Statement Of Intent

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	06
OUIL603 Extended Practice	Credits	60
STUDIO PRACTICE Statement of Intent

Name	Olivia Talbot	Blog Address
Date	16/11/18
Intent / Tone of voice
Activism social change feminism  humorous in places serious but not too serious accessible honest social commentary  auto-biographical
Themes / Subjects
feminism and women issues, history of feminism and activism mental health, in the wider world and in my personal experience strong women in- politics, TV, film, pop culture rape culture, the #MeToo movement introversion and social anxiety inclusivity diversity positivity
Audience / Context
young children: picture books/ colouring pages etc young women- learning about activism, looking for visuals to accompany their political stance girls and women like me, who suffer with anxiety and are introverted, to be able to see something of themselves in the work parents- looking to educate their children in an accessible and soft way
Goals and Ambitions
proposal for a children’s colouring book about activism and the history of protest- important feminists from history colouring pages about feminism and mental health/ self care with a softer, more friendly tone of voice introverts colouring book - at least 3 pages and cover stronger and more consistent instagram presence- time lapse and process videos more prints and products for the Etsy shop- strong women, quotes more art fairs and markets work more with Girl Gang and try and build up that local creative network for when uni finishes
Practical Skills / Media / Formats
bound book: hopefully bound by myself self made zines: hope to make more low-fi forms of zine like hotdog books, staple bound etc hone my portrait skills: work on features I find difficult like mouths and hands try and make a few GIFs prints and merchandise find a better digital working process: entirely digital or only edited? work more with text: find a way to combine my text and image work, maybe zines or comic strips? ink portraits and gouache painting: get back to analogue methods a bit

Additional Information

Potential Content / Outcomes

Content: portraits- watercolour, ink, digital line drawings- colouring pages and maybe book more type work- work with quotes, work to different shaped formats such as square, circle etc more exciting and dynamic looking work maybe look at logo designing? more work on protest and activism character design- remembering diversity more positive and inspiring imagery more use of simplistic but symbolic images like in my COP work- doves for hope etc more diverse characters, in terms of age, race, size etc

Outcomes: small zines and more interactive work- shorter, more immediate and more ‘diary’ style maybe a zine about my personal experiences with mental health introverts colouring book or colouring sheets  proposals for children books about strong women in history- with interactive elements, games, puzzles, activities cards and postcards- probably incorporating text, motivational, positive imagery, focused around feminism and mental health maybe some simple Photoshop GIFs for website/instagram use more prints for Etsy and markets more self portraits and work inspired by my own experiences  work and ideas that can inform projects that I can continue after university

RESEARCH ACTIVITY: Feminist children books	Deadline		November
Details Research into the area in general, visit bookshops and explore what’s already on the market. Look into the rise in feminist children books and why people are buying them. Find the gap in the market. Speak to publishers and agents who deal in children's books and literature
RESEARCH ACTIVITY: #MeToo	Deadline		November
Details look into the Me Too movement and see the impact this has had on what people are making/ is on the market. What art has it inspired? Look at magazines and online illustrations, editorial illustrations, instagram and other social media, women’s marches
RESEARCH ACTIVITY  Protest art	Deadline		December
Details Research the history of protest art, suffragettes, old poster and adverts. Also look at whats going on now with the recent women’s marches, since trumps inauguration, #MeToo, Bill Cosby etc, what words and imagery are used?
RESEARCH ACTIVITY  BICebe 2019	Deadline		December
Details Animated GIF on women's empowerment (must be unpublished), 1000x1380 pixels, vertical, 15 seconds. Research past winners, other GIFs, areas of imagery I'm interested in portraying
RESEARCH ACTIVITY  Other competitions and live briefs	Deadline		December
Details Have a look at what other competitions and live briefs might suit my work and reflect the kinds of topics I want to be discussing, find out submissions dates, requirements etc
RESEARCH ACTIVITY: Current resources and publications etc for mental health		Deadline	January
Details Are there any existing publications or zines etc dedicated to self care and mental health in younger people? Something a little more accessible and less formal than maybe an NHS handout leaflet. If not, why not? Is there the market for this?
RESEARCH ACTIVITY: Hanbury speakers	Deadline		January
Details Look into who will be speaking at the Hanbury symposium and whether theres going to be anyone there that is particularly relevant to what I'd like to do after uni. In addition to this identify any exhibitions, resources etc that might be useful to visit whilst in London.
RESEARCH ACTIVITY  Printing/ binding/ making	Deadline		January
Details Research into how to make a professional looking publication or failing this identify local places I could potentially look at getting my children's book or possible colouring book made
RESEARCH ACTIVITY  Mental health in children's books	Deadline		February
Details How do we talk to children about difficult issues? What is appropriate to show and not show? Is there a market for books like this? What age range are looking to read this kind of material?
RESEARCH ACTIVITY  Childrens' publishing	Deadline		February
Details What are the different sectors of children's publishing? What age ranges are there? Where would my work fit into this market, and is my work suited to any particular age group?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS / TEXTS  - (Harvard Refernced)

