In BA3a, I wanted to push myself to draw things that I am not confident with, and hopefully improve my skills in those areas. Just by choosing to do creature design for this project, something I was not particularly knowledgeable in, meant that I had immediately started the term by pushing my skills. I started off treading lightly, not being particularly good at drawing silhouettes as I often end up spending too much time thinking about the shapes and I tend to use references too, which can make the silhouettes feel stiff. As I progressed in the project, things started to get more fun, especially once I found a theme to actually stick to with my designs. Sometimes it was difficult, especially as this is a long project, because many of the drawings I had made I had to revamp and redesign because they were not to the level I was working at anymore. I also had to drop a creature idea entirely, as I didn't feel like I was going to be able to figure out a solid design for it without having the time spent on the other creatures be lower than I needed. I used a lot of reference images for this project, and with that I've become stronger at drawing the anatomy of the various animals that I used as reference, though I think using references for a lot of my pieces has made them less original in design, as I was more meticulous about the anatomy and look of the creatures and less about how I wanted them to look. With more practice I would like to be able to design creatures without the need for any image references, but with the time and the amount of work I had set they were necessary for my skill levels in animal anatomy. I also feel that my painting skills are still not as good as I want them to be, and I definitely need to practice more in my free time so that I can improve my skills and create art I am more proud of.
With such a long project, I found it hard with scheduling and sticking to that schedule, but in terms of time management I think I have improved a lot, when I felt that I had too much planned, I dropped some work, and then when I realised that I still had some time left I added more to my workload. I ended up with enough time to finish what I had planned and also focus on my dissertation too, and didn't feel too overburdened. Time management has been something that I have often struggled with, especially when it comes to procrastination, and during my time at university I have become a lot better at it which I am proud of myself for. I also had to have time for the written work, and especially with the dissertation as often essay-based work is something I struggle with. I managed to work well with my blog and dissertation, for the most part, and that's a big achievement for me.
I feel like I also improved a lot in creature design, which is something that I have always been interested in but never gotten round to trying out, and its good to know that I have these skills that I can use in the future. I also used a lot of filters and effects in Photoshop, which has pushed my skill levels in the program higher.
I'm ultimately proud of my improvement in this project, although I am often not proud of how my art looks as a whole, these pieces are the best I can do at the moment with my skill level, and I think they all work together well as designs and all look polished. The creatures all fit together in the same world, and maybe in the future I will make the world in some form with the designs I have made.
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