What has gone well?
- the colouring book idea and current layouts are working really nicely!
- the colouring book doesn't really need to be much longer than it is now, just a few more pages
- work is relatable for a variety of types of people
- real good vibes
- colouring book is a great idea, next consider what other characters there could be in this?
- look very refined and professional
- your work is admirable! you are doing so well with your etsy shop, instagram and markets! you go girl!
- strong visual identity
What can be improved upon?
- Finish the colouring book!
- work a bit faster in terms of finishing projects and producing more things
- take part in a variety of different briefs, at the moment it's clear from looking at your sketchbook that you have a few longer projects in the works. Maybe look at doing weekly short tasks, editorials?
- no evidence of any competition briefs
- could you work on more topical pieces to link into your interest in feminism? look at whats happening in the news and respond to that
- no evidence of much experimentation with different materials and processes- its OK to have a method of working down, but this module would be a good time to play and experiment
Discuss ideas and recommendations for future projects and what research tasks could help in the starting stages of these projects:
- projects are off to a good start, maybe just be clearer with what you intend to produce
- I'd recommend doing the BICeBé women's empowerment GIF and maybe more heavy, political work?
- look at colouring books already on the market and see what you could add to yours to make it really stand out from the crowd!
- could you make posters or products alongside your colouring book?
- Keep going with all the Girl Gang projects! They clearly mix well with your practise and it seems to work for you!
- your character work is really strong, work more on this, could you design characters for potential childrens books or other projects for this year?
My reflections:
I am actually happy with the majority of the work I've made so far during this module. Although a lot of its been commissions for other people, I still feel the work produced from these commissions represents my visual identity and is work that I'm proud of. I'm happy now I'm beginning to get asked to do a certain style of projects based on previous pieces of my work that people have seen and liked!
I do agree with the feedback that the character side of my work is strong and perhaps I'm not doing enough with that at the moment within my practise. I'm going to aim to work more with character design, maybe within children's books. I'm also going to begin taking part in projects that are shorter and more streamlined, both to challenge my time-management skills and to bulk up my portfolio. I have a potential brief coming up with Girl Gang Leeds to design some beer packaging which I'm really looking forward to as this is unlike anything else I've done before. Hopefully if it's something I enjoy doing I can maybe look at doing more packaging design in the future.
In terms of my self driven work, I'm really happy with the feedback I received on my colouring book. Lots of people said they liked the varied page layouts and mix of portrait style images and text based images which was a concern for me as I didn't know if these mixed well. I'm aiming to work more on this and make 5 more pages, a front and back cover and then produce and bind the finished books and sell them at a zine fair in February. Alongside this I'm going to continue with my branding for my Etsy store and other online platforms. I'll also continue designing products to sell such as stickers and badges as these little projects don't tend to take up too much time!
