EVALUATION

Communication Technology 2

Overall I feel like this brief has been the most useful brief I have done so far. I actually feel like its has made me narrow down what field of visual communication I want to pursue and I think that designing tattoo flash is a good step forward for myself to be able to make a living out of something that I enjoy.

I feel like quite a lot of my project was research based, a lot of the time I had to sift through irrelevant research and figure out what was correct/useful to my project. I seemed to be spending a lot of time reading which was not a bad thing in my eyes, but did come as a bit of a surprise to me. However it was to benefit my knowledge and after all that is what I wanted from this brief. I spent a lot of time drawing which was no surprise apart from the length of time it took me to get back into the standard of drawing I used to produce. No matter how long it took it had to be done so I don’t see this as a bad production method.

The research that I did was varied, focused on a many different things and changed throughout the brief. I think my research development was appropriate and benefitted my project greatly as it was the thing that made my project change so swiftly and find the direction I wanted to go in.

Originally I set out to develop my illustration skills and figure out how to get a professional finish by scanning my illustrations into a computer and using a programme such as illustrator to tweak and complete my illustrations. I had no focus whatsoever to my illustrations and just began drawing, my question was as much about finding a focus as it was about developing my skills. My research and development process pointed me in the direction of tattoo flash, which was a more than perfect answer for what I was set out to do. The images I found were everything I had wanted to do and finally I had found the term for it, “tattoo flash”. My question had soon changed to, how do you produce tattoo flash to a professional standard?

I made the decision to explore tattoos in great depth, culturally, historically, technologically and with a hands-on drawing approach. I knew that I would not come out of this brief being a fully accomplished flash artist. It was not my aim to cut corners and just be able to draw better pictures, even though it was a big thing for me to develop my drawing skills. I wanted to start with everything I felt like I should know. I wanted to be more literate at symbolism and iconography within tattooing and also thought that it would be worth me learning in depth about the technological side of tattooing ie the tattoo gun, including how to set it up, how it works, where it came from etc.

I feel like the actual work I have to show is nothing compared to the hours I spent reading, researching drawing etc which is slightly annoying but I know the work I have done has made me feel so much more comfortable within this course and make me less worried about my future. I know that my organisation skills are not the strongest but in this brief I did set my time aside for drawing, researching etc but it was surprising how many times I would set a few hours aside to draw and come up with nothing just because I was not in the right focus. My drawing became spontaneous and I spent a lot of time drawing through the night. I don’t feel like this is a good thing as I want to be able to draw what I need to when I need to. But it was how it happened and I needed to get the work done for the brief, I could not stop myself when I was focused. I did not realise how much time I would spend reading through books, magazines and web articles, reading was one thing that made my research process so long. There seemed to be so much information available that I had to read through hundreds of pieces to find the ones significant to me. Also breaking my ribs a few weeks into the project did not help as I broke the ribs on my right side and I am right handed it limited the amount of time I could spend drawing, but I accepted this and used it as reading and research time. It also meant I could not be in college getting feedback from peers and tutors which meant I was drawing and researching my own thoughts and not getting ideas from others which is sometimes a big help. After the last tutorial when I was able to be back in college I felt like I was given a better direction and the gaps in my work were pointed out. One thing I am quite proud of is how I worked on these gaps straight away and feel like I managed to fill them successfully.