OUIL501 - Meat Industry Research

http://www.journalofanimalscience.org/content/57/Supplement_2/119.full.pdf

The red meat industry has undergone significant change during recent decades.
Mechanization has resulted in high-efficiency, high-volume cattle slaughter-dressing facilities. 

Future trends will include consumer marketplace expression of a preference for reduced fat, which will be reflected in further grade standard changes.
Cultural trends affect the industries that supply them and they change to meet certain changing demands.

The passage of the federal Humane Slaughter Act became effective on July 1st 1961.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/13/slaughtering-animals-cut-meat-consumption-vegetarian
We must stop this cavalier slaughtering of animals
perhaps we shouldn’t be wiping them out in such a cavalier way, or eating so many of them. This is, apparently, the Age of Extinction. We are dominating the ecosystems and making a terminal mess of them; vertebrates have declined by over 50%, bees, hoverflies, ladybirds and earthworms aren’t doing too well, and without them, we are done for.

Animal Behaivour
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/04/animal-behaviour-laurel-braitman
I asked him how similar my anxiety might be to Oliver’s. (Her dog) “The underlying brain structures that are involved in these responses are really not that different at all,” Weinstein said. He went on to explain that the basic neurological hardware for emotional states exists across animal species, and with these similarities comes the possibility of malfunction.

Most animals cannot narrate their emotional experiences for humans, and even if they could (signing apes, say, or talking parrots), this isn’t necessarily the best measure of what they’re experiencing. The complex process of making sense of our racing heartbeat, sweaty palms and surges of good or bad feelings is what underpins much of psychotherapy; we simply don’t always know what we’re feeling while we’re feeling it.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/aug/29/slaughterhouse-crossing-line-between-life-meat

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/21/giving-up-beef-reduce-carbon-footprint-more-than-cars
Giving up beef will reduce reduce carbon footprint more than cars, says expert.

The heavy impact on the environment of meat production was known but the research shows a new scale and scope of damage, particularly for beef. 

• Beef requires 28 times more land to produce than pork or chicken.
• 11 times more water
• Production results in five times more climate-warming emissions.
• When compared to staples like potatoes, wheat, and rice, the impact of beef per calorie is even more extreme, requiring 160 times more land and producing 11 times more greenhouse gases.

Agriculture is a significant driver of global warming and causes 15% of all emissions, half of which are from livestock.

The huge amounts of grain and water needed to raise cattle is a concern to experts worried about feeding an extra 2 billion people by 2050.

Beef had a far greater impact than all the others because as ruminants, cattle make far less efficient use of their feed.

“The biggest intervention people could make towards reducing their carbon footprints would not be to abandon cars, but to eat significantly less red meat,”

http://science.time.com/2013/12/16/the-triple-whopper-environmental-impact-of-global-meat-production/

Livestock production — which includes meat, milk and eggs — contributes 40% of global agricultural gross domestic product, provides income for more than 1.3 billion people and uses one-third of the world’s fresh water. 

• Each year, livestock sector produces 586 million tons of milk, 124 million tons of poultry, 91 million tons of pork, 59 million tons of cattle meat and 11 tons of sheep and goat meat.
• 1.3 billion tons of grain are consumed by farm animals each year.
• The highest total of livestock-related greenhouse-gas emissions comes from the developing world, which accounts for 75% of the global emissions from cattle and other ruminants and 56% of the global emissions from poultry and pigs.

OUIL501 - Layered anatomical illustrations

Dan Beckemeyer

My initial idea for this project is to create an anatomical drawing of different farm animals onto tracing paper or acetate, and then layering them up to create a full image. I want to challenge people's perceptions of what meat actually is and where it comes from, because I think that people often don't associate a slab of meat with the animal that it actually comes from, creating an emotional detachment and a lack of empathy with the animal, taking into consideration the meat industry and it's practices. 

OUIL501 - Development sketches

After my trip to Leeds market, I began just skecthing meat, as I was a bit stuck as to where my project was going. At this point I was interested in creating more detailed work that was more time consuming. I enjoy using lines as marks to create texture and used this to create depth and realism in the sketches. I began to start digitally sketching and creating patterns with the shapes of the meat, and played around with layering images with different opacities and colour.

