I have enjoyed this module and am happy
with quite a lot of the work I produced for it, despite the fact that I perhaps
didn’t invest as much effort in it as I could have done due to numerous short
briefs, which made the module feel to me like a series of small tests. I didn’t
think a whole lot about the context of my work throughout visual language and
now think that that can actually directly affect the practical side of image
making in an explicit way. I should have, therefore, perhaps given more thought
to the substance behind the work I made throughout this module as I now think
it could have actually influenced the processes I used in an interesting way.
I think the work I most enjoyed making in
Visual language was actually the drawing from reference quite near the beginning.
I found it useful having one subject matter and just having to churn out a load
of different types of image in response. I don’t think I would ordinarily try
out such a range of approaches to any one topic and I actually ended up happy
with a lot of the very different drawings I completed during this stage of the
module. I also found it to be quite liberating to just make pictures for the
sake of making pictures, though I think it may have caused me to become a
little complacent.
Observational drawing is also something
which I enjoy doing and I often end up with drawings that I like as a result. If
anything I would have liked to do more of it in this module. Whenever I do
observational drawing, I come back with a few pictures that I really like,
often because I’ve seen things which I could have never thought of off the top
of my head, things which are so authentically weird that I couldn’t have made
them up. Or maybe even things which aren’t actually that weird when you are
there experiencing them, but, for whatever reason, seem very strange when
isolated as drawings on a page. Two examples of this are the ‘flying cowboys’
book drawing and the sofa drawing from the York trip. I think I should try and
make more room for observational drawing in briefs for other modules as well because
I do think I’m reasonably good at it and it could provide me with some good
ideas. I always seem to overlook it sadly.
With regards to the majority of the briefs in
visual language which had an emphasis on one element of image making (e.g.
texture, line quality, tone), I found them to be useful exercises, especially
as I realised I don’t really ever give too much consideration to all the
individual elements of a picture I’m making in other projects, and my work
could definitely benefit from more analysis of these separate components. In
general, actually, I need to start taking a more holistic view of my practice.
I feel like visual language provides an opportunity to test and practice different
processes and approaches to image making without the pressure of having to
create ‘final outcomes’ or summative pieces of work. Because of this I need to
start trying to connect the dots between the things I have explored in visual
language, and other briefs from other modules to really make the most of it. I
haven’t been using this module to inform my other work as much as I should have
done and I sort of feel like I missed a trick there.
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