Wednesday, 1 May 2019
Tuesday, 30 April 2019
Reflective Evaluation
I began this module very motivated. Last year I had much more of a sense of who I was as an illustrator, and I made work over the summer that I felt reflected what I’d learnt. However I’d got bogged down in the work around feminism and activism I was making for COP. During goal setting for 603, I wrote about wanting to come out of this degree with a proposal for a children’s book about feminism and activism. I began with good intentions at starting this project, but after Christmas and upon reflection, I began to realise that I was no longer that passionate about this project. Partly due to being inundated with this topic during COP, as well realising through research that the market is already saturated with books of this nature.
After realising this, I didn’t know what I was working towards anymore. Due to this I was mainly making stand-alone images for the sake of it. However during this time I did manage to carry on making the ‘Introverts colouring book’. This ended up being a high point of my year even though it was only intended to be a side project at first. I had aimed to get this finished by January so I could dedicate the rest of the module to making things for the exhibition and working on my portfolio. I did finish it around this time, although now I wish I’d added a few more pages. Regardless of this I am happy with it. It was one of the big turning points of this year in my move towards children’s book illustration. I got a lot of feedback from people saying that I should make another colouring book similar to this one but child friendly, which is definitely something I plan to do in the future.
During this module I’ve also realised how important it is for me to keep moving and not stop making work at any point. I’ve learnt that commissions and working to a quick turn around helps me to churn out work and stay motivated. Because of this I started offering customised portraits on my Etsy to keep the ball rolling on commissions. I’ve also found it takes me out of my own, self directed bubble sometimes, which is a positive thing.
Another turning point for me was Hanbury. Whilst we were there I got chatting to Chloe from Plum Pudding. She reassured me that the illustrations I was making at this time were closely aligned with children’s book illustrations. This wasn’t something that had occurred to me even though I’d set out to design a children’s book at the beginning of the year. I thought because I’d stopped focusing on this and moved on to work for an older audience that my work was no longer appropriate for children. She gave me a lot of helpful tips and I came away with a list of things I should put in my portfolio if I wanted to appeal to the children’s market. This was exactly the push I needed during the final stages of this module. After Hanbury I worked on adding more children’s book directed work into my portfolio, and researching the market. I also carried on working on my ‘Sad gal comics’ as these have been one of my favourite and most successful series this module and are something I still feel very passionate about.
During this module, I’ve learnt is that its really easy to set yourself goals and then not complete them, and this can be for many reasons. In my case it was a mix of falling out of love with a project, and time slipping away from me. In the future to combat this I will work to schedule my time better. I have also identified that children’s illustration is definitely the area I want to break into. However, meeting Chloe has taught me that I can do this along side working on my already existing practice intended for a slightly older audience. It’s funny that I began this year with intentions to illustrate children books, but lost that motivation half way and almost forgot the idea completely. I think most of all, this module has taught me how important it is to be self analytical. To step back from what you are doing (or not doing) and ask yourself why. If I’d done this earlier in the module, maybe I would have carried on with the children’s book work and would be coming out of university with a fully realised proposal. However I’m happy I’ve realised this now, and I think that I wouldn’t have learnt half as much this year if I hadn’t gone a bit off track.
Friday, 1 March 2019
4th 7x7 image
What key objectives need to be done to fully realise remaining projects currently in production?
- keep working on mini booklet to give out at Hanbury
- finish all pages, get it printed, maybe don't use Footprint as you only need 10 copies max
- finish current poster commission and work on getting more commissions that link up with the work you're currently doing
- sad gal comics are great! keep going with these!
- colouring book is done, sent off to print and should be arriving coming Monday- now to work on publicising it, putting it on Etsy, selling it at events
- enjoying working on comic strips about personal experiences with mental health- however at the moment these are just stand alone images
- could compile these into a zine for the final show?
How has your work developed since starting this module?
- starting to combine portraiture and words more often, every piece of recent work uses text in some way
- double way of expression, enjoying writing at the moment so incorporating this into your work
- the strength of your digital work has improved, better use of colour and texture too
- your ideas of what you want to achieve are a little less clear- seemed to be thinking of doing more large scale projects at the beginning and now you're just making stand alone images
- maybe need to start doing some work exclusively on a theme or for a purpose
- look at doing some editorial or other work that you'd like to aim to be commissioned in for the future
- carry on with comic strips as its clearly a composition style that works with your love of words and imagery combined
Does your portfolio of work currently represent your ethos and ambitions as a creative? If not, what steps need to be taken?
