Professional Development Portfolio

Over the past two years I have learned a lot of new and useful skills, both hard and soft, which I can apply to the workplace and my future. The hard skills I have learnt have been highly useful in my developing my work, both written and practical, to a higher quality. The most important of these is learning how to use watercolours; I began using watercolours in a task based on editorial illustration where we were tasked to go and find an article about our chosen subject for that project (mine was on ocean pollution) and draw an illustration up for the article. At the beginning of this I knew I would have to be quick and so couldn’t use my usual pencils or biro so and would have to go out of my comfort zone, this is when I thought about using watercolours for a quick but effective way of adding colour to the piece. 

When I did this I instantly loved using the watercolour paint, the way it added instant colour and vibrancy and just by how quick it was were great, that night I went out and brought a range of watercolour supplies and I have been working with them since. The way I learned after that was though a mix of small tutorials in contact time and with online tutorials at home, but even then most of it was self-taught as the way I use them isn’t really conventional and so I made my own way of using them with the support of my tutors. This is one of the most useful skills I have learnt as it has almost completely changed my work and my style of work as well. This has improved my work and also changed my attitude to it as I am now far more excited to make a new piece then before when it felt more like a chore. The next skill has also changed my work dramatically and that learning film photography, I began with learning how to simply put a roll of film in a camera and shoot with it though an online video specific for my camera, after this I had a tutorial by a member of the photography department on using there film lab to develop my film.

 After learning how to take and developed photos I begun learning how to take photos well on film, this meant figuring out the aperture, shutter speed, and film speed all while also learning manual focusing on a limited about of frames. In doing this and learning film photography it has both drastically improved my photography skills and heavily affected my photo style as I now generally prefer film to digital. It has helped develop and improve my photography skills thought the restrictions, when you only have 36 frames to work with you become a lot more conscious of when you snap the shutter and what’s in front of you when you do. This has also effected by drawn work as I have learnt a lot about light and composition through film photography which has gone on to effect and improve my drawn work. In conjunction I have also learnt how to use a Photography Studio, I began learning how to us one at the beginning when I wanted to take a renaissance styled photo for a small project on unfinished paintings.

 It has been very useful as I now know how to make and use a controlled environment in order to get photos which otherwise wouldn’t be possible without controlled backgrounds and lighting such as my final for last year’s artist response project. 

I can also use it to create drawing references like in last year’s memory project where I needed a certain photo of me to use as reference in the final piece.

I have also learnt how to use a scanner to create an effect known as a Scanner Glitch; this is done by using a printed photo then manually deforming it with a scanner.

 This has been useful for altering and advancing my photography and was learned in a Visual Studies task. Another thing I learned was life drawing, I began learning life drawing in an art session where we had a model come into the class for us to draw, we also learnt about proportions and how to proportion correctly. 

This has been useful as it has helped me with my drawn work and has helped improve my drawing skill though its practice, I can also continue to use it and practice from it to improve.  Another similar but useful skill is Blind Contour, its similar to life drawing in the fact you mostly work from life but like life drawing you are not trying to make it look realistic but rather abstract as you make a blind contour by drawing without looking at what you are actually drawing, but rather only the subject. 

Doing this improves your hand to eye coordination skills and helps you understand how lines can work in a drawing and improve you’re over all skill while also creating an interesting abstract piece of work. Another art skill that I have learned is how to paint with oils, I began learning in an series of lessons were our aim was to fully create an oil painting, for mine I choose a photo I had taken a while back of some books as I thought it would make a good Spanish Still Life inspired piece, over the lessons we learned about setting a base, paint mixing, and what brushes to use and how to apply it.

