EVALUATION

Initial Mind mapping –

I found the initial mind map process helpful as I was able to explore possible themes and areas in which I could do my stage 3 project in.  These were developed easily as certain ideas stood out more/ had more inspiration in my opinion. I had to consider the length of time for the project as some topics provided more for me to explore over the ten week project.

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Initial research –

Initial research provided a good base for me to decide which theme I felt would work best for my stage three project. Exploring many areas showed me what had most to explore and how I could tie many ideas together in one theme. I found this interesting but certain themes stood out more to me and provided more inspiration allowing me to narrow down to the theme I want to do my stage three project in.

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Research on chosen theme –

Research for my chosen theme wings helped me explore all the possible themes for a proposal. There was a good range of areas I could delve in to. Areas such as fairies and other stood out more and provided more inspiration again. This helped me to see that I felt I chose the right overall theme as the whole theme could sustain me over a 10 week period and had enough information for me to explore.

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Process of selecting a proposal –

The process of selecting a proposal was helpful. I chose my proposal through research into articles, films, tv series, pages, and images. These showed me what I felt most strongly about an provided me with a background for my work. I also did pros and cons of each proposal this helped me to establish what I felt would work best. Overall I was happy with the chosen proposal I had done a good amount of research and had a strong concept that was forming and hed ways to develop as well as opportunities to get first and research.

This was a long process for me but as a result I feel I have a proposal that suits me and through the development I feel it will sustain me for 10 weeks.

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Chosen proposal –

I chose the proposal for a number of reasons. I found there was a lot of inspiration and a lot to research. This I felt would sustain me for ten weeks. In addition I loved the idea and concept I could create through my work; it has the possibility to have a strong meaning of done correctly. There is also a variety of different techniques that can be used for this. The scale can also be played around with. It could anything from A5 to A3. I think I will use A4 and try and vary the page shapes when possible. I felt this proposal had a lot of scope and would be an interesting topic to explore due to their history in society and how they are still used today in stories.

The development of this proposal is continuous and still happening through talking to people and tutorials. As a result I have a better handle on what I want to make the and the direction to take it in but a lot of development and decisions need to be made.

Finally a day before the due in date I have my proposal finished and developed. This took me a while but I feel as a result I have a good understanding of what I want to make. This has meant I have a lot of development already.

Weekly project evaluations –

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Week 1 – Week beginning Monday 15th March 2021.

This week was very productive I now have a clear idea have done my initial drawings and have better understanding of the story. In addition I have started collecting first hand photography and have a clear picture of what I want to achieve in the project.

I feel my drawings and experiments have helped me to explore ideas at this initial stage. These can be developed into repeat patterns and starting to work on photoshop has helped me in this.

The experiments have been with colour and a monochrome colour palette. I focused on the shapes and images that would be relevant to the story while some monochrome images were better for shape, I found the coloured images added more life and made a bolder print that I preferred.

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My use of the creative process has been in how I develop drawings from inspiration form primary and secondary research. This has helped me gain a better understanding of what I want to show. The research has supported me mainly especially in the workshop on Monday but more could have been done to help my work earlier.

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Through going on to campus this week and the workshops online this week I have made good progress in my work. I focused more on paper experiments and some digital work this week this was supported by research.

This week by exploring first hand photography I have been able to develop drawings from my own work. These have helped me progress in what lines I like best however if eel I need to make more time so I have adjusted my time plan to allow more time for first and research and drawings from photos. I still need to get more first-hand photos around key symbols.

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This week I also started exploring photoshop with patterns from experiments. This was effective but certain patterns worked better than others. From this I have established photoshop will be key in me creating prints and patterns for the final work.

Next week I need to research more into the symbols and the characters as well as the stages of the story to see what I want to represent. This week my research has been useful but not optimised. I did most research at the weekend so ive been set up well for next week however it would have been more beneficial earlier in the week. 

I have kept up with book work and have been evaluating my experiments and thinking about how they have helped me and what I want to take forward. I feel this was successful and has meant my work has developed through seeing which material combinations worked best.

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Week 2 – Week beginning Monday 22nd March 2021.

