PEER REVIEW

WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?

preferred my house with the folds

WENT TO GO SPEAK TO JAMES MCBEATH FROM DIGITAL PRINT

(finally! I've been putting it off for way too long)

Technically, he can print duplex A2 but doesn't like doing it and it's very costly. Suggested I stick to A3. That's my answer!

Booked in to print on the 30th November - very soon.

MonoCollage

Since all of the print inductions are over, it's been time for me to start making work that could be used in my publication.

Using the skills and techniques I've learned in the print workshops, I've been trying to reconstruct the original drawings I did of Poe-inspired characters and houses in print form. I'm used to drawing with line, but monotype wasn't my favourite of the printmaking processes, I found it too rough and wanted to push myself to think beyond line.

Revisiting the magic of visual language and working with SHAPE/COLLAGE.

Difficult to get myself to think with shapes, but once I got into it I just kept cutting (freehand, with scissors!) and things appeared. The act of moving the shapes around the page until they find their 'place' is great, it means I don't have to commit to the image until it all comes together. Instead of drawing an arm in the wrong place, I can simply recut it or move it until it looks the way I want.

It's similar to the movement of my jointed, articulated dolls and puppets and I think the closest I could get to making puppets in this print-based project.
I'm enjoying this way of working and think it's a great translation of my 3D practice.

THE GRAIN OF THE MONOPRINT adds so much to the illustrations! Last year in Visual Language, I was just using plain paper stock (contour card, wove paper, laid paper, coloured paper) and although the images were built up in layers, they still felt a little flat, I think because the papers were just block colours. The printed textures I'm using help to communicate the dark, dingy and spooky atmosphere of Edgar Allan Poe.

ART DOLL QUARTERLY

https://stampington.com/calls-and-challenges

Looking at more magazines/publications that have open calls for submissions, I found Art Doll Quarterly. This is a very niche magazine with a SPECIFIC subject: art dolls. I make art dolls, so why shouldn't I submit my work to be featured? The worst that can happen is they say no...

https://stampington.com/image/cache/data/issueImages/1ART-1602-Art-Doll-Quarterly-Spring-2016-175x175.jpg

Unlike Beautiful Bizarre magazine, Art Doll Quarterly establishes dates, deadlines and outlines challenges that they want submissions to answer. This means I'll have a direct plan to stick to, which i reckon will help me with timetabling, but it will also provide me with a theme to follow in my creation of the art dolls (e.g. one of the current themes is Powerful Women, in which I would have scope to research, plan and design a doll specifically in response to the brief).

My only concern is that the magazine does have the tendency to be a bit twee at times. There's a lot of craft fair/farmer's market sort of things. Just a little prim/not quite as I see the edgy, alternative scene of ART dolls. Not all the content is like that, there are some wonderful examples of what I would define as art dolls, hence the images I have picked out. To me, an art doll is different to a traditional doll because it is new, alternative and handmade. It breaks the mould a little. One of a kind.

Scratch that, I have two concerns. My second concern is WHO IS THE AUDIENCE? Is it just people who like art dolls? Perhaps these are potential customers, but is that enough? ARE THE READERS ALSO MY COMPETITION? I'm heading straight for consumers instead of the big wigs in the industry here...

Do professionals read these magazines? Am I heading down the wrong track?

BEAUTIFUL BIZARRE MAGAZINE

https://beautifulbizarre.net/submit/

https://beautifulbizarre.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Back-Issues.gif

Submitting my work to live briefs doesn't necessarily have to be things labelled as competitions.

It's simply an externally set brief - a challenge, something that may benefit my practice.

I've been thinking about where my work sits in the industry and how a lot of my work is about physical creations rather than traditional 2D illustrations. For some competitions, this may mean that my work stands out/is at least slightly intriguing, but I do feel like a lot of the competitions for D&AD/YCN are aimed at design rather than creation and I don't feel a connection with the tasks in that they're not what I hope to be doing after I leave university, so I've been looking for slightly more specific briefs that ask for puppet/doll/model-making/character design.

