One Trick Pony

After a half term where the workload mimicked the first half semester, in the way that the production of work greatly increased towards the end, it was time to return to college and proceed on the next assignments.

On Wednesday morning I arrived at my usual early morning time to a room which would be filled with anxiety as the anticipation of results grew. Within only a couple of minutes, I had already been told by Steve that my sketchbook was difficult to read. This did nothing to enrich my confidence, which was quickly ebbing away.

Steve outlined some of the problems that had been occurring throughout some people’s assignments, and as he reeled off error after error the tension in the room increased.

We left the room for a break at 10 o’clock, a break that could not last long enough.

When we returned, our grades had been stuck on the wall. Everybody gathered around and tried to find their grades on the sheet. To my amazement, I had somehow dodged the grammatical, academic and artistic minefield, and passed both modules. I even had to go back and double check, in case from my crowded, off axis viewing angle I had somehow read another person's results.

After a momentary release of pressure from completing and passing the first assignment, it was only a matter of minutes before the pressure was building again, as we read through the next assignment. I felt a certain amount of frustration that I had just finished one web plan, only to go straight into another which would need twice as much work. We had also been told to try and get the next level up grades, which only quadrupled the work, as well as the margin for error.

Wednesday afternoon was spent on time planning for the next few weeks work. I hoped to create a better time plan, and to actually stick to it this time. I know that if I have to achieve the next grades up, I will have to be working flat out over the next few weeks.

On Wednesday night, I decided to relax with some music and Photoshop. I decided to combine both elements into a piece of Photoshop art. I found a tutorial on how to turn a picture into a Roy Lichtenstein style piece of Popart. I scanned a picture of Eliza Carthy, as I found that a lot of elements of the picture, particulaly the hair and the violin, added some interesting textures and features to the composition. You can see the image I created below.
I was very impressed with the result, especially the way the yellow on the violin appears around the bridge area. I email this image to the owner of the website, Melissa Clifton, and she replied saying that she was impressed with my work, and that I was, in her words, “obviously talented”. I enjoyed this piece of critisism, but it certainly will not make me complacent with future pieces of work. This goes for using other programs too, as I do not want to become a “one trick pony”.

Thursday started with a lecture on bitmap and vector graphics (of which there is an excellent Photosho based tutorial here). Although I was familiar with some of the practical issues with using both of these, I was not aware of the more technical aspects. I found the lecture very informative, and I believe it will only improve my Photoshop skills. I found the information on print documents very relevent, as I am currently creating a tutorial for my Netkar Pro skins using InDesign CS2.

After our 10 o’clock break, we discussed the difference between being an artist and being a designer. I believe that I am somewhere between the two, as I have a history of art based education, but I think I also have some of the qualities of being a designer. There is common ground between the two, and the skills which we will be learning by using Photoshop with make demands on them both. Creating an asthetically pleasing piece of design, while keeping the user in mind will help to develop both skills.

During the afternoon, I had a rather curious development in my blog. The creator of the http://www.tonybenn.net/ website had contacted me, asking for some constructive critisism for his site.

I was somewhat dumbfounded by this, much to the sadistic delight of Rob who took much merryment from my predicament. I did feel somewhat guilty, for lambasting the website in the way I did. I now realise that I should have edited my blog post and been more constructive. I will get in contact with the creator, and offer him some constructive critisism, and possibly say what I said in my assignment. I want help him in any way I can with my current skills to make his website more pleasing to use, and allowing users to access the vast content within the site.

It will be interesting to see what will come out of this, and I will keep people informed via my blog.

I am currently feeling very enthusiastic about the challenges which are ahead. I know that I can now relax by doing one of Malissa Clifton’s excellent tutorials, and still be making a contribution to my sketch pad by sticking in the results and annotating them. I believe that now I have clarified what can be put into it, that I can easily fill a couple over the coming weeks with inspirational designs and colour schemes.

I have rather a lot of work to do, both course and non-course related, and I hope to keep my avid readers informed as I progress through the forthcoming tasks. Over the next week I will be researching my goals for A3, and writing my comparative analysis of Designers Republic artwork for A4. I’m sure I can squeeze some Photoshop or InDesign in somewhere (all logged in my time plan, of course!).