Exercise: With Hindsight...

This illustration was designed to promote a local event, the brief intended that I use entirely paper collage-- however, I used digital to improve the overall look. The feedback was that the design wasn't true to the paper craft, and it seemed a little ordinary. I too was unhappy with how it turned out and didn't think to redo the design. I was uncomfortable with the medium since I hadn't had much experience with collaging-- I tried once before but wasn't very happy with it. With this piece I was very unconfident already with collaging and was dreading the brief; I was lacking in confidence.

This illustration was to create a book cover in the style of the Constructivist movement of a traditional children's story, the design was boring and didn't fit to dimensions of a book cover (should be right instead of left). Similar to the last illustration, I was unexperienced with the medium and I didn't take time to evaluate the design before sticking with the design; however, I used paper collage to experiment (doing this piece before I did the Crash Festival piece). I was too unhappy and started to really beat myself down in confidence and wanted to finish with the task.

Redesign

I started out with the Rapunzel book cover, and after initially using paper collaging- I ended up using adjusting the design digitally. Thankfully the brief didn't say anything about it being entirely made up of paper-- however, I still strayed from the initial design. Although I prefer the second pass, the composition is much more better and is interesting to look at. I wouldn't say this would be my style of front cover, but I would say this fits the brief better. I had to capture abstract style of Constructivists and using simple lines, shapes and colours meant that I had to choose what I wanted to take away from the piece-- rather than my usual line-work.

After not sticking with collaging for the Rapunzel design, I wanted to push myself and have a real go at it. This illustration had to be made up of paper and so to improve on the previous poster I made sure to add 'shout' bubbles around the important text. This design gives it much more of a graphic, grungy feel which fits the original idea better. I still wanted that VFX feeling that was in the previous design with the lightning so I used that and the imagery, including a DVD too.

Side by side

I prefer the initial design compared to the redesign for me, but the brief expressed using paper only. I did struggle with the paper and so I think I've come to understand that paper, collaging and everything like that is completely out of the equation.

As much as I tried to improve the design, I'm still unsure on which I prefer, despite the composition on the original one it felt eye-catching to me. However, the second one is more dramatic and involves more elements.

Reflection

This exercise's goal was to revisit the work I struggled with, or was unsuccessful with and rework it with the reflections I made at the beginning of this task. This task got me thinking about what I know doesn't work for me and what style doesn't feel right to me; despite the struggles I had with this task it got me feel prepared for what to expect as I continue through this unit.

Using the Kolb's reflective cycle technique has managed to bring more thoughts and feelings about an illustration/process that I may not have mentioned. Looking back at how I wrote my work throughout my time at OCA, I did reflect a lot and evaluate my work at a level that I am happy with but hopefully with this technique I can expand that even further.