Name: Victoria Johnson
Candidate code: JOH09287916
Tutor Group: Orion
Final Major
Project- Evaluation
In this final project I decided to follow on from the
previous project and look at the way child grow; physically and cognitively. I
felt that I wanted to study this because of my sudden interest in the way child
think. I recently started to baby sit and observing the baby was interesting to
me and made me think about exploring it in more detail. Throughout the project
I had some struggles and some really high points and the research probably was
the reason for those highs.
During the beginning of the project I started with the
research, I thought that this part was fun because I had to work with children
to get an idea of their interests and the kind of things that they like to
draw. Fortunately I have a lot of young cousins and they agreed to do some
painting for as a visual beginning to my project. It messy to say the least but
also educational; next was the less interesting research- reading and gathering
information. In other projects that would have been true but the research into
children’s thinking and the way they grow seemed to push me into doing more and
more research; I think I read and gathered information for 6 or more hours one
evening.
The crits that I had with my tutor were also very positive;
she’d always make sure I was on the right track with what week it was and what
I needed to do for weeks to come. The feedback one research and the beginnings
of my experimentation were good to hear because she thought I had an
interesting concept and I was going about things in the right way. I had
feedback from peers and family; the comments were helpful and overall made me
want to do more.
As it was my last project I wanted to make sure that my time
keeping wasn’t an issue, in which case I made sure I planned almost everything.
For the first couple of weeks it was difficult but once the research started I
was on track and my ideas started to appear. With the action plan I knew that I
had to start experimenting soon and building up my sketchbook. I learned how to
lino print in the previous project and I wanted to carry on with that in this
one; so I began experimenting with colours, backgrounds and sizes. This
technique was something I had done before in my sixth form, so I was familiar
with how to do it, but because I was doing a portrait, I then knew it had to
accurate and show off my skills.
Fortunately these were very successful experiments, they all
worked really well and I was then able to start putting them together in order
to think about what my final piece was going to look like and how I was going
to exhibit it.
No project goes without its problems and I did have plenty
of them; starting with the way I presented my work in my sketchbook at the
beginning. I feel that all that text could have been presented in a more visual
way, but at the time I just wanted to get it in the sketchbook and annotated to
show my understanding. But now I feel that it looks a little boring. Although I
said that my timing was a little better during this project; there were still a
few issue, for example towards the end of the project I had calculated how long
it was actually time me to print on 10 metres of paper, as well as illustrate
over the top; so I found myself having to work through the night to get things
ready.
By the time I had realised I didn’t have long left and I
still had lots to do; filling in gaps in the sketchbook and printing out things
for my final piece, for example. I then found that there was a huge problem, my
printer didn’t work, which slowed down everything and these print outs were
essential to my final piece. So after pleading with the printer it finally
worked, which then overcome all the issues I had. I didn’t need anymore
problems because I didn’t have the time, but during the last few prints of the
final piece I ran out of materials; luckily when it comes to the exhibition the
rest of the paper won’t be seen, so that wasn’t too much of a problem.
When the time come to start thinking about my exhibition I
wasn’t sure how was going to present the wallpaper, but I didn’t know I didn’t
want it to be flat against the wall. This made me think of using a room divider
which I was cover with the wallpaper, so that it looks fashionable and stands
out in the exhibition. However, it was going to be hugely expensive to buy
after exploring a few options and I didn’t think that I would have been able to
carry 4 doors into the university.
I came across my new exhibition idea during my walk around of
the 3rd floor at the university, here they were exhibiting wallpaper
and the way it was hung inspired me. Putting up my work this way wouldn’t cost
me much and didn’t require any heavy lifting and would hopefully still make a
good impact at the exhibition.
In my proposal I stated in my conclusion that I wanted to
write a blog (http://joh09287916.blogspot.co.uk/
) to show further understanding of the project and show a little more
visualisation, something that it difficult to do in a thought journal. The blog
was supposed to be for gallery visits, Youtube clips etc. and I presented it in
a similar way to the way in which my thought journal is presented- quite rough looking. This was purposely done, to highlight
my quick thinking and the sort of things I find interesting that can’t be
expressed whilst on the tube. However, writing the blog didn’t become something
that was left for long periods of time before I posted something new, because
of the other elements of the project. But this didn’t hinder any thoughts that
went on whilst on the tube or walking round art galleries; I always carried my
thought journal, I wrote in it almost everyday I even had it in bed with me. This
was good because an important thought came to me whilst asleep at 2:30am.
Lastly, gallery visits were something that I needed to do at
the beginning of the project because this is when you can gather as much
information as you can in order to get you thinking about as many things when
it comes to the research. An example of this was when I went to the Museum of Childhood
In conclusion, I think that overall this project was a huge
success and I achieved a lot throughout. Managing my time was crucial and I
think that because I managed it better, the work that was produced was also
better. There is room or improvement in my sketchbook for example, presentation
and going to more workshops, intern further expanding my experimentation. However,
once I had decided what I was going to do I thought that learning new
techniques would hinder the time I had to complete work. Sticking with a skill
that I knew a lot about was the right thing to do in terms of making good time
with sketchbook work and final piece planning. Finally, I think that my blog
should have been paid a little more attention and perhaps presented in a more
professional manner.
