Planning – Meg Dobson-Armstrong Art

Weekly update 20th April

So I’m just gunna start off and say that this week hans’t been it. I’ve struggled with it a bit as I’ve been finding myself a little more preoccupied with doing things around the house, my grandparents have been needing more help with things so I haven’t done as much as I would have liked, and also I found that I was struggling a lot to come up with ideas for patterns and how to make them my own, relevant to my work and also not an exact copy of what I included on my Pinterest mood board. Dave did suggest that I look at a book called print and pattern 2, but to be perfectly honest I didn’t find it very helpful at all, the patterns in there just weren’t really what I needed for this project.

I’ve done a few bits and pieces, and I’ve tried to change up different things with them like using different colours and trying to add things into the pattern that are relevant to each design, for example broken hearts as a pattern for the L design and I’ve tried to use colours that are similar to the sunglasses in that design, and I’ve used question marks in the mansplaining design to kind of match the confused look on the boy’s face, but I think this is something I’m going to change it up.

I’ve made these patterns in a similar way to how I made the scales of the dragon design I made a rough little pattern and selected it, and then created a brush tool from it and turned it and layered it in a way to make a pattern. I’ve been making the patterns and drawing out the designs using photoshop tools, but this week I’m thinking I’m going to try drawing some out using my drawing tablet and see if that gives my designs a little bit more fluidity and movement, as what I’ve got at the moment is feeling a little bit stiff. I’m mostly being cautious not to make it an outright copy of what I have on my mood board, but it’s hard given that a lot of them are quite similar.

Ideally I’d like to be finished with my poetry book by the end of this week so I can send it away to be printed and make a start on the things I want to do for my portfolio, and getting that ready! I’m hoping that with the extension I’ll have time to make my negative emotions dolls as part of my portfolio, I need to draw them out and decide how I want them to look, then I plan to digitally make them and get them printed onto fabric by the same website that printed my pattern out (fashion-formula). It was only today that all of my fabric and bits and pieces arrived to make my scrunchies and skirt so I can make a start on that next week, then put the pictures for my portfolio together and send it away to be printed! I will be drawing up a new time plan but I’m just waiting for Dave to confirm the new submission dates, as I don’t want to make a plan and then have to potentially rewrite it.

Main tasks for this week:

Make and apply all patterns to designs.
Write out poems and pair them with designs.
Make PDF of poetry book.

Here are a few of the patterns on their own:

Here they are paired with designs:

Image Referances:

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Underwater light pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Underwater dark pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Underwater gradient pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Underwater original pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Boys black pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Boys green pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Boys black and green pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining black pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining purple pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining blue and purple pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. L dark hearts pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. L light hearts pattern. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Boys with dark green background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Boys with black and green squiggles background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Boys with green squiggles background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Boys with light green background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Boys with black squiggles background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. L with dark hearts 1. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. L with light hearts 1. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. L with light hearts 2. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. L with dark hearts 2. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining with black pattern background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining with dark blue background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining with darker blue background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining with blue pattern background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining with lilac background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining with pale blue background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining with mint blue background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining with purple pattern background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Underwater with bold background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Underwater with murky blue background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Underwater with bright blue background. 2020

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Underwater with muted background. 2020

Referances:

Dobson-Armstrong, M., 2020. 29 Best 80S Pattern Images In 2020 | Pattern, 90S Pattern, Memphis Pattern. [online] Pinterest. Available at: <https://www.pinterest.co.uk/dobsonarmstrong/80s-pattern/> [Accessed 20 April 2020].

Perkins, M., 2011. Print & Pattern 2 Bowie Style. London: Laurence King Publishing LTD, pp.10-247.

Weekly update 13th April

I FINISHED MY ART WORK PAGES! WOOHOO!

So, finished the artwork for my poetry book. It was a bit of a long slog but we got there!

I’m starting to find it a little more difficult to concentrate, originally I was getting myself up earlier to do a workout and start work for a set amount of hours but I just found I was making myself unnecessarily tired, and I figured that I may as well take the opportunity for as many lie ins as possible given that I’m only about 6 years into my working life and the chance isn’t likely to come again. Got to rinse this pandemic for all it’s worth!

I’m still managing to get my work done at a fairly steady pace, at about one or two pieces each day. I’ve started to slow a little bit towards the back end of the week, but I’m starting to take that as a sign that I probably need a decent days rest at least once a week. I’ve been working on the designs this week that are a little smaller in size, and that’s made it slightly harder to get the details into each design and make them visible, which is something I didn’t really notice or think about in the initial drawing stages. I think I’ve managed to make some of the smaller details a little more visible by adding shadows and things to try and add some definition to make them a little more obvious, it’s mostly been things like facial features and parts of tiny hands and things like that. I’ve been taking a little bit of inspiration from some of my favourite artists, looking into the Instagram pages of artists like Gemma Flack, Emma Hayden and Tina Nass. I’ve not really needed to take much inspiration from any artists because I’ve really been enjoying just working through it on my own, but I definitely think you can see how their work, and how following their work for a long time has influenced me. Things like how I draw eyes and noses, it’s clearly influenced by these artists.

