Rara's Blog

This is the reflective cycle of which our tutor and this is a demo that he presented to us to help with our reflections as an artist and show what our knowledge is to ourselves and our art work (Hails, 2012). Of what I have gathered from the lecture and the lesson which introduced this reflective cycle. Here is my quick brief of what I understood. The circles represent in action reflection, on action reflection and action research. they are connect together to show you need either one to create action research. Once you have both in and on action reflections the red loop has the knowledge in action this has what you know about yourself and your work and how they are inter loop with the in and on actions. The loop that is located on the outside is the learning plan objective this is to show that you are continuously learning to improve yourself and your work with in the mean time of the action plans. Now the radial thinking that branches off from the action plans are the ins and outs of what you are or have done or doing while being an artist. An example of this is personal and professional and as you see my tutor has placed what he’s good at and what he does as an artist which includes projects, sculpting and even 3D design.

In our lesson as we were taught about the reflective cycle when got told we had to create our own and place into our blogs and give a quick review of our own reflective cycles. I will be placing my reflective cycle into this blog but I am going to give a SWOT analysis on what type of artist I am and how I want to improve myself to into becoming an digital arts teacher. I will be able to show links on how my reflective cycle can show how I am able to improve myself and how I will always be improving skills and attributes towards my future. Here is my reflective cycle.

Now my reflective cycle is spaced themed. I did spaced due to the fact I really like space but also showing that I relate to space as I feel like as a person and an artist I live in my own little world however I like to venture out into the galactic galaxy to visit more planets. In a way I am saying I like research. I tried to show I am research driven and find that I work better when I look into things and find deeper meaning toward a project and have wider ideas.

SWOT:

Strength:

Ive shown that one strength of mine is research and I am always doing my best to include more styles and resources to find exactly what I want for my project so much so that I look outside the box and find some references which don’t link to my project but I figured that looking at some referenced that don’t have any connection could help with my development into an idea plan or final product. Another strength I would include is project building/analysis, I am able to work and gain experience while working along side people and contribute to team work. I love being able to follow through with a team plan and working together of which can show a final outcome of a project. Final strength that I am presenting is experimental work. Like I do with my self and my work I love to experiment and make things into different versions of itself. I find that like a makeover you don’t know exactly what you like unless you experiment and my work and work ethic is the same. I use the skills and tactics that I already know and collide them with new and more interesting ways. Yes, like most things. Experimenting doesn’t always fall into place but I find being able to who where and how things go wrong your able to evolve more experience and knowledge to make summit great or a questionable intake.

Weakness:

With thinking about my weaknesses. I feel that word is too negative so therefore I’d call it Improvements. To start with my improvements I would include future skills and techniques. I am very basic in what I know for my skills which include traditional, digitals and techniques such as painting, drawing and water-colouring. I definitely want to improve my skills and technique, I am able to do this by opening doors to different styles and using my research into what current trends are so that I can see what techniques everyone is using. I can do this to build a better profile into becoming a digital design teacher, as I think how can I teach pupils skills if I don’t know or aren’t open to new and current techniques. Another improvement of mine is contemporary practice, I believe a can alway improve on my contemporary art within 2D and 3D design. I am willing to improve to help with my future career I want to show and prove to myself I am able to improve my work and style with opening new doors into using techniques. This I believe will transform myself into a more experienced artist.

Opportunities:

I believe everything I come across is an opportunity to take on board. Ive managed to gain some fantastic work experience and have gained some brilliant contacts over the 3 years on my course. I’ve done work with Hadrian Border Brewery (Brewery, 2018), Live Tales (Tales, 2018) and being a volunteer as an artist mentor at Hartlepool Artrium studio and gallery (Studio, 2018) which include outreach projects in schools (Project, 2018). Without taking on opportunities I wouldn’t be able to say I have had some experience in art or be able to say I am equipped to have knowledge in the department that I want to go into. I agree with having opportunities I am able to say I am eligible to take on responsibilities and being able to use my strengths and weaknesses to improve in my work and professional profile. I am keen to carry on with opportunities that life throws my pathway and take on them with an open mind and have a will to improve my ethic. This can be done by using swot analysis, one to ones and regular feedback from a client, learning guide and self assessment.

Threats:

Threats come in many shapes and forms. A threat to me can be time management and over loading myself. Example being I am taking on so much and not doing somethings more than others. To help with organising myself as a whole I took up with a time table and academic diary. I look more frequently into what I need to do other than what I should do. I’ve had to learn to take acquittances on the chin and not have such a sponged heart. I figured with the profession I am going into I need to make sure I have full understanding on what I can do as a future educator. I need to make sure I take on hold that I am only human and that I cant do everything. However while using my strengths and my weaknesses I can improve upon what I thought and will be doing.

