CONTENT: creating the modern generations book of fairy tales character development

To better understand my content objectives , I started developing characters to meet them. I started with character design and wanted to be edgy so I used black ink to give tone and depth. I am pleased that these images are suitable for children s but because they are slightly more gritty will appeal to adults.

AUTHORSHIP EVALUATION 2013

Evaluation

I think I have had a really productive year, especially since Christmas when I re-evaluated my objectives. Last year I tried to think outside the box, trying to change my skills when I should have been adapting and developing them to fit my content and objectives.

This year I managed to specify exactly what I want to achieve with my personal practice, as opposed to denying it and trying to steer in fresh direction. I now understand that the ‘content’ of my work does not need to be changed to make my work original and interesting, I just need to continue pushing the skills I already have in new directions, by trying new media, styles and taking new inspiration. I managed to do this the past few months by limiting the media I use, especially in life drawing and location drawing. By doing this I have discovered a much more fluid, spontaneous way of working, which is evident mostly in my life-drawings. For my FMP, I must continue working in this way, especially in my development work because it sets up my most interesting artworks.

In terms of audience, I think my work is always geared towards children and I stand by that despite the Gothic undertones of my work. In truth, my work is no more gruesome than that of Chris Grimly, or Arthur Rackham, both children's book Illustrators who I would say trick (ed) the censors somewhat because their style is inherently Gothic. I think that for this reason my work would be sell-able commercially, especially with its Fairy Tale themes that are extremely commercial at the moment and seen all over the media. I have put this tp practice and used this media to influence my work and objectives. 

Meeting my objectives was extremely important and I worked especially hard over the summer to build up a portfolio of artwork that responded to character and stereotype whilst fitting my Authorship proposal. Although my skill set is not and will never be fully developed, I have found, through experimentation and the taking of visual notes (on location, from film, television novels etc.) that I have produced images of varying styles, atypical of my usual work and yet, still noticeable as my own. From this I have learned that media experiments and the pursuit of skill development is key to keeping my work fresh and interesting and therefore I am qualified for a wider range of commissions, I can feel confident taking on new tasks and most importantly my work can be appreciated by a wider audience with varying artistic tastes.  

ESCAPISM 'NELL': The wild woman, 'MOGAMBO' 1953, WUTHERING HEIGHTS (Emily Bronte) DEVELOPMENT AND EXPERIMENTAL SKETCHES.

DRAWINGS FROM MOVIE STILLS, VISUAL/LITERAL NOTES. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 

LOOKING AT ESCAPISM

Nell 1994: A woman is raised in the wilderness on an unknown language and has had no contact with others

Mogambo 1953: A woman and her husband go to the African Jungle to study Gorilla's and enter a literal and personal wilderness 

'Wuthering Heights'

'heaven did not seem to be my home and I broke my heart with weeping to come back down to earth. The angels were so angry that they flung me down, out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights.' 

These images are an example of my own visual notes, in response to my OBJECTIVES, I concentrated on media and composition , to do my ideas and narratives justice. I am not sure where I will take these as yet but they work towards my A. proposal, as cautionary tales which can hint towards the Gothic with their siniscism and moral teachings. 

AN ORIGINAL FAIRY TALE: PATRICK THE PIRATE: thinking about content and development

FOR MY LATEST PROJECT WE CREATED OUR OWN STORIES. IN DOING SO I MANAGED TO MEET A LOT OF MY AUTHORSHIP OBJECTIVES, ESPECIALLY IN TERMS OF CONTENT, BUT I CERTAINLY PUSHED THE BOUNDARIES OF STORYTELLING. IN ADDITION, I MANAGED TO GET THE BALANCE OF DEVELOPMENT/RESEARCH/FINAL OUTCOME RIGHT, SO MY IMAGES WERE BETTER OFF FOR THIS. 

1ST STEP: VISUAL NOTE TAKING, OBSERVATIONAL DRAWING, DRAWING FROM MOVIE STILLS. 

Working in this way really helped me to develop my work, especially in terms of content and ideas. I tried to get a colour palate going from the outset, even in the research and development. So immediately I got a feel for the whole thing and I could towards a goal. The goal became very much like my Authorship, so I kept this in mind throughout the project. 

'Against All flags' a great film that lacks in Gothic but makes up with content and story. I can take from this, especially costume ideas, colour ideas and content (for story, props, ship etc.)

Visual note taking is really useful, whether it be from movies, life, stories, exhibitions, it helps to take inspiration to feed into work. 

literal notes, getting things into order on paper helps. 

