This project started off relatively smoothly but tackling the dissertation half of the module proved to be a bigger challenge than I expected. I wrote and finished one dissertation but had to start again while trying to salvage some useful research from my first one. This blunder threw my time plan into chaos and I focused in on the written to try to achieve the best I could. Unfortunately this means my blog drastically suffered and when I'd solidified my new essay plan I had to try and link in my practical and make it appropriate. Luckily I had three media theories that were a scaffold to each of my essays, and I turned that focus into my practical response. I ended up making quite a lot of work in a short amount of time, to reflect thoroughly I have decided to split this evaluation into separate subheadings relating to different aspects of my work and development.
Research and Blog
So on the whole my blogging didn't go very successfully, I considered myself to be working well when I was blogging every Saturday, but I realise now that once a week was too little and too much time had passed since doing the work I was blogging that I was missing lots of decisions I made throughout the process of making and researching. I Think the way I dealt with my research in blogging could have been better, I tended to just regurgitate the facts I found with the odd sentence commenting. I think I should have used the blog to pinpoint certain facts and expand on them and write about them so that when I got to my dissertation I had writing I could use. In future I should analyse the things I blog, I need to go into more depth so that I have evidence of my understanding and learning. Contrary to my blog, I actually did quite a lot of research, in my first write through I was looking into lots of information about fear and how it effects the brain and responses. I didn't end up using this information, but I can see how researching can inform practical work. As I researched I was having more ideas about work, so I think in the future I would like to try a few more projects where it begins in research, so that it creates an informed product.
Concept
A large weakness to my concept, I feel, is that I didn't think about the context of the piece until much further into production. I think if I had considered that first I would have thought about, and planned for, the prospect of packaging and promotion. Looking back on the project I think I should have prioritised the professional quality over the quantity, I got set on an idea and I felt like I had to complete the whole plan. In reality I think my time would have been much more efficiently used if i had only created one or two of the book, and then built the box and worked on making it of high quality. If I had more time I would have made promotional poster's and mock ups of some promotional material such as mugs and t-shirts.
The concept itself ended up being quite large as I wanted to make a comic for each theory. But I wanted my piece to say something, have a comment to make, instead of just explaining the theories. Last years project went well because there was an opinion which informed the tone and final images/words. Thinking of that success, I decided I needed something to draw my project together so that it 'said' something. This is why included the visual conclusion comic; 'Tell me what you see'. My packaging idea reinforced that I needed four separate comics and so my concept had grown into a sizable project. But I was pleased that I managed to finish it even though not everything was quite up to the standard I would have liked. My project was quite heavily concept and product driven and there was less attention given to process and development. But I think overall I achieved the concept I was aiming for and presented it in a tone of voice that was mockingly patronising with a touch of morbid humour.
Development
My development work jumped about quite a bit as at first I was unsure of what I was trying to say with my piece. Once I got a hold on my concept I had left myself little time to complete a large project but my mind was set on the goal of the finished product and development suffered. I went through periods of time where I would do a blast of practical development, mainly to stray from essay writing, but it meant that I was playing with the materials more and I wasn't working with a final image in mind. This play time got me playing with coloured pencils and lead me to using high contrast colours. I started playing with showing light in colour and these images were most popular in crits and my social media. I ended up not using the exact style I had been playing with because it didn't work as a set with the other comics and I felt it was important for them to work together and show continuity. But it informed my colour decision when it came to digitally colouring my line work, the contrasting colours gave a sense of urgency to the images, which in turn helped convey the cultivation theory.
Once I got into the swing of planning my comics and I knew what I wanted on each page I went into a whirl wind of production. The issue i had in this stage of my work was that I was working specifically to get my planned idea out and done. This made my work much less playful and I just went straight into making final images, sometimes if the first draw of something went well enough I'd just accept it as done and colour it with the rest; the Marilyn Monroe was only drawn once. Although I was going to leave my original Brenda Ann Spencer pin up as it was but the Marilyn was on such a higher scale of quality that I felt I needed to redraw and improve Brenda Ann so she would match. So my need for continuity helped me do some development, even if it was just competing with other pages of the same comic.
I think it would have helped me also to involve some contextual research during my developmental and planning stages. I didn't really specifically look out an work that was similar to the one I was planning. I saw things I liked through my usual processes of pinterest and instagram but I don't feel I was fully engaging with it and thinking about it. I need to start constantly re-evaluating if I'm successfully thinking of my work in a real world context to get the best out of it. The one thing I did look at contextual research for was my box, because it was based off of a sewing box design I'd seen in a charity shop with collapsing sides. That was one part of my development I was proud of; my tv box. I started with my mini prototype and it was received well in crits which made me want to pursue it. The size of my comics meant that I had to scale up the design significantly. I kept adding to the box as I was making it, like the clear plastic seal I put all over it. I saw the man in the library coating books with it and I thought it would make my box prototype look better crafted and more permanent. Due to measurement flaws when making it, I ended up having to make an aerial on top' to act as a handle because the box was incredibly hard to open once coated in plastic wrap because it made it quite tacky. Then in the final crit I was demonstrating how difficult my box was to open and I broke it. So I took this opportunity to once again improve it and it pulled it apart to trim down so it would slot inside the lid. I think this continuing development on the box made me push the design to look much better than the original model.
