I need to start to think about the critical review that I’ll submit at the end of the course. I will look at what subjects I am interested in and what research questions I am interested in asking. I will mind-map all the possible areas and research questions I might be interested in. I will link them to my own practice. I need to identify what subjects I’d like to explore. My initial thoughts will be quite general. I will submit a draft proposal for my tutor’s approval, outlining my initial ideas about what subjects I want to look at and what kinds of questions I want to ask. This will be around 200 words and will contain any books or other research material that has helped me inform my ideas. I will look through the OCA Academic essay writing booklet on the OCA student website, as a starting point.

My Critical Review Subjects of interest, animator research, and critical review questions:

My Critical Review Draft:

This critical review proposal will outline my initial ideas about what subjects I want to look at and what kinds of questions I want to ask about the subjects I am interested in studying further. Throughout this course, I have experimented with different techniques and mediums in a variety of exercises and assignments but only a few have really interested me. Graphic Fiction, Fashion Illustration, Natural Science Illustration, and Reportage have been my favorite areas of study but I would also like to include a few more, these include, Animation, Photography and Graphic Design. I understand these subjects are very different than Illustration but in my eyes, illustration is still involved in all three. I think there is a very strong connection between Illustration and Animation and this is the subject I would really like to develop and research further as I am going to hopefully be studying MA in Animation when I graduate. I have two questions: How can I incorporate the use of Animation in my remaining exercises and assignments? If I was to focus on a specific medium for the majority of the remaining exercises and assignments would that be productive and acceptable?

My learning log:

What have you enjoyed doing the most, or the least, and why and which pieces of work do you feel have been your most successful and why?

I enjoyed ‘Fashion Illustration’ and ‘Natural Sciences’ from Part 2 the most (currently) and I enjoyed ‘Architectural Illustration’ from Part 2 the least. I enjoyed Fashion Illustration because I was able to be the reference study for my own character and use my graphics tablet to create the illustrations. I feel as though the characters capture my personality but still have a way to go in order to become likable interesting characters but for this fashion exercise, they are fine. I enjoyed Natural Sciences because the brief was very freeing. I was able to choose what plant I wanted to focus on for this exercise as the subject, I was then asked to draw the plant in two different ways, one way in a traditional natural science drawing sense and the other in a more abstract manner.

Have these exercises helped you to think about things in new ways or try out new ways of working? What have they been and how has your viewpoint changed?

I have tried to experiment using different mediums/techniques most recently being continuous line drawing for my Travel Illustration Exercise. I have also worked using digital, pencil, pen, and paint in this section. I have tried to come out of my comfort zone throughout this unit and feel as though I am starting to achieve that. I still have a ways to go though with my old adversary… charcoal.

If there’s one area you would like to develop further, what is it?

I would like to learn how to properly use digital mediums to the full. I need to learn how to use Adobe Creative Cloud properly and look at how I can incorporate animation into my work.