The one I’ve probably had the most difficulty with was probably the page for the princess, when I initially drew the dragon out I really wasn’t sure how I was going to go about styling it. I didn’t know how I wanted the scales to look, or how I was going to make the wings look and honestly I was dreading having to do it. I block coloured it using the pen tool, then on a separate page I drew out the pattern of scales and made a brush tool out of it. I covered the dragon in these scales in varying sizes and added in the details like the horns and the eyes etc. Originally I had the wings in block colour too but it just didn’t look right. So I erased them out, and then added another colour but lowered the opacity to make it seem a little more see through and that worked really well! I had intended to take screenshots or make a screen recording to show how I’d made it, and thus made each one, but sadly I completely forgot!

Overall I’m really happy with how it’s going, it’s taking me a little longer than I had anticipated so I’m pretty happy we’ve got an extension, as I need get this done and make a start on my portfolio book, and there’s still need to make a few things for it.

I’m going to use next week to play around with some patterns for the backgrounds of my designs and hopefully putting it together ready for printing. I’m planning on using some 80’s pattern designs or something heavily 80s inspired, but I’m going to make a mood board and take it from there!

Image references:

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Underwater coloured sketch. 11th May 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. The princess coloured sketch. 11th May 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. To my nineteen year old self coloured sketch. 11th May 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining coloured sketch. 11th May 2020.

References:

Flack, G., 2020. Login • Instagram. [online] Instagram.com. Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/heygemmaflack/> [Accessed 13 April 2020].

Nass, T., 2020. Login • Instagram. [online] Instagram.com. Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/tinanass.illustration/> [Accessed 13 April 2020].

Hayden, E., 2020. Login • Instagram. [online] Instagram.com. Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/emmahaydenart/> [Accessed 13 April 2020].

Weekly update 6th April

So ya girl has had a pretty good week all in all here in the land of lockdown!

I’ve been managing to do around one digital drawing per day, and I’ve made a start on a couple of little portraits to send out to people also! I’ve been doing these portraits for free as I thought they would be nice to cheer people up during quarantine, and of the 3 I’ve done everyone’s been super happy with them. I’ve been following the method I used to make the pieces for my love poems and my drawings for the Lasses, Glasses and Books poster as I enjoy it, it works successfully and people seem to really like it! I’m planning on doing a few more over the next few weekend, I’ve also been thinking of doing some experimental paintings for the sake of practice and portfolio, and since we’ve been given an extension for our work I might have time to do so. I’ll likely revisit my time plan once I have exact dates, then I can go back and plan out more time for experimental work as well as putting my portfolio together, because I don’t think I’ve really given it enough time in my original one, not as much as I would like anyway. I was also thinking of doing something NHS based to try and raise some money for charity, but I have no solid ideas and I’m not sure how I’d go about this, so I’ll have to look into it.

Anyhow, the main thing I’ve been focusing on has been my poetry book designs, and I’m actually pretty happy with how it’s coming together. Ive been managing to do one digital piece per day, I could probably do a little more and make a start on a second one but I’m trying to give myself proper breaks as a key point of self care, and one piece per day doesn’t seem like a bad progression if I’m honest. I’m usually not the best with digital art but I think I’m really starting to get the hang of it, and I’m actually really happy with the results, they do look different to my initial drawings but not by much. A little while back Jamie gave me a graphics tablet to have a go of, and initially I really struggled with it and couldn’t bare using it. However, I decided to give it another go on my “boys” design and I’m really chuffed with it. I only used it as part of the hair but it’s given it a really nice sense of texture that my digital work usually lacks, so it’s definitely something I’m going to use more of in future. I’ve been looking at Gemma Flack’s work quite a lot for inspiration, particularly for boys and how to draw hair, as I actually don’t draw boys very often, mind you, neither does she. A few years back in 2016 she created a zine called “Kissing Zine” which showed both homosexual and heterosexual couples kissing, and I found looking at the male couples really handy for inspiration for Boys. I have around 5 more digital pieces to finish and then I need to start thinking about backgrounds and putting it together with the written poetry. My original plan was to do sort of 80s-esque patterned backgrounds but now I’m not so sure. I think the imagery itself is quite abrasive to match the poems, so I’m not sure a big flashy background would fit and also I don’t want to take away from the messages of the poetry. Once I’ve completed each digital piece I’ll likely review this, and maybe see how it looks as a book against plain backgrounds.

Image References:

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Sad girls guide to life cover coloured sketch. 11th May 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Boys coloured sketch. 11th May 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Diagnosis coloured sketch. 11th May 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Pretty coloured sketch. 11th May 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Easy coloured sketch. 11th May 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. L coloured sketch. 11th May 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Dying my hair pink coloured sketch. 11th May 2020.

References:

Flack, G., 2020. Login • Instagram. [online] Instagram.com. Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/heygemmaflack/> [Accessed 6 April 2020].

Flack, G., 2016. Zines — Gemma Flack. [online] gemma flack. Available at: <http://www.gemmaflack.com/zines/eqi3imxs176vp0be5ahf7ht0sjfu7z> [Accessed 6 April 2020].

