Disseminate: Studio Brief

In yesterday evening's PPP meeting, we were presented with a new studio brief. For this brief we are required to give a ten minute presentation on a topic of our choice (obviously animation related though). We have to pick out what we like/dislike about the work/s, stating why, and comment on our research findings as well as the technique and production of the animation.

As much as the thought of presenting to a class scares the living daylights out of me, I really like the sound of this brief and I'm quite looking forward to it. I will be able to have 10 minutes of undivided attention to talk about something I enjoy. All I need to do now is decide on what I'm going to talk about, which is easier said than done.

We were also given a few tips on giving presentations, which basically consisted of BE ENTHUSIASTIC and concise. We were told not to stress too much about the presentation, and if you find yourself worrying about it or lacking the confidence at the front of the class then "put on a different hat". Which, again, is easier said than done, especially if you have social skills that are on par with a carrot. Having said this, I AM rather excited to get started with this brief, so maybe, just maybe, I've gained some confidence and people skills. Maybe.

BRING IT.

Bradford Animation Festival: Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

Now, I had seen this animation prior to going to BAF, but that doesn't mean it didn't make me feel as uncomfortable and creeped out as it did the first time around. This animation is just plain weird. Don't believe me? Watch it for yourself.

The first "Don't Hug me I'm Scared"

The second "Don't Hug me I'm Scared" (The one we actually watched at BAF)

I'm not even fully sure I like these animations, they just mess with me too much. I mean I think they're brilliant and they are hilarious in the most deranged way possible, but my days they're so weird. To begin with it seems as though it is aimed at children, as the characters seem quite childish and brightly coloured, and they are singing/discussing concepts and ideas suitable for children. I.E. Imagination and Time. You soon realise that this is not the case, and the animation is very unsettling as they begin to rub organs in glitter and other acts of a similar nature. There is a massive conflict between the method used & the way it looks visually and the content of the video, and I think that's why I like it, that and the "random" things they do and say, as well as their tone of voice. The combination of all these things leaves you baffled thinking "What in the world have I just watched?", and that is why I like it. 

Bradford Animation Festival: 365

I can't seem to find the whole version of this animation, so here is "April".

This is one animation that I saw at BAF that stood out to me quite a lot. It's called 365 and was produced by "The Brothers McLeod" and in my opinion it was stunning. Everyday for a year they had produced one second of animation and put all the clips together to make one film. Every single clip is different, and the vast majority of them are crazy.

I thought this was such a good idea for animation, and would be something that I'd be interested in doing myself if I found the time. I think it would be a great way to get ideas onto paper, and to practice my animation skills. I also think it would be a good opportunity to test different materials, unlike this animation where they have used the same method for each clip. The animation would allow me to see how I progress over the space of a year, and I could also use it as a source of inspiration, much like my visual language sketchbook. Instead of jotting down my ideas I could animate them, and return to them for larger projects if needs be. I could also do the opposite, and turn my sketches from my book into a quirky little short, to test how they could move.

I found the animation very hard to follow. As each clip was only one second long there was a lot to take in and not enough time to do so, but I think this adds to the beauty of the animation. It made some clips stand out more than others, which in turn made them more amusing. I also like that there is a mixture of happy and sad clips, as well as different characters and settings, some being more imaginative and bizarre than others. I also like the sounds they have recorded for the animation, as it gave the characters more life and made it more interesting to watch.

I really enjoyed watching this animation, and I love the variety of characters and drawing styles that they have used. I think it would have been nice to see a mixture of different techniques and materials, for example paper and stop motion, but I can't fault what they have produced, and overall it is a beautifully quirky piece.

Bradford Animation Festival: Pomme Frites

Just when I thought I couldn't laugh any harder, BAF go and show this animation...

Pomme Frites is a short animation that uses a combination of 3D computer and stop motion animation, and was produced by Balder Westein. It. Is. Brilliant. This is another animation that had the whole room in stitches, I mean, my eyes had started watering because I was laughing so hard. Maybe I only found it as funny because everyone else was laughing and this made it hard for me to stop, but either way it s hilarious.

The first thing I noticed when the animation started was just how much detail was put into the setting. It was beautiful. It felt very realistic and lifelike, especially the waves that crashed against the cliff edge, as well as the features of the street, for instance the cobbles and the wood of the doors and window frames, etc. I also like the use of the lighting and the colour scheme in this animation. They, again, look very realistic, and the colours of the sky are just perfect. It sets the scene very well. I like how they have been able to portray a typical october night with the dark colours they have used along with the sounds of the wind. It actually made me feel quite cold watching it. Then they were able to create a contrasting warmth with the soft glow of the street lights and the light escaping from the windows of  the houses in the street.

