OUIL601 - Watercolours

These are the initial watercolour pages of my book, which I scanned in and worked on digitally to finish them off. I need to have a lot more practice using watercolours, because a lot of the time I messed up, or the colours went murky, or I just couldn't get the idea that I had in my head out and translated onto the page. The finished digitised images look quite different to these ones, because I spent a good few days working on them, hence why it took me so long to finish the book.

OUIL601 - Contextual references

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Like-Koala-Sean-Ferrell/dp/1481400681

emily hughes illustrator

Where Does Kitty Go in the Rain? by Harriet Ziefert, illustrated by Brigette Barrager

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony

Laurent Moreau

Miche Wynants

Jon Kalssen - CONTACT JON

lizzy stewart illustration

Isabelle Arsenault

Emily Sutton illustration

Chris Hagen illustration

OUIL601 - Things to do in your garden

http://www.gardenwildlifehealth.org/best-practice-advice/
http://www.rspb.org.uk/makeahomeforwildlife/advice/gardening/wildlife-friendly_garden.aspx

Key habitats in a wildlife garden
- Long grass provides a safe area for egg laying and provides shelter from predators
- Plant different species of plants and shrubs to provide year round food sources.
- A water feature with different depths is good for wildlife, shallow areas for birds to drink, deeper areas provide shelter for aquatic instects
- Growing climbing plants against walls provide safe places for birds to shelter and nest
- A thick and well developed hedge provides a safe sheltering place for wildlife.
- A bat box can be used for bats to nest in
- A pile of leaves will often be used by hedgehogs
- Short lengths of straw bunched together and hug are perfect nesting spots for ladybirds.
- lengths of dead wood is good for different species of beetle
- Early and late flowering plants provide nectar for insects at critical times in the year
- Ivy is a late source of nectar for insects
- Annual plants that provide seeds in late summer are a good source of seed throughout autumn.
- Save rainwater for watering your garden plants
- Avoiding using peat, peat extraction destroys vital wildlife habitats

OUIL601 - Tutorial 26/11/15

Cop tutorial on my birthday, yay! couldn't think of anything better to do on my birthday.
I was really pleased with the feedback I got from my essay, I was happy that there were no glaring mistakes in my essay and overall it was quite good.
I came out of the tutorial with a proper clear sense of what I needed to do afterwards:

- All 3 chapters need a clear introduction and conclusion
- Slim down the first chapter, it's a bit waffley
- Write out the key points of the chapters and make sure these are evidenced in my practical work.

The only thing I'm worried about is that I'll end up repeating myself in all the different introductions and conclusions, especially in the massive big first introduction and the final end conclusion.

OUIL601 - I've started the final images.

Finally I've finished doing the initial sketches and writing the words and figuring out how everything fits together. I'm sure this won't be the last bit of tweeking that I do, but now I can finally start making the final images.
I cut the length of the book down quite a lot because it was going to end up being over 40 pages which is ridiculous.
I over estimated how long it would take to write each section about each animal, so I've cut it down to looking at just 4 different animals, which is still enough to get a decent story out of I think.

I've been using a combination of watercolour, goache, coloured pencils and acrylic. I like the really textured effect it gives, but it takes a really really long time. 

I intend on scanning all the images in after I've finished them to add the text in Photoshop.

OUIL601 - How global warming has effected wildlife.

- Animals and also plants that are suited to living in colder climates will need to move towards higher grounds and polewards, even with just a slight change in temperature.
-This has already been witnessed in places like the Alps, Australia and parts of Costa Rica
-Certain species of fish have been seen moving northwards from where they were originally found.
-A rise in sea levels of just 50cm could cause sea turtles to lose their nesting beaches, and also affect the sea turtle population, as ground temperature affects the gender of the eggs.
-A lot of migratory species have been affected by global warming, as they instinctively know when to migrate from the change in seasons, but as temperatures change this confuses them.
-This also applies to plants to sprout at certain times of year, they either appear at the wrong time and subsequently die out, or they don't appear at all.
-This lack of plantlife also affects hibernating species, as when the animal awakens, their is no food for them to eat, because the plantlife has sprouted at the wrong time or hasn't sprouted at all.
-Global warming also creates severe droughts, as the atmosphere sucks all the moisture from the ground, destroying habitats are water dwelling species and animals that rely on these sources of water to survive.

OUIL601 - Brooke Barker

Illustrator Brooke Barker has a tumblr blog called sadanimalfacts.tumblr.com where she literally just illustrates sad animal facts, they're so cute.

I found her whilst I was looking for some interesting wildlife facts to put in my story, I think this is the perfect balance between realistic and anthropomorphising an animal, by giving it it's own voice and opinions, it becomes easy to relate to, but also obviously still an animal, easy for to differentiate between fact and fiction for children. 

OUIL601 - I got a reply finally!

During my research I came across an organisation that works with young teens to try and inspire them to follow a career in wildlife conservation.
I emailed their contact details asking if they would like to take a look at my book after I finished, and they replied! yay!

OUIL601 - Target Audience

I finally decided that the target age for my audience would be, as well as the parents, ages 5-7.
One of my favourite publishing companies is Flying Eye Books, they have different categories when searching through their books, one of them being books for ages 5-7.
I had a little search through that section to try and find some inspiration and get a feel for the type of words used in these books.

The first one I came across was one of Ella Bailey's One Day on our Blue Planet series, this one was in the Antarctic.

