Work-Based Learning - Evaluation and SWOT

This unit has been very enjoyable and has given me amazing opportunities to work under several like-minded creatives in workshops that have since informed me about their experiences since leaving university and what I should expect when going in to the industry.

Over the last month or so I have been actively taking part in workshops and contributing to competitions hosted by Pictoplasma and the Cheltenham Illustration Awards, making pieces based on themes arranged by both sites. These competitions have been very open to artist interpretation and I have therefore had lots of freedom to come up with my own ideas for my entries based around the chosen theme.

For the workshops I took part in I had a very enjoyable time learning about the different backgrounds of some very talented artists. But when it came to actually writing up my summaries and getting something out of the workshops I found that there was a certain laziness about it.

For the zine workshop - I failed to take pictures and to present the step-by-step process made in the session, making it unclear as to how I got from point A to point B, and did not go in to further details about why. I was also unable to attend the first workshop hosted by Midnight Gifts which is a bit of a shame as I would have really enjoyed learning more about him and his creative process. For other workshops hosted by Laura Sheldon and Livetales, there was a considerable amount of detail and visuals to go with which I should have really shown in all workshops.

The competitions and live briefs we took part in were a lot of fun and fairly straight forward to get an idea of what needed to be done.

Starting with Pictoplasma's Rabbits Reloaded:

The brief for this unit to create a rabbit of my own choosing and submit it on to the Pictoplasma website. I had many different scribblings in my sketchbook of what I could possibly develop further on a digital format but narrowed it down to four rabbits. I was quite proud of the work I produced for this and found it to be very straight forward with no research requirements (aside from the minimal amount I did on how to actually draw rabbit proportions).

I felt like out of the four produced that the last one was the most unique and gave the character a bit more character compared to the rest and decided to make her my rabbit for entry.

I feel that for this competition my development was not nearly as limited as it has been for my Tangled Tales entries:

Whilst I did enjoy working to make something for the Cheltenham Illustration Awards, I feel that the lack of development and experimentation made towards the final pieces hindered some more diverse looking outcomes. I think it is the development during this competition that has really let me down, giving very half-assed documentation to even detail choices (or the lack of them). Limited research was also an underlying issue of why my experimentation and development has been very unprofessional and lastly the distractions from outside college that I did not address sooner. 

Artists researched were Vince Low and Nester Fomentera who both display some very intricate and unique approaches to their linework. I only did one experiment with Formentera's style before I decided to call quits on pursuing a style like his.

When printed, I noticed that all three final pieces were giving off some very obvious pixelation that I had not even noticed during the making. Because I did not notice during the process I cannot answer why this occurred or where the pixelation came from during this time but it is my own fault for not going back and fixing these errors as soon as I seen them but instead left them appearing extremely unflattering.

Had I approached Tangled Tales with the same enthusiasm as I had for the Rabbits Reloaded I would have made something I could be proud of for once.

In conclusion, I found this unit very enjoyable and very informative. Getting a glimpse of the outside world via other peoples backgrounds really spurred on a new motivation and excitement for me to get out in to the real world and start making something of myself, however, I feel that this excitement and drive needs to be shown in my coursework first. 

SWOT

Strengths:

• Attended all but one of the workshops
• Completed write-ups summarising workshops
• Various concepts and ideas for Rabbits Reloaded
• Submitted to both competitions
• Learned how to use the riso
• Learned how to make a small zine

Weaknesses:

• Very effortless approach to Tangled Tales
• Next to no development for Tangled Tales
• Very limited research for Tangled Tales
• Very poor documentation overall
• Very poor standard of work overall

Opportunities:

• Making a realistic timeplan
• Spend an hour a day doing coursework as soon as issued the brief
• Take more pictures throughout workshops and lessons for documentation
• Using spider diagrams to branch out more ideas and artist influences
• Find a special time to update all social media to update

Threats:

• Poor time management
• Poor documentation to show I completed a task
• Lack of development and experimentation
• Lack of research to influence development
• Lack of communication and confidence to tell tutor when struggling

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Artist Research - Nastya Melavia

Nastya Melavia is a ceramic artist based in Khabarovsk, a city on the Amur River in southeastern Russia.

Melavia runs a shop on Etsy that features an array of extravagant decorations for people. She uses polymer clay, plastic suede, precious stones and more to create miniature and one of a kind designs, a lot of which exhibit floristry with a side of horror. The most common running theme in and about her shop is making floral pieces with certain obscure and sometimes obscene features.

Some of the items displayed on the shop include broaches, necklaces, pendants, hair pieces and more. 

When planning her work, Melavia starts with initial sketches and posts her progresses on her Instagram.

Once planned she moves on to the making process of sculpting the pieces with polymer clay.

And later brushes up with paints, applying significant detail on the areas that require.

You can find and follow more of Melavia's work on her Instagram where she updates regularly with ideas and concepts, processes and finished pieces ready to be sold on her Etsy.

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