Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them? I feel I have gained many skills in this project that will be beneficial to me in further projects, and will hopefully improve my practice and work quality. One area I feel I have improved on in this project is Photoshop, I used it to tidy up my illustrations, add the silhouettes of the pigeons and  to add textured layers to parts I wanted to make seem more realistic (e.g.- the pigeon cage, I added the texture of netting as a overlay.) I am happy with the way my illustrations turned out after using Photoshop, however with practice I think I could have applied the edit to a more proficient level. The process of book binding has been introduced to me during this project, I now feel confident to be able to carry out the process of making a book, which I feel will definitely come in handy and with practice I will be able to produce a book to a high standard. Though my attempt at book making for my final book is satisfactory, there are definitely areas I could improve on as some elements did go wrong due to my lack of thinking (-eg I didn’t think about which page was going to be in the middle and therefore showed the book stitch.) I have also learned how to set up a InDesign document with the correct set up for making and printing a book.
2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?
Paper and pencil Using background material and pen Water colour, pen, colour pencil Watercolour, colour pencil Cut paper, pencil sketch and colour pencil Pencil and silhouette Collage, paint pen, tracing paper, fine-liner Collage, fine liner For my final technique I combined a range of my development experimental work, using elements from media developments I liked the best. E.g. the cut paper, pencil sketch and colour pencil combined with the collage paper and pen. I used the pencil technique as I thought this added a detailed and delicate approach I wanted the figures to be created in, and combined it with the collage paper technique from the other media development as I like how the 2 complimented each other and create a contrast and different focal points.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? I think one strength in my book is the use of Photoshop, I think by using it to tidy and brighten up the pages make the book look clean and crisp like a professional digitally printed book. I think if I produced the book all by hand It would not have the same quality effect. Another strength I think is my development work, though I have not got massive off different media approaches, I think I have pushed forward and practiced my favourite styles/style a number of times until I had finalised the technique I felt was perfect for my book.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? The main weakness I had in my work was at the very end point, when putting my book into InDesign I was unaware that some of my quotes had been cropped to short, and due to other problems that had occurred when putting my designs onto InDesign (double page spreads not big enough to fill the page) I was running out of time to get the document finished to be ready for my printing slot and therefore did not re-read all my quotes and did not pick up on the mistake before printing. In future, I will always make sure to re-read my work before printing. Another weakness I had in this project, and one, which seems to always be one of my downfalls, is the amount of time I spend on certain aspects of my project work. One example is the amount of time I spent drawing the pencil figure illustrations, I was unaware of how long I was spending on completing each, though I enjoyed doing so and I started create them in good time, I should of thought about how long it would take me to complete the rest of the illustration (collage and photo shopping) I feel this weakness also applies to other areas of my project and studies, I tend to happily spend all my time doing one thing and perfecting it, leaving me little time to complete other areas, which are of equal importance.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? make sure I give myself a realistic workload- I feel i had slightly underestimated how long it takes me to produce detailed drawings, though I really enjoyed the process, I become unaware of I how long I was spending on each and therefore began to run out of time to get everything finished, even though I started in good time.
Check things though thoroughly before printing Book sessions in good time (printing/book binding) When blogging a post, make sure I annotate at the same time so I don’t have to then go back and do it at a later point. research my chosen concepts further in the future, to make sure i am illustrating(justifying) the subject matter as best i can.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance				x
Punctuality			x
Motivation				x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group			x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.