Thought Thursday
My first piece of work experience has been within the university. The university has started the project of 'Thought Thursday' whereby documentaries will be running on a lunch time that are though provoking and will create some sort of discussion. A long side this, tutors decided to have a poster for each week that will create a visual suggestion about the content of the newspaper. In advance we are given the titles for our poster work giving us time to create an illustration appropriate for the poster.
The requirements and layout for the poster:
The top I was given was Petropolis. This is was a documentary based on an oil refinery and about oil and petrol. It was important that before producing the art work I watched the documentary and made sure I was aware of the topic. My main idea was to do a simple line drawing of an oil refinery and scan the document in and add block colours on photoshop as this would create clear colours when printed out as a poster. The image is very simple, maybe not my best piece of work, but enabled me to have a good go at using Photoshop a bit more and producing an image.
- Flat colour and shape
- Logo added separately
- A3 in size
- Image sitting behind text
The top I was given was Petropolis. This is was a documentary based on an oil refinery and about oil and petrol. It was important that before producing the art work I watched the documentary and made sure I was aware of the topic. My main idea was to do a simple line drawing of an oil refinery and scan the document in and add block colours on photoshop as this would create clear colours when printed out as a poster. The image is very simple, maybe not my best piece of work, but enabled me to have a good go at using Photoshop a bit more and producing an image.
For this image I looked at the documentary and chose elements from the structures shown on the video and combined them into one here. I chose to sketch them out and then line them with fine liner so that when I scanned them in I could fill in the space in Photoshop.
I chose greys and then a sky blue colour as they fit really nicely together and compliment each other as they are on the same colour palette. The subtle yellow as well contrasts the blue but not too strong so sits nicely within the whole artwork without being too obtrusive. Also grey tones normally print as they were appear on a screen. This was I had a strong indication of what the image would look like in poster form. The artwork looked nice on the completed poster and it was successful.
Work Experience Evaluation:
Overall I have felt increased my knowledge of the industry. I have learnt about working with a client and how it operates. Being given a brief introduction to the work that was required was helpful and enabled me to ask relevant questions and important ones so that I was able to start the work. We were presented with a brief and a deadline in which to do it in. I had 3 weeks to complete my task and I was able to successfully work it around my current studies and meet the deadline on time. This enabled me to successfully meet a brief to the deadline without minimal difficultly. Meeting deadlines and managing work load is an important aspect of the industry and is a skill that is essential in any role within the industry. This experience helped me apply these methods into a working practice which is good experience to gain for a job role after university.
Being given a topic in brief also made me research into different areas. 'Petropolis' being a documentary on petrol is something that is of no interest to me and something that I have never looked into. I watched the 45 minute documentary in order to fully understand my brief and respond to it in the best and most effective way possible. From the documentary I made brief sketches of the machinery used in oil refinery and that is how the image was created. I have increased my general knowledge about petrol but I have increased my knowledge of the industry further. You may be asked to do jobs on topics that aren't of great interest to you, you can decline these types of offers but I feel they should be seen as an opportunity to broaden your creative horizons further. You may learn new content for other projects and the skills of researching will be of great help for another project.
Producing work to a high quality for someone else is important. If the work was a commission then it would be important to produce the highest quality of work as the client is paying for a skill that they themselves do not possess. Responding effectively and to a high quality is important. This piece of work I feel was not my best, however, I learnt a lot about requirements for a client and meeting their needs. Being briefed with certain size requirements and layouts would help you produce an image to fit these criteria. Overlay, where and image is placed, and the appropriate media to use is all important when producing a certain high quality piece of work for a client.
Expanding further on the media in which you use to create an image, this is also one of the most important factors. This is brief was a poster so it was important to analyse the properties of a normal poster. The image is made to be reproduced, scaled up and the colour and layout could potentially change. With this in mind you need to consider the scale you're working in and whether the media you are using is appropriate for the clients needs. I produced this hand drawn with fine liner and then added colour digitally afterwards. Drawing this image I used a fine liner as an outline which when scanned I then just filled the colour in. The physical drawing was drawn A3 to meet the size requirements and scanned at 600pd just incase the scale needed to be manipulated in anyway. Using Adobe Photoshop to colour, the software is available to most companies and therefore is a universal software that is appropriate for the task in hand, the colour could be applied easily and in a reliable consistent colour. The only thing to watch though is how a colour could be seen on the screen will be different to how it is printed. From this I have learnt to be careful with blue tones as the digital version of the image is a completely different colour to the physical poster. This is why working into the file and sending digital is the most appropriate way to do so as the client could then change the colour slightly if it was to print in a way they were not happy with.
The personal development I gained from this experience was a great amount. I had produced one previous commission for a client but that was of a different topic, different media and for a completely different purpose. The initial briefing felt a situation that would be true to life and was a clear open way for me to communicate any queries I had to make sure that I would meet the clients requirements in a professional way. I felt more confident in asking questions because I wanted to make sure that it was going to be correct and it would mimic a real life situation but there would be money involved. It helped me understand the importance of research as was confident in the content of the image I produce as I had done the sufficient research beforehand. If I hadn't have done the research then I really would've struggled to produce an image at all. I also pushed myself by doing my work digitally. Normally I would only produce my work physically and never attempt digital work, but, learning and understanding the connivence of it, it was important to push myself to do it. I became more confident and enjoyed it which is something I wouldn't think I would've enjoyed. It is a skill that I have learnt that I will be proceeding to use throughout my practice in the future.
