Assignment Two: Presenting your work

As suggested, I reflected on the techniques I experimented with in this part of the course.

What have you enjoyed doing the most, or the least, and why?

My favourite exercises consisted in creating small illustrations that were apparently disconnected and combining them to tell a story. These exercises are Words to pictures, Word processing and Composing pictures. I enjoyed seeing the potential of the original sketches.

I also like collages a lot and it was interesting to experiment with different approaches that sometimes included an element of chance.

Some parts of the exercises were challenging as I still find it difficult to let go and enjoy the process without worrying about the outcome. However, in the end, it was rewarding to overcome these challenges.

The exercise Getting into the zones was not particularly enjoyable in itself. However, it made me better understand how I sometimes need to rethink my learning practice in order to be more realistic about what can be achieved at every stage.

Which pieces of work do you feel have been most successful and why?

I like the image I created for the exercise Word processing. I might not have had the confidence to create an illustration with so many elements before. Approaching my work differently has helped me to put everything together.

I also like the characters created in the exercise Multi-dimensional thinking. This technique was an opportunity to play with lines without worrying whether any of it was right or wrong, including proportions or scale.

Have the exercises helped you to think about things in new ways or try out new ways of working? What have they been and how has your viewpoint changed?

This part of the course contained many techniques I had not considered and has opened a lot of possibilities to find inspiration and develop ideas. There were also exercises I had tried before such as mind-mapping but with additional elements such as adding new concepts and creating new connections.

What area(s) would you like to develop further?

I need to make a conscious effort to play more with these techniques during the creative process as it can be very easy to get back to old ways of working when answering a brief.

I like collages and want to experiment more. I also like patterns a lot and I have realised that they are often collages. I still struggle to understand how to combine elements to create a harmonious composition.

Assignment Two: Presenting your work

I created a quick gallery of images as a reminder of the different exercises covered in this part of the course.

I wanted to establish at that stage how I was going to create this video. As suggested, I looked at Pecha Kucha presentations, researched keynotes and experimented with recording my voice in PowerPoint. I also considered After Effects. In the end, I opted for PowerPoint as I know the software very well and my knowledge of After Effects would not have enabled me to produce the kind of video I had in mind.

I reflected on how other people present their work, ideas or tutorials. I often use YouTube to watch tutorials and have followed a few courses online with Domestika and other websites. I thought that I had to make the presentation lively and visually interesting.

I then wondered how to present the contents. I tried to deconstruct what I had achieved and completed to understand the various aspects of my work. I wanted to show the different elements of the creative process and how they come together.

I opted for the following structure: Words as a source of inspiration, Lines, Collages, Bring everything together, Mixing techniques, What does it mean for my practice in the future.

Finally, I started putting everything together in PowerPoint. I refined the presentation many times until I was happy with the result.

Once done, I asked my friend to watch the video to make sure that my voice could be heard. I did not have a stand-alone microphone and I had to try to speak fairly loud and clear to make sure that my voice was recorded properly.

Initially, I did not really know how to approach this exercise as I am not familiar with presenting my work in this way. However, it was interesting to explain my choices and thoughts behind the creative process and, in a sense, it was a way to reflect on what I had achieved.

In retrospect, it would have made the video less impersonal if I had added parts where I filmed myself talking or sketching. I still feel a bit uncomfortable with that part of the process but it is something I need to improve to make a film more interesting. Recording my voice was also not something I was used to and it takes practice. In a sense, it is a bit like talking in public, except that one has to imagine the public.

In the future, I want to learn how to use After Effects better in order to present my work in a more professional manner. When I studied the basics of After Effects, I followed a course on Domestika presented by Michael Tierney (https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/2207-fundamentals-of-animation-in-after-effects). The examples given were an inspiration and I would really like to be able to create a professional showreel to showcase my portfolio. I feel that this exercise was a step in the right direction, even though I still have a lot to learn.