An overall summary of what I am going to be doing with myself and further on Is that I will be combining all my strengths and weaknesses and making the two work together as one. I am only as good as my last performance. I am willing to gain more opportunities by opening more doors to myself and able to not gain to many threats by using my strengths, weaknesses and opportunities as a guide to improving myself and an artist and as a future educator. Without any of these I wouldn’t be able to further myself as a professional employee without having any fall backs to learn from.

For a little of proof of myself doing some teaching here is a photo of which I got from my volunteer job from the Artrium website (Project, 2018). a very proud moment for me :).

Until next time

Rach

🙂

Bibliography

Brewery, H. (2018). Hadrian Border Brewery | Newcastle upon Tyne | Brewery. [online] Hadrian Border Brewery | Newcastle upon Tyne | Brewery. Available at: https://www.hadrian-border-brewery.co.uk/the-brewery [Accessed 26 Dec. 2018].

Hails, D. (2012). Reflective cycle. [Digital] Newcastle college.

Project, O. (2018). Outreach – Artrium Studio. [online] Artrium Studio. Available at: http://www.theartrium.org.uk/outreach [Accessed 26 Dec. 2018].

Studio, A. (2018). Artrium Home Page – Artrium Studio. [online] Artrium Studio. Available at: http://www.theartrium.org.uk [Accessed 26 Dec. 2018].

Tales, L. (2018). Live Tales Story Writing Workshops. [online] Live Theatre. Available at: https://www.live.org.uk/creative-opportunities/children-young-people/live-tales-story-writing-workshops [Accessed 26 Dec. 2018].

Over the Christmas holidays I managed to get my work together in time for my case studies at Springwell School in Hartlepool. My demo types with the fabrics and my illustration attached to them. Like this:

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I also managed to go to my local libraries to collect some research for children’s books like 100 Hugs by Chris Riddell (Riddell, 2017) and Baby Touch and Feel Things that go (Sirett et al., 2010).  I found some good books to place into a research file. I created a research file of which you are able to look at here Research file I have placed all my research from artist to books and sensory books to help with my studies and understanding towards children and children with specific learning difficulties and disabilities.

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Over the Christmas holidays I had to place a final outcome for my commercial work and project work so that I could create a new brief for my semester two. In over all I have created a sturdy research file, along side up coming case studies and final out come for my commercial work with Penguin student awards (Awards and revealed, 2018). I will cover how, what and why I did all this to help with my current studies and my further understanding for my career.

Within my experience I have gained assess knowledge within children and children with specific learning difficulties and disabilities, this is able to help me with creating children’s books and for a teaching career. Due to this knowledge I have obtained I have found some ideas for materials and understanding for textual books. I am able to express my comprehension into my multi textual children’s book or in further ideas for my final show and project. Of doing this experience I have gained more skills in understanding and respect for those who have difficulties and disabilities. I have gained a crucial skill of observation and evaluating people, also with art. I think this is a great skill to gain especially when going into teaching. I am able to use this for not only my future career but as an illustrator and I am able to pick and choose characteristics and detail into my drawings.

I set myself a new target to gain from this and imbed it into my work and my outlook for my career. My target is to improve on my observations of which I motioned before in a blog post Creative inspiration. I want to keep observing and taking new ideas from any sources that I find and use these to my advantage and make me into a stronger influencer as and educator and an illustrator. I use this as an example of using observation and evaluating with Tim Burton. I know Burton isn’t an artist but he’s an amazing concept artist and stop motion animator. I found more information about burton by watching a YouTube documentary about Tim Burton and found that his childhood and observing people and films. He uses this into his work and he became a massive hit. if you are interested take a watch of this Tim Burton: The Twisted Story Of The Eccentric FilmMaker   (Burton, 2019). I use Tim Burton for my target inspiration as he’s an observer, I want to use him as inspiration as shown that my childhood, likes and observation of what and who is around me can be placed into my work and my future career.

Bibliography

Awards, p. and revealed, W. (2018). Winners of the 2018 Student Design Award revealed. [online] Penguin.co.uk. Available at: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/company/news/2018/june/student-design-award-2018-winners-revealed.html [Accessed 25 Jan. 2019].

Burton, T. (2019). Tim Burton: The Twisted Story Of The Eccentric Filmmaker. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsdYCREsCco [Accessed 10 May 2019].

