Evaluation; Project Review

Research Methods (200 words minimum):

• Discuss your sources, including primary and secondary visual research and research into your subject. How effective have your research skills been and how have they formed starting points for your ideas? 
• Discuss your contextual research, how has the work of other artists and designers influenced and informed your own approach?

Personally I believe I haven’t really had to take a lot of research and references from artists, they haven’t really had that much of an effect on my work apart from taking some inspiration from their paintings shapes and forms.I took inspiration and research from two artists I saw at a gallery in Hull for the TurnerPrize, Hurvin Anderson being one of the winners with one of his paintings, and Stanley Spencer being included in the gallery. Hurvin Anderson’s artwork used bold block colours, keeping them consistent in a painting, but not having a consistent shape to objects, people, plants etc. The style of the colours flowing out of the lines and down the canvas gives it an effect that still makes it look like what its supposed to be without defining it with lines. 
I took inspiration from his artwork by using some bold colours and shapes of plants, rocks and people not being completely correct, but still looking like what they’re supposed to.Stanley Spencer’s style is quite detailed and defined, he uses both bold and realistic colours in his paintings, ones of people have strong details, lighting and shadows, making the colours pop. Paintings of plants look like photographs with a defining filter, his paintings have so much detail and uses dark and light colours incredibly well, making colourful plants pop even more. I used the idea of using details into certain parts of my concept pieces and using certain brushes to make different textures.

I have done a lot research of research into the ‘Divine Comedy’ poem that includes the poem about the rings of hell, I took references from some of the pictures included, observing the environments and details of the different levels of hell so I could use them in my work. With the concept of hell down, I then linked to the sculptor of ‘The Thinker’ Augustene Rodin who made a large sculpture of the gates of hell in his final years, which ended unfinished. I linked Divine the drag queen into it who hosted one of the Alternative Miss World’s events to the name of the long poem of the 'Divine Comedy'.
Overall I didn't use too much research in the final parts of the project, this mainly being the artists to use as reference, but for the start all of this research gave me a good starting point for my project, I understood the origins of one of the stories of hell and the environments included, understanding the kind of effects, textures, weather, lighting etc. that each environment needed.



Ideas Development (200 words minimum):

• How have you demonstrated independence in decision-making, planning and developing creative solutions? Discuss and review your project proposal 
• How well have you selected and used media, materials and technologies to develop creative solutions? 
• Discuss how you have integrated and applied practical and theoretical understanding to solve problems.

I've stayed pretty much on track with my project proposal, only making a few changes when a problem arose with referencing an image to file sizes of my pieces. I did astray from the proposal of drawing the baphomet statue in different ways, as a female, in clothing etc. But instead focused more on making the environments of hell. I did alternatives when I got stuck on an idea like for if I should include people and demons within the concepts, using references and including them in to give a better 'feel' for the environment, letting people get a better idea of the concepts if they already have some knowledge behind the rings of hell and the 'Divine Comedy' poem.

My independent decision making in this project is alot more prominent than it has been in previous projects. I had quite a bit of trouble how to first start with my concept art, I didn't know if I wanted to do a bold, independent colours with thick lines style, blended, or one with more texture and details. I've made decisions in choosing what concept to work from, what style to go with, if I should use a certain textures etc. Some of the decisions also included the dogs heads in the third concept, unsure if I should go with my cartoony style of a dog, references from wolves and large dogs, or from a reference of the actual mythical creature it's based on.

I stayed as minimum as I could with using references and materials, mainly to not crowd and confuse myself with all the different piece of information I would use for each one and such, references I used mainly being from online, which I all Harvard referenced into a blog post, keeping it as minimum as I can. The only 'materials' I used during the project was when I made a little concept of the rings of hell with stitching fabrics together, showing an alternative of the rings, each fabric and material representing the ring of each level, this mainly being by the colours.
Technology I used in the entire process of my work was mainly photoshop, my drawing tablet and an iMac, though I believe my new drawing tablet has made it alot different for me when I'm working, my style is different, alot more defined and confident. During this project I found myslef learning more things in photoshop and how professionals in my subject area used it, this included taking real life textures and putting them in with your own work and blending them in, also learning how to make different textures and details with certain brushes I hadn't really used before or though were useless to work with.
Some of the practical understanding I've included in the work is mainly my understanding of some textures, this being of trees, buildings, hills etc. Aswell as the understanding of the human body, the way it can twist itself in certain poses, how to make a powerful pose actually look 'powerful', making muscles visable to give a toned effect. But I've also tried to include my understanding of lighting and shadows, it was a little difficult, and I admit I don't fully understand or have a professional understanding of it yet, but I used what I already knew and understood and included it in my work which has made it look better and even a bit more professional than if I didn't fully use my understanding of the elements.



Materials and Methods (200 words mininum):

• Reflect on all the practical processes and skills you have explored, adapted and developed throughout part two of the curse. Which processes and skills have you been most interested in the most and why?
• How effective have you been at mastering various techniques, processes and skills?
• Discuss the development of your crafting skills and ability to manipulate and exploit media within your specialist area. Have you achieved quality solutions? Are there skills and techniques you would like to develop?

