Lily Pogson
FMP Evaluation
I started this final section of the Art Foundation with confidence and excitement. I had been wanting to make an animated music video, or at least a section of one for this project. I was filled with ideas and inspiration for what I could do and what songs I could use, and I was also going to bring in and improve upon techniques I used in my Pathway project, such as the photomontage style. My visual/artist research and initial brainstorms/sketches were made mostly when college was still in session. I was able to go out and take pictures to gather inspiration, such as when I went to Camden and Brick Lane to explore the explosion of the music scene up there and street art which I think really helped drive me forwards, these pictures that I captured also really helped me at the beginning of lockdown to keep up with my work.
Month 1 of Lockdown (23rd March – 23rd April)
I found the first month of lockdown ok in terms of work as I was really interested in exploring all the ideas I had without worrying about the time I was spending on them, for instance I would begin working between 9-10am and stop at 2am the next day and I felt fine because I was enjoying the process of experimenting and the ideas that sprung from them. I was so determined to try and get through this tough time having produced some amazing work. Since I was also furloughed from work I was also able to take the time to practise drawing purely for fun which felt really nice to step away from everything and be able to do my something for myself without having to worry about the consequences would be the next day.
Month 2 of Lockdown (23rd April – 23rd May)
During the second month of lockdown, I came to the realisation that I was burning myself out as my ideas began to run dry and I was pushing myself to create things that made no sense and didn’t make me happy. Sitting in the same four walls came to feel like a prison cell. Admittedly my mental health dwindled, but I tried to channel it into something positive for my work, these came in the forms of more digital experimental pieces I did in Photoshop such as photomontages and animated gifs. Because I was drawing for fun as well, I decided that I should explore hand-drawn digital animation, and so I did 2 test animations using this method of animating, one completely by hand (face melting, no colour) and one in after effects where I filled in some simple blocks of colour and then used the ‘liquify’ effect to make it look more like realistic melting, however I ran into an issue with this one as I could not edit the timing of the effect so at the end it ‘liquifies’ too fast and almost ruins the whole thing, so I decided to stick with Photoshop and Adobe Animate after that experiment.
Month 3 of Lockdown (23rd May – present)
If the world didn’t feel like it was falling apart two months ago, it definitely does now. It feels like we have been thrown back in time to the 18th century. First a virus infects the world and then people are killed based on the colour of their skin. It really takes a black man being choked to death by police for eight minutes for the world to come to their senses again. It feels like peace isn’t an option because no one listens. I am heartbroken that yet another person lost their life to this unjust system and now people take a stand. Violent and peaceful protests, both of which are being suppressed by police in acts of terror as encouraged by a world leader nonetheless. There is going to be another wave of this pandemic and people are going to die because of the virus and from the brutal methods of police and I can’t do anything but sit in my bed and watch, donate, sign, share posts and cry for people who have been affected by these crimes their whole life based off of something they were born with. This whole paragraph has not been about art but I can’t concentrate on anything else when the world is burning. Everything I do feels so small and insignificant. At first we were all in the same boat, staying at home to fight COVID-19, then came the awareness that not everyone was safe at home during this time (this is something that effected my personally and thus I decided to centre my project more on this angle), and finally police brutality rearing its ugly head in America once again, causing the world to take a stand. Because of these well-meaning protests there is undeniably going to be a second wave of deaths due to this pandemic, it seems like this will never end and it feels so selfish to be writing an evaluation on my art project when people are dropping dead all over the world.
Because this project is meant to be about my journey and process during this time, I’ll finish this paragraph how the past month has not been great for me. Along with all the current issues going on worldwide and as I said before how my mental health has been declining, in a strange way being cooped up in my room while I know the rest of the world is going through the same made me feel some kind of mental unity, and I had tunnel vision, all I was focusing on was also what everyone else was focusing on, and this pandemic consumed my mental health in a terrible way but my art in a great way. If I were able to continue my project in college I would have loved to have stayed late to try different angles and progress some kind of storyline, even if it was only ten seconds. Through this last stretch I have also had a lot of trouble getting the audio work on different platforms. When I play my video on my computer in Adobe Animate or as an exported mp4 file it all works fine, however when I try to play it on Flickr the audio doesn’t work. This worried for a little while but I asked my peers to check on my account to see if the sound worked for them and it does, so the problem is with my computer and not with my final piece which I am very relieved about.
This time has really hit me hard. I have gone through intensified personal and family problems, there have been times where I haven’t left the bed in weeks. As I write this it is nearly 21:00 and I have left my bed 4 times today to get either food or water. I am not ok, the world isn’t either. I have really tried my best with what I could with this project. Not being in college, being able to see my friends, flip through their books, look my teachers in the eye as they give me sincere advice, I feel like I have been robbed. I was so used to having a busy schedule, college three days a week and staying late until it closed, then spending the next three days at my job only able to squeeze in my friends in evenings or Sundays made me so, so happy. From the bottom of my heart, this foundation course truly was the best thing to happen to me in a long time and I hate that I will never be able to get these last few months back, but if this time has taught me anything it is that you need to embrace your lows and use it for inspiration, that the world is more than just your personal mental health, there is so much going on out there, so address it. As artists that is what we are meant to do, express ourselves and our views, we take inspiration from the world around us. Although my mental health has been incredibly low due to the current events I am very proud that I am still here to write this evaluation, and I could not have done it without the support of my tutors and friends.