It has been a useful lesson as even though I don’t use oils and find opaque paints not really fitting for my style as the techniques themselves, such as mixing paint or what brushes to use are still useful and applicable to watercolour and so useful to me. The next thing I learnt was how to plan and make a visual essay; I learn this through a series of lessons on what a visual essay is and how to create one. This is probably not as useful as the other skills listed here but it still has its uses, mainly it helping me understand visuals communication better and how you can use imagery to create a message. Another useful by-product was learning how to bind books, as a visual essay needs to be presented in a bound book I went out of the way to learn how to Coptic stick a book through online videos in order to create the essay. This has been useful as I have used the skill again to create sketchbooks for myself and as a way of presenting some work. Another very useful thing I learnt is how to hold and put on a Pop-Up Shop to sell work at a stall, we began learning this as part of assignment to put on a stall, in this we learned how to ring around and go venue hunting for our pop-up shop, as well as arranging our display to a target audience and producing work to sell at the shop.

All of this is very useful and can be applied to when we are full time artists as a way to sell work and get our work out there while also making an income. One of the last things I have learnt is how to professionally get prints of work made and how to package and send them, I begun learning this as part of the Pop-Up Shop proses and is also incredibly useful as it means I can now know how to get professional prints and also make more income more efficiently. The last skill is Copyright and Legislation, it’s a boring area of the art world but vastly important to being a professional illustrator and working in the creative indirections, we began learning it as part of a module with the soul purpose of us learning that. It will come in great use in life as it can be applied to any creative industries and so prove its usefulness.

In my time I have also learnt various soft skills, one of the most important is team work, I learnt a lot of this through both arranging a pop-up shop and through planning an exhibition. Both of these projects taught me two very different lessons as one was carried out among friends in a low conflict environment while the other was a high conflict team which many communication issues. Both of these experiences have taught me a lot in how to work efficiently and well in a team which is something I have never done before. This experience will be invaluable as I progress in my career and am involved in future group projects in a work environment. It has also taught me conflict resolve to an extent which is a skill I have never needed before but will almost certainly use and develop in the future. One of the other soft skills the planning of these two events has taught me is flexibility and adaptability. I am known for being stubborn and perfectionist which doesn’t always work in a group when other people want other things or some things just simply can’t be and being flexible and adaptable in that situation is priceless and valuable knowledge for the future and very applicable to any future work space situations.

I have also developed many skills throughout the two years; one of the first and most important skills I developed was how to make a sketchbook. I began improving this from the first project when I was introduced to new ways on how to structure and plan a sketchbook; it was improved further when in the end of the second year I taught myself how to write a reflective sketchbook in 3ed person to elevate it to a higher standard after being encouraged by my tutors. I have also learned how to better organise and present it, all of this helps to get my ideas down on paper and help understand them as well as create a better quality sketchbooks. I have also developed my essay writing skills and now have a better grasp on what makes a good written art essay and what to put in it. I developed this though lessons on what to write and put in it as well as practice though writing the actually essay; this is useful as it can be applied to writing in real life as well as helping to explain my ideas be able to put what I think and mean to paper more efficiently. In conjunction with this I have also developed how to research better and use Harvard Referencing better, both of these where learnt though contact time and lectures and then through being put to use. These will both be useful in the future as it mean is can research and find inspiration to draw from essayer and more efficiently and if I made a written piece of sorts or had to make future essay Harvard Referencing is essential and so useful. In this time I have also developed my presentation skills from writing to delivering, I learned most of them though the presentation assignments where we would have to present to the whole class on our own after writing a script. This practice gave plenty of experience to learn of and ultimately improved my presenting ability’s; this is useful for improving giving pitches as well as tense situations like interviews and helps with the confidence as well as being useful in the work space in meetings. Another skill I have developed is how to hold a photo-shoot and how to direct models, though my time at the collage I have had many opportunity’s where I have directed a photo-shoot and models, through this experience I have learnt more about how to prepare correctly, what equipment to use, what poses and positions look better ect.

All of this is ultimately useful as it not only improves my photography but also my illustrations as it means I have better references to work off. I have also learnt to improve my CAD/CAM skills, much of this has been learnt though tasks and tutorials where we would use the laser cutter and digital design programs to create. This is very useful because you can use the knowledge and equipment to future and improve your art work and use it in a multitude of ways which can also make it easier and quicker to produce work. I have also improved on how to take monograms, or prints on photo sensitive paper, as well as how to use techniques like solarisation to create an effect that would simply be impossible on digital. This useful as it helps further my photographic work and drawn work as they can cross over and styles can run across medium to improve my work all around. One of the last and most important things that have been improved are my Ink skills, they have been improved though a variety of tasks that pushed to use them and the eventual incorporation of them into my work which furthered my knowledge on them.