- yes! lots of work around feminism, activism and mental health/feelings
- your intentions of what you like to make is clear and thats why you're being commissioned to make work that fits in with your practice
- work is still varied, mixture of text and portrait pieces
- all work has clear visual style that yours
- all work is quite opinion heavy, work more with this
- identify what kind of clients you'd like to work with/for in the future, this will inform the kinds of projects you decide to do
Other comments:
- next step- buy an ipad as this will help you develop your digital skills and will mean you can work on commissions on the go
- all your work has a strong, opinionated voice- look into mixing your work with public speaking
- Lisa Congdon- blog about what you believe in and use your work to add visual interest to what you're saying
My comments:
Its really nice to see that people are beginning to see a sense of me and who I am as a person become apparent in the work I'm making. I think this is largely down to how auto-biographical my recent work has become, in particular the 'Sad Gal Comics'. In making more personal work I'm feeling much confident in talking about the work and what it means. I think due to the fact that it actually has a lot more meaning behind it than some of the work I've made in the past.
I also am really enjoying the working method I've been using to make all of my recent work. I think it achieves a nice, organic looking quality, whilst still being made digitally which means it's easier to make the drawings more accurate and polished. I've also been really enjoying working in the limited colour palettes which I got into the practice of doing when I was still thinking of getting my Hanbury zine digitally printed. Even though I won't be going through with this I think this limitation on colour has really brought something special into my recent work and helps me to create more tone and feeling in a drawing.
At the moment, the only things I'm enjoying making are the sad gal comics and the zine. I can see at this point in the year that I'm definitely not going to achieve all the things I set out to at first, so I'll focus my work down to just working on things that I think will benefit my portfolio at this point. I've seen that Cicada publishers will be doing a talk at Hanbury so I'm intending to chat to them if I get a chance and ask about the current trend of feminist children's books and whether its even worth trying to make one if the markets already too saturated. After this depending on what the say I may have to refocus my work down even further in order to pick the direction I want to go in for my degree exhibition work. It might be that I just exhibit my colouring book as thats the only really final, cohesive thing I've made this year. But if I feel I have enough time, I'd really like to try and make more of the 'Sad Gal Comics' as I definitely feel this is an idea that represents me and what I want my work to say very well, and would therefore be perfect for the exhibition.
Wednesday, 30 January 2019
3rd 7x7 Image
Ideas for projects to be undertaken:
- colouring book! keep working on this, maybe consider blurb or awsome merch for printing- using awsome merch you'd have the option to make the book sustainable and made of recycled papers
- this also gives the pages a nice glossy feel and they're slightly off white
- lots of smaller briefs alongside the colouring book brief thats been running for quite a while
- good! keep working on fresh things- not only does this give you fresh things to put in your portfolio but it builds the volume of your work and gives you things to list on Etsy and post to Instagram
- maybe work more with beer packaging as clearly thats something you enjoyed during your Girl Gang brief- maybe set yourself two or three day challenges to make a series of beer labels
- also look at doing some editorials- these would work perfectly with your current method of undertaking shorter briefs alongside your big one as these can just be completed in a matter of days and really help to build material for portfolio's
Current tone of voice:
- sensitive
- funny
- relatable
- personal
- very adaptable
- your tone of voice is clear whether you're working on commissions for other people or in your personal work which is good!
- you seem to be getting commissions that work with the tone of voice thats being developed in your personal work which is good as clearly you're showing perspective clients the kind of work that they can expect when they employ you
- a lot of your personality comes through in your work- personal and approachable
Actions to take to realise ambitions for portfolio:
- work on your characters- maybe create a sketchbook only to be filled with a range of characters?
- then you can refer back to these when you're running low on inspiration
- also maybe do the same thing for your type work? practise this in a separate book and work up a portfolio of type techniques that you can then use in commissions such as your beer commission
- keep both of these practices going and you can work on learning to mix the two
- also keep up your personal and passion projects as these will really help fill your portfolio and will be easier to talk about passionately in interviews or meetings with other professionals
- don't get too bogged down in making things for other people in commissions- if you're going to aim to be self employed you need to remember your own practice
Other comments:
- considerations for zine printing and for your colouring book- need to find somewhere cheap and efficient to print the first run of both
- maybe look at Footprint in Leeds
- start working on your zine hotdog book for Hanbury in March- make it personal as this reflects your current practice and will help to distinguish you from other people
- also maybe think about changing your current business card- needs to have more practical information on it specifically for employers or people in the creative industry
- maybe put one of your recent portraits on it?
- include your business email and website address
- maybe have one card for customers (to take to markets etc with your Etsy and instagram links) and one for professional occasions with direct contact details on it
My comments:
I'm excited at this point during this term as I'm definitely beginning to feel like I have more control over my practice. I now have a method of working which makes my creative process a lot more quick and efficient, in turn meaning I can complete client briefs in less time and still have a good outcome. Although its been challenging to work to my own briefs rather than last year when we were set briefs to respond to, it has made me think about the kind of work I actually want to be doing. I'm putting up more of my personal and passion project work on my social media channels, and through this I'm beginning to see an influx of clients asking me do take part in briefs that reflect what I enjoy doing in my personal work.
