STATEMENT OF INTENT

BRIEFS

• Hookworms gig poster
• Jonathan Cape comic competition
• Webcomic series
• Gig poster series
• Music video storyboards
• Graphic novel proposal/concept boards/first chapter
• Series of self-portraits

RATIONALE

I want to push myself more this year to do things outside of my comfort zone. I want to focus on other interests, like music, aside from comics, so I will undertake the Hookworms brief and perhaps a series of other gig posters of events I want to go to/have been to in Leeds. 

Character, narrative and humour are the most important things in my practice, so I will only do briefs that enable me to incorporate these. 

I'm hoping to plan my time better this year - I've written down the dates of all the brief deadlines (in sketchbook) and will create an action plan and timetable of work. I need to plan my time especially well for the self-directed briefs, as I have to set my own deadlines, which I've not been great with in the past. I'd like to improve my digital skills as well, and maybe experiment more with traditional processes like screenprinting for the gig posters.

Artist Research: Cari Vander

Ugly Face Wednesdays

Cari Vander photographed a series of self-portraits. 

They're playful and not serious!

I'd like to do something like this for a self-initiated project:

Have a dedicated day to draw a portrait (I like drawing people/characters) of me or someone else(s?)

Task: Thought Experiment

My practice is all about character and narrative. When doodling I'll usually draw girls and create female characters. I also prefer drawing with pen on paper, rather than using a tablet. Even though I'm a perfectionist, I like the fluidity and personality you can achieve with hand drawn lines. I also feel pressure to work digitally as many comic artists do.

I'm scared of failure and not being "good enough", either to my own standards or to others'. This makes me procrastinate on work if I don't think I can 'get it right' first time.

I like using 'messy' analogue media, but I often avoid it during briefs because it's time consuming and there's less margin for error unlike digital. And because I procrastinate a lot, working digitally allows me to correct errors easily. I do still find Photoshop a bit overwhelming though!

I drew this portrait going back to analogue media, which I haven't used for a while, and chose to create a male character, as I don't often draw men. I wanted to use inks to loosen myself up a bit and try not to worry so much about so-called perfection.

Self Portrait

Extended Practice Intro Presentation

Project Report

Design Boards

Application of Illustrations

Evaluation

End of Module Student Evaluation

BA (Hons) Illustration

Module Code: OUIL503 Responsive

Name: Molly Halson

Student ID: mh259901

Please identify where the evidence for each of the learning outcomes is within your submission and how well you feel you have met the learning outcomes. Please also grade yourself in relation to the learning outcomes using terms: poor, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent (Note - This is so that the team have an understanding of how well you feel you have done. It is not an indication of the actual grade you may receive.)

Learning Outcome	Evidenced where? Blog, Visual Journal, Roughs, Final Illustrations, Storyboards, Development Sheets etc.  (No more than 75 words)	Your grade Using words: > poor, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent
5A4:  Make appropriate use of a range of research methods to investigate a topic and produce work relating to the critical, cultural or social context of art and design. (Knowledge & Understanding - Research and Critical Awareness)	Blog, boards	Good
5B3: Generate ideas, concepts, proposals, solutions and/or arguments using the language, materials, processes and techniques of a designated discipline. (Cognitive Skills - Problem Analysis, Problem Solving)	Blog, boards	Very Good
5C3: Respond to set briefs or proposals in a professional context. (Practical Skills - Visual Quality and Conceptual Development)	Blog, boards	Satisfactory
5D3: Exercise self-management skills in managing their workloads and meeting deadlines/apply interpersonal and social skills to interact with others. (Key Transferable Skills, Organisation, Communication and Evaluation)	Blog	Poor

Summative Evaluation (See Evaluation Guidance on next page for more information)

I really struggled with a lot of this module. I definitely found it hard to make and keep my own deadlines and juggle this module along with all the others. I’ve always struggled with my time management and being thrown into a very self-directed module (and year) has been a huge challenge. I’ve also been struggling with depression over the last couple of years, and so that has been affecting my motivation throughout. I am trying to control this better though. I really enjoyed SB2, as I loved my collaborative partners and we were able to solve problems and disputes maturely and diplomatically. I found that having two partners made me work harder and keep to deadlines better as I didn’t want to let them down. I wanted to practice my digital skills more in this module. I thought I would do this by doing Illustration Friday every week, or maybe the film society too, but I put too much pressure on myself to make them perfect and ended up just doing what I know best – pen. I need to push myself more and step out of my comfort zone. I regret not doing a more substantial brief, as I believe that I could have created something I was proud of, had I tried harder. However, I did experiment more with animation and digital in SB2, and although I’m definitely still learning, I’ve also learned some new skills! And hopefully I can take those on to future modules.

