Art Portfolio Two Reflection

 This term, considering art portfolio two is my last project of this foundation course, I was quite satisfied with how well my outcome turned out, and the memorable experience i went through in the last 3 month. This term art portfolio i was assigned a brief, which helps a lot in ideas generation process, because i have a clear aim or concept to develop, compared to last term where i need to choose my own theme that took the most time and effort. The only issue i had during these process is narrowing my concept and inspiration. Taking Indonesia’s diverse cultures as my reference is challenging for me to finalize on the collection concept and not taking too many elements to incorporate. 

Moving on to the second block assessment, this is where i did most of the research and background exploration as well as technical skill experimentation. During these 3 weeks, i explored a few costume designer that took their own culture’s as a major reference of their work. I also looked at indonesian designer that did a similar concept to my collection and looked at how he develop that theme into a well-constructed collection. Besides gathering background information, I also experimented with beadings embroidery and wire jewelry that I eventually used in my collection. These are also supported by the metal fabrication workshop that i did to better understand how to utilize the skill and facilities to create my outcome. 

I also started the production process on the second block assessment week. As i already had the finalized design, the production was quite straightforward, although i had a slight issue when choosing the fabric color that suits the batik and songket that i have prepared. The hardest piece to make is the corset, especially the pattern-making process because i need to frequently adjust the pattern to perfectly fit my body measurement. Although i took so much time to perfected the corset pattern, recently i realized that the front bodice piece was to short and doesn’t give full coverage of my chest. This will be a note to take in future project and to practice more on my pattern draping skill. Looking at how my outcome turned out, I also realized that my outcome was constructed much better than last term, in terms of adding a neat lining and a clean finished seam, which can be seen on the picture below. 

I was really pleased that my outcome was looking well-constructed and more professional than the last project. On the last block assessment week, I spent most of the time to work on my portfolio and improved my website. Although it was not the most interesting and fun part of the whole art portfolio, but the portfolio is the most crucial outcome as it will present my collection on the website. Compared to last term, I still think that my approach on making the portfolio hasn’t change or improved. I realized that this term portfolio has similar layout and design with last term. Therefore for future project, i still need to practice and experiment with different layout and page design perhaps by researching other professional portfolio example and analyze how I can take similar approach to make my portfolio more appropriate. 

Overall, this term art portfolio project turned out really well and i was pleased that process aligned with my initial timeline. However there’s still room for improvement, in terms of experimenting with different portfolio layout and design, and also practice my pattern draping skill to create a better fit outcome for future projects. Although this foundation course doesn’t directly teaches me on how to construct a garment or other sewing-related technical skills, but through this course I was guided on how to properly create a collection from the ideas-generating process to exploring other designers, researching background information and compiling these outcome into an appropriate portfolio presentation. These experience and guidance will certainly help me during my course in DMU next academic year. Another things that I learned from this course is to stick in a short timeline given, that practiced my time management skill to plan the process beforehand therefore the outcome will finished on time. When moving to the university, short timeline is common especially in fashion design course that require students to create their 3D outcome in that strict time schedule. Therefore this foundation course prepared me well on what I’m going to come across later in the university and support me with the skills and experiences needed for future projects.