Riddell, C. (2017). 100 Hugs. Pan Macmillan.

Sirett, D., Palastanga, V., Harvey, V. and Quasha, J. (2010). Things that go. New York, N.Y.: DK Publishing.

 

Here are my philosophies in design

Putting brains on paper. 

I am able to place my ideas down on a mind map. being able to use radial thinking can help with writing down ideas which are relatable to the subject at hand or to the extreme. This makes planning and ideas come freely and help with development. Doing this can make an illustrator seem more open minded with in their  briefs

Visuals are key.

In using visuals illustrators are able to capture the ideas which are formed from a mind map. With doing this an illustrator can show growth from an idea into a visual. Making visuals is a form of placing down ideas and  development. This can come with character design and environment design. Doing this makes an illustrator a stronger visual developer.

Investigating the topic.

Researching is a vital technique to grow experiments and technique. Doing this will improve design technique. Finding research can come from many factors such as artist and reading content. Doing this will improve an illustrator to expand the knowledge of other artists and techniques. This will build skills in design.

Evolution for an artist.

An illustrator uses development to improve technique. In using skills its able to show understanding and wider thinking. An illustrator is able to build skills and have a sketchbook filled with experiments. Doing this shows that an illustrator is able to use their research and create techniques from their finds and which in doing so has finals and experiments to provide.

Its all about the tone.

Colours are important for development and visuals. Using colour can transform a visual into something more imaginative. Doing this can provide techniques into using a colour palette. An illustrator can improve style and technique with using colour. This can be done traditionally and digitally. Doing this is beneficial for the visuals and it makes the image come together.

The manufacture. 

Post production can help with constructing an idea within design. On doing this it can explore more ideas and producing final out comes. This can create ideas for further development, creating more content. An illustrator can benefit from using post production in design. This is used for structure and content for a upcoming final product.

Getting ideas across.

Concepts are used in design for another expansion on research and ideas. Aims are used to keep an order with in designing. Using both helps to expand an illustrators skills and development with in visuals. Doing this can help with organising and having a final idea for the final product.

The aftereffect.

A final product is the main objective as a designer. This is prior for illustrators to know the objective, have a clear understanding on what the aims are and the ideas for the final product. Doing this will benefit all the other skills with in development and know the targets. An illustrator is beneficial to have a final product as its able to show technique and development skills. This shows that using skills, research and development can be useful for an illustrator.

This week I’ve managed to finish my  introduction into my case studies, I made sure to include ethics and observing children. I did this so that it benefited my work progress as I have shown I am able to take time to understand the children that my book is aimed for and the ethics that come along side it, I was able to research into using organic materials and how it could work on a budget and why I’ve used it, example being for health and safety reasons. Also this can benefit my up coming future in becoming an teacher. 

In this week I’ve collected materials which I followed my own health and safety relegations, I looked into my budgeting and found that organic materials such as natural wool and plant based fabric (cotton) is expensive and would need to be steamed and preserved in to a fabric if I was to do it organically. Unfortunately I don’t have time for that so I had to look else where. I found a website that provided me information on faux fur and other fabrics that are cheap yet suitable for children over a certain age. From this I managed to collect some fabric and been able to create some textual illustrations (meaning I added fur to my fox). I’ve created a good selection for me to take to a scenery play group once I’ve arranged dates to see children and observe what they like about my illustration. 

This week I managed to called up a place in Hartlepool called Catecotes Academy, I got an answer and told them what my project was, The lady on the phone said that they will ring me back so I waited all day but never got a call back. So I tried calling them back 4 times and I had no one pick up the phone. I’ve sent an email and That was 2 days ago and had no reply. I’m assuming they’d be busy but to be honest I’m not sure what they are doing. I’ll have to ring other places next week. So thats what I did this week, I’m making to do lists for now on just to keep myself on track, I’m just going to use sticky notes with a check list on and place them in my academic diary. This is beneficial for me as personally I need to be more organised this year and it’ll be good for future reference.

Until the next blog

Rachel

🙂

 

This blog is to show my Proposal And Treatment  you are able to click on the link to read my essay. I presented this to kick start the action plan for the year. In this blog I will be providing my experiences with my studying, research, case studies and the presentation at the end of it all.