Flack, G., n.d. Zines — Gemma Flack. [online] gemma flack. Available at: <http://www.gemmaflack.com/zines> [Accessed 6 April 2020].

Coronavirus and a month on since my last update

Due to the coronavirus outbreak the college has had to shut it’s doors to students, which means that for the foreseeable, and likely towards the end of our degree, we’re on our own. Thanks coronavirus.

Honestly, everything about this big stupid virus sucks, for so many reasons. Let’s start with the fact that basically everything is cancelled; festivals, our last few weeks of college, graduation, gigs. On top of this, my boss sadly ended up being ill and my work had to close it’s doors, which means I’m having to cling to every penny I have, as I’m not really sure if I’m going to have a job in a world post coronavirus. Meaning that forking out money to pay to have thing printed is going to be a little difficult right now. To say that I’m stressed and overwhelmed is frankly an understatement.

I won’t lie, in the week that the college shut down I did basically nothing, I was completely overwhelmed and anxious and needed a bit of time to self soothe and sort myself out, so I spent the weekend after that drawing up a bit of a routine for myself. This routine detailed set days for me to work, with set hours, hours to work out and when to take breaks and how long for, and I’ve found this really helpful in the past week. Having something written down that I can refer back too has been good, and I’m actually kind of benefitting from having full days to myself rather than my usual routine of having about 2 days off between work and college and having to use it to do coursework. After a week of following a routine I’m actually in a much better place mentally and doing much better. The only thing I really need to do now is set a day aside specifically for blog maintenance, maybe on a Wednesday or a Monday, probably early in the week to get it out of the way (if it’s not physically in front of me I just seem to forget about it, I don’t know why). Obviously I had my 9 week plan, but because of coronavirus a lot has changed, like my finances, times for working, and because in my 9 week plan I neglected to think about my research, which took far longer than expected, making mind maps and forgot about having to make time to build my portfolio and annotate/evaluate my projects, I’ve made a few changes.

I shouldn’t complain too much really, because actually there has been some benefits to the lockdown. I have nothing but time now, time to work, time for exercise, time for myself, things that I actually wasn’t in abundance of prior to lockdown. I read a couple of student guides to try and help me plan out my time. Once of the biggest thing each of the guides stress is to practice self care and take time for yourself, which again, I’m massively benefitting from. I’ve actually tried to schedule time to have full days off to myself so that I have time to do something other than work. These guides greatly stress the importance of taking care of your mental health which admittedly is something I’ve not prioritised in the past, and the ways that they suggest to do that is to schedule breaks and to have a plan for your day, so I’ve written myself a little schedule as a rough guide to stick to, and then I’ll add in a separate work plan into here that’s more specific as to what I want to do and when. Both the prospects guide and the university of Cumbria’s guide also discuss the importance of a work space, which I’ve set up at my desk in my bedroom.

In the past week I’ve managed to start the initial drawings for my poetry book, and I’ve began the colour up part for it. I’ve done some media test that didn’t necessarily work, but now I’m using digital means it should be a bit of a quicker process. I’m actually quite glad I’ve been given more time to work on it, because this project is really important to me. I’m thinking I might be about a week late in getting it sent off to be printed, and after that I’m wanting to make some bits and pieces out of my pattern work, which should only take me about a week and most of the materials I already have at home. I also had a mini project based around mental health and negative thoughts, but upon reflection it’s actually not a very small project at all. I was wanting to make some soft sculpture busts that embodied my negative emotions, but as I started mind mapping and making mood boards I realised I didn’t have a set idea in my head, and I hadn’t really thought about the sheer amount of fabric it would take to make them, and I’m not completely sure how I would go about making them for that matter. Dave and I had discussed printing the design onto fabric and just sewing it up, but due to the college being closed and not having dave around to discuss it with this complications things a little, tomorrow I’m going to draw up some sketches and see if I can get the designs mapped out. Even then, I may have to leave it at that. It’s just a matter of priority really, I already had people asking me to make them things from my pattern design, and my poetry book is really important to me, I desperately want it to be good so I’m making that my main focus right now, then once I’ve done that I’ll see if I had time for it amongst everything else, because as I said before I completely forgot about my portfolio and the write ups for my projects and those are a priority over anything else.

So, the new time plan:

Week 1 (30th March – 5th April):

Monday – Spend today updating my blog and ensuring most if not all posts are up to date.

Tuesday – Draw out soft sculpture busts, apply pattern to mock up apparel (joggers, skirt, notepads etc) gather photos and scans for mock up portfolio PDF and put it together to be sent off to Dave, this will give me a rough base for when I start the real thing. Send off to Dave for review.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday – Poetry book colour ups of linework

Saturday and Sunday – days off, but I want to start doing some stylised portraits at least one day a week.

Week 2 (6th April – 12th April):

Monday – Blog update, and build website.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – continue with colour ups, start to design patterned backgrounds to go with each illustration.

Saturday and Sunday – day off with 3 hours of stylised portraits.

Week 3 (13th April – 19th April):

Monday – Blog updates, annotation and sketchbook maintenance.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday – pair backgrounds with designs, type out poems and decide on font, make PDF send book away to be printed.