FMP Evaluation
I started this final section of the Art Foundation with confidence and excitement. I had been wanting to make an animated music video, or at least a section of one for this project. I was filled with ideas and inspiration for what I could do and what songs I could use, and I was also going to bring in and improve upon techniques I used in my Pathway project, such as the photomontage style. My visual/artist research and initial brainstorms/sketches were made mostly when college was still in session. I was able to go out and take pictures to gather inspiration, such as when I went to Camden and Brick Lane to explore the explosion of the music scene up there and street art which I think really helped drive me forwards, these pictures that I captured also really helped me at the beginning of lockdown to keep up with my work.
Month 1 of Lockdown (23rd March – 23rd April)
I found the first month of lockdown ok in terms of work as I was really interested in exploring all the ideas I had without worrying about the time I was spending on them, for instance I would begin working between 9-10am and stop at 2am the next day and I felt fine because I was enjoying the process of experimenting and the ideas that sprung from them. I was so determined to try and get through this tough time having produced some amazing work. Since I was also furloughed from work I was also able to take the time to practise drawing purely for fun which felt really nice to step away from everything and be able to do my something for myself without having to worry about the consequences would be the next day.
Month 2 of Lockdown (23rd April – 23rd May)
During the second month of lockdown, I came to the realisation that I was burning myself out as my ideas began to run dry and I was pushing myself to create things that made no sense and didn’t make me happy. Sitting in the same four walls came to feel like a prison cell. Admittedly my mental health dwindled, but I tried to channel it into something positive for my work, these came in the forms of more digital experimental pieces I did in Photoshop such as photomontages and animated gifs. Because I was drawing for fun as well, I decided that I should explore hand-drawn digital animation, and so I did 2 test animations using this method of animating, one completely by hand (face melting, no colour) and one in after effects where I filled in some simple blocks of colour and then used the ‘liquify’ effect to make it look more like realistic melting, however I ran into an issue with this one as I could not edit the timing of the effect so at the end it ‘liquifies’ too fast and almost ruins the whole thing, so I decided to stick with Photoshop and Adobe Animate after that experiment.
Month 3 of Lockdown (23rd May – present)
If the world didn’t feel like it was falling apart two months ago, it definitely does now. It feels like we have been thrown back in time to the 18th century. First a virus infects the world and then people are killed based on the colour of their skin. It really takes a black man being choked to death by police for eight minutes for the world to come to their senses again. It feels like peace isn’t an option because no one listens. I am heartbroken that yet another person lost their life to this unjust system and now people take a stand. Violent and peaceful protests, both of which are being suppressed by police in acts of terror as encouraged by a world leader nonetheless. There is going to be another wave of this pandemic and people are going to die because of the virus and from the brutal methods of police and I can’t do anything but sit in my bed and watch, donate, sign, share posts and cry for people who have been affected by these crimes their whole life based off of something they were born with. This whole paragraph has not been about art but I can’t concentrate on anything else when the world is burning. Everything I do feels so small and insignificant. At first we were all in the same boat, staying at home to fight COVID-19, then came the awareness that not everyone was safe at home during this time (this is something that effected my personally and thus I decided to centre my project more on this angle), and finally police brutality rearing its ugly head in America once again, causing the world to take a stand. Because of these well-meaning protests there is undeniably going to be a second wave of deaths due to this pandemic, it seems like this will never end and it feels so selfish to be writing an evaluation on my art project when people are dropping dead all over the world.
Because this project is meant to be about my journey and process during this time, I’ll finish this paragraph how the past month has not been great for me. Along with all the current issues going on worldwide and as I said before how my mental health has been declining, in a strange way being cooped up in my room while I know the rest of the world is going through the same made me feel some kind of mental unity, and I had tunnel vision, all I was focusing on was also what everyone else was focusing on, and this pandemic consumed my mental health in a terrible way but my art in a great way. If I were able to continue my project in college I would have loved to have stayed late to try different angles and progress some kind of storyline, even if it was only ten seconds. Through this last stretch I have also had a lot of trouble getting the audio work on different platforms. When I play my video on my computer in Adobe Animate or as an exported mp4 file it all works fine, however when I try to play it on Flickr the audio doesn’t work. This worried for a little while but I asked my peers to check on my account to see if the sound worked for them and it does, so the problem is with my computer and not with my final piece which I am very relieved about.
This time has really hit me hard. I have gone through intensified personal and family problems, there have been times where I haven’t left the bed in weeks. As I write this it is nearly 21:00 and I have left my bed 4 times today to get either food or water. I am not ok, the world isn’t either. I have really tried my best with what I could with this project. Not being in college, being able to see my friends, flip through their books, look my teachers in the eye as they give me sincere advice, I feel like I have been robbed. I was so used to having a busy schedule, college three days a week and staying late until it closed, then spending the next three days at my job only able to squeeze in my friends in evenings or Sundays made me so, so happy. From the bottom of my heart, this foundation course truly was the best thing to happen to me in a long time and I hate that I will never be able to get these last few months back, but if this time has taught me anything it is that you need to embrace your lows and use it for inspiration, that the world is more than just your personal mental health, there is so much going on out there, so address it. As artists that is what we are meant to do, express ourselves and our views, we take inspiration from the world around us. Although my mental health has been incredibly low due to the current events I am very proud that I am still here to write this evaluation, and I could not have done it without the support of my tutors and friends.