Zine Feedback

TYPED UP THE FEEDBACK SO I CAN EASILY REFER BACK TO IT

HIGHLIGHTED IN GREEN = MY RESPONSE TO THE FEEDBACK

First Impressions:

Different colour stock is interesting - feels like a mini newspaper. Paper really adds to the craft of the book.

Really well crafted - love the textures and noise of the book.

Like the mix media. 

Dark atmosphere mixes well with naivety of characters.

So expressive! Love how the collaged bits come out of the shape - like the bird's beak out of the circle - makes it 3D and dynamic. Really good storytelling and sequence.

Shapes around the images add a lot.

I am pleased with how the collage worked too, to be honest it was really just me playing with shapes, trying them one way, turning them around and glueing them down once I'd decided how they looked best. A PROCESS OF TRIAL AND ERROR - maybe not the best process but in this time frame it worked for me.

Lots of character.

Really love your puppets although I'm not sure if they worked so well to convey the life of your chosen author.

That's okay because I wasn't aiming to convey Poe's life. I wanted to discuss his storytelling, his melancholy world.

AMAZING ZINE! Love the page with the boy holding the bird.

Very interesting method of imagemaking.

Aesthetic:

Very interesting incorporation of shape through vignettes! Also V moody and lovely.

Intriguing cover, enjoyed the paper used.

Interesting interpretation of the raven!

Like the mix of photography and collage. Maybe could have tried more varying images though?

Great use of media and monochrome, getting an old school b/w effect.

Paper and printing style - very tangible.

Maybe needs a title/front page image.

Perhaps play with adjusting brightness to make it clearer. 

A bit more tonal contrast to break up big areas of black.

Good framing of the images - composition could be stronger.

Really like the model making - not too sure if the drawn element of the bird 100% works - maybe start making animals as well?

Images need to link together more - the handdrawn element seems not to blend that well with the images.

I did want to make the bird but drew it instead because of the time constraint. I do agree that they clash and don't really go together. This feedback seems a bit more harsh than last year but I am glad because it is honest and constructive. Even though I'm a little disappointed that people commented on these flaws because it makes me feel bad about my work, I'm glad they did because it shows me what to improve on for next time.

Concept:

Perhaps develop a bit more dialogue, story. More info on author.

Could maybe add some text to direct the story.

No idea what it's about.

I agree! I was trying to decide whether I needed text or to keep it vague. I now think it needed at least a title! I'm not sure if I want it to be obviously 'Poe' because then it gives the whole game away. It's spoon-fed and blatant - I wanted my zine to be a bit more spooky in its ambiguity e.g. no title, no words, no artist and unidentifiable characters.

PEER ZINES

Zines I saw around the studio and loved:

Kat's beautiful storytelling. She looked at Shakespeare and had lots of text in her zine but it worked well with all her lively illustrations! A mini book rather than a zine but that's why I liked it. An obvious admiration of her author too, and a synthesis with her author's tone of voice through her appropriately Shakespearean, humorous character drawings.

Sophia's approach to documenting her author - she also did Shakespeare but her focus was on the performance. He was a playwright and Sophia celebrated this by illustrating the actors, the stage and the audience. An all-round theatrical zine.

A couple of really sweet ones about Leonora Carrington making me wonder if I should have studied her further - a sense of adventure and feminism in these bold zines. Suits target audience of and current zine culture.

ONE WEEK ZINE

READY TO GET GOING! Excited for the briefing because I wanted to know what's next...

Study Task 1: MAKE A ZINE.

I've never bought or read a zine before so I'm not completely sure what my product should look like (PINTEREST TO THE RESCUE).

I'm also worried that my work won't suit the aesthetic of a zine because they are so DIY, trendy and random. I don't know whether my tone of voice would suit a zine.

I'm not sure how I'm going to respond to Poe's work in just 12 pages! Need to narrow down my thoughts.

A fun little task and it will be fantastic to see lots of different zines on Friday. It's a very quick way to produce work in a small publication - easy and cheap.

Chat with Ben:

Doing Poe - actually suits me. The right choice!

MAKE IT YOUR POE. Don't do the cliche that people expect, make it your own.

Poe was a bit camp really!

Artists to look at - Jan Svankmajer (The Pit, The Pendulum and Hope)

GET ONTO THE PHOTOCOPIERS

May not have chance in this module to use puppetry because it's very print-based.

Chat with Teresa: 

Seems that no one else in Level 5 is doing Poe.

Keep it simple. Do you have enough time to do this?!

PLAY. Only a quick brief, not to judged but to get you started.

Main idea:

Had a couple of ideas rolling around my skull, including a collection of 'found' objects related to Edgar or a timelapse of a weird crow-beast hatching from an egg, but the main idea I had was the storyboard above in which Reynolds sees a crow and it lands on his hand. Very simple. Very short. But a snippet of Poe's 'The Raven' in Jay-form.

Pinterest Research:

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

Looked at zines and realised my approach doesn't actually suit the format or the product. Decided to start again. Used the photos I took for research over summer - Nests, eggs, my crows, gravestones and zoomed in. Printed these textures in black and white.

VERY AMBIGUOUS AND MYSTERIOUS. Interesting and grunge.

