Trish Phng Illustration & Visual Media This last leg of my DPS year was not how I saw things play out in my plans. The scale of how bad the virus had on the world had taken me by surprise and it to be honest, left me a bit stunned initially. The biggest impact for me was that I had to return to my home country Malaysia, and had to in a way cut my internship at ISCA short, this was quite worrying because it was at this time I did feel very uncertain about how the rest if my DPS year would be like. However, ISCA and I have been keeping in contact with me and had asked me to be on standby with working with their online team once they have everything established, I was assured that I would still get paid. So, the last half of March and the entire month of April I was without any paid work. But because of this situation I had managed to focus more of my energy into my Self-Initiated Projects (SIPs). There were some projects that had to be changed a little, such as creating my Zine with my prints alongside it, because I was unable to pack my press with me, I decided to create some digital mock-ups first, with the texture and colour of how I visualise the outcome will look, and create a digital prototype of the overall zine so people will have a better understanding. Doing this had resulted in me questioning if I am able to create the digital outcome of my image, then why do I need to go through the process of creating physical prints, only to scan them in and format them to the zine layout. But to counter that would be the overall look of my outcome, I feel that it would take away an extra depth to my work visually of it were to be completely digital. Though there is nothing wrong with digital outcomes, as someone who wants to encourage the use of analogue printmaking to future generations, it is important to show how they can elevate your work even if it does take more time to do so. It can be seen as another learning process of how one can manage/ plan their time. Apart from that, the two other SIPs that I have been also working on are my Impressionist comics, and my bespoke celebration cards that I am planning on turning into a business. The impressionist comic has taken a different turn during this pandemic. As I found out about a short story contest that Webtoon, a very popular webcomic platform, was hosting. The impressionist comic that I had been planning gave me inspiration for what kind of story that I wanted to make for the contest. Story-wise, it has taken a different turn from what I had originally planned, such as we are following a new protagonist in the Webtoon story, and the main cast of my impressionist story has become a supporting cast instead. But I do still want to continue my current storyline once I have completed the contest story. I have been enjoying working on the webcomic, because I feel that it is helping me gage how fast I can complete a comic chapter, without losing the quality of the work. All these information has been helpful for me as I am planning on creating a bespoke card business, where I create personal comics for my potential customers. In this business, I am planning on creating short comics that will cater to short stories that ‘my clients’ will provide for me and I will visually interpreted. To see the full webcomic, click on this link --> https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-best-we-can-h/list?title_no=429681 I feel that this contest has given me a better understanding of how much work I will need to put in if I am going to truly commit to trying out this business. With this mindset, I have also been gathering more information on other independent creators such as Fran Meneses and Kristyna Baczynski, respectively known as @Frannerd and @kbaczynski on their social media platform, and many other creators, on their ways of working and how they present themselves and what ways they use to sell their works. In this aspect, the lockdown has given me the time and opportunity to push my personal projects forward, and has allowed me to have a better understanding of how much I need to mentally prepare for the type of career I’m pursuing. During of all this, ISCA had contacted me again and asked about working with their online team. Because I am not able to teach students physically due to the situation we are in, I along with other members of staff, was tasked with finding a good sharing platform online for students to upload their work as a way to connect and share their ideas/outcomes aswe are all separated during this time. Of all the platforms discussed, the two most popular ones were Pinterest and Wordpress. Pinterst being a good platform where students can share ideas and inspirations as well as works they have been making while on lockdown, and all works can be organised in different themed boards, where Wordpress would be a platform where students can give a more in depth reflection on their creative development of their projects and it can also be another platform for them to create their online portfolio, as Wordpress can also a site where you can make your own websites.
As a member of the online team, what I will be doing is to help monitor what the students post on the platform and make sure it is not inappropriate in anyway. I am happy to be working with ISCA again because it means that I would still be having some source of income, though it is a little less than before. This last leg of my DPS year have taken a huge and unexpected turn for me, and even though I was blindsided but this initially, I am proud of myself for not panicking about it too much and managed to get back on my feet and adapt to the situation. If there is anything positive that I learnt from this situation was my capability of adapting to unexpected outcomes in more ways than one. I had also made me more confident in communicating online with colleagues and has also given me more initiative to check my emails regularly. This may not be how I had planned my final months, but I, along with the rest of my fellow DPS students, will make the best if it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2022
Categories |