Final Evaluation...

It feels strange to me that this project has, for now, has got to come to a close. When I think about something and work on something over a long period of time, I get into a routine.
I think one aspect I will change the next time I embark on a project like this, I will not give myself such a big task to complete in a short amount of time. After all the thinking and redesigning of characters to help me convey the right thoughts, I did not give myself enough time to finish the book in the end. However, I was happy that the preview book I managed to make with the complete pages was concise and does not give too much of the story away.

The London Book Fair was a huge confidence boost as it was the first time I was exposing a large bulk of the story to the public.
This felt rewarding but made me realise that I had been keeping The Nikahrat too hidden over the course of making it. This, originally was because there were so many personal feelings put into the narrative and the character, I was too shy to let anyone see. Afterwards, slight fear or rejection and misunderstanding made me hold it back from being viewed by my peers.
This has taught me how to balance between what is and emotional piece of work and what is too personal. I have a lot of opinions and feelings that I would love to share with an audience, and I know that my strength is within writing deeper, emotional pieces of narrative. I believe it would be advisable for my next project however to detach myself from it, leaving out a few more personal feelings, so I can look at it from a more critical angle.
This would then, I believe cut down on the time spent redesigning and researching.

Another important thing I learnt too is the ability to understand and work to your strengths. It is always good to progress and move onto new things, however, you cannot be too ambitious on a small time scale.
One of the most surprising alterations I believe was my dramatic shift towards lino cut! It is something that, at the beginning of this project, I would not have seen myself embarking upon. However, it has given me new knowledge and confidence that I can put to new areas and help myself expand and perfect my own style of work.
I would love to see what else I can create using this technique and what effect it has upon the rest of my illustrative style!

Overal, I am happy with how The Nikahrat progressed and materialised.
It has taught me a lot about fitting time scales to my own ability and that building up a public interest and opinion sooner in the progress stages is really important.

It has also helped me realise a potential of a successful career in producing my own books and narratives. With a lot of hard work, longer time scales and few more detached emotions, I can defiantly see myself making much longer narratives and illustrating them.

I have not stressed too much over this project, so I have not put myself off creating narratives such as this again, which I know could've happened if I had not been calm about what emotions were being put into it.