Conclusion

Overall I am very happy with how this project went, and I think it's probably my best university project so far. This is for a few reasons. Firstly I did more artist research than I had for the other projects, and this definitely helped me make design decisions and think about things I hadn't considered before. Although I find artist research quite tedious, I should bare this project in mind for future ones, as it really does help, and will help me to grow as an illustrator.

I also gathered a library of research photos. They were all secondary research, because a lot of the subjects were difficult to find to photograph, but they did help inform my drawings a lot. Taking primary research photos would have been better because it would allow me to capture the subject exactly as I want. I would be able to control pose and lighting. I could have gone out to a graveyard to take photos of tombstones, in the future I will consider this but often time is an issue.

Something I did differently with this project is that I stuck with it. A few times I created what I thought would be the final piece, but after evaluating it I thought I could do better. I am proud of this, because usually if I don't like a final piece I discard the project and move on to the next in the hopes that that one will turn out better. I learnt that if I persevere I can create something that I like from something that I don't. This is important, because if I work as an illustrator I can't just discard projects when they don't go well. I need to have the confidence in my ability that I can create something good, and that every bad drawing is a learning process. For the same reason I want to keep all of my project work, in case I get the inspiration to return to it one day.