Saturday and Sunday – day off with 3 hours of stylised portraits.

Week 4 (20th April – 26th April):

Monday – Blog updates, annotation and sketchbook maintenance, evaluate poetry book project.

Tuesday and Wednesday – Sewing work making skirts and scrunchies.

Thursday and Friday – Make sure I have pictures of all my work and put portfolio book together as a PDF and send away to be printed.

Saturday & Sunday – Day off, stylised portraits.

Week 5 (27th April – 3rd May):

Monday – Blog update, also update Instagram with work.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday – Complete annotation for both projects, make sure all my work is in both sketchbooks.

Saturday and Sunday – Day off.

Week 6 (4th May – 7th May):

Monday – Blog update.

Tuesday and Wednesday – Write up evaluations for each piece made (poetry book, pictoplasma entry, bookclub poster, soft sculpture busts, pattern design, stylised portraits).

Thursday – Hand in via Moodle and post work off to Dave for marking.

Strengths – Getting back into a routine, dedicating a couple of hours to work each day, ambitious and motivated, posting more on Instagram.

Weaknesses – Not updating my blog enough, poor planning.

Opportunities – More time to work, time to myself, I’ve been asked to illustrate a friends poetry book after this, opportunity to potentially sell products (book, clothes or scrunchies made form pattern).

Threats – Lockdown getting stricter preventing me from sending my work out, postage taking longer, poor mental health due to a break in usual routine and being stuck in the house, could die from coronavirus but seems unlikely, poor budget.

References:

Smith, J., 2020. 5 Tips For Studying At Home | Prospects.Ac.Uk. [online] Prospects.ac.uk. Available at: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/applying-for-university/university-life/5-tips-for-studying-at-home [Accessed 30 March 2020].
Stewart, O., 2020. Student Study Guide: Finding A Happy Balance During The Lockdown. [online] Cumbria.ac.uk. Available at: https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/blog/articles/student-study-guide-finding-a-happy-balance-during-the-lockdown.php [Accessed 30 March 2020].
Turner, H., 2020. I’m A University Student During Lockdown â�� What Next? – The Mix. [online] The Mix. Available at: https://www.themix.org.uk/work-and-study/student-life/im-a-university-student-during-lockdown-what-next-36246.html [Accessed 30 March 2020].

Image referances:

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Underwater. Pencil sketch. 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. The princess. Pencil sketch. 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Pretty. Pencil sketch. 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. L . Pencil sketch. 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. To my nineteen year old self. Pencil sketch. 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Mansplaining. Pencil sketch. 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Easy. Pencil sketch. 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Dying my hair pink. Pencil sketch. 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Boys. Pencil sketch. 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020. Sad girls guide to life cover. Pencil sketch. 2020.

Dobson-Armstrong, Meg. 2020.Diagnosis. Pencil sketch. 2020.

9 Week Plan

How the hell do we only have 9 weeks left of college? 9 weeks left of our degree and then we’re done forever? Maddness! I’ve devised a little plan to keep me busy over the next few weeks which is as follows:

Week 1 (2nd March – 8th March)

Decide the order of your poems and decide which poems to include.
Begin line work for illustrations.

Week 2 (9th March – 15th March)

Begin colouring up line work.
Experiment with different materials, paint, pen, pencil, digital etc.

Week 3 (16th March – 22nd March)

Chose a set media and finalise designs.

Week 4 (23rd March – 29th March)

Piece illustrations together with poems into a PDF and send them off to print.

Week 5 (30th March – 5th April)

Start sketching designs for mental health doll project.

Week 6 (6th April – 12th April)

Have the “skeletons” printed for dolls.
Sew up skeletons and stuff dolls with stuffing.

Week 7 (13th April – 19th April)

Take pattern fabric and draw out patterns for it to be made into apparel (scrunchies, joggers, skirts etc).
Sew patterns and make apparel.

Week 8 (20th April – 26th April)

Annotate personal project and write up evaluation.
Annotate and evaluate commercial and mini projects.

Week 9 (27th April – 3rd May)

Collect work and put it into portfolio.
Make portfolio PDF.

I’ve tried to keep this plan super rough just so I have a guideline of what I’m meant to be doing and when, I find that if my plans are super rigid then I never do as much as whats on there and feel a bit low because of it. I’ll make a more detailed plan soon, but I need to get cracking with my work and then I can maybe focus on details later. I’ve been looking into guides online for students, mostly GCSE students, of how to split your study time. “The weekly routine of a student” talks about doing 6.5 hours of work per subject, which equates to 20 hours a week if you were doing 3 subjects, fortunately I’m only doing one. But something I also need to try and factor in is the days I’m at work and how much time that will take out of my week etc. I did find another article by the uni guide suggests using studying apps to help you split your time, which I know I might find helpful. I sometimes struggle to consider all of the things I have to do until it’s written down in front of me, and even then I can find it stressful trying to build a time plan.

References:

Parsons, L., 2016. The Weekly Routine Of A Straight A Student (With 8 Steps To Create Your Own). [online] Life More Extraordinary with Lucy Parsons. Available at: <https://lifemoreextraordinary.com/study-skills/straight-a-student/> [Accessed 5 March 2020].

