1. Getting started

Getting started is the first part of Key Steps in Illustration. It consists of two exercises and an assignment.

• The history of illustration
• Getting the gist
• Assignment 1 – Say hello

My reflections on the work

Before I started I set a number of personal objectives. These are outlined below along with how I performed against each.

PART 1 – study plan

I wanted to complete the work within the suggested 40-hours that the OCA recommend. I outlined the following study plan.

Description of work	Target no. hours	Actual no. hours
The history of illustration	16	Not recorded
The key is communication	8	Not recorded
Say hello	16	Not recorded
Total hours:	40	Not recorded

I lost track of the actual hours spent because I soon realised that I was going to miss that target by some margin. I probably spent more like 65-hours overall and completed the work in 23-days

PART 1 – personal goal

To ease myself back into education and distance learning

I’ve achieved this although I can see that PART 2 is going to require more discipline and is asking a lot more challenging questions in terms of being more inventive, playful and less precious.

The objectives I set myself for PART 1 were to:

Objective	How I performed
Set-up and start to use the Learning Log	Objective met: The Learning Log is set-up and I’m happy that I understand how to create and edit new content.
Agree ways-of-working with my tutor	Objective met: We spoke on the phone and have exchanged email.
Confirm my speed-of-working – my target is to complete PART 1 within the suggested 40-hours	Objective not met: As discussed above, I probably spent 65-hours completing the work. This is something I will monitor more closely during PART 2.
Feel happy with the quality of the work produced for the projects and assignment	Objective met: I’m happy with the work although in hind sight I would have taken a different approach with a couple of the pieces. For example, I think the illustration for ‘Getting the gist’ would have been better realised if I’d used traditional paint rather than Photoshop.