The majority of the pages seem to be very image based and less text, which looks very nice, but it may be hard for me to fit all of the information and facts in, with the amount of pages that I want to limit myself to.

The next was Hilda and the Troll by Luke Pearson, which is part of a great series of books, done in a comic style rather than traditional story book format, which I think would be good for my story, to help condense the imagery down a little bit so the book doesn't end up being too long. 

One Night, Far From Here by Julia Wauters, uses both normal paper and printed acetate to give another dimension of storytelling to her book. I think this would work quite well with mine, maybe combined with the puzzle pages, to make the book extra special.

OUIL601 - Peer review and feedback session

Comment on the initial relationship between the Theme and the proposed Subject?

Strengths - Clear relationship between the two, good idea to narrows down to a specific age group to communicate the theme.

Suggestions - How will you maintain the educational theme, will the activities appear throughout the book?

Comment on the appropriateness, scope and ambition of the proposed outcomes in relation to the subject.

Strengths - Really appropriate, I like how you are planning to educate through the actual narrative of the story aswell, learning without them realising.

Suggestions - With the age group being 8-10 will their be more text than their would be in a book for a younger audience?

Comment on the visual investigation and development of idea in response to theme and subject?

Strengths - Great that you have started thumbnailing, carry on!

Suggestions - You could maybe include a random animal that pops up every so often in the corner of the page with a fun fact.

Comment on the choice of media/format/series etc. in relation to the outcomes.

Strengths - Really like your water-colour scenes and backdrops in your sketchbooks - this combined with more refined detailed characters would work really well.

Suggestions - Try and create one scene using the different techniques you've used in your sketchbook to see which works best with the composition.

Comment on the initial relationship between the Theme and the proposed Subject?

Strengths - Definite relationship between the practical theme and what you have produced, really good story telling so far!

Suggestions - Just make sure that it keeps an educational slant on the work. You could have a fun fact every few pages?

Comment on the appropriateness, scope and ambition of the proposed outcomes in relation to the subject.

Strengths - Very appropriate, it is targeted well to the age group. Ambitious, but good ambitious.

Suggestions - You could expand the target audience, your question says young children, so maybe make it 6-10 years.

Comment on the visual investigation and development of idea in response to theme and subject?

Strengths - The humour in your work is really good. It's subtle and works really well.

Suggestions - Keep at it with the planning of the story, the facts are the things that make it really interesting to me, it would be amazing to have them included. Maybe a fact file!

Comment on the choice of media/format/series etc. in relation to the outcomes.

Strengths - You've the size of your book which is good.

Suggestions - Do a test page to see that the approach that you are wanting to take is going to work.

General comment:

1 - I think the book should be 32 pages. I heard someone saying Teresa said that was the minimum size of a childrens book when it is published.
2 - Merch:
Fact File
3D snail/plush snail/snail badge/stickers
Flash cards/memory cards, match the fact to the animal.
3- I'm really bad at humour but you could reference daily life as an adult like what you did with the snail not having enough sleep, maybe that kind of thing.

OUIL601 - Planning out my storybook

So, I started planning out my book, just quick first sketches, mainly so I could get the story sorted out and written down, because I don't see the point in drawing things that look really pretty and nice before I even know what the story is.

After I decided on a list of wildlife animals I wanted to write about, I realised that the story was going to be extremely long if I did a page for each panel, so I decided I would do a kind of half and half format. Half comic and half story book. I'm still a bit unsure of how doing this in a comic style panel format will work and how readable it will be for my target audience, but we'll solve that problem when we get to it.

Obviously I'm not going to put every single image from my sketchbook up, but here are a couple:

OUIL601 - Animal facts

I'm thinking about incorporating some fun animal facts into my book, just scattering them throughout in a little thought bubble maybe, like a 'did you know' sort of thing, to add a bit more depth and information into the story.

Here's some interesting one's I found:

- A group of fox's is called a skulk

- Baby hedgehogs are called hoglets

- over the past 35 years magpie numbers in Britain and Ireland have quadrupled 

- There are more than 600 species of spider in Britain

- The rarest mammal in Britain is the Scottish Wildcat

- There are less than 10 million brown rats in the UK

- Guinea pigs sleep with both eyes open

- Cats taste sweet things

- Flies vomit up their own food then eat it again.

- Owls can't move their eyes because they are tubes and not eyeballs.

- Brown bats are only awake for 4 hours a day

- Bees grow hair on their eyes

- Bats have long distance relationships

- Squirells can't burp

- 1 cow can fart up to 200 litres of methane in a day

- Frogs can't close their eyes

- Foxes, live, work, eat and sleep alone

- Ant's don't sleep

- Moths have no stomachs

- Pigs can't see the sky

- Mice can sense sadness in other mice

- Butterflies taste everything they walk on

- Worms have 5 hearts

- Every year, thousands of new trees grow because squirells forget where they buried their nuts.

OUIL601 - Tutorial 30/10/15

-1500 words drafted of chapter 1
-Chapters need introduction/conclusion
-Conclusions should highlight the four or five key points and link in to the next chapter.
- Use citations to indicate where the info is coming from.
- Make the comparative and critical chapter.

OUIL601 - COP Tutorial 16/10/2015

QUESTION:
How can Illustration inspire at interest in wildlife conservation in young children?

My arguments:

• Illustrative books are really effective ways to educate children as well as entertain
• Wildlife conservation is a big social problem that not enough people are aware of.
• Our current social attitudes to animals are inhumane.