Now I know what I want to be doing in my personal work its meant that I was able to draft up a list of creative goals and be more precise about where I'd like to take my practice. Hopefully this will help me in the future when trying to link up with other practitioners and creatives as I'll know where to be looking. Challenges I've faced are juggling my own practice with client work. Although they are similar and I enjoy both, I sometimes become obsessed with making something perfect for a client and subsequently forget to work on my own things. This also means that I often spend more time than I should on client briefs and work more than I'm being payed to.
Overall I'm going into February feeling positive and satisfied with what I'm making, and excited to work more on some larger scale passion projects which hopefully will challenge my practice in areas I've not explored before. These projects will include zines, the colouring book and some new merch for my Etsy store. I've also started offering custom portrait commissions through my Etsy and am enjoying the challenges its given me so far such as drawing people I've never met only using photos, and working on a personal image together with clients to reach a product they're happy with. I also am challenging myself to keep my work more organised as suggested through feedback, by getting myself specific sketchbooks for different projects and areas of my practice.
Tuesday, 8 January 2019
2nd 7x7 Image
What has gone well?
- the colouring book idea and current layouts are working really nicely!
- the colouring book doesn't really need to be much longer than it is now, just a few more pages
- work is relatable for a variety of types of people
- real good vibes
- colouring book is a great idea, next consider what other characters there could be in this?
- look very refined and professional
- your work is admirable! you are doing so well with your etsy shop, instagram and markets! you go girl!
- strong visual identity
What can be improved upon?
- Finish the colouring book!
- work a bit faster in terms of finishing projects and producing more things
- take part in a variety of different briefs, at the moment it's clear from looking at your sketchbook that you have a few longer projects in the works. Maybe look at doing weekly short tasks, editorials?
- no evidence of any competition briefs
- could you work on more topical pieces to link into your interest in feminism? look at whats happening in the news and respond to that
- no evidence of much experimentation with different materials and processes- its OK to have a method of working down, but this module would be a good time to play and experiment
Discuss ideas and recommendations for future projects and what research tasks could help in the starting stages of these projects:
- projects are off to a good start, maybe just be clearer with what you intend to produce
- I'd recommend doing the BICeBé women's empowerment GIF and maybe more heavy, political work?
- look at colouring books already on the market and see what you could add to yours to make it really stand out from the crowd!
- could you make posters or products alongside your colouring book?
- Keep going with all the Girl Gang projects! They clearly mix well with your practise and it seems to work for you!
- your character work is really strong, work more on this, could you design characters for potential childrens books or other projects for this year?
My reflections:
I am actually happy with the majority of the work I've made so far during this module. Although a lot of its been commissions for other people, I still feel the work produced from these commissions represents my visual identity and is work that I'm proud of. I'm happy now I'm beginning to get asked to do a certain style of projects based on previous pieces of my work that people have seen and liked!
I do agree with the feedback that the character side of my work is strong and perhaps I'm not doing enough with that at the moment within my practise. I'm going to aim to work more with character design, maybe within children's books. I'm also going to begin taking part in projects that are shorter and more streamlined, both to challenge my time-management skills and to bulk up my portfolio. I have a potential brief coming up with Girl Gang Leeds to design some beer packaging which I'm really looking forward to as this is unlike anything else I've done before. Hopefully if it's something I enjoy doing I can maybe look at doing more packaging design in the future.
In terms of my self driven work, I'm really happy with the feedback I received on my colouring book. Lots of people said they liked the varied page layouts and mix of portrait style images and text based images which was a concern for me as I didn't know if these mixed well. I'm aiming to work more on this and make 5 more pages, a front and back cover and then produce and bind the finished books and sell them at a zine fair in February. Alongside this I'm going to continue with my branding for my Etsy store and other online platforms. I'll also continue designing products to sell such as stickers and badges as these little projects don't tend to take up too much time!
1st 7x7 Image
Is your proposal viable?
- Really solid visual identity
- clear sense of place in the industry, already finding a niche
- you know your audience, and your project seems to be geared nicely towards the audience you want to be appealing to
- colouring book definitely achievable in the time given, but maybe the picture book isn't? Depending on whether you intend to write it yourself as well
What next?
- continue developing colouring book content, maybe some informational pages on introverts inside?
- make it interactive, pull out pages to colour and keep, puzzles and games
- consider re-development of type for cover
- find a place to print it!