SB3 Project Report

SB2 Design Boards

SB1 Design Boards

Final 6 Illustrations

The two I'm happiest with are 3 and 4. I really experimented with my digital skills with these two, and I think they look the most polished.

If I did this project again I'd allow myself more time and maybe choose different scenes - I wanted to do different scenes and work on my skills drawing landscapes, but I didn't have enough time and decided to make it easier for myself by cheating and using elements from the other images to create the other scenes.

I do think I achieved the narrative though! I think they work not only as a set of images, but have the potential to become an animated music video that suits the song I chose, which is what I intended.

Finally picked my song

I realised that the reason I was having trouble/taking too long to pick a song was because I was focusing too much on the lyrics. This song is instrumental, so I can come up with a unique narrative based entirely on the music. Even though most music videos don't illustrate the lyrics, it's arguably more of a challenge to create visuals that keep with the music's tone when there are no words to be inspired by.

I was listening to this band while I did my CoP essay as they're instrumental and didn't distract me from my work, and I find this particular song very soothing, so I was listening to it as I went to sleep. I was looking out the window, and actually came up with an idea for my music video as I was watching the stars:

D&AD NAS submission complete!

NAS Final Animation

Luke's Story from Molly Halson on Vimeo.

I did rush this as I only left myself a week to animate, but I'm still proud of what I managed to do in that week!

I used the NAS colour palette they specified in the brief guidelines, and tried to emulate an RPG feel with pixellated textures made from Adobe Capture textures, scanned from objects around me.

Overall, I think I captured the essence of Luke, and I hope it portrays what I hoped it to - that autistic people are really just like everyone else, with goals and hobbies just the same.

Music Videos

The music video that inspired me to change my project proposal was for the song Let's Go by Stuck in the Sound, animated by Alexis Beaumont & Remi Godin.



I was inspired by the really emotive narrative, and realised a music video (or storyboard/6 scenes of) could be a perfect way for me to tell stories, as well as provide an opportunity to build my animation (GIFs) skills and digital drawing skills. The events of the narrative also correspond to the sounds of the music cleverly, for an example: an explosion when the chorus starts.

Other music videos with good stories/visuals:


Animated by Boneface


Animated by Rory Kerr and Paul Ruttledge

Adobe Capture + animation aesthetics

I found the app Adobe Capture today and I've been using it to make textures that I think will be useful in making my animation! Since I'm trying to mimic the Zelda games, as Luke mentioned he liked them, I think it will help make a game style or RPG look.

This is some of the visual research I did, and some of the textures I made from things around the room.

These are the colours NAS specified. I'm going to focus mainly on blues and greens.

Animation storyboarding + notes

Character Designs NAS

OUIL505 Proposal

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	05
OUIL505 ILLUSTRATION 2: Applied Illustration	Credits	30
Module Brief  Title: Product, Range & Distribution

STUDIO BRIEF 1: Project Proposal

Project Rationale

What do you intend to do and why?

I want to create a set of illustrations that form a narrative set to the song Resonance by Home, which has the potential to become and animated music video. I’m going to do this because I have a passion for music, and the format of an animated music video incorporates that passion into my practice. I chose this song specifically because I find it emotive, and it is instrumental which presents more of a challenge to create imagery, as there are no lyrics to inspire me, only sound. I want to create the illustrations digitally, as I haven’t experimented enough with digital media although I like it, and considering these illustrations would be potentially distributed digitally in a video format. I will apply my illustrations to a range of band and music merchandise.