Ellet, P., 2018. Making A Revision Timetable That Actually Works – The Uni Guide. [online] Theuniguide.co.uk. Available at: <https://www.theuniguide.co.uk/advice/student-life/creating-a-revision-timetable-that-actually-works> [Accessed 5 March 2020].

Concepts and Themes

Each time I start a new project I try to work with a different concept and theme each time so that I can expand myself as an illustrator and so that my work doesn’t stagnate, but there are a few concepts and themes I always find myself coming back to. I suppose that’s because these themes are things that tie into my moral beliefs and hold true to things I practice within my own life, and thus shows my character through my work.

Feminism/Gender equality

Feminism and gender equality is something that’s always been very close to my heart. As a kid I was surrounded by so many strong female characters, and I very much see myself as a product of that kind of up bringing. I’m heavily inspired by these strong female characters, both in my own life and throughout history; what I don’t know about feminist history isn’t worth knowing! So I like to represent these women within my work. I’ve conducted a lot of research in the past to the different historical waves of feminism and the various points of history where women have been celebrated and triumphed over what society has placed upon them. A lot of what I make is about challenging gender stereotypes and explores a level of androgyny, I like work that demonstrates that you don’t have to play to the traditional gender roles set out to you, and that gender is this something to be explored and played with and not conformed to and obeyed, but rather challenged. Although they aren’t illustrators, two of my artists that deal with these themes are Tracey Emin and Judy Chicago who’s work we saw at the baltic, I even have her book “through the flower” at home. They both deal with the struggles that all women face, and are both very open about being a female artist and how the art world treats women.

Politics

A lot of what I do has quite strong political elements to it. I like my work to draw attention to certain political and social issues that I care about and raise awareness to them. This casts over quite a broad range of subjects, but in my personal life I quite actively follow UK politics and how the actions of the government affect everyday folk such as myself, and then it enables me to create work based around it. I suppose I use it as a means of venting my frustrations, and it’s also a means of sharing my world view.

Veganism/Animal rights

I’ve been vegan for almost 6 years now and it’s something I’m a massive advocate for. Clean living is a massive passion of mine and my veganism has been a large contributor to that. This is a concept that I tend to explore quite a lot in my work, I’ve made various pieces over my time at the college that that demonstrated the values of the vegan lifestyle and what a vegan code of ethics looks like. I really like working with animal imagery and nature inspired themes, and if I can use that to also spread a message then I’m happy to do so. A lot of vegan artwork and vegan activism can be very aggressive and almost points a finger at it’s audience that can easily make people turn away to it, whereas I like to try and keep mine a little more cutesy and light hearted. I feel that a positive approach is more likely to connect with others than an aggressive one. An artist that I’ve looked at this year that has explored this theme in great detail is Ellis Wooley, who’s work explores veganism and environmentalism in a way that’s positive and light rather than being aggressive.

Mental health

As I said before I like to work with concepts and themes that help me share my view of the world, and as a person suffering with BPD this has a massive impact on my world view and how I perceive the society we’re living in. In a sense art has always been a from of therapy for me and I use it to show others how my brain processes my emotions, and it shows others what it’s like to live with my illness. I also think that because we’re currently living in a time of mental health culture there’s a lot more visibility for generalised depression and anxiety, but very little for any illness more complex than that, so I choose to make my work so personal and honest because it gives visibility to others with my illness as well as myself.

Addiction/Sober living

As I said before I’m a massive advocate for clean living and almost 3 years of sobriety has been a big part of that for me. I haven’t produced as much artwork on sobriety, mores poetry, but this is something I’d like to change in future as it’s such a complicated issue and much like BPD doesn’t get very positive or honest press. By creating work around it and sharing my personal experience it gives the issue visibility but may also be able to reach someone who really needs to see it, and need to feel as though there’s somebody out there that understands what they’re going through. I’ve made a photography zine on the subject before, but I think I’d like to make more illustrated poetry about it in future.

Eviromentalism

One of the main reasons I decided to go vegan was my love for nature and how much I cared about the planet. While this interest in environmentalism did stem from my love of animals I almost see it as separate to my veganism projects, because even if you don’t want to engage in a vegan lifestyle the planet is something that we should all be concerned for and should care about, as lets face it, we’ve only got the one. The beauty of working with environmentalism is that there’s quite a lot of issues that fall under that so you have a lot to work with; global warming, deforestation and loss of habitats to name a few. This subject is incredibly broad, which can be a blessing and a curse, there’s so many things to talk about and raise awareness of, but when dealing with subjects this delicate and especially when a subject like this is so important it requires a lot of careful planning and research.

Subcultures/Fashion

As well as being inspired by strong and powerful characters I’m also inspired by subcultures and fashion trends, I think a huge part of being strong is having confidence and a sense of individuality. Fashion is how we present what’s on the inside outwards to the rest of the world and the way we dress has a huge impact on how the worlds views you. I also think it’s really interesting to see the ways in which fashion and different subcultures have developed over time and branched out into different styles from that, and looking into what influenced them in the first place.

