Final Evaluation

Final Evaluation:

Explain your approach to the THEME, how does your final product link to the THEME.

To begin my project and decide on an interesting and related subject, I first started gathering research using word associations and mind-maps to generate areas I can explore and develop in the theme of ‘order and chaos’. Defining the world itself, it described a clash between authoritative instructions or an arrangement for order, contrasting with disorganisation and mayhem, these relations led me to areas such as the ideology of wisdom and corruption of other worlds, politics and religion. Throughout my research, I found many areas within religion that appealed to me; such as the idea of heaven and hell, and the obvious differences that these realms have that would relate to order and chaos. 

The problem I faced here, is I felt this was too un-original, and I wanted my designs to be considerably unique, which then led my project direction to looking at the ‘seven deadly sins’, as I thought I could interestingly design these qualities as animals that reflect their nature, giving my artwork an interesting history and allowing me to explore animal concepts, something I have not previously done in my projects. This idea stemmed from the corruption that the bible states the seven deadly sins bringing, and with further exploration I found multiple web-pages that linked certain animals to emotions that depicted it well, such as the snake representing ‘jealousy’, and a wolf representing ‘wrath’. Some of these animals I was conflicted about, for example I thought I could use a sabre-tooth to show ‘wrath’, although this would then tie into extinct animals, which would broaden my chosen theme too much, meaning my animals had to be consistent and link directly to one soul purpose. 

I then realised I could link my work to elements of mythology, the wolf known as ‘Fenrir’ in Norse myth states that this was a ferocious and extremely large wolf known to cause chaos to all of man-kind. I thought this example represented the sin of wrath perfectly, and also linked my work to a specific culture. I then realised that my work would only be showing the deadly sins, which only reflects the chaos aspect of my project, rather than both order and chaos; for this reason, I decided to reflect these with using the seven heavenly virtues, as they work along side each-other, and show the literal opposites of both primarily good and what is seen as evil. I discovered a ‘stoat’ were considered to be a symbol for ‘chastity’, as stoats were often interpreted in forms of art to signify purity (as seen in paintings with un-married woman being shown as pure). Other examples would be an owl, as this was a symbol of the goddess Athena, and showed wisdom and femininity, a relation to Greek mythology. 

Compare your proposal to your final product. What stayed the same, and what was different?

When looking at the differences between my proposal and end product; the first most noticeable element was removing my unicorn concept board so that I only had two deadly sins and two heavenly virtue pieces. The reason behind this, was even though I had enough time to include all of my drafted boards, I wanted to make more time for the production of just these four rather than all five, giving me more time to focus on the details and finishing aspects of my work. Additionally, I had a lot to include for each, as I needed to complete both its environment and animal production to a high standard, which would be difficult in the time-frame that I was given, and the pace in which I was developing my product. In addition to this, I stated that I wanted my wolf to be looking up at the moon on a cliff-side, and instead its final direction faced away, and their was no cliff-side in the final environment design. The reason for this, is as I changed and manipulated photo-bashes and initial sketches, I realised I wanted a river and a hillside to be behind my wolf, enclosed by a forest, as this would draw more attention to the wolf’s character, and also bring it into focus. 

When looking at the rest of my concept as a whole, it mostly followed through with the same aspects and colour design. For example, I used light greens, reds, pinks, yellows and whites for my heavenly virtue boards, and red, black, dark grey etc for my deadly sins. I predicted these contrasts in tones during the structure of my work in my proposal, as I knew that they would symbolise the overall atmosphere I was trying to convey in my work; for example the light-hearted and virtuous setting of my owl and stoat, with the iniquity and immoral nature of my wolf and basilisk. 

Reflect on your research and how it informed/changed the development of your final idea.

The final research changed my overall design drastically, as well as my concept and how it ended up. As mentioned, I originally intended on creating a heaven/hell presentation, in which the boards followed on from each-other. For example, a board above would show heaven and angels, and a board just below, would continue this work, until it fell into hell. I thought this would be a fascinating way to show these differences within my exhibition, but I thought the idea itself was too cliche and obvious to the theme. 

