Evaluation

‘Aunt Smoke’ was my first self initiated brief of my finalyear of study. It was a project that allowed me to explore stories I had inherited from my Aunt Smoke. It forced the exploration of sentimentality, provoked the interrogation of methodologies, and allowed advancements on my illustration style. I believe this project has been a success in complying to what I originally set out to achieve. I wanted to illustratestories left to me by my Aunt Smoke, and find a way to tellthe stories through a vessel that would give Stoke credit and recognition for both story and its pottery.

The strengths in this project for me lay in that of the pro- cess to discover a form of familiarity in my illustration style to hint of ceramics provenance. Through copious amounts of avenues to explore successful vessel narrative, the discoveryof possibly using Staffordshire figurines (made by Staf- fordshire people) as a representation and embodiment of Stoke folk to tell the stories in Aunt Smoke’s books achieved this. It allowed me to formulate a world that would bring ceramics to life, and place them in a context of a story set in Stoke hinting of where they were crafted. I was able to de- velop a world that also supported my illustration style and this had now set the foundation to a world i could develop through my professional practise.

The weaknesses in this brief I believe fell into the catego- ry of the smoothness and clarity of the narrative. Clear narrative is always a necessity, especially when portray- ing something solely visually. I believe my development and experimentation with narrative could have gone further toexplore how to achieve a more successful, fluid and clearchronological visual, but this would be something to consider next time through my work. This brief for me had mainly allowed me to discover and develop on my visual quality rather than narrative communication.

If i could change anything in this project it would be to

further develop the conceptual use of Stoke ceramics to formulate narrative. Although I had started to achieve this through the medium of illustration, illustration is not limited to that of drawing. I believe next time i would make the ce-ramic figurines (from stoke clay) in an almost Aardman style film still to capture the story. I believe this would open manyavenues in that of the concept to my work; They would be-come more rich conceptually with the actual figures being made from Stoke themselves. It would also offer the devel- opment of animation and the possibility of being saleable in which would promote the stories of Stoke as well as theforgotten craftsmanship. Copyright of ceramic figures how- ever would have to be scrutinisingly researched as thoughthe ceramic figures would be in my style, would still be very similar and inspired by ceramic figures already out for sale.

A great success to this project is my relationship with the programme procreate. With the programme being devel- oped and many tools still not being fully explored by users, it was great to see how boundaries could be pushed with the programme. Also this project really allowed me to real- ise my pathway as an artist. I discovered common interests through out my own body of work from present to past and this was great to see what my works aims to do, and where it could possibly be placed in the industry.

Overall what this project allowed was the formation of a world much like people from Stoke constantly envisioned. The illustrations became a doorway, an almost Narnian wardrobe into the world of the potteries. It was the famil- iarity and connection that ceramic owners sparked, and that not only gave them a sense of home in the painting, butalso gave their ceramic figures life. Whether that life was asilly anthropomorphic revival, or relating it to the story of its creator, for me it didn’t matter. For I believe ‘Aunt Smoke’ not only allowed me to envision the world around me asliving figurines, but has allowed me to see potential in whatmay seem ordinary. A book does not necessarily always come in that of neatly bounded paper. We are surrounded by narrative.

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Skills wise, this brief was a toe dip into the freelance world.It gained me experience in understanding that time and fi- nancial planning is paramount. Motivation is key to produc- tivity and work load. The scope into the placement of your work in the industry in comparison to those that inspire you, gives you ideas on where and how your work may become successful in placement in the industry. The main lesson i will be taking with me into my further practise is that to stay focused on an outcome. Document all ideas but make sure to decide whether avenues are necessary for a project.

I hope this brief allows the reader to look at ceramic fig- ures and see the possible stories that it embodies. Whoknows, the mug you drink your morning coffee from everymorning could be made by a relation of that of Hannah Dale.