Music

Music is effectively just poetry with sound, and just as I use my own poetry to share my thoughts and emotions bands very much do the same. Going off of words to create an image that holds so much emotion can be really difficult, but makes for really interesting imagery. Sometimes even using one sentence or slogan from a song can inspire a piece of work that can then be utilised for so many things.

Everyday life

A lot of what inspires my work is actually just what I experience day to day, the people I have in my life, the new people I meet, and the different experiences I have and have had throughout my life. They say that you should create things about what you know, and I find there’s a lot characters and experiences that I’ve had and that I know of that can make great characters. An example of this is Mel Stringer, who often creates little comic about daily life between her and her husband.

References:

Emin, T., n.d. TRACEY EMIN – New Site Coming Soon. [online] Traceyeminstudio.com. Available at: <http://www.traceyeminstudio.com> [Accessed 5 March 2020].

Judychicago.com. n.d. Judy Chicago. [online] Available at: <https://www.judychicago.com> [Accessed 5 March 2020].

Tate. n.d. Tracey Emin Born 1963 | Tate. [online] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/tracey-emin-2590> [Accessed 5 March 2020].

Stringer, M., 2020. Login • Instagram. [online] Instagram.com. Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/melstringer/> [Accessed 5 March 2020].

Woolley, E., n.d. [online] Elliswoolley.co.uk. Available at: <https://www.elliswoolley.co.uk> [Accessed 5 March 2020].

Work Flow Drawing

My workflow has changed quite a lot over the course of this year if I’m being honest, in the past 2 years of this course we were often working on 2 or something 3 projects at a time, which I’ve relayed struggled with and I’ve come to realise just isn’t my forte at all. So this year I decided to switch it up and start just working on one project at a time (not including the blog alongside) and working through it methodically.

I always start with my research; this can include artist research, mood boards, storyboarding, then I move onto drawing out my initial ideas from there. I struggle with this stage a little bit, I get this strange sort of pre art anxiety where I get really in my head about being able to make an idea work so it ends up taking me ages, when I could just do quite a few initials drawings and build from there. Once I have an outline going or an initial idea there I start to colour it, either digitally or traditionally, recently I’ve been leaning towards digital work a little more with it being a little quicker, but I’m finding that I’m getting really frustrated when I’m trying out some traditional means such as painting and I’m not very good, so at some point I’d like to find some down time to practice this.

Once I’ve tried out a few colours and decided on what I like I move onto evaluating the project, what I’ve learned from it, what have been my strengths and my weaknesses and how to improve in the future. I try to keep a plan in mind when I’m working, so I compare my work with my plan and how well I’ve stuck to it, and from there I can use it to plan ahead for future projects.

Why I’ll no longer be entering the Lauren Child’s poetry competition and other changes in my work flow

So I went into college for a bit last week to go see everyone and to get myself out of the house for a bit. Dave mentioned that our deadline had been brought forward and that all of our work was to be up and ready to exhibited by the 8th May which is only 2 months away. Even then, the work itself is going up for exhibition a few days beforehand. This means everything we do between now and then is to be exhibited, and basically we don’t have the time to waste on things we aren’t enjoying or don’t see going anywhere.

If I’m honest I was only going to do the Lauren Child’s poetry competition because it seemed easy enough to do with it only being one piece to make, and because we had to do a minimum of 2 competitions. Fast forward to now the idea of having to do it really feels like it’s going to be a chore, I’m not excited about it, I don’t particularly want to do it and I have 3 other projects I’m far more excited about and confident I can make work and actually make them good. Plus I finished my entry for pictoplasma last week so it’s not like I’m missing out on the experience of entering competitions.

So, I have 2 months now to do 3 projects which are as follows:

Self love/Body positivity pattern.
“The sad girls guide to life” poetry book.
Negative thoughts plush toys.

So the first mini project and it is fairly mini is I want to make a pattern built up of little love hearts with quotes that have messages of self love and being body positive, I thought this was be a good pattern to print and make apparel out of because I think it’s something that everyone struggles with a lot and I think it’ll be a really cute idea to do. Not to mention, I’ll get some nice new clothes out of it. The tricky hing with this project will be making the clothes themselves, but fortunately my Granny used to be a seamstress and has offered a hand to help me out (I’m thinking jogger bottoms and maybe some scrunchies from the scraps, I’ve considered t shirts and crop tops but I’m not so sure. I feel like that might be overkill. I’m going to use illustrator to try make this, as the pattern itself will be fairly easy and will be good practice to help me learn the programme a little better.

The second project is going to be the biggest challenge I think, I want to make a book of my poetry with sort of abstracted illustrations to go alongside them. I’m thinking it will likely be easiest to do this digitally and will probably be quicker, but that might mean that I require a lot of outsider help as working digitally isn’t really my strong point, but I am a little worried that working traditionally will take too long. I’m hoping that with the other projects being a little smaller can take a little time for experimentation and see what works. I was going to get my mini projects out of the way and do this last, but because I’ll be relying on an external source for printing (likely vista print or something) I thought it would be better to start with this one, then if anything goes wrong towards the end I’m not rushing around like a mad woman trying to get things done and freaking out about it. I plan on having my poems written and chosen by the end of this week and then I can start brainstorming imagery for the book and start storyboarding it. I’m thinking if I design 10 poems then that should be enough, especially with a blurb to write and a front page also.