Structure

Intro - 500 words

3,000 - History of wildlife conservation

2,500 - Wildlife in childrens illustration books - how animals are shown/ does it back up societies views?

2,000 - Illustration materials/activities - RSPB/Scottish Wildlife Society. - A case study

Conclusion.

OUIL601 - I'm doing a simple narrative

My idea of having a story about two girls who meet up, one living in the forest, one living in the city, was great however it would have taken an age to actually write and illustrate. So I realised that I needed to come up with an easier narrative, one that allowed for me to directly include my research without having to faff around creating this massive story around it, I can do that another time.

So after looking through some of my children's books, my favourite ones are the ones with very simple and straight forward story lines.

I've decided the main character will be a snail, everyone loves snails. The snail will read some bad news about wildlife and go on an adventure to speak to his fellow wildlife and get some inside knowledge.

OUIL601 - Childrens Illustrators

http://www.thebrightagency.com/artists/index
I found this agency that deal solely with childrens illustrators, there's quite a few pages, so I'm going to take some time to look through them all.

OUIL601 - Places I want to visit

Yorkshire Wildlife Park.

Fairburn Ings.

Meanwood Valley Farm.

OUIL601 - WCS - Wildlife Conservation Society

http://www.wcs.org/educators/educational-materials/interactives

OUIL601 - Interviews with Illustrators

The Book Trust.org

OUIL601 - Scottish Wildlife Trust - Education

WILDLIFE EDUCATION

See, learn about and enjoy wildlife

Education is at the heart of the Scottish Wildlife Trust's work, with our 25-year vision aiming to inspire and engage people in wildlife and conservation.

Our People and Wildlife team encourages people of all ages to see, learn about and enjoy wildlife both on our reserves and in the wider countryside, creating opportunities to get involved in a range of activities and events.

Meanwhile, our Experts for Nature project is looking to train the ecological surveyors of the future, addressing the current skills gap in field surveying in Scotland.

People and wildlife

Our People and Wildlife department focuses on four key areas of development:

• Maintaining and developing a vibrant network of local groups working for wildlife
• Fostering a strong, inclusive relationship with members and volunteers
• Engaging communities with our reserves and conservation work
• Inspiring families and young people to reconnect with nature

The Scottish Wildlife Trust have set up different groups, to help get children involved in wildlife and the conservation effort, they are called Wildlife Watch Groups.

'Education is an important part of the Trust's work, with the aim of inspiring young people about the value of our natural world.'

http://blog.wcs.org/photo/?__utma=1.549936898.1444906645.1444906645.1444911224.2&__utmb=1.27.9.1444911679919&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1444906645.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)&__utmv=-&__utmk=201675409

OUIL601 - The Wildlife Trusts - Wildlife Watch

http://wildlifewatch.org.uk

The Wildlife Trust's Wildlife Watch website is a group aimed at mostly children, and I guess their parents. 

There's loads of different pages, that take you to some useful resources, and has links to various educational packs. 

There's lists of activities that people can submit and review etc

'Wildlife Watch and The Wildlife Trusts organise hundreds of events every year for families and young people.  Most Trusts organise family events and Wildlife Watch groups, and some also organise holiday clubs, birthday parties, conservation volunteering for teenagers, and tots groups for the under fives.'

OUIL601 - New narrative, new start.

I feel like the initial idea I had for the narrative doesn't really work out. It's way too complicated.
So I've decided to start fresh and brainstorm some more ideas:

- A snail wants to explore Britain and expand his mind, he wears mini rollerskates, he's bored of his life, wants to explore, he befriends a pigeon and flies round with it.
- Snail wants to be a journalist, keeps seeing sad news stories on his snailbook, so he takes his old baby shells and gives them away to make other animals happy.

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with the idea of having a snail as the main character, but it seems like it's going that way now anyway.

OUIL601 - Mark Hearld

Mark Hearld's illustrations are gorgeous, especially how he makes the text part of the image and incorporates it into the movement and flow of the composition. I think he has the perfect balance of texture, shape and line, to create a detailed image with lots to look at, which isn't too overwhelming.

OUIL601 - Yasmeen Ismail

I've been thinking that I want to use a mixture of watercolour and pencil to make the illustrations for my book, they can create images using simple shapes yet have lots of texture to make the image really interesting.

OUIL601 - Allison Colpoys

Allison Colpoys uses colour very effectively, and I think the simplicity of the designs works really well with the colours to create an effective and beautiful book cover. 

OUIL601 - Follow up to the COP Lecture 13/10/15

Methodologies and Critical Analysis

• Logic, reasoning and critical judgement

What is a methodology?

• Best plane of action
• a logical, systematic way of organising a research project.
• Critically reflect on various research methods.

PALGRAVE STUDY SKILLS

• What kind of research methods should you employ to best answer your questions?
• What have you done to reduce problems with your research methods?

Your methodology may include:

• Literature review - Find the key literature in your research topic.
• A particular theoretical approach.
• Questionnaires - Why are you using each method?
• Interviews
• Sketchbooks.

Are children disengaging from nature?

What theoretical lense will you use? - What theories? Feminism etc.

Outline your methodology at the start of your dissertation (introduction) - How I am approaching my investigations.

(Go to Fairburn and other wildlife places, get research from there and speak to people)

What limitations might I face? (People not replying to my emails)

State why you aren't looking at something.

Who has already written about wildlife conservation and education.