I also think that the industry I want to poke my little toes into is more about art dolls/puppetry and theatre/stop motion cinema, so I'm wondering if there is a better way into that than battling for a design trophy? It's more about getting my art and work OUT THERE, and I think I might have better chance with smaller competitions/submissions that are more specific to my interests.

Beautiful Bizarre magazine is a quarterly art, photography and sculpture magazine that showcases the artwork of unique artists across the globe: 'beautiful.bizarre is the place where the unique, the evocative, and the beautifully bizarre are celebrated and readers can discover a decadent alternative to mainstream art, culture and couture.'

It's a rather niche market, but I think that this alternative style content and tone better suits my form of model making than the consumerist values of making a logo etc.

https://beautifulbizarre.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/beautiful.bizarre.jpg

No set 'themes' or briefs but ANY work. Want it to be appropriate and relevant, so would need to study their previous issues. Start tagging instagram posts with '#beautifulbizarre' to see if they do like my work and reblog it in their submission sunday feature.

There's no prize or payment for submitting but it would give me a lot of exposure digitally and in print if my work was accepted. It would also be delightful to see my work published in a magazine like this.

https://beautifulbizarre.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/BBA-EDITION-1-ADVERT-150-791x1024.jpg

Poe's House

A VERY PRODUCTIVE MONDAY!

Although my bus was late due to traffic (took 2.5 hours to get in to uni as opposed to 1.40), I still got into uni with five minutes to spare. I HATE BEING LATE and I was freaking out a lot but I got there and it was all groovy. BUT DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE JOURNEY HOME (I had to stand up half the journey!) Anyway. Commute aside, I had a good day.

Did a bit of drawing and a bit of thinking... Not changing direction, but turning the gear up a notch.

Instead of just a random spooky house, GO BACK TO RESEARCH and make it Poe's house.

The foundations are already there, but this will make the publication a little more relevant and interesting (hopefully) in that it will have some factual/historical elements.

Not changing much, just tweaking the concept slighly to make it better.

Audience change slightly

context of reception maybe gift shop in the Poe Museum?

Purpose also shifts, slightly informative as it's based on the real house/real life of Poe.

Quick Catch-up with Ben:

Liked the house print - making things quickly and getting an idea of the final outcome already 

STOCK, newsprint doesn't fold well - look for thicker card stock

First person shooter approach has been integrated well, manipulating the audience like Poe did.

story in each room? - the tell tale heart, the black cat etc

Plan now is to print out loads of the monoprint textures I made and have a go at collaging with them. Make bricks/windows etc. Layer and arrange.

Maybe cut more lino stamps?

Design the house plan

Design the character sheet

Design the prop sheet

Research 19th Century fashion, architecture, interior design, wallpaper, furniture, lifestyle, 

Costumes

Spoke to my friend Amelia who is studying Costume at Huddersfield and working in the wardrobe department at York Theatre, suggested lower waistlines and coiffeur hairstyles

accessories

SILHOUETTES

Needed to pinpoint down to a specific decade of the 19th century instead of looking at the century as a whole because a lot happens in 100 years! Poe lived in Baltimore in that house from 

so I'm setting this in the1830's 

PENGUIN CHILDREN'S BOOK BRIEF RATIONALE

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.uk/about-us/design-award/children-s-cover-award/

THE BRIEF IS TO DESIGN A BOOK COVER FOR 'THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE: AGED 13 3/4"
Supports to my interests in: stories, reading, narrative, character

THE REWARDS OF THIS BRIEF:
Prize, networking, industry, exposure, brand, company, PENGUIN

THE CHALLENGES OF THIS BRIEF WOULD BE:
graphic design, typography (not experienced/skilled in)
Haven't read the book

THE APPEAL TO ME:
enjoy reading - penguin fan, my intended target audience