THEMES / SUBJECTS

GENERAL THEMES: Music Individualism Conformity SPECIFIC SUBJECTS: Character & Narrative

PRACTICAL & CONCEPTUAL APPLICATION

SPECIFIC DISCIPLINARY AREA: Animation Music videos Character & Narrative AUDIENCE/CONTEXTS: Music lovers PRODUCTION/Distribution Methods: YouTube, Vimeo, merchandising sites like MerchNOW

CONTEXTUAL REFERENCES

ILLUSTRATORS / DESIGNERS / STUDIOS: Eat the Danger animation studio Boneface – illustrator/animator Distributors of band merchandise like MerchNOW

CREATIVE SKILLS

I want to develop my digital skills using my graphics tablet and Photoshop. I have been starting to use these methods more during level 2 but I want to develop them further. I will also develop my storyboarding skills, and apply my skills with visual narratives.

KEY TEXTS

Home - Resonance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GW6sLrK40k Queens of the Stone Age – I Appear Missing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9OfBcjyxKY Music video animated by Boneface Stuck in the Sound – Let’s Go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Gg9CqhbP8 Music video directed by Alexis Beaumont and Remi Godin Courtney Barnett – Dead Fox https://vimeo.com/172404474 Animated by Rory Kerr and Paul Ruttledge http://merchnow.com/

NAS collab audio files for animation

All three of us have now completed our audio files for our animations!

I found condensing the 13 minutes of interview down to be a challenge! There was so much that I wanted to include, and if we had more time to animate and the brief allowed us to have more than two minutes of footage, I would have included more.

But I think I managed to capture the essence of Luke and communicate partially how he experiences the world in a way that others will be able to empathise with - which is what we're hoping to achieve.

My procrastination actually came in handy for this part of the project, as both of my partners completed their audio files before me, so I had a theme to work towards. I knew what they'd chosen to include and the kind of messages they were getting across, which made it a bit easier to narrow down Luke's words.

They also both chose accompanying audio tracks which sounded vaguely similar in tone, and although I knew I wanted something which sounded quite adventurous and whimsical, I was able to match to tone set by the songs my partners chose.

With The Light - NAS research

As part of my research I ordered this manga comic about a family of a child with autism - it's been quite insightful, as although I was very young when my brother was born, I do remember some things being similar to my family's experience when my brother was young.

The book discusses the stigma and challenges not only the people with autism face, but their families, so it might be quite a useful angle when approaching the animation?

NAS collab research - The Reason I Jump

My mum gave me a book to read called The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida, a boy with autism who was 13 at the time of writing the book.

He would be considered quite severely autistic, as he is unable to speak and used a computer, and alphabet grid and a transcriber to write the book.

This book has been very useful in my research, as it gives me an inside perspective from someone who actually has autism, about how people with autism experience the world, and what they want people without it to understand about them. This has been invaluable considering the aims of the brief are to portray autism in a more positive light, and our specific aim as a group is to normalise autism and show people with it as perfectly functional human beings.

This book is also helping me to create my audio file for my animation, as I've been feeling overwhelmed at the thought of condensing 13 minute's of Luke's interview to about 30 seconds. The book is constructed as a Q&A format; so Higashida answers common questions he faces about his autism and tries to communicate why he does things differently to what people might expect.

This has caused me to consider what I personally want people to understand about autism, and what I think Luke wants people to understand, based on his interview.

Again, I think just discussing his hobbies and daily life and normalising autism is the way forward. I'm feeling more able to pick out important bits of the conversation to form a 30 second narrative about a normal guy, who happens to have autism, who wants to be understood a bit better.

I hope that our target audience - people who don't really know what autism is or have an experience of it - manages to identify our aims through these animations.

Choosing a song

Luke mentioned the Zelda games in his interview so I'm trying to find a song that kinda matches the theme tune - whimsical and adventurous in tone.

Meeting with interview candidates NAS

We held an open call for people with experience of autism to come and talk to us so we could record their personal experience and get a soundtrack and a focus for our animations.

6 people showed up - 3 with autism and 3 with experience of autism (autistic siblings). The interviews ranged from about 7 minutes to 20 minutes.

Luckily, as there are 3 people with autism and 3 of us in the group, we decided to use them as it was more personal and we want to show that you shouldn't treat people with autism differently. We all picked one person who we felt we could animate, based on visual cues they gave in the interviews. I chose Luke!

Moby New Statesman Brief

I did this brief very quickly in the midst of all the other work I'm doing. Quick roughs/ideas:

I wasn't too happy with the final thing. It was very rushed as I did it in the early hours before the deadline, and I could have adjusted it after but I didn't really want to. I do like the colours though, and want to try this colour scheme out again at some point.

