Evaluation Of Final Project

The final piece was comprised of 2 sculpted hands alongside a menagerie of the work that was created in the run up to creating this piece. The hands themselves hold a version of my final comic displaying a double page spread that I feel best encapsulates my idea and the skill contained within it. Whilst my other sculptural hand holds a number of leaflets that I created inspired by the business cards that I have picked up from Comicons and on my comic shop research at the start of the project. This is displayed across a wall that I decided to use top lighting as it draws more emphasis onto the structure of the hands as well as what they have between the fingers. The lighting also serves to draw the eyes of anyone who sees this piece towards the hands and what they each hold, it also acts as a back light for the items in the hand framing them further in the eyes of the observers.

When it came to working on my final outcome it pushed me out of my comfort zone with the change in scale that I decided to settle upon but it provided a way for me to explore a different perspective of working and see my work in a different way than before. The composition has been laid out in such a way to suggest the volume of work that goes into the creation of comics with purely visual elements, displaying the visuals without the detraction of words allowing the construction to be more clearly visible.

I decided to vary the leaflets in the hand as when they are spread out slightly I get a re-occurring pattern of change from dark to light, I did this to draw attention to it and cause the observer to be aware of their placement and the context within them. I feel the hand serves its purpose well holding these as they appear more impacting and become an instant focal point when observing this piece, yet it also seems to remind me of a hand of cards which pulls you towards the page the is placed on the wall nearby featuring cards which creates a link in my composition and continues to draw your eye around it. 

I felt that the pages that I chose to display in my opened book were two pages that showed the greatest range within my illustration and the potential that I tried to carry on throughout my pages and the rest of my work. I also feel that the use of colour was best served here as it emphasizes the forms and pushes them out from the background, the use of green however is what I feel adds the impact to the page as it compliments the form and enhances the effect it has on the observer allowing the page to be memorable.

 All the pages of work that I have placed onto the wall for this composition are present as they inspired an idea or were a memorable piece of work within this project and have subsequently had an impact upon my direction and aesthetic of the project. I did this as I feel it will hep my audience to understand what work went into the comic, as it is a common misconception about how much there is to do for a standard industry made comic book on store shelves.

Along the way of creating this composition I found trouble with the placements of some elements as I didn’t want it to appear too clumped with similar elements too close together but equally not detracting too much from my mod-rocked hands as they were my focal points. Another key issue was where I would place the oil pastel experiments as they were extremely bold and was easily able to detract from the impact of my sculptural elements, I overcame this by testing out a series of placements and eventually settled on putting it in a place that drew your eyes from the top left of the piece past the hands and to it thereby drawing the eye more easily to the focal points of my composition.

In the place that my piece was constructed there was a transition form skirting to wall that I had to consider when working on the scale of my piece, concerning whether to extend fully down past it or stop just shy above it. I decided to extend fully to the floor as I feel that it will help my piece feel more enveloping and add to the effect of the message that I’m trying to send with this piece, which is how little the general populous realizes how much planning and effort goes into the making of a comic book with the aim of shedding light on the workings of the industry and its practices.

Whilst doing this piece I feel that my decision to re-create the hands in a different position was a very important decision as not only did the posing allow for the items to be held far easier and safer, but it also allowed for a stronger proportioned structure and a vast refinement on my original efforts. I was also able to have a consistent aesthetic and method for the mod-rocking process so they appear more cohesive and like they belong together, which I feel allows me to tie together my composition with more ease. I felt that the decision to tear the pages up around the structures allowed for my pieces to be laid out closer to them which kept my composition feeling more fluid and doubled to draw attention onto the hands themselves and what they hold. But it also serves to draw more attention to them and make them feel like they’ve moved through the composition as I have done whilst creating the piece. I feel it also serves to add an aspect of depth to the piece as it prevents the piece from becoming too flat or contained and allows for an unusual way to display my work when compared to more conventional means.

Although my outcome wasn’t exactly as I had expected it to be when I initially set out to begin this project, its evolved in some ways and had to be altered due to time constraints and complications, but I feel that it evolved into something vastly more personal than I had expected it to be. I think this happened mainly due to the research that I did into the stages that I had to carry out and the artists that I decided to look into for inspiration as these elements caused me to re-evaluate the direction I wanted this project to go and how many different ways of constructing and styles of working I could explore along the way. The processes that I have used and techniques I’ve learnt along the way have strengthened my range as an artist but shown me how a driven approach and a visualised goal can help my work to become more than it once was and in turn allowing me to grow as an artist.