Following the questions in the course instructions this is my project:
Introduction
What is your area of visual communication? I am an illustrator creating mostly in 2d paper based images, which I manipulate digitally. I have some experience making educational illustrations and would like to explore narrative.
· Who are the practitioners that influence you? How and why??
· Merlin Evans, for the diversity of her practice.
· Roisin Cure, for the simplicity of her work.
· Andrea Joseph, for the stories that she tells and the way that she engages her audience.
· Luke Adam Hawker, for the sensitivity of his storytelling
· (and many others)
· What is your proposed project? I propose to investigate narrative. How to best tell stories that will capture the interest of an audience who maybe weren’t looking for a story
Aims and objectives
· What do you aim to achieve in and through your project? I don’t just want to make drawings of the things that interest me I want to use them to communicate with my viewers.
· On completion of the project what do you want to know/have done? I want to better understand how a small number of images can tell a story. How to leave in some ambiguity so that the viewer does some of the work to complete a story. How to select scenes and subjects that are narrative. How to find a narrative in a simple situation.
· How does your project relate to your ambitions beyond the course? I believe that narrative could be a good device to communicate information. I am interested in both scientific, educational illustration and narrative/reportage
· How can this project help you sustain your practice? I envisage using self-generated projects at the end of the course to raise my profile and attract paid for work. I think that stories are interesting and have the capacity to spread beyond my current circle of influence.
Schedule
· What is your schedule and work plan between now and the end of the course? Planning for assessment November 2022 (submit by 30thSeptember)
· What tasks and individual interim targets have you set? (The course has built-in interim targets at Assignments Two and Three for you to present your work for feedback.)
· Assignment 2 March 2022,
· Assignment 3 June 2022,
· Assignment 4 August 2022
· Are your targets sufficiently ambitious, realistic and achievable? I think that they’re a bit ambitious, I’ve been slow to get going because I find the preparatory exercises useful but challenging and I take a long time to cover all the individual aspects. I’m hoping to be more productive once I start making actual work
Research needs/planning
· What kinds of information do you need? Where do you intend to look? OCA library. Internet. Association of illustrators
· What is your reading list?
· Reportage Illustration Visual Journalism Embury and Minichiello (2018)
· No Brief, Graphic Designers’ Personal Projects O’Reilly, J. (2002)
· Maybe Scott McCloud Understanding Comics and/or Will Eisner Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative
· Together, Luke Adam Hawker (2021)
· Do you need to contact any external agencies? How will you do this? Only if I discover something that needs further investigation during my research
· Do you need to obtain any permissions, e.g. access to locations or archives? Only if I discover something that needs further investigation during my research
· What is your strategy to develop any technical skills? Research and practice
Audience
· Who are you making the work for? People who are interested in everyday stories. The sort of people who would buy books by Shaun Tan or Luke Adam Hawker.
· How will you engage with them? Instagram, Facebook
· What types of venues, locations or websites are you intending to use? Digital and printed publication. Maybe a local café or gallery to display the finished pictures.
· What is your marketing strategy? Frequent, irregular postings of a story in Instagram.
Ethical and health and safety considerations
· Have you considered people involved or indirectly involved in the project? I intend to make any stories anonymous so that anyone involved shouldn’t be recognisable
· Do you need permission for placement of work? How will your work affect any audience? If the project makes it to a physical exhibition I will need to arrange this. I don’t intend to make anything that will be upsetting to my audience/
· Are there any safety implications regarding any of your activities, processes or proposed use of equipment? No
It's a bit wordy so I went through and edited it:
Visual stories Caroline Hoy 491532 Sustaining your practice
For this project I propose to investigate narrative. How to best capture the interest of an audience with stories that they maybe weren’t looking for. How to find stories that are waiting to be told.
I am an illustrator creating mixed media images which evolve from drawings on paper. I have some experience of making illustrations for science and education.
A variety of practitioners influence me, including:
· Merlin Evans, for the diversity of her practice.
· Roisin Cure, for the simplicity of her work.
· Andrea Joseph, for the stories that she tells and the way that she engages her audience.
· Luke Adam Hawker, for the sensitivity of his storytelling
Aims and objectives
· I want to use this opportunity to learn to:
· make drawings which communicate.
· use a small number of images to tell a story.
· leave in some ambiguity so that the viewer does some of the work to complete the story.
· select scenes and subjects that are narrative.
· find a narrative in a simple situation.
My interests are scientific, educational illustration and narrative/reportage I believe that stories may be a good device to communicate information.
At the end of this course I plan to use self-generated projects to raise my profile and attract work. Narrative illustrations have the capacity to spread my work beyond my current circle of influence.
Schedule
It might be a bit ambitious but I’m planning to submit for the November 2022 Assessment. This preparatory period always takes me longer than it should but I’m hoping to be more productive once I start making actual work.
Timeframe:
· Assignment 2 March 2022,
· Assignment 3 June 2022,
· Assignment 4 August 2022
Research needs/planning
I need to have a much better understanding of how visual stories are crafted. My research will need to cover narrative, intention, how illustrations can be interpreted or misinterpreted, how to capture and hold the interest of my audience.
Reading list so far:
· Reportage Illustration Visual Journalism Embury and Minichiello (2018)
· No Brief, Graphic Designers’ Personal Projects O’Reilly, J. (2002)
· Maybe Scott McCloud Understanding Comics and/or Will Eisner Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative
· Together, Luke Adam Hawker (2021)
Audience
Successful authors commonly say that they write for themselves. Many illustrators (e.g. Lizzy Stewart)say that they draw for themselves not for a potential audience. Who might be interested in my project? Probably the sort of people who would buy books by Shaun Tan or Luke Adam Hawker, curious people who are interested in everyday stories. At the moment I feel that I’m constraining myself by trying to second guess what is needed and blocking myself by looking at other artists and illustrators.
Marketing
This is the area which I will need to work the hardest on. I find self-promotion unbelievably challenging. I intend to start creating some interest in my ideas by posting narrative images on Instagram and Facebook. It’s an area that is both saturated with practitioners and becoming old fashioned but I it’s somewhere to start. I currently don’t post very often but I have 126 followers so that’s 126 people to start influencing and hopefully with some more frequent irregular postings of a story that number will grow. The final project will be a digital (and possibly printed) publication. Maybe I will be able to get a local café or gallery to display the finished pictures as part of the Hertfordshire Open Studios.
Ethical and health and safety considerations
I will make the characters anonymous in my stories so that anyone involved shouldn’t be recognisable. I don’t intend to make anything that will be upsetting to my audience
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