I’ll kick start this with my idea. The idea I am going for is to create a multi textual children’s book which is targeted towards Children and children with specific learning difficulties and disabilities. I wanted to create this book to focus on my future career towards becoming a teacher. I want to figure out what type of teacher I want to be, so what better part than researching about young children’s books and textured books for children with learning difficulties and disabilities. I want to become a teacher who has a moderate understanding towards specific learning needs such as SEND. I was able to have a respectful understanding within my case studies Case studies_ Sensory Play groups This link provides the case studies if your interested into what I found. I’ll give a little description of what I did the case studies for. As I mentioned I was planning to create a multi textual children’s book. I did start with my creations and of which I was able to create demo type of my character illustration.  I will provide imagery of some of the demos that I created. The reason I created these demo types was to find out which material is functional for children with learning difficulties and disabilities with along side of research into specific learning disabilities and disabilities such as visually impairment.  

With in my proposal and treatment I was able to provide the research which I stored into a research file of which you can read here Research File I like to look into further detailing of which I stated in my proposal and treatment of which I wanted to look at children’s book and know exactly what children want. So much so I am self taught with moderate knowledge about specific learning difficulties and disabilities. I am in no words an expert but I did research about this so that I was a more understood person and had the most graceful of respect for those who do have a learning difficulty and disability.

I stated in my proposal and treat meant that I would do commercial work and I have a few in mind. One being the penguin student awards of which I was to look into the brief for the year and do a commercial project that fit with the theme and brief of the competition. The Brief fo penguin student award was about the book Wonder which was a film in 2018 I did a blog about this which I will place here for you to read weekly reflection: Risographs and Wonder project I stated what i did and what I managed to create for the brief. I have a few other commercial projects and a collaboration which I will state in a blog later down the line. I found my experience within doing the wonder project challenging with my research skills and understanding of what the book is about. I found this to be a great opportunity for myself with enhancing my research skills and teaching myself about a disorder which I have never heard about until now after my research into the book wonder.

I will give a brief description about the disorder which I learned about while finding references for my project. I will be placing a image of my research in the project sketch book here

As you see the name of the disorder is Treacher Collins Syndrome. Sources state that teacher collins syndrome is “a condition that affects the development of bones and other tissues of the face. […] Most affected individuals have underdeveloped facial bones, particularly the cheek bones, and a very small jaw and chin (micrognathia). Some people with this condition are also born with an opening in the roof of the mouth called a cleft palate” (Reference, 2018). The reasoning of me having to research this is because the little boy in the book has this rare genetic disorder and is facing going to school after being home schooled. The book is very moving and highly recommend reading this book or even watch the film. I will leave links down below for you to look into the book.

I found with all my experiences so far doing my proposal and treatment check list with along side doing commercial project and a future collaboration. I found myself became more mature while applying for PGCE interviews, finding places to go for my case studies, exploring libraries and researching topics that are out of my comfort zone for example studying about visually impairment and learning difficulties. I found myself to be more educated as I have taken to myself to understand further into my personal project for children and children with specific learning difficulties and disabilities. I found that I have gained better communication skills and organisations skills with planning and organising events for my case studies and preparing myself with further studies into different topics which don’t relate with art. I am wanting to improve on these skills and become more organised and improve on my preparation skills which will benefit me when going into a teaching status and preparing lesson plans. I believe I should improve my skill sets and venture out more into what my audiences and clients needs. I am able to provide this when I start my collaboration project and commercial projects.

Here are the links which I stated before

.Wonder: Book (Book, 2018)

Wonder: Film (Film, 2018)

Until the next time

Rach 🙂

bibliography

Book, W. (2018). Amazon. [online] Amazon.co.uk. Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wonder-R-J-Palacio/dp/0552565970 [Accessed 28 Nov. 2018].

Film, W. (2018). Wonder (2017) – IMDb. [online] IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543472/ [Accessed 29 Nov. 2018].

Reference, G. (2018). Treacher Collins syndrome. [online] Genetics Home Reference. Available at: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/treacher-collins-syndrome [Accessed 28 Nov. 2018]

This is my diagram for my inputs and outputs in my work process. as you see I’ve chosen the watering can as my input which has all my skills and acknowledgement, projects that have been fed to the tree branches and the plant pot that the outputs of all the the things that I have accomplished with my inputs. also the water looks like the tree outline to show I have grown as a designer.