Life, Animated - autism documentary research for NAS brief

A documentary about a boy with autism who grew up using animated Disney movies to learn to communicate.

Relevant to the brief we're doing and our response to the brief.

The trailer on YouTube also has a lot of positive comments/reviews from people with autism themselves, which shows that this documentary is well-made and representative of the experience of autism. 

Key points:
Owen found the exaggerated expressions and emotions in Disney movies easier to understand than in real life. This is because autistic people often have trouble reading people's faces. It might be useful to use this info in our own animations when we create them!

Study Task 1 - Industry Research - Character and Narrative

Bookbinding Workshop

3 hole pamphlet stitch

Important:
Leave a 5mm overhang of the pages when measuring the cover - the book must be able to lie flat!
Important for you to cut the corners diagonally, but leaving 3mm spaceso as to cover the corners of the card!

I was very happy with the outcome of this workshop, and I've learned a very valuable skill. I think I could apply bookbinding to my practice, as I am making a comic. I was thinking that the comic should be presented in traditional comic format (i.e. stapled paper) when I finish with it, but I could produce a special hardback edition of it, as I would like to make use of this new skill!

Software for Packaging Workshop

• A net is a 3D object flattened, e.g.:

• Lots of nets available online! Available as vector downloads to open in Illustrator.
• Nets can be lasercut, but make these yourself - don't rely on nets found online.

Making a Jack-in-the-box net:

• Make Layer 1 into a guides layer.
• Use the rectangle tool to draw a rectangle over the whole artboard.
• Object - path - split into grid

• Select preview, choose the number of columns
• Select add guides

• Double click the layer and make into a template. This will lock and dim the layer, and it will not print this layer.

• New layer called Net
• Rectangle tool - hold alt and this will help center it.
• Hold alt and select the square - this will copy the square and you can move it to start making the net.

• Using transform guarantees that the square moves to the exact right place.
• Make a cross from squares in the middle of the page.

• Make the tabs by making another rectangle the same height as the squares, but a smaller width.
• Use the direct selection tool to select the two outer corners of the tab.
• Use the circles inside to curve the edges.

• Select the two tabs you've made

• Find the rotate tool, hold it down to get the reflect tool.

• Alt + click on the axis where you want to reflect the shapes, i.e. on the middle guide (the blue point)

• Copy one of the tabs, rotate it and place it on the top box.

• Now we must make a clear outline! Otherwise the laser cutter would cut it out into a jigsaw.
• Select everything, then copy it.
• Create a new layer called Fold Guides 1
• Use edit - paste in place

• Lock and hide this new layer.
• Select original net layer
• Go to window - pathfider
• Select all the shapes
• Use the unite tool and your shapes should turn into one outline

• Lock the net layer
• Close pathfinder
• Select the folds layer
• Select all shapes
• You could reduce the opacity to differentiate between what needs to be cut and folded.

• OR a dotted line for folds
• Select all again
• Select stroke, and there will be an option for a dashed line

• Unlock net
• Select the circle button and that will select everything on the layer

• Get rid of any fill by using the box on the left

• Do the same for the folds layer
• Now group everything on the folds layer.

Now, to create a double sided image:

• Unlock all layers, including guides
• You can swap to view - outline mode, to check that all your lines line up
• Select artboard tool

• Rename artboard to 'inside of box'
• Hold down alt key
• Click and drag your artboard, and it will make a copy

• Rename it 'outside of box'

Alternative fold guides method

• Make a new layer called Fold Guides 2
• Lock all other layers
• Make some crop lines using the pen tool, holding down shift to get straight lines. they should snap to the guide lines.
• You'll need to score or fold the lines first before you cut with this method!

• Make a new layer called artwork.
• File - place and choose image
• Embed or linked file - embed means you don't need to have the image in the same folder as the AI file, as with InDesign
• There's a button at the top that says embed!

• Add artwork to the inside of the box too!

Printing!

• PDF retains vectors! More accessible than an AI file if you want to send it into the public domain.
• If you have a net that isn't symmetrical you'll have to reflect the shape horizontally, when printing.
• Print two-sided on long-edge binging
• Click use artboards when exporting

Voila! A box!