COLOUR: I FOUND DOING COLOUR EXPERIMENTS, AND MEDIA EXPERIMENTS ON PAPER REALLY USEFUL, BECAUSE SOMETIMES I FOUND SOMETHING REALLY WAY OUT TO BE EFFECTIVE, OR THE PAPER TO BE WRONG FOR THE MEDIUM. IF I PRACTICED FIRST I COULD RECTIFY BEFORE THE FINAL OUTCOME. 

OBSERVATIONAL DRAWING: GETTING IDEAS FOR THINGS I NEEDED TO REFERENCE

CHARACTER DESIGN, DRAWING FROM ALL THE REST OF MY DEVELOPMENT WORK

NEXT STAGE: ROUGH BOOK CONCENTRATING ON LAYOUT AND COMPOSITION. 

we were required to produce a dummy book, which was useful because it meant the whole story could be roughed out, it didn't need to be to too neat and if needed extra pages could be added in. Even though it was specific to this project I would like to think about using this technique again in similar projects because it definitely improved the final outcome. 

FINAL OUTCOMES:

BASED ON ALL OF MY DEVELOPMENT WORK. ITS NOT PERFECT BUT IN MANY WAYS IT FITS SOME OF MY OBJECTIVES. ITS NOT REALLY GOTHIC, BUT I MANAGE TO MAKE IT EDGY. I ALSO TRIED TO PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF WHATS ACCEPTABLE FOR CHILDREN TO BE READING. MY ILLUSTRATIONS ARE PROBABLY NOT 100% APPROPRIATE BUT THAT IS PART OF MY OBJECTIVES-LOOKING AT THE WORK OF RACKHAM, DULAC, THEY INCLUDED NUDITY AND VIOLENCE IN THEIR WORK AND IT STILL GOT PART THE CENSORS BECAUSE IT MAINTAINED A CERTAIN INNOCENCE.

FINAL OUTCOMES IN RELATION TO MY OBJECTIVES:

I TRIED TO THINK MAINLY ABOUT COSTUME, SET, SCENERY AND WHITE SPACE (I.E COMPOSITION). I AM PLEASED I MET SOME OF MY OBJECTIVES WITH THIS PROJECT, IT WAS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF HOW MY PROFESSIONAL WORK CAN OFTEN BE MADE INTO A PERSONAL PROJECT. IF THERE WAS MORE TIME I WOULD HAVE DONE EVEN MORE RESEARCH AND LIFE DRAWING AS MY OBJECTIVES STATED. 

EXTRAS- NOT REALLY  A PART OF MY OBJECTIVES BUT IT FIT IN WITH THE ESCAPISM IDEA-IT CREATES A WHOLE NEW WORLD ETC. 

NARRATIVE: Experiments with style, media and GENRE.

I USED MY NARRATIVE PROJECT TO HELP DEVELOP AND EXPLOIT MY AUTHORSHIP OBJECTIVES. I HAD TO OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE MY VERY OWN 'CAUTIONARY TALE' OR 'NARRATIVE' SEQUENCE. I IMMEDIATELY LOOKED BACK AT MY A. PROPOSAL AND MY 'SKILLS' 'CONTENT' AND 'OBJECTIVES' AND DECIDED THESE WERE THE MOST VALUABLE WORDS TO DESCRIBE MY PERSONAL PRACTICE:

1. GOTHIC 

2. ESCAPISM 

3. FANTASY 

4. CAUTION

5. COSTUME 

6. HISTORY

7. ACCURACY 

IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE THESE THINGS I HAD TO BUILD A VISUAL DICTIONARY IN SKETCH BOOK FORM BEFORE I COULD BEGIN TO DEVELOP ANY FINAL OUTCOMES. THIS WAS ACHIEVED THROUGH OBSERVATIONAL DRAWINGS, DRAWING FROM MOVIE STILLS AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, RESEARCH, STORY-BOARDING AND COMPOSITION EXPERIMENTATION. 

Images from sketchbook

This build up work was invaluable to this project and really helped drive the process. Especially, it made me think about composition and genre and how I could make things better with each image. 

A COMEDIC CAUTIONARY TALE

'WELCOME TO HELL'

'They've obviously never heard of knocking'

'All this for making chicken soup?'

'Oh well, at least its on fire.' 

'I didn't think there'd be this much competition.' 

'And I didn't think this could get anymore disappointing!' 

USING PHOTOGRAPHY TO CREATE AN ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATION

In my objectives I talked about experimenting with a wide range of media. This is a technique that I used often in the past and I wanted to see if I could apply the skills I have today to this technique in response to my SB work.  

I am really pleased with these images, they are not technically sound but they adhere to my ideas about content and objective. The story is Fairy Tale but it maintains the Gothic twist I insist upon in all my my work and by using photography I have conquered one way of achieving that hint of reality.