SWOT Analysis for 2014.

Strengths:

Knowledge of Digital and Traditional methods – Can use both traditional and digital means to create pieces of work, with a basic to well-practiced understanding of software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Paint Tool Sai.

Self-Taught – Didn’t conform to traditional, and inconsistent methods of teaching when at school and took to the Internet and nontraditional artists as a basis, giving me a broader and extensive amount of inspiration.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

Open to Ideas and Alternatives – usually listen well to alternative ideas both when I’m struggling or not. Usually the best advice is given during group work and tutorials, and comes fro a lot of different practices.

Took Risks during Animation Process – I was advised during our Digital Skills Application project to try out a number of different ways to create animations, using a number of programs such as Cinema4D and AfterEffects – which I hadn’t really used before.

Improved Upon my Digital Painting Skills – During my Essay on how digital painting has affected the Art industry, I learned a vast amount on other processes of Artists workflows that have influenced me, in more depth.

Went out of my Comfort Zone when Making characters – In my most recent animation project, I decided to use animals as my cast, and not humans, to get out of my usual comfort zone and “go to” characters.  This gave me many more challenges when it came to animating these characters.

Improved Time Management – Since using personal timetables, I have become much more aware of work I have left to do and am able to complete work much more on time.

Weaknesses:

Time Management – I tend to give myself less time than I actually need, sometimes resulting in my work being to a lesser standard.

Working using Scale and Measurements – Have a tendency to unintentionally lose or alter the scale of my drawings when creating walk cycles, not a concise tracer.

Confidence in my own work – Lack of confidence or satisfaction with a number of my drawings, leaves me rather fed up of them, and they tend to be something that needs to be carried on through a project. And can sometimes lose interest in the project.

Lack of varying characters – I tend to stick to the same kind of characters, the majority of them being human and don’t feel as though creating more inhuman characters is a strength of mine.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

STRESS – I take too much upon myself and don’t allow breaks between the amount of work I do, which tends to leave me in a work induced coma, unable to figure out which load of work to do first.

Can get too attached to my work – Working on digital illustrations and animations for clients other than friends and familiars, has shown that I must not get too attached to my work, and can’t take criticisms of that work too personally either.

 Opportunities:

http://illustrationfriday.com/category/contestsprojects/ - Competition done every Friday, I fell that this competition would benefit me, as it gives me a major time limit to help improve my time management problems.

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/index.php - A more challenging competition where I would have to “conform” to the rules, as it is designing the cover of a book for someone’s book cover.

http://www.loopdeloop.org/ - This would help me get body proportions right and discover ways to make stranger characters move and function.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

http://www.loopdeloop.org/ - This would help me get body proportions right and discover ways to make stranger characters move and function. – Have completed this project and gained the ability to produce an animation which is timed perfectly to music, something I hadn’t been able to do before.

http://www.illustrative.de/award/award/ - The Young Illustrator Award 2014 is something I want to try out, purely because of the amount of subjects (which relate to illustration) such as Visual Art, Pattern Design, Graphic Design, Animation and Comics.

http://www.panmacmillan.com/macmillanprize - The Macmillan Prize 2014, is a competition set up to stimulate new work from young illustrators when it comes to designing book covers. I think that this project would be perfect for me because of the fact that the company are looking for a very specific kind of design, and it would test my illustrative strengths to their full potential.

Threats:

Other Commitments – Making time for both work and commitments outside of work could be challenging due to the extent and amount of work I sometimes get given.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

Panic and Anxiety – Worrying and panicking about certain aspects of my work can make me forget about other parts of work. I have also missed important days of college due to panic attacks

Which have cost me dearly.