Critical Analysis

• Try to consider different points of view.
• Are your sources biased?
• What is the writers agenda?
• Self reflection - Am I biased? (Yes, very much so)
• Context is everything.
• When was your research made?

Marxist

Neoliberal

Physcological

Sociological

Post Modernist

Technological

Fundamentalist 

Positivist

OUIL601 - First COP tutorial

So I found the first cop tutorials slightly confusing, I don't know if I'm exactly any clearer on the essay side of my project, but I know there are some definite holes that I need to plug in regards to missing research and some questions that need answering.

I need to pin down the exact reason I'm making the children's book, and what I'm trying to accomplish with it.
I need to decide exactly what I'm focussing on and do some deeper research behind it.
I also need to consider all my target audiences, because as well as the children, I need to appeal to their parents too.

- Target audience - ages 5-7 and their parents.

OUIL601 - Dissertation proposal outline

I've decided on my final essay question:
'How can illustration be used to inspire an interest in wildlife conservation in young children'

For the practical side of COP3 I intend on making a story/activity book educating children on wildlife conservation.

The story will be about two girls, one who lives in the forest and was raised by squirells, she is called Tony. The other girl is called Rosie and she lives in the city.
One day Rosie goes exploring in the forest, she ends up falling down a steep hill and finds a huge house built into a tree, where Tony lives. Tony and Rosie go exploring together and Tony teaches Rosie about the wildlife.

I want to make a book that encapsulates all my research into children's education and try to make something that's not only educational, but also fun and engaging.

OUIL601 - Project Wild Thing - The Issues

Vanishing green space -
Those edgelands , the bits of wildness not far from every home are vanishing fast.
everything built on and developed, houses, shops, fast food and offices.

How can we safeguard green space for kids in every community? And what about the parks and common land?, with services cut here and there, how will these special places survive for our kids?

Time poor parents -

Life is busy, Time is short

Many parents are working more and more and distributed families mean there's less and less help with the kids.

Finding time to take kids outdoors is often seen as no can do.

How can the outdoors become a friend to parents once again? giving them time and space, and keeping their children happy, healthy and entertained?

Stranger Danger -

Largely perception and media driven.

But none the less, the fears are real.

We are scared of leaving our children outside on their own, and we look uncomfortably at people we don't know in our streets and neighbourhoods.

Risk averse culture - 

Don't do that, be careful, watch out, don't run, don't pick that up, come here!

Just start noticing the language we use with our kids outside

How do we stand back and make falling over and getting dirty the good thing that is for building confidence, independence and risk awareness?

Rise of screen time - 

Kids love the shiny tech as much as the rest of us.

The ubiquity and pervasiveness of screens across every aspect of our lives has happened with astonishing speed with limited disconnect anymore between on and offline. This is voted as the number one barrier to kids playing out across the whole network from parents to organisations.

How can we make sure we're aware of our screen time and we find balance by making time for WildTime, offline, outside, liking other stuff like plants, trees, the sun, the rain and all the cool creatures?

Play Inc -

Money has creeped with stealth into the world of child play.

Experiences and things need to be bought, treated, updated, downloaded and get better and better each time, The natural world offers mystery, creativity and gameplay for free and in abundance. It does however require guides, mentors, catalysts and time to develop connection, relationships, wonder and awe.

Nature starved curriculum -

Nature, apparently, is not going to help children, in the global economic race

There are fewer and fewer opportunities for most children to explore the natural world through their school education journey, which is where they spend most of their young lives, how can we get the outdoors back into everyday learning?

Lack of free range play - 

Fenced in, monitored, regulated.

Outdoor play is more often than not, contained. Too many rules, with too many constraints. We know that free range is better than battery. So how will the kids rome free again?

Kidvertising - 

Make it pink, make it blue, make them want it all.

The corporations are out to get kids and they're damn good at it, But should young kids have to deal with advertising and material pressures, and the envy and wants that it creates? All of which combine to make time outdoors feel less and less interesting.

Danger streets - 

It's a minefield out there.

As kids get older, they tell us the streets become dangerous with gangs and postcodes bringing all kinds of darkness into young lives. How can we work to create a feeling of safe neighbourhoods and safer places for kids, as they grow? How can we let them be free, but feel safe?

Carlamity -

Mind the car! Watch the van! Wait..

Car-ridden streets of noise, pollution and danger, which must be reclaimed by communities and kids alike, Let's re-claim the roads with street parades and parties. We can close the roads for play days. And we must teach kids that walking with headphones in isn't great. 

Bring back the green cross code? Bring in more 20mph zones? Make wider pavements in new developments?

OUIL601 - Project WIld Thing

Had a very productive morning, I spent £6 on a documentary called Project Wild Thing, it was very inspiring and money was well spent.
It gave me lots of ideas for my project and how I can expand on my current ideas.

These are some notes I took whilst I was watching:

2 Months to create a marketing campaign for nature

Island of Eigg is best place to raise children, rated happiest place to live.

Looks at how modern technology and advertising affects children

Michael Wolff - Wolff Olins

Find natures USP

What are natures strengths?
Nurishing
Natural
Exploration
Wild
Ultimate provider of adventure

Monkey Do outdoor play

Good for nothing - group of creatives

Wild Time App

A sense of oneness with nature and the universe

Chris Rose - Environmental campaigner

OUIL601 - The Wild Network

http://www.thewildnetwork.com/

The Wild Network is on a mission to re-wild childhood.