The final project is one that I thought up a few months back. Just before I was discharged form therapy my therapist told me about a technique that she calls the “don’t be a dickhead” technique. I don’t know why she calls it that and honestly it holds no relevance to the technique at all. I’ve searched through mind’s website and other websites like health line but I couldn’t quite find what She was talking about, in fact there’s a startling lack in therapy techniques in these websites, there’s mostly the general “eat well, fresh air, and exercise” advice which isn’t really enough. The technique is used to tackle negative thoughts and stop you from ruminating on them and basically making yourself feel like a bag of shit in the process. So what you do is you identify those thoughts, and the words/phrases are and how they make you feel and you attach a character to that, something funny looking like a little monster or a gremlin, and then you can also attach a noise to it. My therapist chose the crazy frog ring tone for hers. Then the idea is that your brain now identifies that thought with something humorous and it cuts off the receptors that allow negative emotions to build off the back off that. I thought this would be a really interesting concept to make some cute little plush toys or little dolls from. I’m thinking I could work with 3 different negative thoughts, one on body dysphoria and like body image insecurities, maybe one on sobriety and addiction and I’d like to think of another one, as I think 3 as a set would be really cool. I’m not entirely sure just yet if I want them to be very cutesy and child friendly, or maybe a little more dark and creepy. When I was making my mood boards there were a few that were just humanoid and just drawn in different ways, and I know that would be a lot easier for me to make given my sewing skills are just basic. but I’ hoping I can get some mind mapping done this week and maybe some initial drawings as well so that by the time my poetry book is finished the sewing portion is all I need to do.

My plan for this week and what I’m hoping to have done is as follows:

Poetry book work ( Spending Friday day time on this)

Choose poems for poetry book.
Complete artist research and mood boards for poetry book.
Begin thumb nailing for poetry book.

Pattern work ( working on that this afternoon)

Choose quotes for inside the hearts.
Make the assets for the pattern in illustrator.

Doll project work (Spending Thursday doing this)

Mind map thoughts and concepts for each doll.
Sketch out ideas for the dolls.

References:

Mind.org.uk. n.d. Self-Care. [online] Available at: <https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/mental-health-problems-introduction/self-care/> [Accessed 19 February 2020].

Healthline. 2019. 10 Tips To Help You Stop Ruminating. [online] Available at: <https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-stop-ruminating> [Accessed 9 February 2020].

Pombo, E., 2019. Self-Help Techniques For Coping With Mental Illness | NAMI: National Alliance On Mental Illness. [online] Nami.org. Available at: <https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/January-2019/Self-Help-Techniques-for-Coping-with-Mental-Illness> [Accessed 19 February 2020].

Inputs and outputs

This is a mind map demonstrating the inputs and outputs of my current design practice. Similarly to my reflective cycle it shows the different stages I go through in order to make my projects happen, it also demonstrates how each stage links in with each other.

By initiating a project with research I can inform my work with what I’ve found out, an example of this being the research I did during my activism project, I looked into 12 different social causes I’m interested in so I could then create work about those social causes that was well informed and factual. I also conduct research into artists and styles that I want to work with, this is often a mixture of artists and art that I’m already interested in but also by following current illustrations it can inform my work especially if I’m trying to branch out and do something a little different. This research can take the form of either written work, or visuals like mood boards or Pinterest boards.

By doing all of this I can then move onto my projects, be it personal or professional, and whilst I’m working and creating I’m also developing my practice and my skills set, by trying out new things I’m also gaining experience and so the cycle connects itself. As I move through each stage I’m also addressing what has worked and what hasn’t, which then helps me move forward in that current practice by looking at what I need to do to move forward, what the next stages of a singular piece are, what I can do to improve but also informs the work I’m likely to create next. This can be whether I need to practice a certain technique more or whether or not I need to improve things like my time management or my schedule planning. This can then be applied over and over throughout each project I undertake. I created this mind map of inputs and outputs by reflecting on my own reflective cycle found at the beginning of this blog, but many of this has been reflected by Kolbs’ cylce of learning, a psychological theory that demonstrates the way we learn. This theory can be practiced both in academics but also shows how we learn from different experiences we have as individuals.

References:

McLeod, S., 2017. [online] Simplypsychology.org. Available at: <https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html> [Accessed 13 February 2020].

Design philosophy and manifesto

What is Meg’s design philosophy? how does Meg come to create the work she does? Why does Meg do very much of anything? Why won’t Meg stop talking about herself in the third person? Lets find out lads!

Mapping the mind

So I always start off a project with a big huge mind map so I can work out what I want to do, what concepts I want to work with, what I actually want to get out of the project and what my ideas for potential final outcomes could be. I start off usually by doing a mind map of ideas for concepts first, which is effectively just a big list of all the things I could potentially work with, for example it might have something like “ideas” in the middle, and the branches will ready something like “feminism” “veganism” or “environmentalism” and from there I can branch out the different issues within those categories that I could potentially want to work with. Then I usually start another one from those categories where I talk about what the art work would actually look like, how I’m going to make it and what materials I might use etc.