An initial idea for my project was to create a layered painting of different farm animals, I would paint different layers of the animals anatomy onto tracing paper and then layer them on top of each other to create a full image, kind of like the examples below:

OUIL501 - Study Task 4

BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 05

OUIL501 Context of Practice 2

STUDIO BRIEF 1 - Research Proposal

Look at the ideas and sketchbook work produced for CoP2 by another member of your group. Suggest ideas for areas of further research, for each of the following categories, which will ultimately inform any decisions concerning their overall research question for the module.

Proposed Research Question or Theme How demand and growing consumerism has changed and developed the meat industry

1. (Research Behind) What research needs to be undertaken into the general and specific contexts of the Research Project?

I need to research further into the history of consumerism and where it’s at today I need to do research into the different areas in the meat industry Also how the meat industry has developed over time I need to find any connections between consumerism and the meat industry and how they affect each other.

2. (Research Through) What approach(es) could be taken and what processes, methods, materials and tools could be involved in the Research Project?

I need to visit places that relate to my themes, like farms and markets. I need to read texts that are specific to the areas that I’m researching (consumerism and the meat industry) I need to look at contextual references with other illustrators and work that they have done with similar themes.

3. (Research For) What preparation or investigations needs to undertaken for the Research Project to take place?

I need to find out what texts to read I also need to look into places that I could visit

4. (Research In Front of) What research needs to be undertaken regarding who the project is for?

I need to think about exactly who I want to target my project to Look at things that have already been produced by other illustrators and see who they targeted their work to.

Sources of further Research (illustrators, books, websites) Sue Coe

Suggestions for a revised Research Question(s) based on the above.

OUIL501 - Study Task 3

Summary of Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Benjamin, W, 1936)

Speedpaint #22by Sylar113

Benjamin suggests that the way we reproduce art is changing as technology advances. He states that 'Around 1900 technical reproduction had reached a standard that not only permitted it to reproduce all transmitted works of art and thus to cause the most profound change in their impact upon the public; it also had captured a place of its own among the artistic processes.' Suggesting that not only does mechanical reproduction affect the impact that art has on the viewer, but also how artists produce work. The piece of work shown above is a digital painting meant to mimic the aesthetic of an actual physical painting. Digital painting is becoming much more popular as an easy way of producing highly detailed works of art, as an unlimited amount of materials and techniques are contained in one computer program. He also says that 'One might subsume the eliminated element in the term “aura” and go on to say: that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art.' Because digital art is so easy to produce, it is often perceived as less deserving of praise compared to analogue methods of production, the painting above would be perceived very differently if it was not digital. The aura of a piece of work represents its originality and authenticity, 'One might subsume the eliminated element in the term “aura” and go on to say: that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art.' Benjamin also argues that 'The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being imbedded in the fabric of tradition. This tradition itself is thoroughly alive and extremely changeable. An ancient statue of Venus, for example, stood in a different traditional context with the Greeks, who made it an object of veneration, than with the clerics of the Middle Ages, who viewed it as an ominous idol.' Meaning our perception of art is affected by society and historical context, art may be perceived in different ways by different people when it is in a certain context and the uniqueness of an art work is also determined by the context in which it exists. For example, digital work that is posted online may often be seen as less unique than work that is shown in a gallery context, because of the type of work that is often shown in a gallery context.

OUIL501 - Studio Brief 1 - reportage

I decided for the reportage brief I wanted to look at the meat industry and its social context. I have always been interested in animal rights and the hypocritical nature of our society, a society of so called animal lovers, who continue to support a barbaric industry to satisfy their want for meat. 

After doing some quick, drawings in my sketchbook I wanted to do something that was a bit more detailed and took me longer to finish, so I did some collage and pattern pieces on my wacom.

OUIL501 - Study Task 2

Sue Coe's cover illustration for her book Cruel illustrates how massive corporations within the food and meat industry exploit animals in order to make profit and keep up with the demand for produce due to the scale of the consumerism. Industrial farming and global capitalism have worked together to produce the cheapest meat possible to feed a growing demand by imprisoning and chemically and genetically modifying animals that are born to be killed for the industry. The image is split into two halves using a monochrome colour palette with highlights of red and gold to draw attention to certain areas in the image. Sue shows the blood of the animal morphing into the money, symbolising the torture and death of the animals in the meat industry being turned into profit, shown by the stack of money bags in the right of the image. The number shown attached to the animal, signifies how worthless these animals are to the people in charge of their slaughter, around 900 million animals are slaughtered in the UK every year, these numbers show just how insignificant each animal must be, reduced to a number and an object.