This week has gone well in general. I have started fabric embroidery samples and continued with paper samples to explore my themes and first hand photography further.  I have looked further in to artists, design principles, further into the plot of story and my colour palette.

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My creative practice been developed as I am now layering up images from my work. This is to create motifs for a repeat patterns. This is to show the chaos of the story. I aim to explore how I vary the number of motifs to show the loss of people on the journey back.

Although my time plan has required a bit of editing, I have mainly stuck to it by moving elements around. The time plan has helped me to efficiently manage my days. I did not complete as much as I would have hoped to on campus however I finishes a larger embroidery, we had a workshop and I collected photocopies and resources for me to work with over easter.

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Next week I aim to explore laying my work and play on photoshop to see how I can create the impression of chaos in my work. In addition I hope to put elements from first hand photography together in the order of the story after splitting the books into groups to see how I can change the pattern to represent the story better.

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I hope to get up to Highcliffe on a day with bad weather so I can get images of large crashing waves that suit the story better. In addition when going on walks and a picnic I will collect images to help support my work.

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I have kept up with book work this week and I caught up the writing in my book on Sunday. I have been keeping the PowerPoint up to date throughout. This has helped my research to be more fluid and placed when I have done it.

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I researched the character, themes, symbols, and plot of the story further as well. This was following a tutorial. It was suggested I focus on a theme but I found there was room for development in what I was already doing. Focussing n a theme felt limiting for me. What I aim to do now helps me to focus on the story as a whole.

The colour experiments in my colour palette have helped me to develop my work as it is now more cohesive and has a better connection. The colour palette I picked was based off colours seen in the book covers found. I felt the colour scheme worked well together and will allow me to create a good range of patterns.

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Week 3 – Week beginning Monday 29th March 2021 (Easter break).

This week I have completed some work but not as much as I would have liked. I have explored layering existing work and seeing what happens when that work is repeated. However in general this week has gone well. I also did further research and some more sewing samples.

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The research I have done has been into maximalism, and chaos theory to represent the story, and the plot. I finished looking into all 22 books now. Artists have not been such a key influence but some artists that appeared in research have been relevant. I have also collected some more first-hand photography on walks.

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I have been working in black and white and my colour palette as I was exploring what would happen if I layered up shapes form the samples and experiments, I have already completed. These helped to mix elements of the story.

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I still think I need to cement an end user or find a shop where the prints and patterns could be sold. This will now be more effective as I have now read a summary of each book and highlighted the key elements that I want to use.

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Next week I plan to explore print and ink on paper and fabric. I hope this will create a different effect. I also hope to get more first-hand photography. I will continue to do photoshop development and explore layering and how I repeat the patterns/ images.

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Photoshop work this week has become more interesting due to using images of work that was layered and combined making it more chaotic. The use of photoshop is helping me to push my work and meaning I can have more freedom in the patterns I make to repeat.

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I have kept up well with book work and I have completed all my writing for the book so far.  The writing has helped me to decide what I liked best. My time plan has been helpful. Although it has changed throughout the week to keep up to date when I felt I need to spend more time on something.  My note book notes and to do list in my diary are guiding me well and helping me to achieve what I want to and mean I have a record of things to carry over to the next week.

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Week 4 – Week begging Monday 5th April 2021 (Easter break).

Overall this week was effective and helpful as I started to explore areas I had not previously. I was able to explore print, use of ink, and stitch by hand and on the machine. In addition I further explored photoshop with these elements of work. This created interesting patterns.

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I have been working in my colour pallet in different forms. I found this was creating different effects and textures. Although lots of the printing I did was in black I liked the effect that was emerging. I would like to explore this in my colour pallet further.

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I still need to do further research into where I could sell the print, this will help me refine my target market further. The research I have done this week has helped me to further establish the chaos and setting in the story. I feel blue needs to have a stronger presence in my work and most of the story takes place at sea.

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Using photoshop to create patterns has meant I have better idea of what I feel works. I hope to further explore the balance of colour and see how I can incorporate different textures better. I felt the repeats that were smaller and repeated more times looked better but I would like to explore with using them in half drop to create a better look.

