My Module Evaluation (OAUN401)

This module went well, but I thought my biggest weakness was my lack of time management. I left a lot of the work too late which means I didn’t have time to properly proofread my final essay to ensure I had met all the criteria. Also, had I put more thought and research into my sketchbook work from an earlier stage, I would have been more inventive with my drawings and explored a broader range of topics related to my theme.

Having said that, I’m pleased with my sketchbook. I think it has a unique tone and a couple of actually funny parts. The best decision I made was to ditch my first concertina and restart it over two-thirds of the way through the module. The first concertina was lacklustre, I felt. I went for a variety of tones varying from comedic to abstract and very visual to slightly more serious, which was nice as it shook up the formula from page to page, but in drawing so many different snippets of ideas I felt that I never allowed myself the chance to really explore one as a train of thought, which meant I never leapt far from my initial quote. In next year’s module I’d like to take one idea and develop on it.

So, on one hand I felt that I didn’t convey a wide enough range of topics/styles and on the other and I’d have liked to further explore just one topic/style.

The essay went well, with the interim feedback proving to be really helpful to ensure I wasn’t flying off the straight and narrow. I didn’t devote as much time to the third 1000-word segment as I’d have liked to, but I feel it was concisely written and justifies my practical body of work well. Essay writing is certainly one of my stronger suits. I’m happy that I have found a writing style that works and I look forward to developing it further in the next module. I want to make it more concise and use a variety of sentence lengths that give a sense of rhythm to the piece.

I’m also pleased with my animation proposal. It links well to the concertina stylistically as well as tonally, and I put a great deal of thought into the symbolism behind the characters and the colour scheme. I also feel I justified these choices by linking them back to my research, evidenced in the essay.

The most important thing I’ve learned during this module is the value of research. It’s inspired me to seek out new artists, observe more around me and sketch more. I appreciate how this module, especially the lecture programme, introduced me to cultures and artworks I’d never have discovered ordinarily which give me so much more to draw from. I enjoyed the lectures, even the ones that weren’t so specifically tailored to my area of study because they made me think about art outside the bubble of simply animation. I attended the lectures and blogged them consistently, although my blogging in other areas of the module, such as my keeping track of my general progress, has had a tendency to be sparse.