To me it's a bit BORING//? Definitely what the task wanted me to do - very quick and simple BUT it doesn't really reflect MY response to Poe. 

I want it to discuss the creepy/spooky characters and his influence on Tim Burton and Henry Selick. No text works well in that it is vague BUT I want there to be a little more going on than just macro photos. Poe was more complex than that. Still want to use them somehow but incorporate the idea of characters too...

BACK TO REYNOLDS

despite time I WANTED TO DO MY ORIGINAL IDEA so I went back and did it

no clothes so I had to find a way around that

TOO MUCH NARRATIVE?

MUCH HAPPIER WITH THIS

Made 9 copies! Different coloured stock, wish I had found a good duck egg blue.

STRANGE THINGS

SOMETHING IS HATCHING.

Still thinking up a way to have them open. Maybe construct two pieces that fit together to form the whole egg? Cracked edge but fits together as a whole. Could I fit something creepy/unexpected inside it? Can I use animation to make it actually come to life?

AM I TAKING THIS TOO FAR? I have no clue what the final outcomes of this project are or where the brief will lead us in terms of a deliverable, but I would really like to have a go at animation.

Tiny graves. Prefer them without the writing. Looking good on the moss in my garden though.

Much better without the carvings. Too distracting. The shape is the most important and communicates a tombstone without spelling out 'REST IN PEACE'. IF VIS COM - GREETINGS FROM - TAUGHT ME ANYTHING, IT'S THAT SIMPLICITY IS KEY! SHAPES, SHAPES, SHAPES.

Complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination

THIS HUGE BEAUTY WAS ONLY £3.90 WITH FREE(!!!) POSTAGE ON EBAY.

I don't understand. It's in perfect condition and it's so heavy, how the hell did they manage to send it?

Anyway it's beautiful and a big bulk of a book so I need to get reading (I've been reading all that Gaiman we got from the library even though I know I want to study POE but I feel bad about borrowing the books and not reading them so I'll quickly finish the one I'm on - the Graveyard book - before swimming in some juicy Poe stanzas tonight)

Grave Digger

Making some clay tombstones. I want to have a go at constructing a miniature graveyard scene, possibly in a terranium or as a small-scale set, using real plants.

The clay I used was really cheap air drying clay which often doesn't work in my favour (crumbly and weak), but on this occasion it might be the best material! I want the setting to seem old, abandoned and unkempt. The crumbling, cracked clay makes the stones look eroded and damaged.

Carving the letters was difficult, maybe it would work better if I froze the clay first so there is less squishing and smudging. Or perhaps I could actually carve into the clay after they've hardened. The letters aren't legible but I kind of like the mystery of that.

Once they've dried I'm going to give them a wash with an antiqued/muddy grey, then highlight with white. I reckon they'll look pretty spooky stood in moss! I NEED TO MAKE MORE FOR IT TO BE A CEMETERY.

PINTEREST

I've been pinning to a 'secret' board for this brief and I've finally decided to stop being a coward and make it public. No more hiding what I'm doing. BE OPEN. This year I want to be confident and just push forward with MY WORK, not think about the competition or worry about anyone copying. Just get on with it.

So here is the link:

https://uk.pinterest.com/jaystelling/poe/

Here's some snapshots of the pins I've collected, giving an idea of what I've been thinking about/have been interested in.

David Plunkert

Went to Salt's Mill in Saltaire today - found the bookshop. Spent ages looking at pretty pictures and Moominthings (of course) until I found this little collection of Poe stories & poems illustrated by David Plunkert. I'd seen it online but hadn't been able to get a copy of it from my library, so I was very excited to find it here.

Plunkert's distorted, unnerving collages suit the tone of Poe's writing as they have a similar sense of observation and introspection. David Plunkert uses real photos and combines them with printed media (screen/lino) to achieve this aged, weathered aesthetic. 

Plunkert echoes Poe's tendency to discuss gritty details in his use of grunge textures and overlays.

It worries me a little because I am, in effect, attempting to do the same as what Plunkert has already done so well. How can I compete with that?

Although I think Plunkert's approach suits Poe's writing style, I do think that it could be spookier. 

The page with the Black Cat uses a classic black and red 'horror' colour code - perhaps too obvious? It's successful in creating a 'horror' tone and is a recognisable genre convention, but I think that Plunkert has played it too safe by illustrating what the mind can envision without the aid of illustration.

FEAR IS IN THE UNKNOWN, which is why Poe's mysterious stories are so effective. These illustrations, however, leave nothing to try and figure out. Be more ambiguous, unexpected or inexplicable.

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Spoke to my friend Clarrie about the project and where I think I'm taking it - she was surprised by my choosing of Poe. Not what she expected. 'A bit dark for you' and thought Leonora Carrington might have been better suited...

Hm. I get it. I am guilty of drawing sickly sweet, sugar coated characters and happy smiling things but that doesn't mean that this isn't me too.

And I don't find Poe dark. He's not.

He's not vulgar or sick in his work, only slightly obsessed with death and mystery. He's spooky rather than scary.

I don't know if that makes sense but it does to me. It's about his tone and I think I understand him.