OUIL501 - Study Task 1

14. Don’t be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free 

yourself from limits of this sort.

Designers who devote their efforts 

primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental 

environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, 

think, feel, respond and interact.

OUIL401 - Essay

Advertising is a very powerful way of putting across and cementing certain societal views and stereotypes to its viewers which shape how we as a society view ourselves and the people around us. These stereotypes and ideologies which distort our view are often not questioned or challenged because they have been put forward as the norm for so long, the ideologies we see in society are usually created by the dominant group in society and they work in favour of the dominant group, creating views of certain people that they believe to be true. In the text that I have decided to focus on; Gender and Popular Culture it is said 'Representation as a process of communication means to depict or describe something or someone (Webb 2009). In the media, language (both written and spoken) and images are the key symbolic systems through which representations are made. In the process of representation, language and images stand in for something or someone and thereby render it present' (Milestone and Meyer, 2012, p7) This is suggesting that the only representations of different groups that society deems to be real and relevant are the stereotypes that are presented to us in the media, because it is the only thing we are shown, it is the only thing we deem to be present. 'Early feminists coined the concept of gender in order to emphasise that maleness and femaleness are not simply about physical biology or 'nature' but also social constructs. While 'sex' refers to biological, bodily differences between men and women, 'gender' refers to the socially constructed categories of masculine and feminine and the socially imposed attributes and behaviours which are assigned to these categories. The fact that certain attributes and behaviours are linked to men or women is not 'natural' but a matter of convention. For instance, there is no 'natural' reason why women are associated with housework – men are equally capable of it. Which characteristics and practices are seen as typically and appropriately feminine and masculine is a matter of social construction'. (Milestone and Meyer, 2012, p12)  Gender is focussed so strongly on in advertising to define the relationships between one gender and another different gender because we as a society are obsessed with it and it is how we define ourselves, the differences in gender can be communicated instantly using simple imagery that has easily recognisable connotations that we  associate with a certain gender. For example colours which represent power and wealth are often associated with masculinity, whereas colour that communicate softness and vulnerability are usually associated with femininity. It could be argued that these social constructs were created by the patriarchy, 'Patriarchy literally means the rule of the father and refers to an overarching system of male dominance' (Milestone and Meyer, 2012, p10) I think that the gender signifier's that were created, were created by the patriarchy to reinforce the ideals and stereotypes that males have about women, they were created to keep women in line with the social norm and make them act and appear how males want them to appear. 

Advertisement's show a constructed reality that are biased towards whoever has created them, they often emphasise one aspect of this reality that they want to push and distort as though it is real, and de-emphasise parts of reality that they want to ignore. 'In advertising, men are often portrayed in the following ways: Alert and conscious of surroundings, standing upright, eyes open and looking around, bodies are controlled, mean expression on face,gripping things tightly with hands, hands in pockets, serious and physically active. Portrayals of women in advertising: Touching self, caressing an object, lying on the floor, sitting on a bed or chair, eyes closed, not alert, confused, vulnerable, body contorted, dressed like a child, holding and object or man for support, sexy and sexually available, seductive, playful and careless' (Media education foundation, N/A) Women have mostly been portrayed in a derogatory way in all forms of media and advertising, focusing on their relationships between them and males, their families and also exploiting their sexuality in order to promote an ideology or product. After World War II when women were encouraged to join in the war effort and work outside of the home they were encouraged to return to their domestic roles 'as the government aimed to re-establish domesticity as women's primary occupation' (Wikipedia, 2013) I intend to write a semiotic analysis of a series of advertisement's from the post World War 2 era to the present and describe what reality they construct and how they do that. In the 1950's women were heavily discouraged by the media from becoming independent from men and were encouraged to settle down into the housewife role and marry, while not combining either of these with working, they were told to leave their war-time jobs in order to free them up for men who were returning from war. The media often belittled women and presented them as being vulnerable and stupid. The way that women are represented in the media has a massive effect on our society, 'Women of average or normal appearance feeling inadequate or less beautiful in comparison to the overwhelming use of extraordinarily attractive women, unrealistic expectations by men of how women should look or behave, stereotyping of women who are positively portrayed by or sexualised in the media, such as the theme of 'dumb blonde' or 'blonde bimbo', limiting the societal and career opportunities for people who fit these stereotypes, psychological disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder, anorexia, bulimia and so on, the excessively coercive nature of appeal to strong sexual instincts to sell products or promote media and increase in the likelihood and acceptance of sexual violence' (Wikipedia, 2013) I think that women are sexualised and always presented as typically feminine and 'attractive' in the media in order to reinforce the ideologies of the patriarchy, the rules that the patriarchy have put in place become most obvious when they are broken. 'This certainly applies to gender and illustrates the theory of performance. Women who do not perform femininity correctly but engage in practices that are deemed masculine, for example playing football, having short hair or wearing no makeup, are often labelled 'tomboys', 'butch' or 'lesbians'. They are denied femininity' (Milestone and Meyer, 2012, p13)

