could have done, and it may have let my work down.

 The research for my essay came a bit easier. This is partly because I feel like I already do it every day – I reading internet articles I'm interested in about celebrity culture and issues that surround it. I'm often thinking about the issues that I have discussed in my essay in relation to it, whenever I watch a film or a music video etc. So much so that when I was actually blogging about my research, I found I sometimes got myself too wound up about it! It is the beginning of what a lot of people argue about, as it sometimes can relate to broader topics such as feminism. The issues I have addressed have also been emerging in my other modules such as OUIL505. For this reason I'm very interested in taking it forward to level 6, as I am confident that it is of enough interest.

 I like the idea of working on these concepts more in the future, the main thing I think I need to focus on is narrowing down the subject matter. Issues of self-image can manifest in a variety of ways, all of which are important (such as esteem issues, eating disorders etc.) And they can also be caused by a number of things eg. Internet, magazines, books and film. In order to have and successful project, I must work out what I will focus on in order to be most successful in my practice. 

The practical element of my work related to my essay, although I think it could have been better. I focused on developing the aesthetic of the drawings rather than the content, and I think that it was a little bit off focus. This could be because of the broadness of my essay – the themes were about shaping our identities, media influences, body image and consumerism. My concertina book works aesthetically, but the fact that it became more about Instagram may be something that distracts from the initial focus. However, I still think it fits into the aforementioned themes of my essay.

I am pleased with my publication, because I know how much time and effort went into every drawing, and it paid off in the end! There was a risk that it may not work, especially when I left printing a bit late. I love to layer my work in order to make my portrait compositions stand out – I have definitely come a long way with the techniques I have been developing. Printing on acetate as well as my successful screen prints in the OUIL 504 module have been a significant part of this. I feel like my practice is coming together quite well – united by concept development of work from Context of Practice as well as PPP and Studio practice.

If I had the chance to do this project again, I’d have planned my time in order to get my drawings finished a bit sooner, so I could have got appropriate feedback in my final crit – I hadn’t printed my book yet, so people evaluated unfinished work. I really think that my book would have got better comments had it been printed! 

Over all, I am happy with my submission, and Context of Practice has been one of my favourite modules of the year.

OUIL503 - Responsive End of Module Evaluation

 After being briefed at the start of this module, I found the fact that there were 6 briefs to complete in total was quite difficult to comprehend. It was both exciting and terrifying, and that is the way it has pretty much stayed. It seemed like a lot of work to complete despite lasting the year.

   I definitely found that this module taught me a lot about pressure and how to balance briefs - for instance, I think if I were to do this module again, I'd know how to manage projects so that I could get them completed to a high standard in good time. The hard part was to know exactly what to do at which time; I aimed to get into my first brief - the wildlife artist of the year competition- reasonably early, and get it finished before Christmas. This was extremely hard to do, as we were also doing the YCN workshops and had our OUIL504 deadline looming.

    I try my best to prioritize the most important things when I have lots of work, so I ended up working on 504 instead, then after that I rushed the wildlife brief and completed it in a week in order to submit in February. This was a mistake because there was no way that I'd be able to complete a painting that was as high standard as the rest of the entries in the competition. This actually might suggest that I probably shouldn't have picked it for a Responsive brief, as I knew I'd probably have to spend weeks or even months on a painting for it to be considered good enough. Weeks or a month on one brief was time that I didn't have.

   I have learned that I'd like to try harder with this competition in the future, as it is annual. It was nice to get a painting out of it, which I can sell to my dad - because he is obsessed with parrots. 
I also chose to do highly detailed paintings for the YCN Interflora brief, as well as commissions I took. These however were faster to complete, because I painted them digitally in Photoshop. Digital painting significantly reduces time spent as opposed to traditional painting. I had a chance to improve my skills in digital painting, becoming faster at doing such compositions by knowing my way around the software better. The problem with commissions was that I had no idea what would be an acceptable amount to do! One commission still takes many hours of my time, so to decide to do 4 dog portraits instead of 5 was a sacrifice I had to make in order to have time to complete the module.

   Another thing I gained from responsive was the experience of designing patterns that I'd made from my drawings. It was really handy to learn and I enjoyed the outcomes - especially since when I came to university all I had really done is portraits. Submitting to Treadless and Wrapped Co. Was a great way to start working a bit more with pattern and design; something I'd like to improve for my practice. I'm quite interested in making more physical products, so thinking about t- shirts and wrapping helped me to consider that there is more I can do about this and it got some experience.  I also liked the fact that the competitions were so open that almost anything could be done – this made it easier and quicker to do more images.

   Something I think I could really improve on is my design board. I didn’t put as much time in them as I should have, so I’ve ended up disappointed in them. I spent a lot of time arranging them, so that the composition looked okay, but it is still not something that comes naturally. I aim to improve on this.

   The collaborative brief was really useful too; I’ve admired the way course mates have worked since the beginning, so it was good to have a good influence to push me to do work. The fact that we mixed our drawings was also a fun thing to do because I got to add unique and more striking elements to my portrait work; I’m bored of just doing observational drawing and I came on this course to learn how to bring contemporary techniques and excitement to what I do; something I’ve definitely done in this module!

   I feel that I have been well prepared for a large workload, learning to work on lots of different briefs at a time. This is something that I don’t think I would have been confident with before. I didn’t cope brilliantly, but I do appreciate that being tested has gave me more skills for Illustration and perhaps life in general, as the way we manage our time is quite important.

Promo Box Illustrations

These are the designs to go onto my promo box. I chose to add my face because this will make clients more likely to remember who I am. 

The style of working also represents my artistic skills, combining two of my favourite/ most successful ways of working - painting and line. 

The imagery is based on the fact that I like to draw animal images as well as human portraits. 

I'd have liked to include a small cat instead of a lion, because it is more representative of me as a person. (I love cats obviously) As well as being more closely linked to my work. Especially my Celebrity cat project for OUIL 505 and my pet portraits.

However, I had to work with what I could in order to save time - I used the outlines from my previous work in 504, a project I felt was quite successful. I think the lion still works; it's quite a powerful image, which is what I want to create a lasting impression. 

Promo Pack Development

Promo pack box mock- up 

Promo Pack Research & Development

Promo Pack -
Box research

Example of a cube net (for reference)

 My Idea: