Today I had my first group critique of the term and I probably found it the most useful one I've ever had. I had two tutors, Sue and Peter, and quite a large group which I think helped as there was quite a lot of written feedback from my peers and verbal feedback bouncing between the tutors. As usual the session started with us looking at each persons work individually and it was clear that most people including myself were only just beginning to dip their toes into their projects. I found it really useful to read other people's project proposals and to see how they had divided and planned their time and focus; I found myself worrying about people that only had one project as it didn't seem enough to fill the time so I'm glad I have set myself 3 different projects. I also noticed that some people were really focusing on one subject area such as book covers, across all their projects and that made me feel a bit trapped and restricted for them so I think for myself personally I have been wise to give myself room to breathe and experiment with my context, especially as I am not entirely sure what are of freelancing I want to focus on. This was also picked up on by Sue in my feedback as she that by looking at fashion illustration and narrative, and possibly merging the two I could come out with a really strong portfolio if done well; if that's not motivation I don't know what is!
I have a lot of written feedback this time so I find it helpful to condense that into bullet points:
- Generally there was interest in my fairy-tale project and people seemed keen to learn more about them: "I want to know the lesser known fairy tales now! Do you have them?"
- The competitions I have chosen people felt would allow me enough freedom to develop my process and working practice which is what I aiming for and that I understand my audiences.
- How will I balance my time between the two competitions: "How will they affect each other?"
- Watch BBC4 'What Artists Do All Day' as a research point for my D&AD brief.
- Look at other online portfolios and the competition winner portfolios to help me to develop my website and self-promotion. Someone also suggested looking at the AOI online portfolios for inspiration.
- Improve my drawing through life drawing, ask people to model for portraits etc.
- Think about the theme for my drawing project- will it be the female form/ fashion; what will I draw from?
'What Do Artists Do All Day?", BBC4
The subject of my theme for the Hermione Hammond Award was something I was struggling with but after some discussion I feel like I have a lot more direction now. I am really interested in fashion illustration so it was suggested I look at collaborating with fashion students, Anna Winters and Vogue documentary, backstage at fashion week and designers who create work with a narrative behind it such as Vivienne Westwood. I am particularly interested in the glamour and narrative to fashion illustration so I really like the idea of looking into that side of it and possibly looking at certain designers and backstage so that is something I need to research.
Vivienne Westwood, Interview magazine
For my fairy tale project Peter suggested some different avenues to explore such as Das Unheimliche, "the opposite of what is familiar" in German storytelling, Japanese and Korean folktales and Italo Calvino's Italian folktales. There was discussion of linking this with my Hermione Hammond narrative fashion illustration which could result in some really interesting and strong visual finals. I definitely like the idea of this and will try and develop form the competition to my personal project in this way. In this sense I also think that my Hermione Hammond Award and fairy tale project will be linked but not necessarily my D&AD project other than in my development of style and process. Peter wrote that I could "Find the synonymity and exchange between D&AD and Hermione Hammond Award; one process could feed both briefs a studio process that is then documented/ mediated" which I think is a really appealing idea. I really want to develop my skills and process so it is a refreshing change to link projects through that than the usual content or context.
I think that life drawing will also be a really useful way to improve my drawing skills so I will look into that at university, and I think that drawing people when out and about and drawing my friends and housemates will get me in the flow of drawing faces and making it less scary and precious to me.
The next step is to take all of this on board and roll with it...
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