We are a collaborative venture, a network of thousands of people and organisations with a collective vision to re-wild childhood, grow Wild Time (time outside) and help kids thrive in the 21st century.

To deliver our mission we are organised around three areas of strategic activity:
1: Awareness, Campaigning activity to increase understanding of the problems and the barriers to Wild Time whilst engaging new audiences with the issues.

2: Networking, Creating opportunities for individuals and organisations to make connections, share best-practice, develop knowledge and collaborate.

3: Amplification, Spreading, accelerating and championing the work of existing solutions and co-creating new innovations to help re-wild childhood.

The Wild Network has hatched on the back of a documentary named Project Wild Thing, that takes a funny and revealing look at a complex issue: the increasingly disparate connection between children and nature.

OUIL601 - Juliette Oberndorfer

OUIL601 - Lorenzo Alvarez Gomez

OUIL601 - Monica Ramos

OUIL601 - List of books to read

OUIL601 - History of Wildlife Conservation

The Wildlife Trusts

• May 1912 - Charles Rothschild formed The Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves, which became The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, which was the beginning of wildlife conservation in the UK. 
• The group worked hard to secure government protection for many sites around the UK.
• 1949 - nature conservation made it onto the statute with the National Parks & Access to the Countryside Act.
• Local conservation groups began appearing around the UK - Norfolk 1926, Yorkshire 1946 and Lincolnshire 1948
• There are now 47 Wildlife trusts covering the whole of the UK.

The WWF

• 1961 - The WWF is founded and is registered as a charity in Switzerland
• 1972 - Project Tiger is launched which runs parallel to the same project in India, which aims to set up nine national parks as tiger reserves.
• 1975 - WWF pioneers its first tropical rain forest campaign, meaning dozens of rain forests in Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America are managed as national parks or 
• 1976 - WWF's first marine programme, leading to protection for marine turtle nesting sites and the establishment of sanctuary's for whales.
• 1979 - WWF creates a fund to establish the Woolong nature reserve in China for the preservation of pandas 
• 1998 - WWF and the World Bank form an alliance to set up a network of worlwide protected areas including 200 million hectares of well managed forest by 2005.
• 1999 - WWF plays a big role in ensuring that sustainable development is an important part of the new National Curriculum in England.

OUIL601 - Emily Hughes

Image from The Little Gardener

Image from Wild

In Hughes’ picture book we meet a little girl who has known nothing but nature from birth – she was taught to talk by birds, to eat by bears and to play by foxes – she is unashamedly, irrefutably, irrepressibly wild.

OUIL601 - Woodland Trust Nature Detectives

The Woodland Trust have a kids activity club called Nature Detectives, it costs £1.50 a month and you get sent:

• A welcome activity pack
• A passport, bookmark, stickers and folder
• Seasonal activity pack
• Monthly emails with facts and activites
• News on family-friendly activities.

You can also download these free activity sheet things, they are all targeted at different age ranges.

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/naturedetectives/?gclid=CLKhrf37xscCFaYfwwodsp8P7w

Use this iDial to help you identify the birds visiting your garden.

Be a real Nature Detective! How many birds will you spot?

• Go on a garden bird hunt and find out which birds visit your garden
• Tempt more birds to visit by leaving nuts, seeds and fat balls out for them
• Have you noticed any other birds coming to your garden?

Take this iDial with you when you’re out and about, and see which birds you see on your travels. Are they similar to the birds visiting your garden?

OUIL601 - Dissertation structure

How can illustration inspire an interest in wildlife and nature conservation in primary school children

1ST PARAGRAPH
Start with my intentions throughout the essay.

2ND PARAGRAPH
Give a history of wildlife conservation

3RD PARAGRAPH
Talk about harmful practices towards animals

4TH PARAGRAPH
Look at children's wildlife packs that already exist.
Illustrators that have done similar stuff

5TH PARAGRAPH
Talk about conservation that is happening now.

What Richard said:

Intro- (500 words) - state aims /intentions / discuss question

Ch. 1 - (2000 words) - History of wildlife conservation (historical approach), including harmful practices towards animals

Ch. 2 - (1500 words) - Childrens wildlife packs and the role of illustration in challenging the above (educational theory, visual analysis)

Ch. 3 - (2 case studies of 1000-1500 words) close reading of contemporary conservation projects, including all the visual materials employed, with suggestions of how they could be improved. (primary research, case study, maybe even sketchbook work)

Conclusion - (1000 words)

OUIL601 - List of places to email

RSPB Fairburn Ings
Phone: 01977 628191 

Meanwood Valley Farm
Phone: 0113 2629759
Email: education@mvuf.org.uk or info@mvuf.org.uk

Temple Newsam Farm
Phone: 0113 336 7560 

RSPB Education Email: education@rspb.org.uk 

The Wildlife Trust
Email: enquiry@wildlifetrusts.org
Phone: 01636 677711

Greenpeace Environmental Trust Email: info.uk@greenpeace.org
Phone: 020 7865 8100 London Wildlife Trust Email: enquiries@wildlondon.org.uk

Friends of Conservation
Email: focinfo@aol.com

Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust
Email: enquiries@wwt.org.uk Wetlands Trust
Phone: 01797 226440

Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Phone: 01786 467819 Sheffield Wildlife Trust
Email: a.nowell@wildsheffield.com

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Email: info@ywt.org.uk

Yorkshire Wildlife Park
Email: info@yorkshirewildlifepark.com

OUIL601 - Ideas for practical stuff

I bought some shrinky dink paper off Amazon and tried out making some badges, I think they turned out well, if a little small, so I want to try this again and probably try and incorporate it into my project somehow.
I think that I want to create a range, maybe of toys, or stationary, that can be marketed towards children.