Another thing I liked about this animation was the contrast between this realistic setting and the design of the characters. They were realistic in the sense that they had human characteristics, but they differ massively from the style of the background, so they really stand out. Westein also hasn't tried to hide the fact that they are puppets, which I thought was a really nice touch.

To sum up, this is truly an amazing animation visually that I just couldn't stop laughing at. 

Bradford Animation Festival: MUTE.

 

Mute by Jobs, Joris & Marieke was the first thing I saw at the Bradford Animation Festival, and it set the bar quite high for the rest of the week. I thought this was a great short, and I'm not the only one who must have thought so, because the whole room was in stitches over this animation. For me, it was just because it was so unexpected. I really wasn't expecting the animations to be shown at BAF to be weird like this, and never have I been so wrong...

But more on that later.

There was just so much I liked about this animation, but I think the story is what did it for me, and how well the characters helped tell this story. I thought the idea of the characters not being able to talk and open their mouths was brilliant, as well as how imaginative the producers were at showing how much of an inconvience this was for them. I thought the animation was going to get very dark, very quick as the baby was headed for the knife, but instead the short took an unexpected turn and it just got plain weird, but oh so funny. I especially liked all the little jokes that were thrown into the story, an example being that the word they are trying to guess at the beginning of the animation, turns out to be 'Mule' even though it is suggested that it is going to be otherwise. Well, Mute.

I also liked the style of the animation. It has been created in 3D using the computer, and I think it has been done brilliantly. I don't really know how to explain why I like it, other than everything looks so smooth and squishy, yet objects still look realistic. The carrot that the lady is chopping at the beginning of this is a good example of what I mean. everything just looks very 'friendly', especially because of the bright colours they have used. It makes what the characters are doing to themselves seem less weird, just because of how it has been presented, as well as how they are reacting.

All in all it is a very cheery and bizarre animation that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Bradford Animation Festival: PETER LORD.

 "Then I got to animate, which was borderline annoying" - Peter Lord

When I bought my tickets for BAF I had no idea that Peter Lord was going to be there, giving a talk on Aardman and their latest works. I also had no idea that I was going to end up MEETING PETER LORD and having the chance to talk to him. It was fair to say I was VERY excited, and was practically in tears when I met him. He was such a LAD.

 See, I wasn't lying.

This was, by far, the highlight of my week at Bradford, and was easily one of the most interesting talks I have ever been to. There's probably a hint of bias when I say that though, because it's PETER LORD, and just thinking about Wallace and Gromit, Pingu, Morph, Etc, gives me great nostalgia. Having said this, the talk was generally interesting, and Peter was such an adorable guy. Just the way he spoke and his personality and mannerisms made it worth while to watch, I mean, as he was talking he was crafting a Morph model out of Plasticine (WHICH I TOUCHED BY THE WAY). 

The talk was both very inspiring and very daunting. I loved how he was self-taught and never even went to an art college, yet he was able to start up an animation company with just the help of one other guy. I also liked how he told us the origin of the name Aardman (which is the unspoken name of the character in his first ever animation he produced with David Sproxton, as well as being a combination of the words superman and aardvark) but not so much when he was saying that animation now-a-days is hard to get into. Which is most likely true but it's still not what I wanted to hear. A little sugar-coating might have been nice.

Peter also commented on the importance of knowing when and where to use simplification and exaggeration in animations, especially when it came to portraying everyday movements. He said that you can exaggerate these movements to make them seem more real. Which was a nice piece of advice. Thanks Peter, mate.

In the Q&A session after the talk, Peter was asked whether he thought the market for Stop Motion animations was still the same as it used to be, and he said he didn't think so and raised a good point of "Does the audience actually care that it's handmade?". The answer to that is probably no. He personally loves stop motion as there is no illusion with it. You can actually pick up the subjects of the animation, and he loves this appeal, but others not so much. Granted there are still going to be those that favour this method over others and will truly appreciate the effort that has gone into the production, but others maybe more focused on how realistic it looks and the final outcome rather than the process itself. It was a very valid point, that made me really appreciate the work that he has done, as well as the process of stop motion altogether. It also made me really excited to try it again, and I can't wait to try it out in more detail, especially now that Peter has given us a tip for working with Plasticine ("don't get me bitching about the bad quality of modern plasticine" - Peter Lord). He actually put chalk in his plasticine, as he found it easier to work with it that way. Might have to give that a go.