Research Research Research

The next step once I’ve got a concept that I want to work with down is to begin researching into that concept. Quite a lot of what I do is rooted in social issues so I like to be well informed before discussing it in my work. As well as completely research into my concepts and the basis of my projects I like to research a couple of artists so I have a rough idea of how it’s going to look by the end (well, how I’d like it to look anyway). I usually find these artists through Instagram, but if I’m looking for something specific I sometimes do a little google to see what I can find. I do try to follow this up with a couple of mood boards for ideas and to show people exactly how I’m wanting these pieces to look like.

Ready, Steady, Draw!

Once I’ve completed my research It’s time to get some drawing done! Recently I’ve been trying to map out potential layouts and looks by doing little thumbnails before I start actually drawing, but this isn’t always something I remember to do. I’m trying to build some positive habits. I start out by drawing the design out in pencil first, then I try to draw it out a couple of times and change a few bits around to see how it would look, and see which I end up liking best.

A pop of colour!

Once I have the line work done it’s time to start adding in colours! Most of what I do is super colourful, but I often change up the way I do it. So what I tend to do is make photocopies of my line work then colour over those until I know what colours and materials I want to use. Sometimes I go into it with traditional materials like paint or maybe pens, or pencils, or if I’m feeling particularly brave I might try editing it digitally, as I’m not as good at digital work. I try to play around with the colours a little and try out different ones to see how it would all look. Once those are down it’s time to add details in!

Being refined

At the end of my design process I like to go into my illustrations and see what little details I can add to potentially make them better. For example, with my recent work for the house of illustration competition I coloured the design in using pen then went back in using a few coloured pencils to draw the lines of the hair and some of the shading in the clothes. I’ll do this regardless of what medium I’m using, I always add in little details to try and give my work a bit more of a stylised flair to make it stand out.

Meg the merchandiser

Now usually once I finish a piece I might print it out and mount it onto some foam board for it to be displayed, but sometimes I like to consider other potential outputs for my work. In the past I’ve made things like t-shirts and bags which my designs printed on them that I’ve then been able to sell online, and more recently I’ve also been making stickers. By merchandising my designs I can sell them and advertise myself as an artist each time someone buys something I make. Plus it’s a great feeling to have someone buy something you’ve made and actually really enjoy it and love having it!

Evaluate your life

At the end of a project I always like to evaluate the project as a whole, so I can discuss what I feel has gone well and what I need to keep going through each project I do and what I feel hasn’t gone well so it can be avoided in future. This helps me build positive habits and helps me be mindful each time I go into making something new, and also makes me better able to cope with the work load I have ahead.

My beliefs for better design work:

Don’t be scared: Don’t allow yourself to be intimated, by a new technique, by other artists and designers, by anything. Try to utilise that fear and push back at it so you can use it to throw yourself into trying new things! If you never try anything new then you stunt yourself from being able to develop as an artist but also as a person, allow new things to be exciting rather than scary!

It ain’t all bad: Even if you try out something new and you feel it’s gone terribly don’t beat yourself up about how bad it is and allow that to ruin your confidence, look at it again and try to work out what it is you think is “bad” about it. What hasn’t worked? can you pin point exactly whats went wrong? What is it you don’t like? Use all of these points and try again, and keep using that formula to work out what goes wrong each time. Remember, bad things happen because they’re supposed to teach us something rather than just for the sake of being bad. (well, definitely most of the time anyway).

Have heart: While your designs don’t necessarily have to have some kind of important commentary attached to them they should always have meaning and purpose. Design things that you want to do, make what you like and make work based around things that you care about! That way you get to share a part of yourself with everyone who takes the time to see your work and they might even get to know you better through that. Plus, if you love what your doing it feels slightly less like your working so hard and at least makes you feel like your having some fun rather than constantly turning the university criteria wheel for nothing.

Put yourself out there: Going back to what I said about not being afraid, be open and share your work with others. This allows your audience to get to know you both as an artist and as a person, and the world deserves to see you. Share your work by merchandising so your work can be shared and distributed to others (make sure you water mark it though) and start up social media or your work so you can reach a wider audience. For every one person that’s mean about it there could be 10 who absolutely love what you’re doing and need to see it!

Before writing my design philosophy and manifesto I had quite a lengthen discussion with the other students, particularly Jamie, about how they all worked and what they felt their workflow is like. I found Jamie and I had a very similar kind of workflow, we both start out with rough drawings and thumbnails and then move onto media and colour experimentation, but he starts rough by just mapping out colours and shapes and refines details later, whereas I draw my work with details in mind, if my work is going to have an outline or fine detail I need to know before making a start or I get a bit freaked out, but like Jamie I refine them at the end so they’re very visible.

References:

Doyle, J., 2020. Design Philosophy!. [online] Wappendo!. Available at: <https://wappendo.wordpress.com/2020/02/07/design-philosophy/> [Accessed 12 February 2020].