I think the success of my last COP project spurred me on to want to create a second children's book, and I think the context would go well with my subject and the narrative that I want to convey.

There's plenty of children's books that have a range of merchandise that come along with them, obviously because it would make the kid want to buy it.
The Very Hungry Catterpillar is a good example of this.

The book itself and the caterpillar is extremely recognisable, so it can be applied to pretty much anything and still be relevant.

If I have time after finishing my book I'd like to create a range of merchandise using a character from the book.

OUIL601 - WCS brand identity.

I was browsing through the WCS website and came across a page talking about their new brand identity.

"Our new mark visualizes this promise with a stylized W. Made of simple geometry, the mark can project a wide range of expressions from serious to lively, capable of containing colors and images, designed to appeal to everyone from park visitors to policy makers."

I think it's important for charities to keep up to date with their branding and make it appealing to a aid audience, as they said above. Utilising every possible platform is essential when trying to create a campaign and get your message out there.

OUIL601 - Threats to wildlife

- Habitat destruction - bulldozing trees, filling in wetlands, dredging rivers, mowing fields
- Habitat fragmentation - Remaining wildlife habitat is cut up and divided by roads and development
- Habitat degradation - Pollution, invasive species, disruption of eco - system processes

• Disease
• Global warming
• Unregulated hunting and poaching
• Pollution
• Public indifference 
• Over exploitation of wildlife

- Increasing human population

Disease
- Disease's are a normal part of every ecosystem, and healthy ecosystems have evolved ways of fending of potentially harmful diseases that could have disastrous consequences.
Ecosystems that are not as healthy as they should be and are threatened by pollution and habitat degradation are more vulnerable to emerging diseases.

Global Warming
- Global warming is becoming one of the biggest threats to wildlife worldwide.
- Many species of wildlife take cues from nature as to when they should, migrate, hibernate, nest, mate, etc. Global warming is confusing those signals and the changes in climate force the wildlife to change their natural cycles.

- Widespread forest loss due to warming and drought are causing trees to die and making them more vulnerable to beetle infestations.

- Coral bleaching happens when the algae that live in the reefs die out or expelled from the corals due to stress. The algae provide the coral with nutrients and oxygen. Scientists believe that the main cause of coral bleaching is the warm sea surface temperatures that are caused by global warming.

- Arctic ice, which arctic mammals such as polar bears, walrus and seals, depend upon to survive, is melting at an alarming rate. It is melting at a much faster pace than what was predicted just a few years ago.

Habitat Loss

One of the biggest threats to wildlife is habitat loss, due to destruction, such as bulldozing trees, filling in wetland and mowing fields etc.
When an ecosystem is drastically changed by human activity such as agriculture and commercial development, it may often not be able to provide water, food and shelter for the wildlife that depend upon it for survival.

The main components of habitat loss in the US are:
- Agriculture
- Land conversion for development
- Water development
- Pollution
- Global warming

OUIL601 - WCS Wildlife conservation society

The wildlife conservation society was founded in 1895, and has the clear mission to save wildlife and wild places across the globe.

They protect many of the world's iconic creatures here and abroad including, gorillas in the Congo, tigers in India, Wolverines in the Yellowstone Rockies and also many sea animals.

With a commitment to protect 50 percent of the world’s biodiversity, we address four of the biggest issues facing wildlife and wild places: climate change; natural resource exploitation; the connection between wildlife health and human health; and the sustainable development of human livelihoods. 

Through expansive population surveys, high-tech tools like camera traps and radio collars, and collaboration with a wide array of local, national, and international partners, WCS is working to conserve key wildlife populations across our project sites. Our conservationists are working with over 350 species around the globe, and continue to make new discoveries. We are also committed to the conservation of a selected set of “global priority species” that are vulnerable to extinction, important to humans, and powerful icons of nature.

OUIL601 - Beginning my research

I know it's a bad source, but I began looking at the Conservation movement wikipedia page to try and help me find different sources to branch out.

The conservation movement is:

-Political

-Environmental 

-Social 

Early conservation movement:

-Fisheries

-Wildlife management

-Water

-Soil conservation

-Sustainable forestry

Contemporary conservation movement:

-preservation of biodiversity

The movement can be traced back to as early as 1662 with John Evelyn's work Sylva, it was published as a book in 1664 and is a highly influential texts on forestry in response to England's depleting timber resources.
The conservation ethic that began to evolve included three core principles: that human activity damaged the environment, that there was a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations and that scientific, empirically based methods should be applied to ensure this duty was carried out.

I need to find out, what were the causes of the conservation movement, why did it come about? who were the first people to really push it forward?

OUIL601 - How the hell do I start my dissertation research?

So my question is "How can illustration inspire an interest in wildlife/nature conservation in primary school children?"

Areas of initial research:

-compile a list of wildlife/nature conservation websites and collect information from them
-look into the history of nature conservation
-look into local nature places and contact them for advice/research

My aim for practical side of stuff is to create an educational pack for primary school children age between 5-8 ish and take it into schools to test run with children and also take it to naturey places and ask them if they'd want it in their shops. I've emailed quite a few places already, including my old primary school, but I doubt I'll get a response any time soon with it being the summer hols.

