Exercise 1.2

Good working habits

Respond to list the list of questions.

What do you need to be creative?

Are there certain factors that are important for you to develop your work?

When, Where and How do you work? How might you develop this approach further?

Given your creative process how do you best document your work?

What kind of questions do you use to reflect on your work?

How important is reflection to your process?

Can you develop new questions or prompts?

How does this reflection feedback into your making?

How would you describe your creative process?

What sort of stages do you go through to initiate and develop your ideas and work?

How important are restrictions to the process?

Do you start with an idea or proposal, start making and see where it takes you, or work in a different way?

Do you have any strategies to deal with creative blocks or obstacles?

What does experimentation look like to you?

Where do you work, what kind of physical spaces do you need?

When do you work, and how best can you structure your time?

How do you draw on inspiration to feed your creativity?

1. I need space, a creative environment, comfortable temperature and everything I need around me, paints, sketchbooks, pencils etc.
2. I like to see some improvement in my work over time, I like to be able to use my work for different things and areas of illustration.
3. I work at home in my spare room, I work 8-14 hours a week on my degree work, depending on how much other work I have. It’s quiet at home on those days. As mentioned earlier I may be moving so I would have a whole room to myself for my illustration work, which will be great, and I may have more time for my degree in the future.
4. I document most of my work in sketchbooks, this is both degree and my own art work, but obviously for the degree it is on my learning log also.
5. I look back on my work quite often, usually for more ideas or to find a certain piece of work or illustration. I look at the work quite openly and look at the painting, what medium I’ve used and how it looks. So I ask myself ‘What medium is that? How did I achieve this? What would I change now? What I would do different?
6. I think I reflect more on my work since doing this degree and I reflect quite a lot, I find it’s important to reflect so you can move forward, it could just be about experimenting with gouache, how is it going?, What I could do to achieve a different effect.
7. I can think of some new questions to ask myself in reflecting on my work:- Could I try this in a different medium? What would happen if I used more water? If I changed the perspective would it change the feel?
8. The questions from above would push the experimentation further, and would change the look of the illustration if I changed the perspective, which is something I wouldn’t have tried other wise. So it would help me to make more and think differently.
9. My creative process is quite methodical with regards to my degree work, a bit more loose for my own work (just because you don’t have to document it all) I start with a spider diagram on the subject, word or prompt for the project, (Researched fully) then I use a mood board to collect images, colours and textures that relate to the project, I then roughly sketch some ideas and motifs/ illustrations, sometimes at this point it can change direction and I choose another avenue. I then create many thumbnails, then file them down to two or three, then make larger more detailed thumbnails, get this down to two (usually quite different from each other) I then whittle it down to the one I will go with, then make a full illustration sketch (not coloured), then annotate anything that needs changing (this may take a few annotations) then I finalise the illustration (not coloured). I then think about colour combinations and usually do a colour chart in my sketchbook to finalise colours, then I’ll do a rough colour test illustration, then annotate this if it needs it. Finally move onto the final illustration which I will paint fully. If there are any typography/ fonts that need adding I will usually go through the same process above for these as well. Sometimes at the end the illustration needs to be mocked up on something so I will do this to present it.
10. Usually I try to research quite a lot, which usually throws up different areas that I could go down for ideas, so I find looking online, books, magazines, Pinterest and just out and about helps this process. Sometimes I’ll do a quick short course if it’s something I’m not very good at or need more experience with doing.
11. I think with my degree work there needs to be restrictions especially time, as otherwise you would never finish! I think with client work there needs to be restrictions so you won’t loose sight of the project and the pathway they would like you to stick to.
12. My creative process is above.
13. I have had creative block a few times, and it is very frustrating, but I find that if I don’t focus on the project for a while (if time allows) When I least expect it, I have an amazing idea, this could literally be when I’m out food shopping or putting the washing out! I think not worrying about creative block is the best way to deal with it.
14. Experimentation is about trying new things which could be mediums, materials, brushes, pencils, pens, paper, what you work on (wood, paper, plastic, glass, ceramic) It could be places you go, that you’ve never been before, thinking differently, changing your perspective.
15. As mentioned before, I work in my spare room, this is where I work for the main, but I do work outside sometimes, and always when I’m on holiday I like to work outside in the sunshine, or out in the countryside if it’s in England.
16. I work one full day per week on my degree plus one afternoon, I try to keep these on days that are close to each other so I don’t loose my mojo. I try and do the research bits on the afternoon session, then the more practical aspects on the full day, to give me the time I need to fully get into it.
17. I like to go on inspiration days out, these are pre-planned days out usually for a project to gain inspiration or some kind of insight into a project, this could be a museum, the seaside, Kew Gardens, the cinema, London, the local woods, a garden centre, the theatre, some architecture, a certain place. Sometimes it can be music, sometimes the DIY shop for colour palettes, basically anywhere I can think of.