The above poster for the 1958 Sci Fi film The Attack of the 50ft Woman illustrates the growing fear that woman were gaining independence and power within society, from the introduction of women's suffrage and the development of the first contraceptive pill in the late 50s, it was feared that women were not only gaining independence and control over their own sexuality, but also over their position in society. The stance that the woman is in, hunched over with her legs open wide signifies her growing sexual independence, and the fear of how this will effect the rigid gender roles of the time. Her dress is white, which has connotations of virginity and innocence, however it is short and not covering much of her body, perhaps signifying that women are seemingly losing this innocence. Red is used in two contexts within this poster, the red of the woman's nails signifies strength and danger as she is attacking the city below, we see that all the figures on the bridge are that of males, yet again reinforcing the idea of women breaking free from the hold that males have over them, and then the red of the cars, which are all either red, white or blue, which has connotations of patriotism, combining these signifiers, this advert describes the fear that males held around the woman of America rising up against the Patriarchy and becoming their own person. 

Using James Bond film posters as an example, the majority of women portrayed in advertsing for products and films, show them either in a dumbed down housewife state, or as a sexual object. Whereas men are usually shown as successful and dominant figures who are always in charge. In these posters James Bond is shown as a well dressed, sophisticated man, using the imagery of a weapon to signify his dominance in the situation. He is always staring directly at the audience, with a confident stance and facial expression and is the main focal point in the posters, whereas the women demand less focus from the audience and never look directly forward, always to the side or at Bond himself, perhaps commenting on females passive role that they are forced into, not only in the film but also in society. The women in the posters are usually posed so that their legs are open or are in sexually appealing positions, signifying their vulnerability and readily available sexuality. The women are never portrayed in a way that would celebrate them for being in charge or dominant like Bond is, they are always wearing very little clothing and are positioned lower in comparison to Bond and are only there for the audiences sexual gratification. The colours used in the posters represent the different connotations that are being communicated for each character. The fonts are typically either red or black, along with Bond's clothing, both red and black typically connote power, danger, wealth and sophistication. Rather than wearing colours that represent power, the women are shown to be wearing quite pale that connote softness and purity, these show the juxtaposition between femininity and masculinity that is often present in these types of advertisements. 'Bravery, adventurousness, being able to think rationally, being strong and effective, for example, are all "manly" traits that are usually encouraged. So also are the ability to think independently and take the initiative.. TV perpetuates male stereotyping in two ways. Men in key "positive" character roles are portrayed chiefly with in a restricted range of male traits. "Less manly" characteristics are usually displayed by supporting characters, as flaws in the personality of the central character or as a source of humor or difficulty. ' (Center for Media Literacy, 2011) All the elements of these adverts combine to construct a reality that we perceive as normal, they pose these gender constraints as reality even though that is not the case, the gender roles that we see in our society are constructed by the media, we are not born with these ideologies ingrained into is, they are taught. 'Among these learned gender roles are those of femininity and masculinity. Men and women are portrayed in advertisements according to the constructed definition of femininity and masculinity. To be a woman is to be feminine and to be a man is to be masculine. There is little room for variation or a reversal of roles' (Wikipedia, 2013)

When both men and women are represented in an advertisement, it almost always focuses on the relationship between masculine dominance and female submissiveness, or showing the female as a temptress, who uses her sexuality to entice the male and hold his attention. Little had changed in the early to mid 2000s in the way that women were portrayed, even with the giant progression that feminism had taken within society. Third wave feminism which is often said to have started in the early 1990s came about as a response to the failures of the second wave feminist movement between the 1960s and 1980s. Third wave feminism began to incorporate the realisation of the many different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities of women, which had not been focussed on before.