OUIL601 - Yorkshire Wildlife Park Education

YWP have conservation awards for children and also offer educational trips and teachers resources.

http://www.ywpeducation.com/

I intend to visit the YWP and arrange a meeting with someone who can give me more information about this.

They offer educational visits for practically any age of child at different stages of development.

OUIL601 - Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Thinking about my other possible essay title about whether or not zoos are still relevant, I have an internal conflict, I really enjoy going to zoos and wildlife parks, as I do find them entertaining, but deep down I worry about whether or not the animals are truly happy, so I think I'd enjoy having this as a research topic.

I intend to try and go to these different places and gain more information and formulate my own opinions and ideas.

I want to try and email as many people as possible in order to do some in depth research, whether or not they reply is a totally different thing.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park is the closest form of zoo to here, with it being in Doncaster, so I intend to email them and just tell them about my proposed research topics, and see if they have any advice for me.

OUIL601 - Flower game.

I recently played through the game Flower, you play as the wind and control flower petals, collecting more and exploring landscape.

"Flower was primarily intended to arouse positive emotions in the player, rather than to be a challenging and "fun" game"

I played this game because I was in a bit of a mood, and had played a similar game which I found really relaxing, so thought I would give it a go.
The message and concept behind the game really inspired me and I found the game inspiring and relaxing.

It made me become interested in how games evoke emotional responses in their audience, and how happy the game made me when I was in a really bad mood.

I tried to think up of a subject to look at and create a topic to research for my dissertation. 

OUIL601 - Dissertation ideas.

After the success of my children's book for COP2, I definitely want to look at something to do with animals, and my love for them.

I have always enjoyed visiting Fairburn Ings nature reserve ever since I was a child, and have been interested in the different wildlife and the countryside in it.

I really enjoyed making my children's book, so I think I want to create some sort of educational material to get children interested in nature and it's conservation.

To make the learning part of it more fun, I'd probably make some sort of story around it, to incorporate the learning and facts within the narrative so it's not too obvious that it's an educational thing.

OUIL601 - Study Task 6

My ideas:
1, Are zoos still relevant for animal conservation or are they simply exploitative
2. How art and video games can be used to generate positivity
3. How can illustration be used to inspire interest in wildlife and nature conservation in young children?
4.How animals have been used for entertainment throughout history.

PLACES

Are zoos still relevant?

1. Seaworld Orlando
2. Monkey World Dorset
3. Yorkshire Wildlife Park
4. Knowsley Safari Park

History of western views

-Bullfighting
-Charreada
-Circuses
-Dogfighting
-Fishing
-Cockfighting
-Greyhound Racing
-Fox hunting
-Animal Rides
-Rodeo
-Zoos
-Traveling animal acts

-Save The Chimps Wildlife Refuge
-Pontefract Racecourse
-York Racecourse

Inspire wildlife and nature conservation

1. Fairburn Ings Nature Reserve
2. Kirkstall valley nature reserve
3. Adel Dam nature reserve
4. Ledston Luck

How art and video games can be used to generate positivity

OUIL501 - Summative Evaluation

I feel that COP, especially the essay side of the module, has been a struggle for me, as I find that I'm not the best at writing and articulating my ideas. However throughout this module I think I have vastly improved from Level 4 COP and my essay writing skills have moved along significantly. I think that this is mainly due to the fact that I enjoyed writing about this subject much more and it's something that I am quite passionate about. I have become much more aware of the context of my work, which helps me to synthesise both my essay and my practical work to create a successful project. I have improved my research skills, as I enjoyed researching my subject this year and it was much less of a boring task. I found it easier to collect a wide range of sources and to document them also. Last year I found it harder to translate my research into my essay but this year I can definitely tell how my research has informed both my essay and my practical work.

Thinking what context my work will exist in has definitely developed the way I approach image making. When my work has a distinct purpose I find it easier to evaluate the way I am working and make critical decisions about how I should approach a piece of work. There were many problems with the way I approached making a book during Level 4 COP, and I used what I had learned from my mistakes last year to vastly improve the way I approached image making this year. I chose to make my book digitally rather than using traditional techniques to give a much cleaner and more professional look. I also used an actual font rather than hand drawn type, which I used last year, which proved to be quite hard to read when printed out on a small scale.

The narrative of my work was a definite strength. In the feedback tutorials I was told that the story linked well with my essay title and that the contrast between the naive children's style illustrations and the honest and brutal narrative worked really well. I was quite organised with my time and didn't leave anything to the last minute, I worked hard on getting the book finished to a high standard with plenty of time left to finish other aspects of the module. At the start of the project I initially wanted to create 3 books, but it was suggested that this would be too much work, so I decided to create only 1 book, but to a very high standard, I think this was my main improvement from last year, where I gave myself too much work to do, so I wasn't happy with the quality of the finished work.

I think the main weakness within this module was definitely my essay. Although I enjoyed doing the research, as the meat industry is something I'm quite interested in, I still found it hard to actually write the essay to a standard that I was pleased with, so I think it will affect my overall grade. I also found the study tasks quite hard, because I didn't blog them straight away, as I find analysing images difficult, and I was struggling to get back into the flow of analysing things after the end of Level 4, so I ended coming back to the study tasks a while after we had been briefed them, so the information we were given to support the tasks wasn't fresh in my mind. In hindsight I should have just approached Richard and asked for help with them, but at the time I felt like I was too busy with others modules to do this, so throughout Level 6 I will ask for help more often rather than leaving it and struggling when I come back to it.

