FMP FINAL eVALUATION

Looking back at this project there are lots of things I would do the same but some I would do differently.

One of the things I would do differently is sticking to my original ideas. By listening to other people’s opinions I looked at other aspects of mythology, myths and legends and lost about ten days. Looking back if this is a difficult area to research and develop why are so many stories, poems, films and TV series spanning over a thousand years?

I selected my theme by looking at different interpretations of Arthur and Merlin and realised that one of my favourite shows of all time was about this story.

Primary research took the form of visits to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds for photographs and notes about knights, armour and weaponry. I got lots of photos and ideas which I could relate to some of the stories in Merlin.

I also visited York with my mum and looked at buildings such as the ruins in Castle Museum Gardens and Mickelgate with its Sigel and banners on display. This really helped put a Medieval perspective on my theme and also helped with a lot of basics such as seeing chainmail and armour close up.

My dad and brother also helped out with primary research. My brother did some poses as Merlin with his palm outstretched (as on poster one) and my dad took some photos of me and my brother posed as Lancelot/Arthur and Guinevere (poster two). I then did observational drawings in my sketchbook.

There was a lot of secondary research available which included watching the TV Show Merlin (my favourite bit) to watching the film Excalibur (1981) and then making comparisons. I also looked at my mum’s collection of The Enchanted World series of books and I found a major influence in the work of Yvonne Gilbert.

I looked at the work of Osvaldo Venturi, Yvonne Gilbert, Boris Grinsson, Mark Langeneckert and John Louis Rhead. All of them played an influence in my work but Gilbert and Rhead were the main influences on poster two and three. Poster one was an influence of Venturi but also Grinsson (image of Merlin) played a part.

I did critical studies in my sketchbook and on lots of artist research and development boards. I annotated them and found lots of things. For example, for poster two I did a pastel drawing on velour with pastel sticks. Velour was absolutely brilliant to work on but I found as my drawing developed it was hard to ‘fix’ the pastel to prevent it from smudging. I also found that just because I am confident at using pastel pencils this does not necessarily carry through to other forms of pastel (sticks).

I also identified what media I needed to work with more (watercolours) to favourite people who I would use as an influence in the future (Gilbert).

I did experimentation on various things such as gold leaf and embroidery (see technical file) and some of this influenced my designs such as Gold Leaf (which I used on my titles). Some helped me decide what not to do such as an idea for poster three was silk painting but after trying this out at college I decided against this because of the time constraints.

My problem was time management and planning so I had to plan a list with targets and timings but I found it difficult. I think this is always going to be an issue so I need to develop strategies as I go along.

Another one was knowing when I needed to focus on my main projects as I did lots of research but then needed to narrow it down to the final project.

I do not know if I would do everything different because doing the technical file helped me a lot and I found out lots of good techniques such as gold leaf which I put to good effect in my work. It also helped me decide what not to do. Using the time management sheets did not help as I could not predict how my work would go, particularly if I was unwell. I would not meet my targets and this would have a knock on negative effect. Doing the worksheet and the blog seemed a repeat of work when the time would have been better spent on my actual FMP. I think the students should have been allowed to choose which one they liked as doing both took up a lot of time.

I think I would have handled my time better on my FMP if there had not been so many unnecessary add-ons. Doing a CV again seemed strange when doing my FMP. We did CVs last year and I did one when doing my UCAS unit. I already have my university place so perhaps this should have been optional rather than mandatory.

Overall my work went well and I am really pleased with my final posters and outcomes. I have done a lot of work and I can see this in my folders and technical file. One thing I would do differently is try and do my CV and business cards early on but as it has to be linked to my FMP it was a bit difficult.

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