Overall I think the development of my project had a mix of highs and lows, mainly due to bad time planning and unbalanced priorities. But in the parts where I did actually sit down and develop my work, it went well and improved the overall product. In future I will make development a more important process as it's what helps me improve my work, without I just keep producing similar things.
Presentation
The box and the products work well together and the whole aesthetic of the packaging makes it seem quaint and twee, which contrasts from the comics contents but I like that sense of secrecy; the real contents hiding behind a façade of cute. But I think it would have improved the overall look of my work if I had worked on packaging the box itself and making labels so that it looks as though it is ready to be sold into a shop. I had always intended it as a product that could be sold, but minus packaging and any promotional material it looks more like a gallery piece. If I had more time I would have made mock ups of posters advertising the product and some promotional items such as mugs and tshirts . I think it is clear that context came second to product in this project.
The box as a whole I think conveys the idea of the box I am proposing if it were to be commercially made. Since making the final adjustments to it, the lid was easier to use and it slides down satisfyingly into its close fit. I think the elasticated lace inside added to the charming aesthetic of the packaging but I had also planned to have the four panels slightly padded so the comics would rest on a small elevated cushion attached to each panel. But time constraints meant I had to forgo this part of my design. Another strength in the presentation of my finished product was the continuity of the comics inside. Each of them had a matching cover which linked them obviously and I included my logo and information one the back as I would if I was making it to sell. I included a pattern inlay on all the book because I think it adds a certain amount of professionality and also it was something else to link them further. Originally I had planned to fill the screens with images specific to each book but I sacrificed this to save time. I think they work better without images inside anyway because this way they are all exactly the same and the continuity is obvious. Overall I think the presentation of my project went well, the box packages the comics nicely and is also linked to the themes running through both practical an written. But since I spent so much time crafting the box I can't help but think I should have packaged that too. My presentation could have been improved by including things that would be present if the product was in context; such as price, bar code, information, blurb etc.
Synthesis
The synthesis link was quite straight forward because I based my project off of the three media theories which informed my dissertation. This gave me a stable starting point to expand on and construct my practical around. I think that the understanding of the three theories through my research and written work helped inform my drawing and the contents of the comics. I think I needed something very solid to base my work on as I don't deal well with broader more vague themes/subjects as I get easily off track, which was clear in my dissertation development.
Although the theories worked well in structuring my practical I think it may have improved my work, if not just my developmental work, if I had played around with different idea's and parts of my dissertation to inform the practical. The theories went well but I can't help but feel I might have missed out on something better through lack of experimentation and brainstorming.
Product : some strengths and weaknesses of the individual parts of the final product
Box
- Broke easily
- Can see tape
- Could have used a more permanent material
- Didn't coat handle and screen like rest of box
- Buttons drawn from two different angles
+ Worked once fixed
+Satisfying fit
+ Lace added to charm
+ Clearly represents subject matter
+ Outer layer is almost bubble less from plastic wrap
Copycat
- Less detailed than other books
- So i could have done more pages
- Handwriting was rushed and didn't compliment the words
- Not all character and shaded with darker colour to make shadow (inconsistent)
- Forgot about making floral borders for around poetry to exaggerate the 'lovey'-ness
+ Brenda Ann Spence went well, good colours
+ Overall colour pallet was better
+ More play with specific hues of a colour gave better results
+ The poetry worked well and added a sense of humour
Cultivation
- Cut out before I folded made it awkward to fold after, almost ripped
- Design was rushed as it was my last comic
- Should have put words on the blank pages to match other comics
- Blank pages looked empty and wrong
- Had to cut out one inlay at the back because I hadn't properly counted my pages (not multiple of 4)
+ Contrast colours went well
+ Colour and light play in development informed final pieces
+ Concept of this book was popular in crits
+ Cut out relatively neatly
Desensitisation
- Forgot to include levels going up.
- Level 100 doesn't make much sense now
+ Although people still seemed to get it in crits
- Dead child page only has one image whereas all others have two (incontinuity)
+ Lots of detail achieved
+ Gruesome aesthetic - got point across
+ Made people laugh in crits
Tell me what you see
- The red and blue screens don't work as well as I wanted
- The middle spread blue section is of lesser quality than the other drawings (incontinuity)
- The final image seems quite bare, I think I should have added some line as texture
+ The bag of salt. I just really like it. Sounds pithy.
+ The look of the blue overlapping the red looks really nice.
+ From afar looks interesting
- Could have done with more detail to take full advantage of overlapping lines.
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