Women of colour of represented even less than the conventional white, attractive female, and when they are represented they are often manipulated to appear more 'white' giving them lighter skin and straighter hair, which is typically associated with white females and are hardly ever shown to be in a positive role or shown to be a beautiful person. Media is often white-washed and is dominated by depictions of beautiful and desirable white women, we see a lot of stereotypes of women of colour portrayed, whether it be for a comedic effect or someone who is shown to be serving someone else. The cultural ideal is represented as being a young, white, beautiful female, making this ideal almost completely unattainable for women of colour.

'As Kimberly Williams Crenshaw has emphasized (1993), the problems faced by white women in the media are even more prevalent and at more troubling levels when compared to women of color in the media. The theory of intersectionality looks at the multiple ways in which race, class, gender, sexuality and ability impact the agency of women in society. Crenshaw offers a stimulating analysis of a number of older films, such as Wild at Heart, and how women of colour are portrayed as voodoo priestesses, monsters and the like. Patricia Hill Collins considers a similar subject of how women of colour are portrayed in the media – African American women may be stereotyped as docile, domineering, irresponsible, and promiscuous, Latinas as lazy or flirty, and Native American women as inferior “squaws” or seductive princesses' (The Gender Ads Project, 2012) Even when these women are being praised for their beauty or looks, for example, being a good actress, the media still feels the need to change the way she looks and make her appear whiter in order to include her in their advertising. Although the depiction of women of colour in the media has increased recently, it is still very hard to find positive depictions of women with naturally dark skin and dark hair, rather than the stereotypes and white-washed women that we often see. Dawnie Walton wrote on some of the findings from a survey they conducted asking womens' opinions on the negative portrayals of black women in the media, which tend to be twice as frequent as positive ones:

• “85% of our Black women respondents reported they regularly see representations of Baby Mamas in media, while only 41% said they often see Real Beauties. The type seen least often? Community Heroines.”

• “Modern Jezebels and Gold Diggers are the types that cause Black women the most embarrassment. . . .”
• “Our Black respondents said the typologies that best represent the Black women they know in real life are the positive ones — including Real Beauties, Modern Matriarchs, Girls Next Door and Individualists.
• “But non-Hispanic White women cited negative typologies as most representative of Black women they’ve encountered in real life — namely, Baby Mamas, Angry Black Women, Unhealthy Black Women and Uneducated Sisters.
• “Younger women — ages 18-29 — were more likely than older women to be aware of negative typologies and also more likely to find them compelling. . . .”
• “African-American women reported higher levels of happiness with their natural beauty and appearance, plus their spiritual lives and religious commitments. Meanwhile, White women reported higher satisfaction with their homes, their relationships with significant others, and their savings and investments.”
• “Both Black and White women reported that the strongest influence for boosting their sense of worth is themselves. But while Black women cited their mothers as the second strongest influence, White women say they look to their significant others to lift them up.
• “Interestingly, women who were compelled by negative typologies also reported they find physical features including lighter skin and straight hair to be most beautiful.” (Lee Bailey's EurWeb Electronic Urban Report, 2013)

As well as being very over sexualised in advertising, women are also shown as being very intellectually inferior to males. This is often expressed through the womens facial expressions, her face is constructed to give her a unintelligent appearance, as beauty is often associated with being stupid, for example the dumb blonde stereotype, and women are often seen saying stupid things or being unable to construct their own thoughts or opinions without the help of a man.

The ad above uses these techniques in order to portray the woman as inferior intellectually and plays on the stereotype that women incapable of being good drivers. Her wide eyes suggest that she is shocked or surprised, perhaps because she is surprised that she, a woman, can drive this car, and how simple this automatic car is to drive, so simple that even a woman could do it. And the way she is biting her lip, suggests that although the car is described as being simple to drive, she is still confused by it and can not fully grasp the concept of a driving without the presence of a male their to guide her. The way that her hair is done up, she is wearing a lot of jewellery and her nails are painted suggest that she cares more about her appearance rather than practical things like driving, or that she may not be interested in it because of the fact that she is a woman. 

