Critical Evaluation Of My Project
In this essay, it is my intention to reflect on my project, what I was able to produce, research, the wider contexts considered throughout and the elements I was able to incorporate into this body of work. This project has a number of elements that were very new to me from the outset, however I believe it was a beneficial body of work to undertake, even though I had to alter some parts of my usual practice to ensure the current times allowed for it’s development. As this project had it’s setbacks, due to a lack of studio time, COVID and other course related issues, this project was a challenge, which resulted in some elements being changed as it progressed. However, documenting what I was able to produce and my thoughts on each aspect is important when summing up. One of the most notable adjustments I had to make in order to embark on such a project was the switch to a digital focus for the workshop content I produce. Prior to this, I was able to put on workshops and use my interests in producing workshop content infant of people in a typical workshop forum. This was altered due to COVID, which ultimately challenged and inspired me to do something completely different. Therefore the project had to focus on things I could do, shifting to producing work in new ways, rather than the obvious limitations. In this piece, I will go through each aspect of my project, my reasonings for doing each element and outline what went positively and negatively. This will allow me to come to a conclusion at the end about how successful I feel it was. To do this I will separate the project into clear sections and discuss each aspect accordingly.
Project Overview
My project focused on using my practice as the influence for my very own online learning platform. Allowing my process of drawing sheds, small handmade structures and old shed frames to influence workshops on the principles of drawing made the project as a whole to be a multi-layered body of work. The more creative I was, the more in-depth the workshops became. This approach allowed me to create direct examples for what I was trying to teach and show the viewer at every step how I did it. As my workshops had to be in a digital format, producing an online learning platform felt like the perfect way of presenting the workshops, as well as giving me the potential of making it into an e-commerce business in the future. I liked this approach because it gave me the opportunity to produce workshops in a slightly different way, while making them about my current work and interests. As I decided to aim the workshops at secondary school level students, making them user friendly and easily accessible was also very important. Focusing on drawing skills and perspective was something I wanted to prioritise both in my own work and in the workshop content.
The creation of the Online Learning Platform, Sketch, also meant that I produced a range of short videos explaining my process and other drawing techniques, as well as an entire site that informs people of the benefits of drawing, and what the platform aims to achieve. Having this site produced to a high standard was important for the project because it needed to inform the viewer about its purpose, who it is aimed at, the ability to directly contact other participants and artists and also learn through both written and video content. I liked how this balance of written and visual content came together because it showed that I had tried to consider all types of learners. I think that having educational material, video, multiple scale drawings and all of the supporting work around it made the project thorough, in depth and importantly, a response to the need for more artist educators within the education system and how that can take many different forms.
Physical Work - Drawings, Sketchbooks, Preparation Sketches
The drawings, sketchbook work and related preparation sketches are a critical part of the project because this is where my practice developed significantly. I have noticed within my own work, I am making more creative decisions about my process and a generally more willing to experiment with different combinations of mediums because of doing this project. I took an approach throughout the project of making small changes to my process and documenting if the change made an impact on the overall outcome of the particular drawing. This resulted in me trying to incorporate other mediums like pencil, brush pens, alcohol pens and charcoal into my process to see how it behaved alongside the fine liner pen. Making small changes to my process also allowed for more experimentation in terms of tonal range, perspective choices, mark making decisions and compositional decisions. I think my awareness of how I am drawing has improved because of this, and I think my work from the beginning versus the end shows how I have developed an understanding of using different mediums for different jobs or approaches. Having an awareness that your practice can be developed thorough the use of different combinations of mediums, as well as having a clear understanding of what you are using shows that my practice has improved since embarking on this project.
As well as this, I have tried throughout the project to improve on my use of preliminary sketches. Using preliminary sketches is something I have not done extensively previously, as I rely mostly on photographic references to inform my larger pieces of work. Instead, I wanted to improve on my observational drawing skills, in the hope that I would be able to achieve a truer representation of the sheds I depict in the larger pieces. Having the body of sketches I have collated has helped me with observational drawing because I have had to be more mindful of the angle at which I draw at, the subject matter and the scale of the buildings I select, and also the use of multiple medias. For example, in one piece I decided to combine fine liner with soft graphite pencils. These sketches were fantastic for quickly trying combinations of mediums together, without the worry or expectation of them not complimenting each other. I was able to get an indication of what would work together, what wouldn’t and what I could investigate further on a larger scale. This was an exciting part of the project for myself because I was giving myself the space and time to create, experiment and not worry about making a piece that was ‘finished’, but rather one that was informing or determining my next creative phase.