So yeah. Peter Lord.

Copyright ©

In yesterday's PPP session we were taught about copyright. I was aware of it's existence and that basically you shouldn't steal people's things and copy it and make it your own, but I never really knew a great deal about it, as you've probably already guessed from the description of copyright I just gave.

So lets rephrase it.

Copyright basically means that you can't copy, adapt, rent, lend, or distribute an authors work without the owners permission. If you are using the work for non-commercial reasons, for example things like education, research, private study, you don't generally need permission to use it, but you can not make copies without an agreement.

But then again there are different types of copyright that have different leways, which I had no idea existed. One example is Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a non profit organisation that provides legal frame work so that people are able to share their work and ideas. It basically allows others to take your work and tweak and distrube it provided that they credit you and licence their new work under similar terms. So basically it's a good way of getting your name out there the way I see it, as the minute the new work becomes copyrighted and they start taking credit for the entire work they are infringing the copyright licence.

I found this class very useful as I didn't have the foggiest when it came to copyright. If there's one thing that I took away from the talk is that I should start putting the copyright "stamp" on works that I am proud of, especially when I reach my second and third year of university, and because there is no registration system in the UK. So why not?

One Piece: Come Aboard and Bring Along all Your Hopes and Dreams

Now, I don't usually watch animes because I struggle to watch the action and read subtitles simultaneously, and dubbed versions are usually just so bad it's painful. But my friend suggested to me that I should watch One Piece, so I did. I am sorry to say it was the subbed version though. I know, I know, I'm bad.

One Piece is probably the first anime I have ever watched properly, and I love it. Now let me tell you why. 

I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot in these reviews, but I think the characters are brilliant. Everyone is totally different and I love the back stories they have, and the journey they have come on to get where they are. Well, I say this, but I can not stand Usopp. SPOILERS. I just don't like his character at all. I don't like how he has to lie to get people to like him. I totally understand why he does considering his background but he still continues to lie even though it can get the others into a pickle. Yeah, fair enough living day to day in his own little world, but c'mon there's a time and a place. People have ranted to me about "how he grows as a character and becomes more brave and useful on the crew blah blah" and yeah fair enough, I get that, but that's not the reason I don't like him. He's just an arse and his personality GRINDS MY GEARS. 

Sorry rant over. 

Maybe I'll come to like him the further I get into the series. I mean, there's a good 700 episodes at least and I'm not even at half way yet, so there's still hope for Usopp yet. Maybe.

Like I said though, I've never really watched animes before, and I don't know if other shows have done something similar, but I like the powers or abilities that the characters possess. I think they're just so creative and I like how I'm sucked into this world that is just so imaginative. Usually the things I watch are quite realistic, and the events that occur could actually happen in real life, and it was a nice change for me that majority of One Piece definitely couldn't. Everything from having the ability to shape shift or stretch, down to rivers that run into sky. 

Now, I think the story is great. It has - again, repeating myself a bit here - a good mixture of background stories, fight scenes, adventure and sad & happy scenes, but I do think the show has some flaws. Some of the scenes drag for waaaaaay too long. Sometimes it's fine because there is a lot of ground that needs to be covered, but then on the other hand, and I might stand alone with this opinion, there are some scenes that just seem unnecessarily long. A good example of this is the fight scene towards the beginning of the series (I forget the exact details, it's been a while). That fight scene lasted like five episodes, and I felt it could easily be compressed into about two. It was actually these dragging scenes that stopped me from watching it. I wasn't necessarily bored, but at the time I was watching it I had a lot going on with college and I just couldn't be bothered to watch through it and I had important stuff to do. I never really returned to watching it either as my sister excelled ahead of me, and I just felt too behind to catch up. If I find the time between blogging and crying over blogging I might try and pick up where I left, because I really did enjoy watching the show. If you can be bothered to get into it and commit about half your life watching 700 or so episodes (and it's still going) I'd definitely recommend it.