In conclusion, in popular media there are very few portrayals of women that can be seen as positive, no matter what race or background they happen to be from. Women are presented as sexual objects for the sexual and visual gratification of men, as men are the dominant group in our society, so the representations of women we see are created by men to benefit themselves. The ads that I have shown along with thousands of others present a reality to our society where women are beneath men in every sense, physically, mentally and financially. They are only good for being ridiculed for their lack of intelligence which is seen as being acceptable to poke fun at or they are used a sexual tool for men. Women are sexually exploited in the media to appeal to the male gaze in order to sell both products and media. It is shown that any male adopting feminine traits usually associated with women is very negative and should be frowned upon, and men should adopt masculine traits in order to be powerful and dominant in all aspects of their lives. 'Gender ideology reinforces only one type of masculinity and femininity, the traditional type, which is hegemonic. Hegemonic masculinity represents men as 'naturally' rational, efficient and intelligent. Men are associated with strength and power (physical, mental and social), being active and ambitious, tough and competitive, assertive and aggressive. The natural sphere of the man is the public, the place where he works, socialises and makes a difference to the world...Emphasised femininity centres on women's compliance with subordination and the accommodation of men's interests and desires. Women are presented as being naturally kind and caring, predisposed to looking after men and children. The private domain is a woman's natural sphere and her family is her life'. (Milestone and Meyer, 2012, p19 and p20)

Bibliography

Lundstrom, W.J. and Sciglimpaglia, D. (1977) Journal of Marketing, American Marketing Association.

Milestone, K. and Meyer, A. (2012) Gender and Popular Culture, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Wikipedia, 2013. Feminism in 1950s Britain, [online] (updated 21 April 2013) Available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism_in_1950s_Britain 

Media Education Foundation, N/A. Codes of Gender, The Preview, [online] Available at:

http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi preadd=action&key=238&template=PDGCommTemplates/HTN/Item_Preview.html 

Center For Media Literacy, 2011. How do Media Images of Men Affect Our Lives?, [online] Available at:

http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/how-do-media-images-men-affect-our-lives 

Wikipedia, 2013, Gender Advertisement, [online] (updated 8 November 2013) Available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_advertisement 

The Gender Ads Project, 2012, Women of Colour, [online] Available at:

http://www.genderads.com/page3/slideshow-17/ 

Wikipedia, 2013, Exploitation of Women in Mass Media, [online] (updated 21 October 2013) Available at: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploitation_of_women_in_mass_media 

Lee Bailey's eurweb Electronic Urban Report, 2013, Survey says black women are portrayed negatively in media, [online] Available at:

http://www.eurweb.com/2013/10/survey-says-black-women-are-portrayed-negatively-in-media/

World Savvy Monitor, 2009, Portrayal of Women in the Popular Media, [online] Available at: http://worldsavvy.org/monitor/index.php?option=com_content&id=602&Itemid=1049

Metro, 2013, Video: How the Media Treated Women in 2013, [online] Available at: http://metro.co.uk/2013/12/05/video-how-the-media-treated-women-in-2013-4216716/

OUIL401 - Final evaluation

What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

• This was the first time I had written a formal essay in a long time so it took me some getting used to writting in that style, but once I got used to it I think I did okay, and I also think it helped me to think how I could anaylse my work when I was blogging it. The practical aspect of the work also helped me to think about how you translate something from a piece of text into something physical, and how to best communicate what you are trying to say in a text and turn it into visual communication. I think I applied this quite well through my comic, as people that I have shown the comic to have found it funny and understood the concept, however I think I can always improve my work and probably could have found a more obvious way of communicating my point.

What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?

• At the beginning when I was just testing I started using ink, but I found that this was very hard to control and I wanted a clear and controled line quality that I could make sure was precise, so I switched just using pastels and coloured pencils, I found that when I was using oil pastels that the way I drew was more messy and less controlled, both because I was practising drawing from reference, and also because the media doesn't allow for much control. When I finally decided to use pencils I found that the way I developed the concept for the character became a lot more controlled and I found it easier to make decisions on how I wanted her to look.

