I felt like I could use a post to reflect on the first year. I want to talk about experiences, challenges and how much I grew as a practitioner with this post.
When I have started it wasn’t easy. The only knowledge I’ve got was how to use Photoshop and Premiere at the level where I could edit my photos and video content. I never really had some design work that has been done by me that I would consider as art. Even though I have made some handmade posters for my room and I use to love drawing with pencils in the 7th grade, that was all about it. Yet somehow I’m surprised that I was able to make a portfolio when applying from my photos that I took, as I have always been interested in photography. Speaking of photography, it’s one of the things that I believe I was also able to improve as well as apply on my work. It has definitely played a huge part when it came to producing my artist book and advertising campaign. I have also figured the knowledge of photography has helped me with the composition when it comes to producing my work.
I never really had a knowledge of how things are done when it comes to art, though I was always a person that likes to visit art galleries. So when it come to theory or just learning things in general, I have always found lectures being very interesting. I knew for a while that I’m a person that learns while listening or seeing, so I made sure to be always present when possible, even though there was a time I really needed to go to my home country which resulted in me not attending.
There was quite a few things I have found challenging when I was producing my work. For example I had no knowledge of Indesign and Illustrator, so for me it was really hard. While InDesign feels easier and I didn’t needed to produce much work with it, I have definitely had some issues with Illustrator which I already talked about in some of my previous post for instance the map making. When I had to produce my other work during the second term, I have decided to use Illustrator, so I was able to challenge myself and learn about it more. Now I’m feeling way more confident when it comes to using it. I feel like I almost understand how the pen tool works, which for me was the biggest issue.
One of the things I have really enjoyed since the beginning of the studies was to give a feedback to peers. I was always the person that tries to give as much feedback as possible, because it not only helps my peers to improve their work, but also for me to learn something from their mistakes. Some of my friends that I have made are always asking me for a feedback, but they always say that I’m scary when it comes to this.
Now I feel like so much more confident when it comes to my work as well as producing it, though I know this is only the beginning and there’s so much to learn, but I know for sure that I’m ready and I can’t wait for new challenges.