Rachel

🙂

 

This blog is a follow on to what I was saying about not enjoying my proposal and treatment or anything academically. That reason is because I just cant put a sentence together easily than others. I’m a dyslexic. Dyslexia is when you cant use English as well as others and many more things to be precise. My dyslexia is complicated to explain but i’ll give it a good go but not too detailed as personally its not needed. I struggle with words. Pronouncing words, looking at words with out them moving or reading a sentence wrong (its like rereading a word 30 times over before it actually sinks in), spelling words (spellcheck is a God send), making a sentence or even thinking of what words mean or are used for. I have a lot more problems when it come to doing academic projects like keeping focused, understanding my own handwriting as it looks like spider legs, taking notes that I can understand and even keeping focused without my mind drifting off into outer space. So this make it really difficult for me to actually enjoy writing however I can do it but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I’m talking about this because it is a big deal for me with the progress i am making through out the year and the struggles I had at the start of doing the proposal and treatment to the end. I started off with my tutor handing me the module. At first I have to admit I was scared but That passed, Then I attempted it knowing I had a month to get it done, from then I didn’t stop trying to finish it. I bugged for 4 weeks the academic support group, asked for a mentor and hassled the dyslexia team. From all that I managed to get the proposal and treatment finished and presented at the date I was given. From that journey I managed to seek help with my dyslexia. One knowing I can see the support team anytime on campus, two Being able to see a mentor if struggling or support and three getting equipment which helps me to become more confident with words. One of those equipment’s i’m using now Audio Notetaker, At this current time I am speaking through headphone which have a microphone attached, typing down exactly what I am saying with out me having to struggle on finding a word or how to spell a word. Its amazing I feel like its easier to do writing this way than having to type it up by hand and struggle to use a thesaurus and dictionary. However I do need to work on academically writing but so far this is good enough for me.

I always look into inspiration when being dyslexia. I remember a TV personals Dom Wood. CBBC’s Dick and Dom in da bungalow (Bungalow, 2018) stated back in 2013 on CBBC Newsround, Dom reveals how his struggle with reading and writing made him to focus on his creative skills […] “It’s not actually a disadvantage being dyslexic, in some ways it’s a really, really positive thing,” he explains. “I’ve got to say, if it wasn’t for my dyslexia I wouldn’t be where I am today.” (Wood, 2018). I remember watching this as I was still In secondary school and saying to myself “I feel like that” (Davies, 2018) 5years down the line I have had my diagnose and I look up to Dom Wood. I looked into further research of  famous personalities who are diagnosed with dyslexia. I found that Steven Spielberg has dyslexia and was diagnosed at 67 years old. Sources state that Spielberg says “I never felt like a victim,” he says. “Movies kind of saved me from shame…from putting it on myself, from making it my burden when it wasn’t.” (Additude, 2012). I respect Spielberg for many years. From his films to his stories, He was an inspiration to my film and tv diploma I did back in sixth form. To my excitement I found out he too was dyslexic just like me which made me feel more proud with my learning difficulty. However, there is a celebrity who I feel more sorry for them than anything extreme. That celebrity’s name is Tom Cruise (Cruise, 2018) sources says that Tom believes his religion has cured his dyslexia. “Tom Cruise, makes amazing pronouncements, one in particular about himself. That pronouncement is that Scientology cured his dyslexia.” (Scientology, 2018) I stated earlier that I fell sorry for him and I do. My reasons are that he genuinely thinks that his religion has cured his learning difficulty. No, I’m sorry to say but they haven’t. Yes, His religion has taught his ways to read more fluently but they haven’t cured him. The facts of dyslexia is that its a learning difficulty you are born with this difficulty and you aren’t able to cure it. You can simply learn to cope and have little ways to live with your difficulty, dyslexia isn’t always about reading and writing. Its also about everyday problems and that your brain is a little different to the average person. So therefore I’m sorry but Tom Cruises religion has brain washed him to think he has been cured when a fine fact you cant cure a learning difficulty.

 

Disclaimer: People who don’t understand dyslexia may think this is laziness however my medical records and my grades say otherwise. Yes I am dyslexic but a disability assessment has never limited my potential and never will.

Rachel

🙂

Bibliography

Additude, M.A.G. (2012). ADDitude. [Online]. [30 April 2019]. Available from: https://www.additudemag.com/steven-spielberg-dyslexia-hollywood-success/

Bungalow, D. (2018). Dick and Dom in da Bungalow (TV Series 2002– ) – IMDb. [online] IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398451/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2018].

Cruise, T. (2018). Tom Cruise – IMDb. [online] IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000129/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2018].

Davies, R. (2018). I feel like that.

Scientology, T. (2018). Tom Cruise Again Asserts Scientology Cured His Dyslexia. [online] Digitaljournal.com. Available at: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/268639 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2018].

Wood, D. (2018). Dom Wood talks about his dyslexia – CBBC Newsround. [online] Bbc.co.uk. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/20783004 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2018].