Preparing for Presentation - Life's a Pitch

We met again today to sort out the ins and outs of which parts of the presentation each of us will be presenting & talking about. It's been a challenging and interesting experience working as a group towards this presentation, as its easier to be confident as a group compared to presenting a pitch alone. We all have quite similar ideas towards how we'd want this publication to work so creatively its been easy to produce ideas and ways of solving the problem.
All we have to do now is present it. Hooray!


Also here we are as Power Rangers for the last slide in our presentation. Always good to end on a laugh.

Life's a Pitch - group meeting + rationale

Here we are working beautifully as a lovely team.

Our group for Life's a Pitch is focusing on children's publishing, mainly on improving all those tacky colour explosion magazines we all had as children, usually to get some sort of toy or gobstopper. We thought that we could suggest a publication that encourages creativity in its audience, and active participation with things like dot to dot.

We made a rough plan of our rationale (and Ben made a sweet logo):

PUBLICATION FOR KIDS AND A WEBSITE

Sports page

Music

Activities and games – colour in pages, dot to dot, wordsearch

Stories

Kids send in their drawings – competitions

Animals

History

Boys and girls

5 – 9 year olds

NAME: ArtyFacts

Rationale:

Audience: 5-9 year olds, their parents, teachers

Delivery: a magazine available in shops or from our website, free copies in libraries? – workshops in kids events, shops, libraries, school visits and educational stuff, parties,

Potential partners: publishing companies, shops…?

Marketing communication: Instagram, website, facebook

Working with others benefitted

PLAN

Arty-facts

---- about us – meet the team

--- the magazine,

PURPOSE AND AIM

-guest illustrators

Future themes

--- research into existing stuff

anorak

match of the day magazine etc

------ promotion

Website

Social media

--- marketing

shops

toy shops

newsagents

stationary shops

--- events

libraries, schools etc educational sessions

history drama workshops

sports

music


    

Creative report Ruby Elliot interview

These are the questions I chose to ask Ruby Elliot for my creative report:

1) How did you get started using comedy and comics to make sense of the world?

2) How much does music influence your ideas?

3) What do you think the purpose of illustration is/can be in today's society?

4) What is your typical process for producing a narrative for a piece of work?

5) What advice would you give to a spooked second year illustration student like myself, (in many ways similar to a lemming nearing the cliff edge) regarding the real world of illustration?

6) Those questions are all quite serious so I included three optional gag questions to end with and break the tension:
Shepherds Pie. Yay or nay?
What is the most terrifying aquatic beast?
Do you have a favourite member of the X Men?

I tried to ask professional questions but without being overbearing or deadly formal, as I didn't think that was an appropriate stance to take with a practitioner with Ruby's portfolio and personality. She actually got back to me really quickly as well which I didn't expect because she's probably really busy. These are her answers:

How did you get started using comics and comedy to make sense of the world?
It was pretty organic! I started drawing when I was very unwell, and without any pressure from anyone else I was able to do exactly what I wanted/needed at the time. This meant that after a while drawing became a reflex whenever I experienced something, mental or physical. Even though I’ve moved on a fair bit career wise, I try and retain that way of working because I find it makes for the best drawings. 

How much does music influence your ideas?
In the past couple of years music has become more and more important to me, and I don’t enjoy days where I haven’t listened and sung along to anything. In the immediate sense I find music more affecting than art, so I use it as inspiration to get in the mood to create. In terms of my actual ideas, I can’t pinpoint how much of an influence it has, but I know various bands/artists have crept into my comics. I should listen to the lyrics of songs more.

 
What do you think the purpose of illustration is/can be in today's society?
To communicate something/anything in a way that is accessible to whoever is looking at it. 

What is your typical process for producing a narrative for a piece of work?
I have a thought, and I draw it or write it down as soon as possible, even if that’s just a note in my phone. I’m very scatter-brained so I know I won’t be able to hold that information in my head for very long! Then I may go back to it a few times and rough it out when I’m in the mood. All my my work remains very rough, so if I do go to ‘finalise’ it, that will still mean drawing in pen without drafting. If it goes wrong I’ll start again, and again and sometimes again, until I’m happy. 

What advice would you give to a spooked second year illustration student like myself, (in many ways similar to a lemming nearing the cliff edge) regarding the real world of illustration?
Oof, the ‘real world of illustration’ – well I’ll say that it won’t matter how far you get, or how seriously people appear to be taking you and your work, the feeling of mild fraudulence about your abilities will remain. Knowing that absolutely everyone feels this way to one degree or another is useful and comforting to bear in mind! Ultimately making pictures and asking for money, like many creative outlets, is a rather silly thing! It’s a great thing, but silly. So continue to stare off that cliff edge and laugh your head off (figuratively)

Those questions are all quite serious so I included three optional gag questions to end with and break the tension: Shepherds Pie. Yay or nay? 

