Conclusion

At first when we recieved the brief I didn't really want to reflect on the last year and just to move on with the new term ahead, but after this short log of reflection I have realised its made me think a lot about what I did enjoy and learn throughout first year, something I didn't originally give myself any time to think about if I'm honest. More importantly to me, it has made me think about the things I most need to work on this year to bring my grade up and to keep improving throughout the rest of the course. I narrowed it down to three main things:

1.  Essay writing - The research, preparation, stucture, writing in the academic style, referencing quotes, bibliography.
2. Photoshop - Brush up on skills I learnt last year (Moodboards, basic retouching)
3. Time management - Keep a diary of what I will be doing each day (At university or work) and a study planner of all my notes, work I need to complete, things I need to buy etc. 

I am nervous and excited to see whats in for us this term, I am also confident that I know what I need to do to improve but will be referring to this blog to help me along the way and will also continue to write reflection logs on her throughout second year as I learn new things and continue to see how I improve and in what areas I struggle. I believe this will be interesting to look back on this time next year.

Things to improve on

My biggest battle in first year was our contextual studies essay! I have never had to write an essay before and as someone who didn't put much effort into English at school, the prospect of this essay was something I did not want to contend with. As well as having to learn as I went with writing in the academic style, collating research and using quotes when I had completed the essay to the best of my ability, I found the source and image referencing really time consuming and difficult too. Luckily I had made sure to photocopy any pages I used from books and bookmarked websites onto my laptop to make this process more organised and quicker. Although this was not one of my favourite parts of the course, I am proud that I have now officially completed an academic essay, recieving a 2:2 grade which I was thrilled with! It is always the first time for everything that is the most scary, so now I have a slightly better idea of what I am doing when researching, planning and writing an essay I will be able to hopefully improve until I feel comfortable and confident with the task. In order to get a higher grade in my next essay I am going to make the bibliography and do all necessary referencing as I go along, making sure that I follow the Harvard Referencing booklet from the library until referencing  becomes second nature to me.

Photoshop was another aspect I found a very big struggle this year, this was and still is completely new to me and has caused me many hours of stressing throughout the year! In the lessons we had I found following the teachers instructions, making notes and watching what they were doing at the same time very frustrating, if you missed one step then the rest wouldn't work and I felt that the teachers were so advanced that it was hard for them to teach complete beginners in a way which we would understand. I found the help of one of my flat mates and my boyfriend who are competent photoshop users amazing as they would show me easier, quicker and more memorable short cuts to achieving the same effect which gave me confidence and taught me a lot. To think that in the first term I had absolutley no idea, but during second and third I could edit my photos with basic techniques and create moodboards without much help from anyone else such a victory because I didn't initially believe I would ever be able to use photoshop! I know that going into second year after 4 months without touching the programme I am going to be very rusty but I know I will pick it back up again, hopefully by this time next year I will be completely photoshop qualified and be able to simply edit my photos and create moodboards without any help at all. 

As well as all of this time management has been a huge shock to the system, as before beginning the course I thought it would be the same kind of workload as at college (stupid I know). At college I studied a BTEC in Art & Design, during this course we only had one project to complete at a time per term. When we started first semester and I realised we had our main project (The New Elizabethans) alongside Digital Image Production I found these both hard to juggle and work consistently at both whilst also working part time at Cath Kidston. In 2nd/3rd term this became even harder as we also had the contextual studies essay to top Gothic Horror and Digital Image Production (I have already discussed how stressful the essay was!). As my part time job is the reason I am able to afford to study away from home I had to find a way to work this around my course which was harder than I thought as after uni I would come home and have to continue studying, and on my days off rather than winding down and catching up on sleep or work I would have to go off to do a shift. This is something I am still struggling with now but having a diary to organise my days and a study planner to help organise my work I hope that I will be able to find myself a nice little routine.

Highlights

My favourite project during first year was the New Elizabethans in our first term. Learning all the basic techniques for applying make-up at the beginning was an important way to start the course as these are techniques I will use in every job I ever do and as the basis to build upon more complex and creative techniques and looks throughout my university and professional career. I also enjoyed being taught the hair styling techniques as this is something I struggle with more than the make-up as find incredibly tricky and fiddly, it is not something that comes naturally to me! I feel like these lessons gave me a lot more confidence and I even began enjoying it which I never thought possible. To think back on how much I have improved on hair this year inspires and excites me to keep practising and improving as I can't wait to see what I will be able to do at the end of the next two years. Luckily for me I am living with eight girls who all have such different hair of all styles, lengths and thicknesses so I am spoilt for choice when it comes to models to practise and play around with. 

During the New Elizabethans project I loved working from another designers face and hair charts as it gave us a chance to properly get to know each other and communicate as we had to understand completely what the other wanted us to do, just like if we were to be working at a fashion show or on a character for a movie or theatre production. I was very nervous about creating Sara's hair and make-up look on her as I wanted it to be just right for her. We practised over and over again in our spare time so we could make sure the timing was just right and we knew how long we would need on the day so we could organise some preparation in advance. This all paid of as I was so proud of my final hair and make-up look for this project and was even more thrilled when I was graded A2 for my practical assessments! It goes to show that practise and organisation is key to success as the timed assessments weren't stressful and daunting as I imagined they would be due to everything being set and ready to go straight away.

 
I also really enjoyed the first Digital Image Production brief as it gave us chance to create any look we designed for hair and make-up using only one colour and to photograph the complete look taking a close up and a mid length shot. I enjoyed this as while studying the Elizabethans and designing a look inspired by that time period we were free to do what we wanted with this look as long as it was only made using one colour (Mine was gold) and portrayed a mood across to whoever looks at the photos. The mood part of this brief confused me a bit as it wasn't initially made clear what was meant by this, but nonetheless I still really enjoyed the preparation for this shoot and the actual creating on the day. 

 

Introduction

My name is Ruby and I am just about to enter onto my second year of BA (Hons) Make-up & Hair Design at Southampton Solent University. This blog will be a reflection on my first year at university as a whole. I am going to think about what I have come away with after completing my first year of the course, what I have learnt, my favourite parts and the times I struggled and use this to look back on over the next year to remind myself of what I am good at and which parts I need to work harder to improve on. Now I know what to expect after my experiences from last year, second year is going to be all about improvement and growth.