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

• I think that because this was my first proper comic with narrative that I had completed I wasn't 100% happy with it, however I think one strength of it is that the comic itself has helped me improve the way I think about character and how that links with narrative and how you combine the two to communicate a concept. I think that my interrogation of media and process also helped me to create a good looking final piece, which does communicate my point well, I think that this is a definite strength.

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how have/will you address these in the future?

• I think the main weakness was the overall quality of the final piece. Although the illustrations themselves worked quite well I should have spent more time cleaning up my scanned images in photoshop before working on them. The lines around the edge of the work made it obvious it was a scanned in image, and because all the images were not alligned properly when I trimmed the excess paper from the border off it would sometimes come too close to some pieces of work and too far away from others. Next time I aim to spend more time cleaning up my final images in order to make sure they are as neat and clean as possible.

Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. I will try and create a finished product using a method other than digital print, I would most like to use screenprint or risograph printing. I think this will add a different dimention to my work and help me decided what I enjoy working with most.
2. I want to continue to explore character and narrative in the hopes that I will become a better story teller and be better able to communicate a strong message or opinion through my work.
3. I will try and use a different media while testing other than coloured pencil, as I have used this for the past few briefs, this will also help my visual skills develop.
4. I will spend more time making my final pieces look as neat and professional as possible which wil hopefully help me to become more confident with my work
5. I want to carry on trying to develop my own voice and learn how to better put my own opinions and ideas into my work to create something that is well informed and will make the views think about their own opinions.

How would you rate yourself in the following areas?

Attendance : 5

Punctuality: 5

Motivation: 4

Commitment: 3

Quantity of work produced: 4

Quality of work produced: 4

Contribution to the group: 4

OUIL401 - Final comic

After I had drawn the final pages for the comic, I scanned them in and worked digitally to make them look more like a series of images and fix up some things I wasn't happy with.

Overall I'm really happy with the final comic, I'm get that I put the effort in and got it printed digitally on nice paper as I think it really adds to the final thing. Although there are some things I would change, like the fact I didn't clean up the images very well and because all the images were the same size, when I trimmed the paper down it cropped too close to some of them. I am happy with it and think it shows my progress well. I think that I should have done less work and made the quality of the work I did do, better.

OUIL401 - Comic visual testing and final crit

After deciding that I wanted to make a comic, I needed to develop a character that would be easy enough to draw many different times but would also be able to manipulate into scenarios where it would immediately communicate the overly sexualised message behind the narrative. I decided that I wanted to carry on using pencils are they are easy to create detail with, yet can create a nice blended and subtle colour, as I wanted to use a kind of monochrome palette of reds and pinks, I needed something that could create a wide tonal variety of the same colour in order to create depth in the work.

After I got a bit bored of experimenting with coloured pencils I decided I wanted to try something a bit different and more bold, as I had considered using Risograph printing to execute the final piece, so it would have been hard to seperate the colours had I used coloured pencils. I really liked the way this looked and it is something I intend to carry on experimenting with because I think the block colour is a nice contrast between the sktechy lines of the ink, however I don't think it fully suited this project, as it was much easier to create a full image using the softer pencils.

I think this image worked especially well because of the curved lines I used to create her body shape, although this is not exactly how a person would look, I think the fluid lines create a visually pleasing aesthetic that creates movement in the work and makes the character seem more realistic.

These were the images that made me realise I would not be able to use this technique of ink and pen, because when doing a larger image rather than just a figure, it was not as visually pleasing, because it was very hard to get different tone and depth and create shadows, which made it look very messy when trying to do this with pen and texture.

OUIL401 - COP Brief - SFW Porn

http://thechive.com/2009/03/23/sfw-porn-drawings-23-photos/

http://allthingsstrange.tumblr.com/post/64370555158/shout-out-to-gonzetti-for-pic-1-thanks

I find these 'SFW' porn manipulations really interesting and funny, I like the way they are subverting typical views on porn and things that are meant to be sexually arousing and turning them into something that is copletely opposite. The first three images turn the porn into something disgusting and grotesque, and the last three images, which in my opinion work the best, turn them into something child like and naive, which makes them humurous because it's using something that you wouldnt ever associate with porn. I like this idea and would like to use it in my comic work, of making images that are blatently overly sexual but are somehow turned into something niave to show just how stupid the over sexualisation of women in these sorts of magazines and publications.