Because of this, I decided that I wanted my final product to be religious based, as well as focus mostly around animals or environments design, as my previous projects looked solely character creation. With some further research in my mood images, looking at the bible, and the Old Testaments, as well as book sources that used the seven sins and turned them into demonic character interpretations, this inspired my work and my overall idea. I was then informed by tutors that I may consider looking at the opposing sides to this so I could reflect order within my project, and give it an additional purpose, this recommendation allowed me to look at other types of animals that could represent heavenly qualities, and would clearly show this visually within my piece. 

How well did you manage your time? What methods did you use to manage your project? Explain answers

In terms of my time management, I actually managed the progression of my work quite well, as I stuck to my time-table plan, and really thought about the amount of time I was taking during each week, and what I had to accomplish further to ensure that I could get everything completed. As mentioned before, I decided to remove my board, partly because of the time consumption of my other pieces, but mostly this was purposely done so I could free up some more time to focus on finishing touches and brushing up my work so it was up to the standard of my second year project.

Furthermore, I also made it my primary goal to use the development log to get all of my initial sketches and colour ideas out of the way rather quickly, so I could free up more of this time to work on the actual creation; unlike previous years, I decided to make a lot of progress during the development period of my work, so I would have a great starting point to work from within my production log. Moreover, each week I used my action time-table plan to guide each week, and adapt this to the changes that I made throughout my project as a whole. 

What skills did you use?

This year, I really applied my photo-bashing skills when creating the environment, as before I began development, I didn’t have much knowledge of environmental design; and as perspective was particularly one of my weaknesses in my artwork, I wanted to use this technique as a guide to the creation of my environments so they looked as finished as my character designs themselves. This worked out really well for me, as I was able to plan out where I could place my character, and the adaptions I would have to make and build upon to fit the type of environment I wanted for my creature and its atmosphere. Another skill I worked heavily on here was shading and lighting, as I wanted to emphasise this much more clearly in this years work, as its something I had been developing on throughout all of my previous projects, and this year really gave me an opportunity to highlight this and really try to show the moonlight and shadows that would be created. 

What problems did you face?

The biggest issues I faced, was developing the environments from the initial sketches. Being as I used photo-bashed images for my layout, it was hard to adapt my own features to this, without ruining the design itself, or the perspective this was in. For this, I really had to experiment and keep changes areas, specifically for the cave of my basilisk, so that it appeared real, and was still unique to my work and the changes that I made to this. I also had some layering issues, especially with my wolf, as the water kept overlapping the trees, and i got list with the level of details I was trying to add to the trees, and all of the layers I created for this; this made it much harder to look at all the elements I had, and where I needed to make adjustments and changes. I had to correct this issue by grouping all the layers, and looking at them individually so I could see what everything was. 

What have you learnt during this project? What would you do differently?

Throughout this project, I have really improved my skill and knowledge in environment design, and liked being able to really experiment and move out of my comfort zone for my last final major project. Additionally to this, I really was able to develop my skills in creating finer details, specifically the bark on trees, and the water is all types of formations such as rivers, lakes, and ponds. These variations have helped me to better create transparent affects, and look into the movement of water in these different areas. If I redid this project, I would maybe consider looking at other art-styles, as currently large areas of my work are falling into similar presentations of how I create my artwork; and I want to be able to use all types of styles effectively. Overall, I am extremely happy with this outcome, as I believed I put a lot of time and effort into this, so my project would reflect the skills and knowledge I have learnt throughout my two years, and the advice given from my tutors.

Reflect on peer and tutor feedback.

Reflecting back on my feedback, mostly I need to consistently develop my skills in both lighting and perspective, especially within a concept art direction within games development; mostly all of my work kept on track to the standard that I needed, and I just need to ensure that I keep up to date with my time-table and project plan, so that I keep on track and give myself as much time as possible to finish my work in the best standard.