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This week I have kept up with my book work and writing.  My time plan has been adapted but it has meant that I have achieved everything that I wanted to achieve. My plan and to do list is also updated in my diary. This week I have not taken as many notes but the writing in my sketchbook has helped me develop. This week I have got my blog up to date for the project so far. I had not done this before, this was tedious but I can now just add to it.

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Next week I plan to explore layering of machine stitch and print if possible. Otherwise I will continue to work on photoshop and I hope ton look into a half drop with a smaller size pattern. I want to explore the use of ink and stencil further as well. I hope to layer up these techniques further to see what happens then. In terms of research I will look into artists, my colour palette and hopefully further into the chaos of the story and the setting to see how I can better link my work. In addition if I see any relevant photography, I will take advantage of that.

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Week 5 – Week beginning Monday 12th April 2021.

Overall this week I have not completed as much as I would have hoped. I completed a good amount of stitch samples on campus inn my colour scheme. And I have defined my ideas further in deciding the motifs and patterns that I like best.

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I have explored all motifs and patterns selected to take forward in my colour pallet in and design in ink paint and print. Next week I aim to develop these on photoshop and explore how I can vary this further.

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I have explored creating repeat patterns that involve the same patterns just in different sizes and in a less organised way. I felt this looked better and has made the pattern more chaotic. I want to explore the background further so that is not as neat to better communicate the story.

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I have mostly kept up with book work and presenting what I have made I still need to catch up on blog work and writing but I have not got too far behind. My time plan has changed due to the sense that I will need longer at the end for photoshop development. But I still feel I have enough time to progress my ideas to where I want them to be.  My to-do list has been helping me though my work well as I have mostly stayed on top and I know what I need to do.

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I got behind this week as I was preparing for the mid project review and updating my blog so I lost a day there but feel I am not too far behind; I will just use Monday to catch up. I aim to research more as well I completed research on relevant artists but nothing much more this week. I hope to explore the themes further and loo further into chaos theory and the shapes that brings. I still need to look further into target market and refine it further from adults.

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Next week I plan to explore more photoshop work and some stitch to see what patterns I can come up with to create a more chaotic pattern. I feel this will help to push my project further. I plan to do more research and focus the research on chaos more.

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Week 6 – Week Beginning Monday 19th April 2021 (Mid Project Review).

The mid project review on Tuesday was very useful. It gave me the opportunity to show where I am up to and get feedback on what I should do next. This provided me with more direction for my end user context and research into shops. It meant that I now have a better idea of what I aim to achieve and the way in which I complete the prints and patterns around my theme.

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This week was mostly effective I did not complete as much but I feel I have a better sense of where my project in going and a better sense of what I need to do. I feel I have done more online work this week that has helped me more. In addition I have got some feedback from others about my photoshop patterns that has been helpful and shown me I am going in the right direction.

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I have explored photoshop and layering. In photoshop I have been exploring how I can make the pattern more chaotic. I found this has been effective but there are still white lines appearing in my work which I do not like. In addition layering up photocopies of my selected samples by hand has helped me to explore the balance and colour combination I like and think would look effective in my work.

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Book work this week has not been as key but I have kept up the writing has helped to guide me and seeing the prints printed out has helped me get a better sense of scale. I have kept the blog up to date and the power point has also been updated regularly.

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Research has helped me to establish where I want my pattern to go, how I want to establish the pattern and what is already out there. I have established it needs to be for a high end shop in a collection to make the most sense.

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My time plan has been helpful this week and I have mostly stuck to it; however I have also changed it at times and towards the end of the project as I have felt I need more time to develop my patterns and complete my visualisations at the end.  

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Next week I aim to play around with the scale and layout on photoshop further. In addition to exploring hand repeats that can be scanned which I think will create a more chaotic pattern. In addition to further research into my end user context.

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Week 7 – Week Beginning Monday 26th April 2021.

This week was overall productive and helpful for my work when looking at photoshop initial visualisations and scale. As well as exploring hand repeats but I have to been able to scan them in due to printer problems at home unfortunately. I did run into some issues on photoshop that have held me up this week as well.

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I have explored the scale of prints in visualisations, and on photoshop in the patterns. I felt the bigger patterns looked better. The visualisations helped a lot, I had a better idea of scale.  The hand repeats I do I liked, however looked too pretty for what I want to make the pattern to look like to better reflect the chaos of the story. I created patterns out of my layered up photocopied work. This meant I was creating interesting patterns and in certain experiments made the bolder colours pop out more.