Favilli, E & Cavallo, F, 2016, Goodnight stories for rebel girls, Penguin, London Emily.P.W, 2004, Girls who bite back, Sumach Press, Canada Williams. W, 2011, Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world, Piatkus, Great Britain Pankhurst. K, 2018, Fantastically great women who made history, Bloomsbury children publishing, Great Britain Clinton. C, 2017, She Persisted, Penguin, New York Beedie. D, 2017, The bear who stared, Templar Publishing, Great Britain Cain. S, 2012, Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking, Crown Publishing Group, United States

MAGAZINES / JOURNALS / ARTICLES – (include publication date and details)

Flow magazine- Sanoma Media- Netherlands Happiful Magazine- Surrey, UK Mind magazine- Summer 2017- UK Dot magazine- Vol. 14- Anorak- UK

ON LINE REFERENCES  / WEBSITES / ARTICLES (include specific urls)

http://time.com/5373403/surprising-benefits-introvert/ https://www.quietrev.com/6-illustrations-that-show-what-its-like-in-an-introverts-head/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/robynshulman/2018/10/22/why-we-need-to-pay-attention-to-young-introverts/ https://youngminds.org.uk/ https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/fact-sheet-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health https://www.nwhn.org/young-feminist-defining-young-feminism-today-my-personal-journey-to-activism/ https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/girl-power-how-the-new-feminism-has-embraced-children-s-literature-1.3411832

OTHER REFERENCE MATERIAL (Films, events, exhibitions, conferences)

Womens Hour podcast The Guilty Feminist podcast The Introvert Entrepreneur podcast Good Life Project podcast https://www.ted.com/talks/kakenya_ntaiya_empower_a_girl_transform_a_community/up-next https://www.ted.com/talks/soraya_chemaly_the_power_of_women_s_anger/up-next https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts/up-next?language=en

ACTION PLAN / FIRST STEPS – use this section to identify specific tasks within the first 10 weeks that you propose to complete in order to develop a project/s.
Brief	What do you need to do?	Deadline
1	Do 1st blog post- statement of intent make first 7x7- portrait? Also powerpoint!	Sat 20th oct
2	Research into feminist children books and imagery	mon 22nd oct
3	make some imagery- strong women, quotes, paper cut?	mon 29th oct
4	look into competitions, what suits me and my aesthetic?	mon 5th oct
5	look into protest art, create imagery and research on that	mon 12th oct
6	research famous feminist icons with emphasis on diversity. Also read introversion book	mon 19th oct
7	Make some colouring pages on the subjects of feminism and introversion, posts on instagram to see if it generates any interest	mon 26th oct
8	research and locate a gap in the market, what’s not in children books now that could be/ should be?	mon 3rd dec
9	keep up to date with the #MeToo movement, protests in and around Leeds, speak to people, listen to podcasts	mon 10th dec
10	find some books, articles and other resources around my chosen topics of interest and see if those can help me to generate more ideas over Christmas	mon 17th dec
Additional Information

Who Am I?

504 Reflective Report

At the beginning of this project I was excited by the prospect of writing my own brief, so excited in fact that I got carried away thinking of the different products and designs that I’d wanted to make. I lost sight of the fact that we only had a small time in which to do this. By the time our briefing after Easter came around I realised how far off track I’d gone, and narrowed down the now massive project to designing and making 4 images themed around the My Favourite Murder podcast. I wanted to include the elements of dark humour and a feminist survival outlook that are a huge part of the podcast, but still make something beautiful and decorative that people would want to wear and own.

I began this process by choosing the most popular quotes from the show and then sketching things that I thought visually represented that, I already had some ideas of elements that I wanted to incorporate into these drawings, such as skulls, poison, weapons and retro looking phones as these all feature heavily on the podcast. Once I’d made a few that I liked I started painting in black ink. At this time, I still thought that my final images would end up being black on white stock. As I often tend to overcomplicate my work, repeating this mistake was already a concern for me, so I wanted to keep them looking graphic but clean and simple.

However, once I scanned them into the computer and started working on them in Adobe Photoshop I realised they didn’t translate as well as I’d hoped. They looked flat, and the colour scheme was a bit too dull. Whilst doing research on the merch already available I saw that most items stuck to a red, black and white colour scheme which I thought was a bit boring. So, next I tried to rework my original drawings, avoiding this colour scheme. I chose to work in pastel hues, and once I began doing this I instantly knew what shape my project would end up taking. I tried to play up the juxtaposition between the dark comedy quotes and the imagery, creating little wreaths made out of skulls and weapons to go with my quotes. I added the illustrations onto square, brightly coloured backgrounds and I felt like they suddenly looked like a cohesive set.

I really enjoyed the application element of this project, choosing relevant products that my target audience would enjoy and applying my illustrations to them. I feel this is something I’m quite good at, and something I hope to take into my practice in the future. This also made me realise my interest in making and designing homewares and apparel, I feel that my strength in working with text and image together fits this kind of brief perfectly, as these items often have slogans or writing on. However, next project I need to remember not to get so carried away, and aim to do fewer things, but to a higher standard. I also need to work at managing my time better. In spite of this, I definitely feel that I have more of a sense of myself as illustrator and where my illustrations fit in the wider world now, and I’m ready to push this further next year.