Waking Sleeping Beauty

This documentary - if you will - was absolutely beautiful and I loved watching every minute of it, even if it did make me cry more than four times. For me it was just a mixture of emotional content and wanting to work with the Disney team so bad that it hurt me. I just loved the relationships they all had with one another and the atmosphere that they had created at the studios. It was also so reassuring (even if it was sad to watch) knowing that even big names like Disney have their ups and downs, and can be so close to breaking point yet still pull through. It made me feel less alone.

It was truely inspirational to see Disney pull through and get back on their feet, and also to see such a dedicated team of animators. I don't think I've seen a group be more dedicated to what they do. Some of the team even worked right up until their last moments, and put all they had into the films that they had a vision for. I realise I want that. I want to be able to dedicate my life to my practice and create work that I have strong feelings about, and I want to be able to do so surrounded by people who all share the same passion.

All heart-felt mush and emotions aside, It was also nice to see how the company whose films I'd grown up watching, worked and developed ideas. I liked the way they put together their storyboards. They would use a paper editing technique, and have their frames pinned up on the wall, with little bits of paper pinned up around that would explain the narrative or have speech on them. That way, when they changed the storyline or if they reworked a scene, they could take down shots they no longer liked or needed, and could just easily rearrange frames and add in new ones. It also meant that big groups of people could gather around the storyboard so that they could talk through it as a team. Which is another thing I really enjoyed watching. The people at Disney would hold critiques and discussions almost everyday, and were constantly talking about ideas and what they could do to improve; It's probably why *most* of their films worked so well, and this should be something I strongly consider doing on this course. I might not always get constructive feedback from my peers by holding discussions, but at least it will give me practice at talking about my work and infront of a crowd. By hearing about other people's work I can also get a better feel for what it will be like actually working as part of a team, which is how it is most likely going to be if I am to be employed in this field.

In conclusion, I think I am in love with this video. 

Bojack Horseman: Long Face. Horses Have Long Faces. I am a Horse. My Face is Long.

I'd heard a lot of people talking about this show, and finally curiosity got the better of me and I decided to watch it. I had no idea what to expect, I just knew the main character was a horse. Obviously.

The show is a Netflix Original and it's actually not bad. It's nothing spectacular visually, it's actually pretty basic and has a similar art style to that of Family Guy, The Simpsons, etc. Basically your typical cartoon style, but I think it works well here. The creators clearly set out to entertain an older audience rather than inform, and I think they managed to do just that. The humour was right up my street. It wasn't always necessarily "laugh out loud" funny, but it was entertaining enough to keep me watching till the end of the series. The same goes for the storyline. It took me a few episodes to get into it, but eventually I was finding myself wanting to know what happens in the end. I think the character development was great, and the show had a good mixture of crazy mishaps and "serious" scenes to allow you to build a liking for the characters, and I found myself being pretty gutted once I'd finished watching the series. 

It might not be everybody's cup of tea as some of the jokes can be a bit hit and miss, and there are a lot of scenes that contain adult themes, for instance drug use, but I thought it was a good show overall and I'm glad that curiosity did get the better of me as I found myself enjoying it. 

Tips for Reflection and Evaluation

Yesterday's PPP presentation was dead useful. We basically went through the do's and dont's of writing evaluations and were given some tips for when it came to reflecting and giving presentations. I have wrote quite a lot of evaluations before, but I have been out of practice for a long, long while, and I doubt that any of them would have been as important as the ones I'm going to have to write, so it was very helpful to me that we went through that, especially because I can sometimes struggle with lengthy writing tasks. It also helped clear up exactly what it is that I need to do in terms if blogging. It's something I've never done before and I've been unsure of what to write as well as what I have written being "correct". It made me realise that I am at least roughly on the right track. 

The class was short and sweet but gave me so much useful information, and made me realise the importance of annotating images and work, as well as DOCUMENTING EVERYTHING. 

Wallace and Gromit: The Bounce Has Gone From His Bungee!

Wallace and Gromit is a series that consists of a feature-length film and four short animations that was produced by a guy (GENIUS) called Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The first film he released was in 1989  and was called "A Grand Day Out", but this isn't the first I watched. The first I saw was "A Close Shave" and it blew me away as a child. I fell in love with the film as soon as I watched it, and even had a teddy of Gromit given to me on my fourth birthday, a childhood possession that I still have to this day, fifteen years later.

Now that I am older I love the films much more, and I can really appreciate the amount of effort that goes into the production of them, something I didn't notice as a child. Heck, I didn't even realise they were made out of Plasticine as a child. It was only once I got older and learnt about stop motion animation did I register that it was. It was then that I realised that Nick Park is a GOD. Words can not describe how jealous I am of his creations.