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Book work this week has been held back I have not been able to do much due to having printer issues at home.  however my power point and blog has been kept up to date. I am not too concerned about the book work in my sketchbook as much now due to the majority of my work being on photoshop.

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Research has helped me to establish the range of patterns Liberties has and how they present their work. This will help me moving forward as I can get a better idea of how many they have in a collection or a pack.

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My time plan this week has been helpful, its been adjusted when needed but I have made more significant changes to the end of the project time to make sure I definitely finish and allowing more time for me to use photoshop.

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Next week I aim to look at exploring shape and layout further on photoshop and placing with better images for visualisations. I also plan to do more research into what people like by asking what they think about my initial visualisations.

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Week 8 – Week Beginning Monday 3rd May 2021.

This week was overall effective and helpful. Through user feedback and experiments with pattern, scale, and visualisations I have concluded on which patterns will be going into my collection for Liberties.

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I have explored more patterns on photoshop as well as visualising them. This helped me to conclude that I did not like them and they were too busy and chaotic. Although this fits with the story it does not suit the target market or the end use context. In addition I did further visualisations with better images. These were more effective but I still need to try them in photos taken from Instagram and Liberties. The visualisations are helping me to get a sense of what feel looks best. I also tested my patterns printed out in a range of scales against the wall. This has meant I have a better idea of how they will look in real life and now have selected my scale for each pattern with use feedback as well.

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Book work on my blog and PowerPoint has been kept up to date this has meant that I have had more time to evaluate and think about my work. As well as decide what I feel needs doing.

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Research has helped me as the feedback I have received from my target audience and through looking at Liberties has Informed my decision and meant I have concluded I just need to adjust the scale of the prints and do my final visualisations.

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My time plan has been shifted again so I have more time to check but it has meant that I have stayed on course and got all the work I wanted to get done complete this week. I do not feel that I am rushing to do my final bits of work as I have kept up to date with my blog, writing, and PowerPoint.

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Next week I aim to finish the scale work on photoshop, complete my final visualisations and upload as much as possible to my blog so I am not rushing to meet the deadline.

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Week 9 – Week Beginning Monday 10th May 2021.  

This week was effective overall. I completed most of my blog in addition to completing my final pieces. As I result, I feel prepared for the hand in next week. Although at times I had issues with my laptop that meant progress on my visualisations was much slower than I would have liked.  

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I have explored visualisations further to establish my final visualisations. For these I received user feedback in person I was told they fit Liberties, and I was told what looked best in terms of where the image was placed.  

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Book work has been online this week. I have been focussing on finishing PowerPoint which I did. And I have little left to do on my blog.  

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Research has helped me to establish how/ what visualisations fit my target audience and my end user context. This has helped me to be sure I reached my end goal. 

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My time plan this week has helped me but changed constantly due to what I have completed and how long it took. 

Next week I plan to make final adjustments and finish my bog then submit my work. In addition, I plan to complete the last bits from feedback to make sure my project is complete. 

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Final Evaluation

Overall I feel my project has met my aim in the updated proposal. I have developed a series of patterns that suit Liberties and my target age group of young adults. I feel I have done a lot of development that has meant I have created a chaotic series of patterns yet there is some order. I fell this represents The Odyssey well. 

In asking my target audience what they thought about my work I have come up with the most popular set that works well in a collection. This would work for Liberties as through research I discovered they have a collections section.

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Throughout the project the regular reflection and evaluation has helped to push and develop my work well. Its caused to look into many elements of the story, lots of artists and research around areas I felt I should focus my work around.

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Even now I still feel there is room for development. I feel the patterns could be made to have less of a boarder so the patterns do not look as interrupted, this would be better to be sold widely commercially however this suited the concept due to the book The Odyssey being split into different sections/ chapters.

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I felt my practical experiments have pushed my ideas especially I layering them as it created a more chaotic look and combined elements of the story to show how they link through the book. The Photoshop development has meant I have come up with a variety if patterns that link by colour and pattern.