The Guardian brief- final evaluation

This project has been my first time entering a competition and I learnt a lot from it! Particularly in how I  manage my time, I often found myself too caught up in the excitement of something that could potentially be published and neglected my other work a bit. It also gave me an insight into editorial illustration, and even though if this was a 'real' brief I probably wouldn't have had so much time to work on it so the process may have been different- the image itself was still editorial.

creating the perfect portfolio 

creative careers

Strengths:

• The images work well as a series with a consistent colour scheme and aesthetic style
• Using pencil and colouring it digitally is a new technique I'm coming to terms with and I think I've done quite well to make it look like enough of a final image and not just a sketch (debatable). Still, I've been practicing this technique a bit in personal drawings and in uni work so now may be the time to look for something new to do.

Weaknesses:

• Consistency is good but I think the creative careers and the analogue media images were too similar looking. The series is mostly made of head shots and looks boring and same-y and I should have pushed myself to do something more adventurous. More diversity may have even helped me place!
• Following from this the images are very flat and lack depth and perspective. I'm still concerned about the balance of the image for analogue media, with too much empty space being placed at the bottom of the image.
• Ideas behind images may be confusing and not make sense OR be too obvious (perfect portfolio). Neither of these are good for editorial illustration when the focus is so heavily on the idea behind the image.

revival of analogue methods in the digital age

The illustrations did not place in the competition but I learnt a lot from it and I'm quite happy with the results despite their flaws. I think there is potential for them to be in a portfolio as I think they visually look nice enough with the added bonus of them being applied to an actual brief. Still, by the time I start to put together a portfolio I hope I will have improved enough for these to be obsolete.