I am taking the ‘just do something’ approach to my project this week. I can’t seem to think of any good concepts so I am doing what I do naturally, getting creative by developing cartoon characters on pen and paper.

Perhaps I should try and figure out why it is that I find it so easy to imagine unique and interesting characters, yet applying that imagination to something that should have an implicit function is something that I have a great deal of difficulty doing!

I am afraid that I have confused myself with my project outline. I initially planned to create illustrations based on a story that I planned to write, however I intended to introduce the theme of threat by removing select pieces of the story.

I now understand that the basis for my idea is explicitly reliant on written, rather than graphic contribution. Perhaps I am planning too far ahead by writing a narrative for visual media before experimenting…

1. What are the most important things that you are learning from the professional practitioners who come in to the module?

…
2. What are you learning about your own abilities, interests and needs from the group work that you have been undertaking?

That everyone has something unique to offer when considering a project, and that discovering what those skills and putting them to good use is half the challenge.
3. What are you learning from working with the new technologies you are encountering on this module?

That colour-matching hardware well in a digital workflow is a dark art reserved for print technicians and those with a lot of money, and a lot of patience.

1. What are the most important things that you are learning from the professional practitioners who come in to the module?

That teaching yourself flash before you start the course is both a blessing and a burden!

2. What are you learning about your own abilities, interests and needs from the group work that you have been undertaking?

I enjoy getting feedback from others, to help steer me in the right direction when I feel lacking in motivation.

3. What are you learning from working with the new technologies you are encountering on this module?

That I am more comfortable being creative and experimental when I am confident that I know how to use technology to realise my ideas.

1. What are the most important things that you are learning from the professional practitioners who come in to the module?

To prioritise active projects and question my choice of media.

2. What are you learning about your own abilities, interests and needs from the group work that you have been undertaking?

I find it easier to work in smaller groups, perhaps with only two or three other people involved. Pairing up with a friend for a Digital Video project was very motivating. I felt it was easier to maintain interest in the project thanks to their input, which prevented the work from becoming ’stale’. Silly word, I know :-). The effect of having a social dedication helped me realise how much importance I place on knowing there is a purpose to a project.

3. What are you learning from working with the new technologies you are encountering on this module?

I am habitually more enthusiastic about working digitally and interactively because my most succesful work stems from that area. I choose to take advantage of that skill but remain wary of neglecting my ability to produce hand-rendered work.

1. What are the most important things that you are learning from the professional practitioners who come in to the module?

Recently i’ve had problems with interpreting project briefs, and I have learnt the importance of tutorial input. I hope to have more contact with my tutors in the future, both to help me retain interest with projects and to be more critical of the actions I take when working.

2. What are you learning about your own abilities, interests and needs from the group work that you have been undertaking?

I have difficulty functioning in a team, although I genuinely wish to help others and aid in creating work that takes advantage of everyone’s individual skills. However, I believe that being able to choose our group members is not conducive to helping us develop the social skills required to address others formally. Being put into personal or social groups for purpose of work often results in “I got so drunk last night” conversations, rather than relevant discussion.

3. What are you learning from working with the new technologies you are encountering on this module?

Initially I preferred having hands-on time with the more classical technologies such as silkscreen printing and film photography this year. The current module has presented us with technologies such as Flash and Digital Video. I really enjoyed having the equipment around to experiment and explore. Digital Video was my first real foray into the world of filmmaking, and I enjoyed creating work that I think showed a talent I had never realised.

I have had prior experience with Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator and although it is always good to keep practising the basics, i’m finding the induction classes difficult to sit through. I have already been called arrogant and a ‘geek’ on this course and this prevents me from asking the tutors in class if I can be doing more productive work instead.

A lot of the issues my class seems to have are through interfacing with the software. I feel there is a ‘creative gap’ between the students that know very little and the students that know enough about computers. I believe this is a product of whether or not schools or colleges were pushed to encourage the application of technology on their ND or Foundation courses.

Okay. I’m going to bed now. I’m going to die otherwise.

I’ve totally rewritten the CSS and from scratch with a few hacks and it’s now fine in IE. (to a viewable degree, the linespacing is still dodgy) Will sort out the nasty stuff like comment boxes and unordered lists later on. But for now, all is cool. I am happy. Must stop. Now.

Well i’ve finished my CSS so the journal should look pretty cool right now…

…if you’re using Firefox.

I need to get my head around why Internet Exploder won’t style my page in the same way that Firefox does.

It totally mashes the side-menu so i’m really sorry. I’ll try and fix it asap.

If that’s not enough, check out the W3C XHTML Validator:

Click here to validate this page.

That’s a wodge of errors. I don’t know if it’s those errors that are making IE go nuts? The horrible thing is that all the errors aren’t in my layout, they are in my posts. I’m just using the WordPress backend to enter posts, and you can’t really play with the html fully because it gets parsed before being put into the editor. -_-

I genuinely have no idea how to fix this at all. Mehhh.

*Update*

Haharrr!

Sorry if the site looks a bit messy, i’m working on the CSS at the moment. It should only be the comment stuff that looks really knackered!

I’ll finish it all up soon, i’m off out now to go watch V for Vendetta. Will it be as good as the comic book? From what i’ve heard… no.

But what the hell, i’ll probably end up writing a mini-review to post up here soon :-)

*runs off*

I’ve just written an article which describes how I understand the two terms: influence and inspiration.
I’ve uploaded it to the Pages section, you can find it there, or get by clicking here.

Comments always welcome!

Rat