Game art conference notes

Today we were treated to a program that will help improve the quality of writing for our blogs following the feedback we had received earlier about our blogs.

The criticisms of my blog posts include the fact that I simply describe what I've experienced during the weeks rather than actually going into depth about how I can actually develop my work. It seems I need to be more critical of my work, analysing it and breaking it down. More specifically I need to really break down the what, why's and How's of the images and work I post up.

In addition, I need to ensure I am writing more about the course as a whole including modules such as critical studies and life drawing not just visual design and game production.

Moreover, on the visual side of things my blog can be cleaned up. I was criticised about the colour scheme of my blog and as of now, I have adjusted it to allow the text to be read easier. Additionally some of my images are not so clear and need editing before being uploaded.

Below are reflections on the sessions of the programs I enlisted in.

Word art using words creatively

During this session, we learnt how to use creative language to dissect our artwork. We were given a choice of images to look at and we were tasked to analyse the images elements and develop both a name and reasoning behind the elements of the image with the end result almost being a sort of narrative to serve as companion to the piece. These sessions gave me more of an idea as to what to do in reaction to my criticism of going in depth about my analysis of images. However, one problem I had with this session was that it claimed that we should use more words creatively and feature more so-called "exciting language" to bring our descriptions to life however they didn't explain how we may balance this and prevent our posts from being too informal. 

Being critical in your blog

This session was similar to the last and developed on using language to analyse images however I felt this session to be very repetitious of the same point of who, what, why and How's.

How to write when you don't want to write

I was especially excited about this session as this is a problem that I have been battling since I have been on this course. During this session, we learnt about free writing where one just continually writes what is on their mind as well as mind mapping to allow us to map out what we will write about. These tools may prove to be quite useful in the future as my current writing style consists of just jumping into the deep end and writing as I go along.

One problem I had with this session was that it did not address the problem finding writing difficult based on whether you do or do not enjoy writing. However, one of my fellow students recommended t a way around this problem would be to write small segments throughout the week of a blog post. This way it will eventually build up to one post without having to deal with the stress and anxiety of starting a full post.

Practical strategies for getting on with it

This session discussed the barrier we may face when completing work. During the session, we made timetables based on how we prioritise our tasks, however I felt that this talk was more directed towards traditional university courses such as Maths and English and some of the strategies would not translate so well to more creative and contemporary courses such as ours.