OUIL 401 End of Module Evaluation

I think the main skill that I have developed through this module is my researching skill which I think the research is also the strength in my body of work. I have learnt how to find the appropriate sources for my essay and also how to Harvard reference. In studio brief 2, although I have tried to use the knowledge I’ve gained from my research to inform and develop my idea, I don’t think that my final outcome communicates the research very well; I am not quite sure if I have made it clear for the audience to understand what it is I am trying to communicate with my piece without being briefed on it first. This may or may not be a bad thing but I feel like I might have strayed just a bit from my chosen topic.

Using the sketchbook in studio brief 2 has allowed me to bring in more media play into my work, which is good as I have not really been experimental with other medias other than digital ones in the previous modules. However, I found filling out our sketchbooks at the beginning of the brief quite a struggle, as I am not used to just sketching without knowing what it is that I want to communicate first. I felt quite lost for this part of the brief - I am not sure if this is due to the subject that I decided to delve into or if I’ve just really lost momentum and not working as hard - but I think this has had a negative impact in my motivation and commitment to do other things later on in the process.

Things I would do differently if I were to do this again:

1. For the second brief, to pick a less broad subject - so to not leave me with too many choices that would confuse me
2. But if I were to do it on colour again, I think I would make the final outcome more informative, in a booklet format or a zine with a combination of text to add support and explanation of the subject as it is quite hard to explain with only pictures.
3. Try and put as much effort into my work in this module as I have done for the others.

Final Outcome

Process gif:

What kind of aesthetic do I want?

I love how these animations have very limited colours - I like how the colours are only used for the characters/subjects - the important bits. Because I am focusing on the colours and characters, I think this kind of look would be very effective for my piece.

The Best Toy from Gabriel Lin on Vimeo.

Float from McKenna Harris on Vimeo.

Refining drawings

A change in direction

In the feedback, my peers thought that the playing cards is a good way of showing contrast in the two different cultures. However, they also really liked the colour swapping and the bikers as it could be more engaging and playful. Adele suggested that maybe I could create a scene or scenes where the colours used were all 'wrong'. So I decided take a step back and try to do something with the bikers as people really liked it:

one of my earlier ideas was to make a comic about a character who gets transported into a parallel universe where the use of colour in products, road signs etc are not what he/she is used to. I decided to try make a comic about some biker dudes (above), but I couldn't get the composition to look right - never realised how hard comics are to make! Once my frustration kicked in, I decided to do some thumbnails of stand alone pieces instead, as I think I am better at this than I am with comics.

I also thought about maybe changing the font of the stop sign, like this:

I really liked my first thumbnail but I thought it needed something more make the story clearer. I decided to try adding a couple more panels to see how this would look:

 Then I decided to try changing the expression of the macho, manly, angry looking biker:

Peer feedback

I decided to do some more contextual research on playing cards as I really like the playing card idea:

Follow Aghnia Mardiyah's board Playing card designs on Pinterest.

But I seem to be really struggling to actually put ideas down on paper. I like the playing card idea but I also really like the colour swapping idea, like my stop and go signs and my bikers. I did try to put the colour swapping idea in the playing card format, but I thought people wouldn't really understand it as well as the straight forward comparisons of the colours used in two different cultures (like the one below)