I am vegetarian so unless it’s that weird Quorn shit then nay. Even if it is the weird quorn shit probably nay too, actually

What is the most terrifying aquatic beast? 
They are all lovely and I wish I could breathe underwater

Do you have a favourite member of the X Men? 
Yes, Magneto who I refer to as Cornetto much to everyone else’s irritation.

The opportunity to get Ruby's perspective on things that bother me everyday has been really beneficial and interesting, as it reassures that all of us in this field have difficulty and its okay to struggle sometimes. I think that this discussion of the reason behind her work is the most important factor to me, as with all my work this year I've really tried to make a conscious effort to have strong ideas first, before entangling myself with aesthetics. Just got to sum this up into the creative report now, then sorted.

Creative Report - first contact

I've just emailed Ruby Elliot and it was quite terrifying. Progress!
I spoke to Molly beforehand and she spoke to Ruby in turn who said she'd be happy to help, which is brilliant. I didn't want my message to get lost in the ether of tedious black and white messages, and its always good to be remembered, so I peppered the email with some really dreadful memes containing seals, as Molly let me know those are two of Ruby's favourite things. I think I have a similar sense of humour to her, so hopefully this irony comes across and she'll be up for answering my questions. Progress!

Industry Research - Ruby Elliot

In keeping with the left of centre comics that have been influencing me over the last few months, I came across Ruby Elliot, a London based illustrator who uses comedy and brutal honesty to explore the ups and down of her experiences with mental illness, and how it affects everyday life.


I immediately fell in love with her erratic style and the honesty of her content. I find myself understanding a lot of her content as there are issues in her work I experience basically every day. Using creative expression to understand situations, feeling overwhelmed and inferior in the face of the massive amount of talent in our class alone, not even counting the whole enormous practice of illustration. There is a personal element to Ruby's work that I find really human, it doesn't try to provide some self important advice on how to cope with feelings of depression and anxiety, but instead takes a completely raw look at it and basically says that sometimes you feel horrible, and it's okay because you aren't alone.
Her whole outlook on her practice is massively inspiring and personally helpful to me. I try to inject elements of comedy into my work and life in general to help cope with feelings of inferiority, fear of failure and lack of self confidence. Seeing that Ruby is doing the exact same thing and reaching out to thousands of others struggling through her work is the main reason I really want to interview her for our creative report.

Luckily, I noticed on Ruby's Instagram story a few days ago that she's actually friends with Molly from third year! Which is really lucky and hopefully will mean I'm more likely to be able to interview her.

Alex Hirsch - Gravity Falls

Disney Channel's Gravity Falls has, since Thought Bubble, become one of my favourite animated shows, due to its bizarre aesthetic and relatable, flawed and grounded characters.
I don't really watch tv shows because I normally don't have the time, but this series is one that I've consciously made time for, as I genuinely feel its been changing how I think about illustration and what my place is in this world as a storyteller.
It's one of those shows like Adventure Time that, to an outsider, appears silly and fantastical, but really at the heart of it there are some real emotionally complex issues being dealt with in a medium that a younger audience can understand and relate to. The show also toes the line between being goofy Halloween spooky, and genuinely scary.


The show focuses on twins Mabel and Dipper Pines, and presents both of them as latching on points for the audience, as they are flawed but repeatedly learn from their mistakes. The absence of a singular main character in favour of having both a boy and a girl at the forefront is great, the issues of childhood and the transition to adolescence are things every boy or girl goes through, and Gravity Falls does well to incorporate both viewpoints and the importance of not alienating others because of their sex, as most people tend to do once hormones kick in and boys and girls start seeing each other much differently.
The show goes from these realistic interpretations of growing up and themes like the importance of mutual respect for others, realising your own shortcomings rather than blaming everyone else, and the importance of understanding views you don't yourself have, to completely mad cosmic level conceptual theories of evil in the universe with villains like the demon trans-dimensional triangle Bill Cipher, pictured above. This insane contrast of content helps to ground the show in a way, as the characters are all doing next level out of this world stuff, but the narrative uses it in a way to relate to normal people with normal problems.
This level of fictional escapism is something I really love in storytelling, and its something I'd like to start incorporating into my own work, as I'd love to start combining writing with illustration to make work that can use comedy and bizarre elements to communicate a message that's a lot more simple, and human.

Universe reboots and equality in comics

Since beginning on this course, basically all of my interests and creative views have been changed radically. I've never been totally surrounded by like minded creatives who see the world through the same lenses I do before, and the environment of the studio has been a great place for me to be able to experiment and try to evaluate where my practice is headed without trying to drive it one specific way or another. I've tried to be open to new processes, modes of thinking, ways of roughing, and digital media in realising my ideas. I've also changed what illustration I've been consuming, and I'm only reading ONE traditional superhero comic at the moment. Just one.
I KNOW IT WAS LIKE MY WHOLE THING

While I haven't lost the respect for or the knowledge of the characters and worlds that introduced me to the world of illustration (jump me in the studio at any time I can still tell you Aquaman's wife's name or name at least six versions of the Iron Man armour), this course has developed my understanding of illustration to a point that the media I consume just has to be weirder, deeper and more meaningful to satisfy me.