In terms of the larger pieces I have produced I am happy with the variety of scales and mediums used. I like how I have been able to clearly incorporate the elements of my experimentation with different mediums into the larger pieces, because this is where the real progress is seen. Showing how the drawings have progressed throughout the project is important because it shows how my thought process has changed, and how my practice has slowly developed from drawing to drawing. Especially with the charcoal series I produced, this was something I would have never set out to do prior to this project, however, having the time to improve on my observational drawing ultimately made me feel more confident in working with a looser medium that requires lots of layering to get a strong outcome. It is very different to fine liner in that it lacks precision, something that I rely on in my practice because I focus on creating a realistic piece. Working with the charcoal allowed me to focus on working on my tonal range, identification of shapes, line, tone and form, which is crucial when you aim to teach others these basics through the educational content. The process of working in charcoal refreshed my understanding of how to approach a medium that I am less comfortable with and produce a piece of work that is on par with my conventional fine liner drawings. Changing the emphasis and opening the project up to new possibilities in terms of outcomes and approaches benefited the success of both the physical work and the workshops.
Although there are many positives from the physical work I have produced, there are aspects that I would want to improve upon and experiment with further. However, due to COVID and a lack of materials and access to the studios, I was unable to work any larger than A1. I did my entire project remotely due to these circumstances, and was limited due to this. I would have liked to work at a far larger scale, mural size, specifically on my final two drawings. This was because I felt they would have looked better much larger in size. I think they would have had a more imposing impact on the viewer, which was something I really wanted to evoke with the work I produced. Working at A1 was an alternative I was able to achieve to ensure the final two drawings I created had a greater impact on the viewer than the prior work, thereby identifying them as the final pieces of the project. Working at the appropriate scale was something that held me back throughout the project as I felt I could have pushed myself further in this area. I have worked extensively at A2 and A1, and would have found it more beneficial to push myself and work even larger. I do acknowledge that I would have produced less individual pieces as a result, but I think the impact would have been far greater when the work was exhibited as a result. However, one of the biggest setbacks was the opportunity to push my drawing skills to mural size, which is something I still hope to do in the future.
Further to this, I had set out in my statement of intent that I would produce three A1 studies as my final response of the project. I was able to produce two A1 studies in the time allocated. Due to a lack of access to the studios, space and time constraints has meant that I had to prioritise the production of two pieces. I believe that if I had studio access, I would have been able to produce the final piece to create a series of three mixed media drawings. However, I am still very pleased with the body of work I have produced, and feel that I was able to really focus on the quality of the two pieces far more by not doing the final one. I believe having high quality drawings on a larger scale far outweighs having more individual pieces.
Another significant setback within the project that I would have greatly benefitted from when discussing my physical work is peer to peer and staff to student face-to-face feedback. Having the opportunity to share ideas and suggestions with anyone related to the course would have helped me generate more ambitious ideas, and possibly consider other areas for potential investigation, experimentation and even research.
Online Learning Platform / Workshops
The online elements of my project have been some of the most challenging and successful parts of the project because it has given me the opportunity to push myself into doing things out of my comfort zone, such as video, written resources and building a platform for the potential of a community of people to utilise. As I was unable to formulate my workshops for an in-person session, I had to think of new ways to get them out in a public domain. This is where moving to an online format became a good option to promote my workshops to a wider audience. The online learning platform concept has become a response to my research area and something I am very interested in, the presence of arts education in the UK and how it is being gravely underfunded, undervalued and under appreciated specifically among policy makers and the department of education. I have done extensive research on the subject to gain clarity about the grave need for meaningful arts education for young people, its benefits for both artists who become involved and those who are learning. Therefore this learning platform is directly informed by the need within the education system, and it aims to bridge a gap between working professionals and young people. This is why each aspect of the website is driven to educate people on the downfalls in the education system and where Sketch can help supplement what a secondary school child is learning already. I have included the aims, research, additional contextual information about mental wellbeing and the arts, and also well informed workshops that have a nod to the curriculum as well as being free-flowing and easy to do in a self-guided manner. I believe the site is a good example of what an artist can contribute in terms of using their craft to teach others, and do it to a large audience. Although I would have liked to test the workshops on students directly, I have been limited in terms of who can access it for testing, I am pleased with the content, how it flows and importantly how much information is in each session.