This experience has influenced my career choice in commission work. Working as a freelance illustrator and working with a client is something that I have enjoyed doing. The requirements and subject matter were clearly addressed by the client in a brief meeting and the creative ideas were left for me to produce in what either way I felt was appropriate. The creative freedom was something I wasn't used to at all as any work I have done for educational value has been told to do in a certain way. The first commission I did of the mural at my local tearoom had guidelines of a style and could only be adapted slightly as the original artwork wasn't my own, so having my own creative freedom was intimidating but also exciting. This experience will lead me to push my artwork further and maybe considering putting my artwork out there in order for people to get in contact with me and ask me to do work similar for them.
Overall I have felt increased my knowledge of the industry. I have learnt about working with a client and how it operates. Being given a brief introduction to the work that was required was helpful and enabled me to ask relevant questions and important ones so that I was able to start the work. We were presented with a brief and a deadline in which to do it in. I had 3 weeks to complete my task and I was able to successfully work it around my current studies and meet the deadline on time. This enabled me to successfully meet a brief to the deadline without minimal difficultly. Meeting deadlines and managing work load is an important aspect of the industry and is a skill that is essential in any role within the industry. This experience helped me apply these methods into a working practice which is good experience to gain for a job role after university.
Being given a topic in brief also made me research into different areas. 'Petropolis' being a documentary on petrol is something that is of no interest to me and something that I have never looked into. I watched the 45 minute documentary in order to fully understand my brief and respond to it in the best and most effective way possible. From the documentary I made brief sketches of the machinery used in oil refinery and that is how the image was created. I have increased my general knowledge about petrol but I have increased my knowledge of the industry further. You may be asked to do jobs on topics that aren't of great interest to you, you can decline these types of offers but I feel they should be seen as an opportunity to broaden your creative horizons further. You may learn new content for other projects and the skills of researching will be of great help for another project.
Producing work to a high quality for someone else is important. If the work was a commission then it would be important to produce the highest quality of work as the client is paying for a skill that they themselves do not possess. Responding effectively and to a high quality is important. This piece of work I feel was not my best, however, I learnt a lot about requirements for a client and meeting their needs. Being briefed with certain size requirements and layouts would help you produce an image to fit these criteria. Overlay, where and image is placed, and the appropriate media to use is all important when producing a certain high quality piece of work for a client.
Expanding further on the media in which you use to create an image, this is also one of the most important factors. This is brief was a poster so it was important to analyse the properties of a normal poster. The image is made to be reproduced, scaled up and the colour and layout could potentially change. With this in mind you need to consider the scale you're working in and whether the media you are using is appropriate for the clients needs. I produced this hand drawn with fine liner and then added colour digitally afterwards. Drawing this image I used a fine liner as an outline which when scanned I then just filled the colour in. The physical drawing was drawn A3 to meet the size requirements and scanned at 600pd just incase the scale needed to be manipulated in anyway. Using Adobe Photoshop to colour, the software is available to most companies and therefore is a universal software that is appropriate for the task in hand, the colour could be applied easily and in a reliable consistent colour. The only thing to watch though is how a colour could be seen on the screen will be different to how it is printed. From this I have learnt to be careful with blue tones as the digital version of the image is a completely different colour to the physical poster. This is why working into the file and sending digital is the most appropriate way to do so as the client could then change the colour slightly if it was to print in a way they were not happy with.
The personal development I gained from this experience was a great amount. I had produced one previous commission for a client but that was of a different topic, different media and for a completely different purpose. The initial briefing felt a situation that would be true to life and was a clear open way for me to communicate any queries I had to make sure that I would meet the clients requirements in a professional way. I felt more confident in asking questions because I wanted to make sure that it was going to be correct and it would mimic a real life situation but there would be money involved. It helped me understand the importance of research as was confident in the content of the image I produce as I had done the sufficient research beforehand. If I hadn't have done the research then I really would've struggled to produce an image at all. I also pushed myself by doing my work digitally. Normally I would only produce my work physically and never attempt digital work, but, learning and understanding the connivence of it, it was important to push myself to do it. I became more confident and enjoyed it which is something I wouldn't think I would've enjoyed. It is a skill that I have learnt that I will be proceeding to use throughout my practice in the future.
This experience has influenced my career choice in commission work. Working as a freelance illustrator and working with a client is something that I have enjoyed doing. The requirements and subject matter were clearly addressed by the client in a brief meeting and the creative ideas were left for me to produce in what either way I felt was appropriate. The creative freedom was something I wasn't used to at all as any work I have done for educational value has been told to do in a certain way. The first commission I did of the mural at my local tearoom had guidelines of a style and could only be adapted slightly as the original artwork wasn't my own, so having my own creative freedom was intimidating but also exciting. This experience will lead me to push my artwork further and maybe considering putting my artwork out there in order for people to get in contact with me and ask me to do work similar for them.
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