Marvel and DC have both quite recently rebooted their universes (for the layman, this means when the narrative comes to a stagnation point and people are bored so the company decides to reinvigorate the franchise and invite new readers by resetting the timeline, wiping the slate clean and redeveloping stories and characters from a different perspective). Sounds tiring? IT BLOODY IS. DC rebooted their universe a few years ago in an event called The New 52, and while Marvel haven't done an overhaul this size in a while, parallel timelines and alternate universes have been a persisting headache in their stories for a few years now. While I sort of understand the necessity of doing this from a business standpoint, all it has done for me is alienate me and undermine the stories I've being invested in by resetting the entire timeline of events.

One of the last stories I really engaged with was Dan Slott's Superior Spider-Man. It was a riveting exploration of our responsibility to do good in the world if we find ourselves able to do so, done through the plot device of the villainous Doctor Octopus taking over the mind and body of Spider-Man, appearing entirely as Peter Parker, with the mind of Doc Ock. Rather than continuing his career of villainy, Otto Octavius uses his new (albeit stolen) body and powers to do what he sees as good, and be a hero. The story revolves around his thought processes around this concept, and how his choices differ to the traditional methods of heroism due to his abusive upbringing. While Peter Parker eventually returns to his own body and mind, the character of Doctor Octopus is developed into a complex and tortured character who ultimately wants to make the world a better place, but is so jaded by his treatment by that very world, finds it difficult to keep this ideal in mind instead of seeking revenge for what he has undergone.

I thought it was really thought-provoking and has a great message for younger audiences that you can't let the world get on top of you and change you for the worse, no matter how bad things may get. It's a dark and ultimately inspirational tone that could help a young reader cope with bullying, standing out at school, having confidence in themselves and their talents, and the importance of always trying to make the world a brighter place rather than getting comfortable in the darkness.

BUT THEN the universe's refresh button got clicked so does any of it count? Do the lessons the characters learnt still stand today, and have they developed from them? Or have they reset and is Doc Ock robbing diamonds again and kidnapping old women?
I read a couple of pages of a crossover called Spider-Verse in which multiple Spider-Men from multiple realities converge because a vampire wants to eat them all or something for some reason. Doctor Octopus (in the body of Spider-Man, known as the Superior Spider-Man) wakes up in the tech-noir year of 2099 and eventually ends up on a team of alternate universe Spider-Men fighting vampires (and there's a humanoid pig in a costume called Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham)and then after that the universe fell in on itself and everything exploded into a new world called Battleworld and then that was destroyed when a thousand versions of Thor destroyed Castle Doom and the Big Bang happened again and then-


I feel some of the thematic effect of that story is undermined now.


Moving away from these mainstream storylines, I have tried to absorb some of Marvel's forays into addressing inequality in comics. There has been a lot of character change at Marvel in the last few years, the hammer of Thor is now wielded by Jane Foster, the Hulk is an Asian teenager, Iron Man is being replaced by a fifteen year old black girl. I feel that these are all steps in the right direction, but a lot of this is used for marketing ploys. An example is the female Thor, who was promised to be a unique new character, but is yet to show really that she is more than Thor but a girl this time.

Putting a woman in Thor's armour isn't the same as crafting a resonating female character with a distinct personality and set of values that sets her apart from her predecessor. I was excited to see how she would deal with the burden of Thor's power and what her goals would be, but it turns out she does everything Thor did before except with lipstick. I don't really agree with pretending to create equality when really its just a simulation, Marvel should be striving to make Thor a character little girls will aspire to be like and give them confidence in who they are and remind them girls and boys are exactly the same. I definitely think there should be more female role models in comics, and I think they should be utilised properly to send a message rather than be a marketing stunt.

Of course there are instances of equal representation present in todays comics, Ms Marvel follows the story of Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American teenager with stretchy powers. Kamala is a practising Muslim and avid comic book nerd, acting as reassurance for young Muslim girls who may not feel represented in the media today. I feel its important for young boys and girls of any faith to be reading stories like this, Ms Marvel is not defined by her gender or her religion but by her interest in science and love for helping those around her.


Similarly, Captain Marvel has been an equally successful title, aimed at an older audience, still focusing on making people aware of gender equality. Carol Danvers exists as the universe's protector Captain Marvel, and is one of the hardest hitters in the Marvel Universe present. This is a great message for young girls and boys, the stories show a woman who has no dependence on men to be strong, and is just as powerful as male characters such as Iron Man or Captain America. Her title, Captain, is also gender neutral, rather than calling her Mrs Marvel or Lady Marvel or Marvel Woman. This allows her to not be tied to a single gender, meaning anyone from anywhere who is a fan can engage with her fully.
Captain Marvel remains the only superhero comic I'm still reading for this reason, precisely the fact that she clearly has a reason. She exists to remind girls that they're just as strong as boys, a fact that is being lost and twisted in the growing movement of sexism that doesn't understand what feminism is.