I experimented with sketching out lands, hills, rocks etc. in my sketchbook, first just from my mind and then from references, but I tried mixing them up together so I wouldn't completely copy an image that I was using as reference. I've also been experimenting and developing how I draw different kinds of textures, mainly the different kind of rock textures there are, then those of bodies and clothes. But I didn't stay focused on this for too long, knowing if I got 'too interested' I would get stuck in the development stage and not use the time for the final concepts. 
While I moved onto starting the final concepts on my tablet, I experimented with the different kinds of brushes there were, using them in different ways by using the scale and opticiancy to my advantage, resulting in some interesting textures and patterns. Another skill I think I've adapted in the course would be my time management and patience, before I would easily run out of patience or get annoyed by my work, research or how something may be turning out, along with poorly managing my time and not realising I need to focus some of my time in other areas of my work. 

I believe my skills in time management is the best it's been, even though I didn't do as much work as I wanted with the fast approaching deadline, I've been a lot more organised and patient with my work and this project.
Though I also believe my skills in my work overall has improved, I'm not letting my work become so rigid, stiff, boring and plain with thick messy lines, but now with more lines that are messy but have an almost natural flow to them, letting the piece 'breathe' in a way. I have more skill in understanding colours, thanks to working with watercolour more often, being careful with how I use light and dark colours together, then using lines of blue instead of black lines, having subtle colours of red to create the illusion of a pink colour etc. I can't say I've mastered the skills, but I'm defiantly on the right path towards it and will continue to practice these skills and techniques I've used to improve my work further and into a more professional state and style in the future.

When I was making the first finalised concept piece, I was unsure how I would include the illusion of depth into my work, unsure how to make certain things in parts of a piece stand out more than the rest of the 'background'. I attempted to try and figure it out by myself, but then I soon looked online for a helpful tutorial to help get me started, the video is called "Introduction To Matte Painting - Digital Painting Basics - Concept Art Tutorial" by Walid Feghali. The video taught me how to use other medias and exploit them, online and offline. He talks about how to use local references and to take photos, and then when online using Harvard references and free to use images, using them in work to give a better look, guidance and resulting pieces. I now understand how to use references in a much more effective way than just looking and observing them, but now using them for guidance for sizes, textures, colours, shapes, angles etc.
The help from this one video has helped me develop actual good quality work, using these new techniques to overcome bits in my work that look messy and under-done, now I've learnt a quality solution to use in my work to give me reliable and quality results.

The tutorial video I watched by Walid Feghali showed the process of the build of a concept piece and doing 'depth sketches', I'm fascinated by the quick, but also sometimes slow process of a piece going from unfinished into something that looks professional and finished by putting the right shades in the right places. Walid Feghali showed how professional he was in this tutorial of a video, he showed his advanced understanding of colour 



Evaluation and Reflection (200 words mininum)

• Consider the situations in which you formally reflect on your work. How has this aided or impacted on your progress?
• How have you responded to feedback from peers and tutors?
• Evaluate how effective own learning, methods and actions have been.
• What are the main aspects of your current practice that you feel you could develop/improve?

I reflected back on my work time to time throughout the project, I'm not as harsh or critical as I used to be since my confidence has gotten better since then, but I'm still a bit of a perfectionist so I have a usual standard with what I will and won't accept in my work. I think being a bit of a perfectionist makes me work better and put in more effort, and longer time, into my work, improving me work overall until I find something acceptable.
With my peers and tutors I was given some feedback and criticism on my work, but not as much as I would've expected and what I'm used to. The feedback I did get was that some peers didn't fully understand the links with my work, but with a small explanation they were able to understand, so I didn't get too much feedback to work from. But with the feedback I did receive, like how I should try and stay in the subject area I want to do, I didn't focus to much on doing paintings from the baphomet statue I was using as reference, and instead did more digital work.

I think learning by myself was a different experience for me, I don't think it's as reliable to work with since distractions, laziness and misleading myself can happen a lot easier, but if I'm wanting to be serious and professional about my work, then I have a lot more freedom to do it. The freedom to learn by myself does let me learn and understand at my own pace and even lets me look into whatever subject I might be looking into a lot better, deeper and maybe even longer if I become quite interested. I do believe I've been self learning for a while from time to time, letting me research in different ways with and without guidance of peers and tutors, and I believe it's been quite effective for me. It's helped raise my confidence in myself, in my work, how I work, the sources I use and how I evaluate and criticise myself and others work.

After working on this project I've realised that I still need, and want to improve on many things. I believe being able to generate ideas, getting planning done, organising my work and making time tables for working more efficiently has improved slightly, but there is still room for improvement that could make working so much easier for myself and others. 
The main skills, practices and techniques I want to majorly improve and work on would be drawing faces and the human body, and animals, in varying poses without having it look strange, underdone or not resembling the pose or expression I'm wanting it to resemble at all. Other major ones would be understanding colour theory, lighting and shadows in a professional way. It's something I want to and plan to work towards, I know that understanding these elements will make your work so much better, realistic, eye catching, professional and satisfying, even though they can take years to fully and professionally understand, I'm prepared to work towards them. I plan to improve on these subjects by watching tutorials about making comics, illustrations and concept art by professionals that work in my main subject area, following their social medias, researching any movies, games, shows they've helped work on, listening to tips and techniques, looking at books published by those working in that subject, with companies, groups, by themselves etc.
I do believe my work has room or improvement, but it's turned out so much better than I expected it to, it shows the effort, time and research I've put into them. I do wish I had the time to make more, maybe even complete the series for 'The Rings of Hell', improve the quality I've finished them. But I plan to come back to this project in the future and remake it all, to see my improvement from now and then.