FMP Evalution

Evaluation for FMP

For the length of the project I had, I think that I could have managed my time better for my sketchbook. As over the first two weeks for the project we had a holiday from college and as I have a young son, I wasn’t able to get much of my sketchbook done. Then once we got back in college I had to start on my project proposal for the project. If I could do it all again I would make sure I tried to finish at least one page every night for the duration of the project to make sure I had enough pages and research.

My theme for this FMP was “Wooden Toys”. I chose this theme as I have a young child and he is the most important person in my life, so I wanted to make my final piece for him to use once it has been in my show. The other themes I looked at on my mind map at the start of the project were; Leo, belong, family, party, games, time, midnight, war, light, peace, and finally death. I chose the theme of wooden toys as I can use Leo’s own toys as my research as he has a lot of wooden toys himself from his 1^st birthday and Christmas.

For my primary research I looked at wooden toys that Leo and a few other children I know have as well as wooden toys I found in shops like BnM, Argos and Tesco’s. I took photos of the toys in the shops so that I could draw and finish them at home. I used techniques in my sketchbook such as; drawing from observation, painting with both acrylics and gouache, drawing on a wall paper background with coloured pencils, painting with water colours on a collage background, sticking pictures down in my sketchbook that I have made on a programme called “GoogleSketchUp”, painting with water colours on black paper, painting with acrylic on black paper and finally coloured pencils on black paper. I also made a questionnaire for people to fill in to help me find out more information about the type of toy I should make and if people would buy it for their children or young family members.

My secondary research I looked at three artist called; Enzo Mari, Maris Peics and Erzi Toy World. Enzo Mari was the inspiration for my first artist sheet. Maris Peics was the motivation for my second artist sheet and the Erzi Toy World Company was the muse for my third and final artist sheet. I also did research into the history into Lego as that company began making wooden toys. Furthermore I did some wood research because not all wooden toys are made from all the same wood. Although I didn’t explain it much in my sketchbook I am making my final piece out of a MDF. This is why I chose to do all my samples and creative business card out of MDF.

From my artist and primary research I developed my work into initial designs, then into design ideas, after this I was able to come up with design development sheets, a mini 3d model, and final designs.

From my research I took forward a few elements into my designs. Some of these include techniques such as; pyrography even something as simple as using acrylic paint on MDF shows that making samples first help to see what work and what doesn’t. I chose to take the pyrography forward into something other than my final piece, this was my creative business cards. I tried using a compass to scratch my information onto it and I couldn’t see anything so I chose not to use this design. Then I tried just using pen on my MDF cards and although you can now see the information on them, I didn’t like how simple they looked. So finally I tried pyrography and I love how the finish looks on the MDF cards so use this for all of my creative business cards. I used samples to try if acrylics worked on MDF. I did this because I know that not all paint works on every type of wood. So to make sure that it did work I made a sample of it first.

I got my influences for my development from the toys I looked at. I found four toys to make my initial ideas from then chose two of them to develop further and finally chose one to develop even more by making a final design for them. The eight toys I chose to look at for my initial ideas were; a letter block, a pull along duck, a doll, a doll house, a domino, a play till, a pull along train & a kitchen. I chose to develop the letter block and the kitchen. I chose these two as I thought they might be more challenging for me. On my development sheet I did 6 samples to support my work and thoughts. These were 5 for my letter block and one for my kitchen. The 5 samples I did for my letter block were for how I would add the detail. These techniques included; pyrography, painting with acrylic with black and dark blue paint, and carving using two different sized carving tools. The sample I made for my kitchen was just using hinges to show how I would made the cupboard hang on the frame. I really like how all of my samples turned out and wouldn’t do anything different if I was to do this sheet again.

The constrains in which my design was affected by were as follows; I had to keep in my all the results I got from my questionnaire as this was a big part of my research, my time was another big constraint in which I faced as we only had a small window to do everything for this project, my son’s age and size affected my designs as it had to be small enough for him to use now and to use as he grows as well as being aimed at his age too and make sure that it’s age appropriate as he gets older. I also had to change my idea at the last minute as my tutors didn’t think that I would have time to make one from scratch so I had to buy a cabinet and make more design for this new idea.

Moreover from all the other samples I have already talked about, I have made a sheet after my moodbaords to show that I have thought about other types of wood, how I would carve into MDF and also tried to recreate an already existing wooden kitchen. If I had more time I think that I would have done more of these sheets to try more techniques on all the different types of wood I looked at.

The problems in which I had to overcome were; time management at home as I have a small child, changing my design at the last minute, and also adding my information to my creative business cards. I asphyxiated my time management difficulty by making sure that I had some free time to do all my computer work whist someone else had Leo for me. I overcame my changing the design at the last minute problem by making sure I had extra time to make other designs and make the changes to my final piece. Finally I incapacitated my last issue by using a technique I practiced on my development sheets called pyrography to add all my information to my business cards.

If I had no time constrictions I would have done a lot of things differently. The first would be to make sure I had my sketchbook all finished before I moved on to my sheet work. The next thing I would change would have been my research, if I had more time I would have made more time to find out more about all my artist and my chosen toy in more detail. After this I might have changed my design development to try and see what techniques would be like on more than just MDF. Finally I would have diffidently made my kitchen from scratch then I could have I made the design to how I wanted it in the first place.

My chosen artist linked to my work as I only looked into 3D wooden toy/ furniture artist because my theme was wooden toys. For example; Enzo Mari is a modernist artist and furniture designer. Maris Peics designed the Varis construction sets and Erzi Toy World designs wooden food and toy shop items. These all relate as they all work with wood and two of them are toy based.

I chose my final design from looking at my original final design and try to incorporate it into my new recycled cabinet so that it would have a similar look to it. Although the cabinet I now had to work with was a fraction of the size to what I was planning on making in the first place I was determined to keep the look as close to the original as possible. As long as I can the look managed then I think that it’ll look good and people will be able to see where I went with it from my original design.

I think that I could have used my blog a lot more effectively throughout the duration of this project as on deadline date I didn’t have anything published although I had a few drafts that needed a bit more adding then I published them in time for exhibition. The titles of my posts so far are; Sketchbook annotation, FMP SheetWork Annotation & FMP Evaluation. The post called sketchbook annotation is explaining all of my sheets in detail and also illustrating my pages in my sketchbook too. The post called FMP SheetWork Annotation is pictures and annotation for every single sheet I have done for this FMP. Finally the post called FMP Evaluation is this evaluation.

 

Overall I have this project to be more stressful than anything I have encounter in college before. I didn’t think that I had enough time as I had to do everything in college as I have to be with my son when I’m not in college as because of his age I can’t do any work.