 This development has made the skill priceless to my art process and highly useful to my work and developing it through the use of the medium. The last thing I have improved is my use of pencil and biro, two mediums I have been working in the longest and began in, they have been improved over a various amount of projects which put them to the test and pushed me to my comfort line which forced me to improve.

 This has been very useful as I may not use biro and pencil as much in my work anymore but the developments I made in them can be spread to other mediums and still be highly used and help my drawing skill.

I have also developed a variety of soft skills over the two years, one of the most important is communication skills, I developed most of the communications skills though the two main group projects we did; that being the exhibition planning and putting on a pop-up shop. Though these I developed my communications skills in a variety of ways, like how to communicate my ideas and thoughts to other people as well as to listen and take note of other peoples opinions and idea in order to archive a better end product which was made form collaboration rather than an individual. I also learnt through various critique in groups and in-between my feelings we would discuss and talk about our work and ideas with each other to help develop out individual projects. This is a very important development as communication skills are vital in the creative industries and being able to share and talk about your work is very necessary to also making good relationships and contacts, all of this making it an important skill to develop. Another development is in my leadership skills, these where also improved though the two group projects where I would often take leadership on a decision or act which others would be indecisive about or unwilling to do; these skills are also heavily important in the future and are very useful in a work space of any kind making it a valuable development. Another thing that has improved is my motivation; this shift mainly came about from being around tutors and likeminded people who have a passion for art. This inspired me personally and made me more motivated and passionate about what I do which is certainly an improvement which will help me though life. Another thing to come out of these three years is a development in my confidence, the person I was at the beginning of the two years compared to the person I am now are rather different and a lot of this comes from the difference in the confident which has ultimately grown and developed though the talking to new people and doing new experiences have helped a lot with my confidence. This is important for a variety if reason but mainly it means I can be a lot more active in the art world with more confidence. Another highly useful skill I have developed is problem solving and resourcefulness, I developed these skills though the many Visual Studies classes as well as though planning and creating projects and exhibitions where many issues and problems would developed and would need efficient resourceful answers which helped develop this skill though these situations. It’s a very useful development as it can be applied to all manner of situations and problems and simply be a useful skill in any work place as well as the creative industries. The last development and one of the most important is creative thinking, this has been developed though many quick thinking tasks set in Visual Studies as well other quick tasks set throughout the year. It has also been pushed through projects and in discussions with class mates where we have had quick discussions to generate ideas and help future our work. It is an extremely important skill to have in the creative industries and is vital to being able to succeed in the future and being able to produce good creative, original work; it can also be useful in any industries or work place and is a fluid skill in that sense.

While a lot has improved some things have not and could do with being improved and worked on in future, the main one is my time management. Time management is something I have always struggled with but ever since beginning the two years it has got exponentially worse. Why this is I am not sure but my guess is that at six form we would have teachers plan out our progress and time management though the lessons so we were all on target and when starting the two years here there was a learning curve where tutors expected the students to be much more independent in their projects, I think this change is what might have caused the time management issues to escalate to where they are now. But like any learning curve it has to get worse before it gets better and it is something that will be my main aim of developing and getting right in the future. The other skill which has also stagnated is my decision making ability, this is also something I have always had a problem with and have always struggled to get right by making good fast decisions. Instead I tend to sit on decision to long going back and forth, sometime this is fine when there is time for it but most decisions have to be made quicker and more efficiently in order to move on and progress with the work. This is something I will also be focusing on in the future to try and improve.

Overall I have developed a lot of skills and learned a lot of new ones in my time at this course, a lot of them are going to be useful progressing in to the future and in my career where they will further be improved and developed though more experiences. The two abilities which need improving will also have a lot more attention paid to them and new experiences, techniques, and methods to help improve them along the way to ultimately help in my future career.