In all seriousness, Wallace and Gromit was, and still is, an amazing series. The effort and detail that is put into the set and the characters is unbelievable, it still baffles me to this day how he has the patience to do something like that (she says whilst taking an animation course). It also bewilders me how he gets the timings perfect, and things such as speech down to a T. Not only is the production of the series out of this world, but the characters are also very loveable, and the storyline is great. The films have never failed to amuse me, and I have seen "Curse of the Were-Rabbit" over a hundred times. At least. (You think I'm joking… I'm being deadly serious).

If I ever get into stop motion animation - I know I definitely want to try it again - I would be happy if I just had a quarter of the skill that Park demonstrates in these movies.

Treasure Planet: You've Got The Makings of Greatness in You

Treasure Planet is a film by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It was released in 2002 and is arguably my favourite film of all time. Let me tell you why.

For starters I used to watch this film ALL THE TIME as a child, so there is a hint of nostalgia for me when I watch it, but let's not let that be bias factor in all of this. There are still many reasons as to why I can consider this film to be in (at least) my top five. The first is the characters. I think the characters are fantastic. They are so interesting, quirky and different, and even though majority of them aren't human, they aren't that far fetched in my opinion. They also give the main characters just the right amount of background story for you to understand what makes them how they are and what they had been through to get where they are. Especially with Jim. Jim's story in my opinion was perfect, and it differs from other Disney films, which is another reason why I like Treasure Planet so much (SLIGHT SPOILERS INCOMING). To my understanding it's the only Disney film that deals with the father being away/leaving, usually it's the other way around or the death of a/both parent/s. I think they handled this subject beautifully, and chose to explain what actually happened in Jim's past at just the right time. They let you grow an attachment to the characters first, and then gave you the insight which only strengthens this love for the character and really makes you appreciate the relationship he forms with Silver. This montage also makes you appreciate what Jim's mother goes/went through. This scene is by far my favourite of the film, and is also one that hits very close to home. Granted, the events in the film didn't happen to me, but because of my own situation it means that I can relate to the characters a lot more. I guess that's another reason why I adore this film so much. 

Not just this, I also adore the story as a whole. I think it has been put together brilliantly, and the settings are stunning. There has been so much detail put into the world that they have created that I just get lost in it every time I watch it. I love the fantasy/futuristic theme, and how inventive and imaginative they have been with the set, well the film as a whole to be honest. A good example of this is the moon being a space port, and just the idea of the character Morph.
Another reason why I love this film is for the soundtrack. I'm quite a fan of The Goo Goo Dolls/John Rzeznik, and the song (I'm still here) that he wrote for the film is, in my eyes, gorgeous. It's a lovely song, and again works so well in that particular scene.

I could ramble on and go into more detail about the things that I like about the film, but I think I'm going to stop here as I have covered the major points, and if I continue I will eventually just pick out every single feature of the film. So to summarise, I think this film is spectacular. It might not be a very popular opinion but I stand by it.


"Now, you listen to me, James Hawkins. You got the makings of greatness in you, but you gotta' take the helm and chart your own course. Stick to it, no matter the squalls. And when the time comes, you'll get the chance to really test the cut of your sails and show what you're made of! And…well; I hope I'm there, catching some of the light coming off you that day".

Photoshop Induction 1

For our first Photoshop tutorial we were taught the basics of the program, a lot of which I already knew, things such as creating a new file or a new layer. Despite having quite a large basic knowledge on Photoshop I did learn quite a lot, and I soon realised that the techniques and tools I learned about were a lot easier than what I had been doing in the past. I discovered this through experimentation with the eraser tool. I never realised that by changing the brush settings of the eraser that it could be used to blend together two parts of an image. In the past I had always just resorted to using the mixer brush tool, and it would end up being blurry and quite unrealistic. It was fine if I wanted to blend colours together in a drawing I was working on, but when it came to photographs it didn't quite work the way I wanted it to, so I'm really glad I found out about this feature.
I put this knowledge to the test a task we were assigned. We were to try to compose an image by taking sections of sample photographs and blending them together. My result is the image above, and I think I did an okay job, I'm particularly happy with how I was able to add shadow in the foreground and extend the height of the cliff.

