Please ignore the colossal pile of shit I am about to write. It is late and I have to write an essay for tomorrow. It will not sound good.

This unit has taught me a lot about the different types of illustration in which I could choose to specialise. We were required to complete a series of three mini-projects. Each of these concentrated on a different aspect of illustration: narrative, editorial and reportage.

As a whole, these three projects have taught me to plan my actions and manage my time effectively. Never before have I created a timetable for my own individual work-based activities during a course. I think this timetable definitely helped me to be more organised and keep on track with my projects. My time management skills improved more towards the end of the unit as I am steadily getting back into the swing of working again after the long summer holidays. Saying that, if I were to do these mini-projects again, I would aim to follow my timetable a bit more closely, as although I used to tell me what I needed to do, I didn't stick to the dates specified well enough.

The editorial brief was the first, and in my opinion, the least enjoyable mini-project. One of the problems I faced with this project is that I didn't find any of the articles we were asked to illustrate to be particularly interesting. I had little inspiration for this project and I feel the standard of my outcome was effected by this. If I want to do editorial illustration in future I will have to accept that I won't find everything I have to illustrate particularly interesting.

One thing I learnt from this project is to use colour more effectively. When I looked at my boring black and white outcome amongst everyone else's colourful pictures I began to realise how important it was to make your work stand out. Mine was not eye catching enough. After realising this I went back to my final piece and added a colourful background and some highlights with watercolour. I think this made the image look much better.

The second of the three projects was the reportage brief. I enjoyed this project since I like location drawing. I felt my sketchbook work was of a much better standard than my final piece for this project. The brief was very open so we could do whatever we wanted. I chose to write a poem and illustrate it. I didn't feel my poem was particularly good. My English skills are not particularly strong, so choosing to do a written piece probably wasn't a good idea. At least it gave me a chance to branch out and try something new, even if it didn't go to plan.

As I have said, one thing I did enjoy about this project was the location drawing. I managed to develop a new looser, more free style of drawing which I will definitely use again. I enjoyed using continuous line, as it is quick and not too precise, but still looks interesting and sometimes quite abstract. I managed to fill up my sketchbook quite quickly using continuous line. I think this unit in particular helped me to improve my work, as drawing from life is always good practice. The fact I tried to push myself by getting out of my comfort zone helped too. I attempted to draw architecture, whereas before I would shy away from it.

The last project we had to do was on narrative. We were given a number of Greek myths to read and we had to choose the one we most wanted to illustrate. I chose the story of Narcissus. I picked out the three most important things that happen in the story and drew them. I feel my supporting work for this project was not up to standard. I planned on visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum and drawing the statues of male bodies but I couldn't afford it. This made me rather down-heartened and as a result I became less enthusiastic about my sketchbook work. On the whole, I don't mind my final illustrations for this project. We were told to make our drawings suitable for both a young and old audience. I think my brightly coloured pictures will appeal to children as well as being sophisticated enough to appeal to an older audience.

On the whole I could have done more supporting sketchbook work for all of my projects. I prefer to visualise my final artwork in my head and put it straight down onto paper. This is a bad thing since I don't know whether my image will actually look good until I've completed it. I need to learn to plan out my work in my sketchbook first. This is something I will think about in future.

Another thing I will do next time is more research. I find looking at other artists work particularly inspiring and influential on my work. Inspiration is something I was lacking on the editorial brief and I feel more artist research could have helped me with that. On the plus side, I managed to use both books and the internet for this project, which is something which I don't usually manage.

Not keen on the structure of this poem. Just a rough. I don't have word on my laptop so I'm putting it here. We had to choose a "small world" in the bournemouth area to do art on. I chose winton graveyard. This poem takes a few names of the people in the graveyard and explains how they died. I'm going to play around with typography and form the words into a picture of a church.

Winton Graveyard

Elenor Jane
Completely insane,
Sat atop a cliff in the rain.
The sodden earth crumbled
And downwards she tumbled,
Suffusing her blood soaked, rocky remains.

Mr Maurice
Became too obese,
They said to stop eating, he just wouldn't cease.
He poisoned his innards, crippled his heart,
With his sweet treats he could not part.
Beneath a birch he now lies in peace.

Poor Miss Best
Had nothing left,
Packed up her life and began heading west.
Met a man full of wit and charm,
Thought he'd keep her safe from harm.
A fool, she was. He knifed her chest.

Master James Hues
One for the booze,
Hard spirits; whiskey and rum he'd abuse.
He sucked up pints till his liver turned grey,
At 30 years old he slipped away.
His mother and father sobbed in the pews.

Old Mrs Fleet
Died in her sleep
The middle of winter; outside there was sleet.
She dreamed of warmth and moments passed
and light and sun; that dream, her last.
Around her coffin her relatives weeped.

I don't have that much time for DA or the internet in general any more. I've moved out now and I've started my illustration course. It's good - much better than last year. The standard of work my class has been producing has gone up ten fold since foundation. I'm almost definitely the worst drawer in my whole group But never mind. Seeing everyone elses work is helping to inspire me and is giving me lots of ideas. The fact that everyone seems to be better than me is also bringing out the competitive side of my personality I'm sure with practice I'll catch up with the others eventually.

Moving out has been mad. My housemates are all crazy On our first night here we all went skinny dipping in the sea at 4am We've turned out garden into something amazing by introducing a paddling pool, space hoppers and a gazebo. Living away from home is fun

I haven't updated in SO FRICKIN LONG so if there's anyone out there unfortunate enough to still be watching me then I apologise I will do better in future I swear I have no excuse now since I'm on my (FIVE MONTH) summer holidays That means I've finished my first year at uni After muchhh hard work I got a merit and secured a place on the course of my choice (illustration at Bournemouth!) so I'm happy Oh if anyone's interested in seeing my final piece this is a crappy photo of it [link] I might put a better photo in my gallery soon.

OH MY GOD I saw Angels and Demons today with my loverr and it was AMAZING. GO AND WATCH IT. I also stuffed my face with sugar and now I'm hyper

Finally, go on this site [link] It is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

Well, I got a place at Bournemouth uni. I put this down to luck, as well as my new found ability to cram an unbearable amount of work into stupidly short amount of time. I can't describe how relieved I am. I still think it's a late april fools, and after the easter holidays I'm gunna go back to uni and they'll be like "PAH! YOU FELL FOR IT"

Anyway, sorry I haven't updated in like a million years, I've been far too busy. I think over my extremely long summer holidays I will upload some of the work I've done this year. There's so much of it

Now all that's left to do is find somewhere to live next year. I can't wait to move out and spend ridiculous amounts of money that I don't have on unaffordable accommodation ... No, really! I'm serious!