End of year: Evaluation

This first year for me has been a roller coaster as I've had highs and lows within the course. Area's I found I struggled with more than others, but this is why I'm here to learn more with the things I struggle with. I found fashion being one of my favourite lessons and sad to learn we won’t be having this in the next year as I found Branka taught us so well and feel my skills have come a long way since our first lesson. Fashion hair I did enjoy but found I preferred period hair as I felt this lesson was more challenging and felt I learnt more as period hair there is more to it. Which some lessons were most definitely challenging as this year my most challenging hairstyle I just couldn't get to grips with was the 1920's finger wave's which this really annoyed me as I was looking forward to learning this hair style as I'm a big fan of the 20's. Each lesson learning this style was just a struggle and a very frustrating one it became. I didn't overcome this as I only could really get one S , this is something I defiantly need to practice this style at home to try and apply an full head of finger waves. I did find this lesson my most challenging but I found each style I always applied well and came out with good final images and each lesson also found I left with learning so much, and looking forward to next year to challenging myself to new styles we are taught. Period make up I learnt a lot about the history of makeup and the brands of the time that are still big today, learning the background of makeup and the styles have really helped me identify the era's. With all the different looks I enjoyed term two more as I felt term one was really good to learn all the no makeup looks but found it all looked very similar each lesson whereas term two was more of a challenge to us and felt I learnt a lot more. My struggle was the balancing of the lip, with Denise giving me the tip of standing right in front of the model making sure my nose is in line with the models which this did help me prevent the unbalanced lip. Finding theatre my most struggle of all only mainly the bald cap weeks as I did struggle with time as I took longer to apply the cap its self, but I feel if I applied again I would be quicker on my 3^rd application. I think it’s a very fun lesson theatre but this year has shown me what I like to do more of and my strengths and found theatre isn’t really for me.

This year I would say has made me realise I would really like to go into fashion with also freelancing in weddings as I just enjoyed fashion so much and a lot of my work experience revolved around fashion and I enjoyed it so much I didn’t feel like I was working for 12 hours on set I was doing what I love for 12 hours. With learning what I’m learning at West Thames and also the experience I’m getting and the skills I’m learning on set I’ve seen so much improvement on all area’s and will carry on getting this work experience as I feel it’s really helped my skills alongside university. If I was to change anything on this year would be to keep on top of my work instead of leaving last minute as I was putting work experience first and doing as much as I could but then this has made an impact on my work, so next year I will be writing myself up a timetable so this doesn’t repeat its self for my second year. As I felt I was doing everything more last minute and feel my work isn’t at a standard I know I can produce. I’ve noticed this myself and will make sure I change for my second year! Another issue I have noticed within myself is not being able to deliver a presentation well this is due to just being so nervous as when I’m in front of everyone I get terrible stage fright and find I can’t sometimes even get my words out, as this really gets to me. I will try and practice more as I would in year two try and get higher than a pass on my presentation so this will be on my list to push for within my second year.

Overall I’ve really enjoyed this course and really happy with how far I’ve come within this year I feel really proud of myself as in assessments I have pushed myself and set myself with a challenge that I would have found a little hard in the lesson as this is a risk doing this but I want to set myself a challenge and not stay safe with styles I know I can do. Each of my final assessment I was proud of how far I pushed myself and the outcome I produced made me so proud and that’s from learning I have achieved this year at West Thames. If I could change anything about the course is carry on hair and make up till we finish as in term three we don’t do any apart from our final assessments in term three, which I’ve really missed our hair and makeup lessons and just feel it’s a very long break of not doing any practical within hair and make-up and would of loved learning for that extra one month, but understand why it has been set this way due to end of year projects. Also a good incentive to get students out to work experience to keep their skills up as this is most definitely what I’m doing so I don’t lose the skill. Looking forward to returning in year two to develop my skills even further than what I’ve learnt this year.