In the second half of the tutorial, we were taught about layer masks and adjustment layers, two things I had never heard of before. I remember seeing them whilst watching other people working on their own photoshop projects in the past but never knew what they were for or why they were there, so it was nice to finally learn for myself. In the next task we were assigned, we were to make a new image to test our ability with using masks and adjustment layers, as well as the blending technique we had learnt that morning. I again took a series of images and put them together, including giving the man some armour, but this time I added a hue/saturation layer to adjust the colour of the background, as well as a black and white layer for the man and goat, as I didn't like how bright he was. I also felt this looked best considering there was a lack of colour in the background. To continue with the "murky" atmosphere, I tried to make the photo look foggy, using a similar method to how I included shadow on my previous image. Overall I think I did a pretty good job at creating some interesting images, and am looking forward to see what else I can put together.

So Apparently I'm a Protector?

In yesterday's PPP lecture we were analysing ourselves in two different ways. The first involved deciding on whether we considered ourselves to be an introvert or an extrovert, whether we had "sensing" or "intuition" factor, e.t.c, by looking at lists of characteristics. The four letter "word" that was generated from the choices we made was our unique personality type. The second way we did this was by looking at different aspects of our life (for example family, finance, energy) and rating them on a scale of one to ten. The purpose of this task was to see how in balance we were.

I didn't really find the first of much use. For me it was hard to decide which letter I truly fell under as there were many different characteristics that could have easily applied to me. I also felt that the descriptions were purely situational, and it was hard to choose which was the most relevant to me as it would have depended on the situation I was in. Then again, I did find it interesting to see what I was considered to be-I got INFJ, and apparently I'm a protector?- but I did however, find that the second method of self-anaylsis was much more helpful. Again, I reckon a lot of the answers I gave could have been down to the mood I was in at the time, so it wasn't necessarily more accurate than the first, but it did make me think about what I'm like as a whole and that I should consider trying to maintain or even improve the relationships I have to try and keep me content and at my happiest, and try and convert some of my negativity into something good, so I can feel more accomplished. 

Who am I? Why am I here? What do I want to learn?

Why did I choose to study on this programme? 
Leeds was always going to be a place I considered to study in as it is close to home, and I wasn't too bothered about moving away. It is also a city that I am familiar with and feel comfortable in so I researched the course, and came to an open day. I immediately fell in love with the college. It wasn't too large, and the course seemed to tick all the right boxes for me. I really didn't have a clue what to expect from a university, and previous visits had really made me doubt whether I wanted to go, but there was something about Leeds that was different. I felt very comfortable in the college and excited to study there.

What do I want to learn during my time on the programme?
Without trying to sound too vague, I would love to learn as much about animation as I possibly can. In particular I would like to learn more about the computer programmes that animations can be produced on. For example, Maya. I have already explored more traditional methods of animating, and I would be interested in broadening these skills.
I also want to learn about the history behind animation, and look into how it came about. I'm also looking forward to learning about different artists/animators and people who are influential in this field.

What skills do I think are my strengths?
I'd say my main strength would be pencil drawing. It has always been my preferred medium as I feel I have been able to produce some my best works whilst using it. However, I am open to change, and have been experimenting with different media, and in my own opinion I have gotten rather good at using fine liners and biros.
In the summer I had bought a graphics tablet, and to start of with I wasn't too great at using it. As I was determined to become better at producing digital drawings, I continued to work with my tablet, producing sketches on Photoshop. I am slowly becoming more comfortable and confident with using it, so I'd like to say that was one of my strengths too.

What things do I want to improve?
Honestly, I would like to touch up on all my skills. I am happy with what I can do with some of my strengths already, but I am always looking to improve, and get better at what I do. But if I were to choose examples, I would say digital painting. In relation to this I would like to strengthen my knowledge on programmes such as Photoshop, and learn how to use them more effectively.
Another thing I really want to improve is the speed at which I work. I used to spend hours and hours on just the one drawing, but I have started to work at a much quicker pace now I have this new mind set of "it doesn't have to be perfect". Having said this, I am not yet working at a speed which I am completely happy with, and would like to become even quicker with my sketches.

What ways will I evaluate my progress?
By maintaining my blog I will be able to see how well I improve over the weeks, and how quickly I do so. Also by doing this, I will be able to evaluate each piece of work/session individually and pick out what I did well and what areas I can improve on. Another good way to seek advice on what I can improve on, would be to show my peers on the course. They might be able to pick out things I have missed, or offer ideas to help me progress.