- continue with self driven work for instagram and Etsy
- work on commissions- the ones your taking now seem to mix well with the kind of work you want to be doing
- think about maybe just making a proposal for you children's book to take to publishers etc. A few double page spreads, visual concepts and ideas etc
Recommendations for research tasks
- think about development of work from perspective of what you want your work to be marketed as "ENGAGING AESTHETICS FOR MENTAL JOY AND VISUAL TREATS"
- how can your audience benefit from your work?
- what do you want to do for them?
- your work is cause and belief driven so look at getting more involved with the causes you believe in and trying to make change there
- work more with charities? look at which charities around subjects like feminism, mental health etc could do mix well with your practise
- look into the children's book market, whats already out there? What are people buying? Why are they buying it? FIND THE GAP IN THE MARKET
Other comments
- consider taking more time to make a finished image, experimenting with lengthier processes such as painting
- don't forget to not rely to much on the digital
- have some fun making your own stuff, do what you want to do, maybe make a list of small projects that you intend to keep ticking over this year?
- keep responding to commercial client briefs, good as it gives you a bit of money, more for your portfolio and new connections with clients
- do some more detailed designs like your portraits and use those to apply to clothing, bags etc, even if it means screen printing them
My thoughts-
I'm happy with my current mix of working for myself on small projects, for clients and for long standing projects such as my colouring book as it means that if I'm having a mental block working on one of those things I can change it up. I also think my commercial work is feeding nicely into my personal work and I'm starting to receive requests from clients to work on projects that really excite me and suit my practise. I do think I need to move away from purely digital work as I really can rely on it too much. I think I've found a way of working where I can mix the two and I'm pleased with the aesthetic it gives, I just need to dedicate more time to making things look good. I also need to timetable myself properly to ensure that I achieve all my goals during the week as at the moment I'm wasting a lot of time.
Friday, 16 November 2018
Statement Of Intent
Leeds College of Art
BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION
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Level
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06
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OUIL603 Extended Practice
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Credits
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60
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STUDIO PRACTICE
Statement of Intent
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Name
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Olivia Talbot
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Blog Address
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Date
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16/11/18
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Intent / Tone of voice
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Themes / Subjects
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Audience / Context
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Goals and Ambitions
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Practical Skills / Media / Formats
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Additional Information
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Potential Content / Outcomes
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Content:
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Outcomes:
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RESEARCH ACTIVITY:
Feminist children books
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Deadline
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November
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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
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RESEARCH ACTIVITY: #MeToo
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Deadline
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November
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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
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RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Protest art
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Deadline
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December
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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?
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RESEARCH ACTIVITY
BICebe 2019
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Deadline
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December
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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
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RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Other competitions and live briefs
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Deadline
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December
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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
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RESEARCH ACTIVITY:
Current resources and publications etc for mental health
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Deadline
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January
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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?
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RESEARCH ACTIVITY:
Hanbury speakers
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Deadline
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January
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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.
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RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Printing/ binding/ making
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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
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RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Mental health in children's books
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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?
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RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Childrens' publishing
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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?
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS / TEXTS - (Harvard Refernced)
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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
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MAGAZINES / JOURNALS / ARTICLES – (include publication date and details)
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Flow magazine- Sanoma Media- Netherlands
Happiful Magazine- Surrey, UK
Mind magazine- Summer 2017- UK
Dot magazine- Vol. 14- Anorak- UK
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ON LINE REFERENCES / WEBSITES / ARTICLES (include specific urls)
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OTHER REFERENCE MATERIAL (Films, events, exhibitions, conferences)
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Womens Hour podcast
The Guilty Feminist podcast
The Introvert Entrepreneur podcast
Good Life Project podcast
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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.
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Brief
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What do you need to do?
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Deadline
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1
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Do 1st blog post- statement of intent
make first 7x7- portrait? Also powerpoint!
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Sat 20th oct
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2
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Research into feminist children books and imagery
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mon 22nd oct
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3
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make some imagery- strong women, quotes, paper cut?
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mon 29th oct
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4
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look into competitions, what suits me and my aesthetic?
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mon 5th oct
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5
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look into protest art, create imagery and research on that
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mon 12th oct
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6
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research famous feminist icons with emphasis on diversity. Also read introversion book
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mon 19th oct
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7
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Make some colouring pages on the subjects of feminism and introversion, posts on instagram to see if it generates any interest
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mon 26th oct
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8
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research and locate a gap in the market, what’s not in children books now that could be/ should be?
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mon 3rd dec
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9
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keep up to date with the #MeToo movement, protests in and around Leeds, speak to people, listen to podcasts
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mon 10th dec
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10
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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
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mon 17th dec
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Additional Information
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