In terms of the videos I have produced for the website, I am pleased that I have been able to push myself to do such content. Typically I am not a video type of person, and would often shy away from this aspect of creation. However, through my research I gained greater understanding about the need for tools for visual learners, who may struggle with the written content and would prefer another method of learning. Learning through copying is often a good way to pick up techniques, which is why video is perfect for skills based learning workshops. I think my videos give an insight into what I do, how I do it and how to use each medium in different ways. Although I am not talking in any of the videos, the helpful captions alongside the video content supplements the viewers understanding in a way that is simple, but still effective. If I could improve this aspect of the site in any way, I would have incorporated longer form videos, but due to the type of site I used, it limited the length of video that I could put onto the site. To combat this, I could branch the site out onto social media, leaving longer form videos on either Instagram or TikTok, where it would also act as a form of promotion. However, my focus was on providing direct content for the learning platform for the benefit of this project.
Overall, I think the website shows that I have an understanding of the issues faced within arts education across the board, and that I have considered a way to promote my knowledge of visual arts through educational content. As a result of this I think this was a strong part of my project that has the potential to excel into a potential business or helpful curriculum resource tool for a school to use.
Research and Wider Reading (blog related content)
Throughout the project I have focused heavily on trying to understand, research and analyse the role arts education plays in the curriculum, it’s downfalls, the role artists play in the curriculum and any relevant government documentation surrounding these subjects. I felt it was important to focus my research around this area due to my interests in education and wanting to use my practice as a catalyst to teach others. Looking at a range of opinions from artists, those in creative industries and policy makers showed the breakdown in communication about the importance the arts have on society, the economy and to the minds of young people. The contrasts in opinion I found throughout my research highlighted the one very crucial discussion, the focus of academia at the expense of a balanced curriculum. It is evident from my research that the push for academic success is being felt more now than it ever has been, which is resulting in cuts to creative subjects both in terms of their funding and time allocation. Resulting in a limited arts education. Although alarming, it was not a surprise. I endeavoured throughout my practical work, both physical and digital, to respond to the issues found within my research and use my position as an artist to teach others. I therefore see my work as an apt response to the issues within the education system.
Many of the issues faced by artists specifically in terms of being involved in secondary school education is a lack of funding, time and opportunity. This is one of the most common themes found within this body of extensive research I have undertaken, with funding and opportunity being very significant factors. Finding a new way to promote yourself as an artist educator, or someone who has a passion for teaching others about what they do in their careers therefore becomes a priority. This is why I decided upon the subject matter of my project. Having the connections between my research, project and final body of work shows that I have considered what I have been researching extensively and attempted to formulate a response to it. I think I have been able to do this well, when looking at the volume of research I have been able to collate, as well as the learning platform and supporting work.
If I could improve this aspect of the project I would have liked to interview a range of teachers, at different stages of their careers and those who teach ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ subjects to get direct opinions about the state of arts education in secondary schools and how they feel it impacts students’ other studies. I think this would have given the project even more depth and unearthed more information about the curriculum from those who deliver it on a daily basis. Adding this sort of research to my catalogue of analysis on government policy, interviews, articles and comments from focus groups of a range of policy makers to teachers and artists would have solidified even further that the devaluation of the arts is impacting young people and their futures significantly. As well as promoting an ethos that academic success is superior over creative education, when it simply is not the case.
Summary
After outlining each aspect of my project in this evaluation, I think I have been able to produce a thorough body of work in terms of the physical, digital and research related elements. I think my multi-layered approach researching my chosen subject area and using my practical work as a direct response to a clear issue in education shows that I understand the importance of a meaningful arts education and the need for artists to be more involved in the delivery of such. Although I have had setbacks throughout the production of the project, I am pleased I have been able to produce a wide-ranging body of work that considers each aspect of my creative practice and try new mediums, ways of teaching and ways of promoting myself through my educational platform. Although the subject matter of my research and subsequent work is something that you could go onto research for many years to uncover deeper answers, I feel that I have been able to cover a lot of ground throughout the project to get a balanced understanding of the need within the education system and the lack of value placed on the arts as a whole.
In terms of my practical work, I feel I have improved in terms of my use of mediums and my technique. I think my understanding of the principles of drawing has also drastically improved as I have been forced to look at my process and analyse it for the benefit of teaching others how to replicate what I do themselves. All in all, I believe this project has been successful and it has given me the beginnings of a business that I can take on past this course.
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