During Level 6 I intend to:

• Make sure that I am fully invested in whatever I choose to research, so that I can do my best both with the practical and essay side of the module.
• I will ask for help whenever I need it to avoid not doing something, coming back to it, and struggling more than I did in the first place.
• I will push myself to create as much work as possible to a high standard, now that I feel I have a better grasp of what my limits are, I can safely push them to challenge what I'm capable of.
• I will blog everything as I go along, and do a lot research into my Level 6 subject over the Summer so that I am well prepared for when we return.
• I want to try and gather more first hand research, rather than secondary, even if this is just photo reference imagery to help me with the practical tasks.

OUIL501 - Final Practical Response

I'm very pleased with the outcome of my final book, I received a lot of praise at the final crit on the impact of the story and the relationship that I created between image and text and I think that I used colour well to create a certain mood and to evoke an emotional response in the reader. I tried to make the story a little bit humorous as I was trying to mock the naivety of consumer's views towards the meat industry and the slaughter process. I think I got the balance between adult humour and the aesthetic of a children's book exactly right in order to fool the reader into believing this to be a real children's book, and to then be shocked by the narrative when they read it. I was very pleased with the print quality, as I decided to print the front pages on thicker paper and the inside ones on thinner stock, this gave it more of a realistic look. The next book that I create I want to properly bind it with a hardback cover.

OUIL501 - Final Essay Response

OUIL501 - Final Crit and Feedback

Although this final crit wasn't exactly useful, because I couldn't really change anything about my book at this stage, I did find the feedback to be really reassuring in that my book was successful. 

A few people mentioned that my book had a very clear and well executed concept, that the sarcasm and humour contrasted really well with the deep subject, also because of the way it was designed to appear to be a light hearted children's book. 

Through my feedback I can see that my work is obviously informed by contextual research and links well to my essay question. This was something that I was concerned about at first, that the practical element of my work didn't link directly to my essay question, but I feel much more confident that it does after this feedback.

Looking back on my work now I am happy that I decided to change my idea from simply creating a painting of layered farm animals to this children's book because it gives my project much more context and has given me ideas for future work. 

OUIL501 - Project Synthesis

My essay title was, How demand and growing consumerism has changed and developed the meat industry. I chose this title because I have always been interested in the industry and how consumers views of it are skewed by the media. My practical work was kind of a commentary on the naivety about the slaughter process, because many consumers don't consider the reality of the meat industry and believe the sugar coated image they are given by the media. As our consumerist society has grown the meat industry has grown with it and had to develop new ways of producing enough low cost meat to fulfill demand. Animal welfare isn't always a priority in these production methods but the way that we are fed a skewed view of factory farming leads people to believe a kind of fairy tale version of it. I wanted to illustrate the typical slaughter process under the disguise of a children's book, to show the juxtaposition between what actually happens when a cow is slaughter compared to the skewed image that people have in their minds.

OUIL501 - Book Development

I started making plan sketches for my book, I started researching the slaughter process, watching videos and reading articles. I wanted to keep the story quite short and simple, with a blunt narrative, which is often the tone of childrens books, so I kept the story to 8 pages long. I started out by planning each page and then painting it using water colour, but after I finished one I didn't think it looked clean and precise enough to be the final image, so I decided to finish them off digitally.

I first painted the front cover with watercolours rather than digital and I really liked the outcome, I think mainly because there was a lot less detail in the front cover than in the pages, so it was easier to create a nice image.

OUIL501 - Development Sketches

After I had done a bit more research into the aesthetic of my book, I began making sketches and playing around with different styles. I had a clear image in my head of how I wanted it to look. I wanted to portray the classic 1950's style childrens books, with bold shapes and muted, bold colours. A few artists that I had looked at inspired me to try and give my work a collage effect.

I first tried doing this digitally even though I had intended to create all images by hand using watercolour, as I thought it would be easier to create something a bit more professional, seeing as I hadn't really used watercolours to create a well put together image before.

In the image above I was trying to go for quite an abstract feel, but in the end I didn't think it really worked. To create more of an emotional bond with the reader I wanted it to be a bit more realistic but still child like.

I also decided that I would not mention anything about the book being set in a slaughter house, because I wanted to deceive the reader into thinking this was a classic children's book about a cow.

OUIL501 - Development sketches

After getting some feedback on my project I decided that I would create a childrens book looking at the slaughter process of animals. Although I didn't know what I wanted my book to look like. I went to a local farm and took some research imagery to help me come up with some ideas. I started doing some sketches using mark and line again to create texture. I was still pretty stuck on the aesthetic of my book, so I started researching childrens' books on pinterest.

This was one of my favourite images that I created. I tried to show tone using texture rather than block colour. I think the simple combination of two colours makes the image work really well aesthetically. 

OUIL501 - Vintage Ladybird Books

I have a small collection of vintage illustrated children's books, which I looked at for reference when thinking about how I should approach my book. The narrative of the Snakes book was exactly how I wanted mine to be, blunt and straight to the point, as I think, reading this as an adult, already has an element of humour to it. Most of the books had a similar style of illustration, using quite realistic looking drawings with a simple and realistic colour scheme, mainly because they are instructional books, however the Bedtime Rhymes book was quite different, the style was much brighter and more vivid colours and the drawing technique was much less true to life, focusing more on using block shapes and colours.