REFLECTIONS SPRING TERM

PART 1. Reflecting on Progress: 

When writing your reflections you should be considering the work we have completed since the last review – the Fashion and Architecture Projects.

·        In which of the two projects do you think you produced stronger work? Explain why you feel you were successful, look at the list of skills below and mention the areas in which you feel you performed well. 

·        Identify 2 aspects of your work/approach where you feel like a change would benefit your progress. Be honest and try to choose the things that will make the greatest impact on your future projects. 

Some areas you might consider discussing in relation to the previous 2 points: 

Self-Management Skills:

·        Attendance.

·        Preparation for lessons (making sure you have all the right equipment and are aware of what you will be doing and mentally prepared).

·        Focus in the studio and use of lesson times.

·        Enthusiasm and positivity about the work set.

·        Ability to complete private study at College (and at home).

·        Your time management skills (keeping up and meeting deadlines).

·        Avoiding distractions (phone/social media etc.), and using time productively.

·        Getting the balance right between College work and outside College commitments.

Subject Specific Skills: 

·        Observational drawing. 

·        Research. 

·        Presenting and talking about your own work.

·        Willingness to experiment and take risks. 

·        Presentation of your sketchbooks. 

·        Ambition and sophistication of your outcomes. 

·        Use of IT, including subject specific software (e.g. PhotoShop). 

Having thought about the strengths and weaknesses of your approach you should now identify at least 2 specific actions/targets that will help you to improve.

For example:

·        “No unauthorized absences and arrive to all lessons on time”

·        “Cut down hours in part time job to allow more time for College work”

·        “Keep phone off in lessons and limit my time on social media to 2 hours a day”

…or

·        “Take more care over my sketchbook layout, keep pages visually busy and consider title fonts carefully”

·        “Make the effort to analyse Artist’s work in my own words, commenting on technique, mood, line, colour in depth and explaining links to my own work”

Talk about any new skills/techniques you have learnt in the last 2 projects.

Are these skills that you are likely to use again?

These might include: 

·        Creating and delivering a Presentation. 

·        Compiling Moodboards. 

·        Fashion Illustration. 

·        Garment construction techniques. 

·        Arranging a photoshoot. 

·        Mixed media collage. 

·        Paint transfer. 

·        Using PhotoShop.

·        Planning and completing an independent piece of work.


PART 2. Looking Ahead:

Have you decided what area of Art and Design you want to specialise in next year?

What draws you towards this area?

If you are not clear on your direction next year mention areas you are considering and ones you know are not in the running. 

Some of the main areas you should consider are: 

• Fashion Design/Styling/Marketing 

• Texile Design (Print/Constructed/Interior) 

• Fine Art (Sculpture/Painting/Print/New Media) 

• Illustration 

• Animation 

• Photography 

• Graphic Design 

• 3D Design (Product/Furniture/3D crafts etc.) 

Thinking ahead explain what you think your next step will be after Alton College (e.g. University, Apprenticeship, Employment).

Identify what practical actions you are taking/planning to help you towards your goals.

For example:

·        “shortlist 5 University courses to visit and research when their open days are”.

·        “Book appointment with the College careers advisor and find out about employment and apprenticeship opportunities in creative areas”.

FINAL ARCHITECTURE CHECKLIST AND EVALUATION

Collage Final Outcome 

Architectural Forms Project.

Evaluation Guidance.

Your evaluation should be word-processed and be  800 words in length. Please discuss anything you feel was significant to your work in this project, but ensure you cover the following points:

•    Go back to the start of this project and describe how you gathered source imagery for the project, how successful were your initial drawings and photos? 
•     What did you notice within your photographs that you thought had potential for development into substantial 2D or 3D work.
•    How did you go about developing your imagery? What techniques and materials did you use that you felt were the most successful within your experiments? Did your printmaking and collage work help you develop techniques, imagery or ideas that informed your final outcome or did your ideas come from other inspirations?  Please describe in depth how you generated ideas and found a direction for the final piece.
•   Describe your outcome, discuss  formal elements and ways of working  such as:

    Composition, technique, use of colour and tone,structure, form, contour, scale, texture, movement, palette, experimental, concepts, target audience, metaphor, symbol, motif, narrative, advertising and communicating an idea, colour trends, fashion trends of the moment, particular making skills you have learnt or found challenging such as stitching, hemming, construction or learning a new software program, Photoshop, Adobe Bridge etc. 

•     Do you consider your outcome successful? Discuss its strengths and weaknesses.
•     What Architects and Artists work did you research during the project? Were any of these particularly helpful in providing ideas/inspiration for your own work? 
•     Identify the aspects of Artists/Architects work that you found helpful or interesting.·     How well do you think you worked in this project overall? Did you manage your time effectively? Suggest improvements you might have made to your approach. 
•     Did you enjoy the project and the ways you chose to develop ideas, if not suggest changes that might have made the project more enjoyable for another more self motivated project.  Consider time management, use of facilities and staff, how safe or adventurous you have been and how far  determined you have been to push your ideas to resolve outcomes.  
•     Please include photos of your diary of make and photographs of your  final piece within your sketchbook.  Please submit your evaluation stuck in  and presented within your sketchbook. 

DEADLINE 4pm Monday 4^th March

  

Architectural Forms Submission Requirements

Pre trip work:

• Selection of your best photos from the College architecture.
• Research into 2 modern Architects (see the brief for names).
• 1 or more sustained full page pencil tonal drawings based on your College photos.
• 1 or more controlled linear (fineliner/biro) drawings based on your College photos.

 Post Trip work:

• Selection of your best photos from the London Trip.
• Expressive timed drawings produced in class.
• 1 good Gold Card print from your College photos.
• A sustained carbon print, based on your London imagery.
• 1 or more good Gold Card print from your London photos.
• At least 1 sustained and successful piece of monoprinting based on London Architecture.
• Photocopier experiments with your drawings (inverts, blue prints).
• Paper city photographs, edit your best shots and print them out at A5/A4 for inclusion in your sketchbook.
• Research into at least one paper engineering Artist (see link in previous post for names).
• At least 4 Collage/mixed media pieces developed from your London imagery. Use a range of techniques to create these (refer to the brief for a list of potential media), one or two of these images could be developed through PhotoShop.
• Research into a Collage/Mixed Media Artist (see earlier post for details).
• Visual planning and notes that outline your intentions for your project outcome. The nature of this planning might be very different from person to person, it could take the form of Fashion Drawings, experiments with 3D media, storyboards for animation or many other things. Annotating your developmental work is important!
• Photographs and annotation that record the process of making your outcome.
• An ambitious and well resolved final outcome.
• Research into at least one Artist closely associated with the approach taken in your final piece - so this could be a Fashion Designer, Fine Artist, Illustrator or Graphic Designer for example.
• A word processed evaluation with photographs  (see the notes above).

Next week we will be starting work on an illustration project based on the stories of Roald Dahl, so start giving some thought to which book/short story you might want to respond to. Getting hold of a copy and reading it is excellent preparation.