Things I have learnt...

Im running a bit late with this, but a few weeks ago after coming to the end of our studio work on the competition briefs (mine being the James and the Giant Peach cover), we were asked to fill in a little sheet about our motivations and things we have learnt. I've posted mine below.

What motivates me :

Looking at the work of others and hoping to come up with something as good myself. - I spend a lot of time looking through other peoples work and trying to pick out which things I like about it. I think sometimes when on a piece constantly, you can get to close to it and lose a bit of perspective. I think stepping back and having a quick look around at some different work helps me to make decisions about my own work, and often gives me something to aim for. I always have the feeling that I could do better with my work, and although you want to feel happy with it, I think it's probably good that I want to do better because it means I'm constantly looking for ways to improve.

Things I have learnt :

1. Always push things a step further, as you can always go back.

- This something that I've learnt during the book cover module. I think there came a point where I'd thought I'd probably finished, and then someone would say 'take it further' or 'try this' and after taking their advice I think the piece got better, and even if something didn't work at least I'd given it a try and wasn't left wondering if it could have been better had I tried it. If that makes sense. 

2. Start work earlier as it gives more time for playing and editing.

- For the book cover project, I think it was the first time I actually finished before the deadline and had had he chance to play around and make some edits because of the extra time. I usually spend a lot of time thinking about what I want to do but not actually doing it because I'm worried that it's going to go wrong and not work out. I did spend a few days just staring at my roughs and wondering what to do, but there came a point where I just got on the computer and put together the majority of my front cover in literally a couple of hours. I usually put things off because I'm worried I'm going to waste loads of time putting something together for it not to work out. Particularly because I don't feel I've really found a way of working that I'm comfortable with / produces the results I want. 

But as the main parts of the cover came together quickly, it mean't I had more time to add bits and build it up, and it gave me more confidence to just get stuck in earlier because even though it might go wrong; it also might go right.

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