Rara's Blog

What skills do I have and what do I need for the project?

My strengths I have are I can draw, On a serious note is that of course I’d have to be able to draw to be where I am today, I just mean I’m very adaptable which is perfect for this project because I’m making sure my character design and environments aren’t only fit for my little Fox character but is suitable for children and children with specific learning difficulties. I am also able to use a needle and thread, Great because I need this for the fabrics that are incorporated within my projects, I’m good at using Photoshop and digital paint to a minimum, which is useful as if I need any touch ups I’m able to make on Photoshop and can digitally paint. I have some experience with children as I did out reach projects like work shops with the Artrium ( I volunteer at the studio), Which is good as I need to be considerate with children and children with specific needs and what they may like with the multi textual books.

Weakness I have are I’m bad at organising, however I’ve solved this with an academic dairy however I’ve had to place reminders on my MacBook and my phone telling me to look at it. Another weakness is I’m not so good with illustrator, but I’ve based myself this year on gaining skills (A little self helping while doing my multi textual children’s book) and one of them is to be better at illustrator so I’m challenging myself.

Opportunities I have with the project is that I get taken seriously about working with children in the near future, my work gets credit for the aims and objects of why it was mad and how it’s educational. This might get me involved with case studies and observing with children.

Threats that I’m taking on are  how much time I have with this project, the amount of dedication I’m putting into this and will I achieve my aims and goals each week. I have a plan to keep myself on track and that is too right things down in my diary and have my reminders and just stay on track. This project is extremely important to me and want the message out there to get my book recognised for educational needs and made for children and children with specific learning needs.

Rachel

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At the moment the current industry practice is leaned towards books, comics, cartoons, vintage and retro. I know this by see the high street fashion, more books are being sold, my favourite artist are creating their own books, shabby sheek and comic books are becoming more popular lately with all the superhero movies and TV shows coming out. From this I am glad to say I have created a book that fits with the current industry practice, which shows that I am on trend. After my first semester has finished I am ending up with a developed and final end products, from this I will then combine my project one and project two which I did in my first semester to create my personal project for second semester, by this I mean I am creating the multi textual children’s book alongside a multi textual blanket/comforter. I am using textiles for this project. By this I am having final pages to go along with the book, a sewn blanket/comforter and any promotional packs to help my book enhance further. 

Rachel

🙂

Professional Project:

In my professional project I tend to lean towards my weaknesses which to me is excelling in Adobe Illustrator, I say as this is a weakness as can I ever remember the short cuts and layouts, but I do give illustrator a good go. However that doesn’t mean I’m perfect and that’s what I want to be, defining perfect there’s no such thing but in want it to be my style perfect and to do that I need to at lets be able to use the short cuts and learn how to create a content, I tend on doing this with challenging myself to enter competitions and work with illustrator not just Adobe Photoshop.
Another weakness would be environments, I don’t like drawing buildings, sceneries, wildlife…ect. that is why I use photography, I find it easier to use take picture and inhansing then with my artwork in Photoshop than having to draw them and I think it is time to get out of the habit and start making some real art. To do this I will make an environment by traditional drawings and include photography and Photoshop for a competition there for I am throwing myself into the deep end but without looking like a complete mess, a once I’ve do that I will start creating things with the Riso and make prints from block shapes th a look like buildings. So on so forth until I gain more confident and add the environments to my book.

Personal project:

Weaknesses have been said I will say my literacy needs to be over ruled, unfortunately I do have dyslexia, I don’t ty and let that stop me but it is a struggle to get things done, i want to change that though and to do that I’ve started reading a book, a good book of that and I’m already 3 chapters gone, the book has old English which has confused me at first but realise its a Welsh written author then made Sense after 35 pages past. It’s made me understand structure and flow but I’m not quite there yet, that’s why I think I will accept help and from that I have a fantastic tutorwho has helped me for the past 2 years, a support team on campus, also my boyfriend’s mam who is train mentor for children and adults with specific learning difficulties. To improve my spelling I’ve been doing word searches on the daily over the summer, before bed and free time. It has helped but spell checker is my life saver how ever to be a teacher as I’m intending to be I have to realise that its not going to be there all the time but in a whole I guess people just need to realise it is a learning struggle that I live with everyday, but that won’t stop me from give my all and teaching myself to read and write in a more advanced way than having to just explain myself all the time.

Personal Project: the whole year

For the whole year I want to create a multi textual children’s book based on foxes (they my favourite animal) and have it based around children and children with specific learning difficulties.

Rachel

🙂

 

My set Goal:

This year is going to be a kicker for me as my goals for myself are set pretty high. I tend to aim for a 1st or a 2.1 (personally just a 1st in my honours degree would be great). I also want to be able to finish a book by the end of the year and improve my reading, creating a book for children and making it go viral, whilst also continuing my voluntary work at the Artrium, which is a brilliant learning curve for my skills and just for me as a person. But my main goal at the end of the year is to leave knowing I am a educated illustrator whom one day will be an excellent teacher, just like the one who she’s had for 3 years straight once I’ve finished her honours degree. I’m already making an impact, which was my goal at the start of year 1 of the course by making my work an aim for those who are suffering from an mental illness or who have specific learning difficulties, which landed me a job as being mentor for those who I aimed for and created so many memories along the way. I’ve made a brilliant friend along the way, who will be sticking around for an extra year for our teaching degrees and I hope for many more. Suprising, all this happened due to a little 3 year course of illustration! I gained confidence, determaition, a new job inspiration and a good friend, meaning the only goal I set myself is to keep up with what I’m doing right now to be honest. If I do that I’ll end up with being that perfect teacher, being the role model like the ones I’ve mentioned, a great friend for a long time, the chance to finish a book with little struggle, to write better and the confidence I deserve!

The art:

as my tagline goes i’m weird and wonderful. Dark and sweet. But alittle indecisive. Basically i’m mood dependent, However my work for 2 years has been aimed at people with mental health and learning difficulties. Because i’m the artist who is what i consider golden hearted, I turn what i have into a learning curve for others who think they are alone or can’t manage. I always intend to give the negative into a positive yet powerful statement.

Artist:

As for artist who i get inspired by, Their names are John Bond and John Kenn Mortensen, These two artists are a perfect example of me, John Bond, He’s an illustrator from the South, UK. Bond makes fantastic children art and used shops and blocks or objects to create animals from, Sort of the same thing id do with my traditional work.

John Bond

John Bond is an artist from the South of England who goes by the name of Iamjohnbond on instagram, he has a website and facebook page where he shows his work and uses social media to sell his projects. I like John Bonds work because I use him as inspiration from when I drew my dog illustrations, I love how he based his work towards children, The style of his work is he makes objects into animals and this gave me inspiration to draw animal in a similar style. since then I have create my own designs and even show them at my final show of 2018. they seem to be well received.

 

As you see here, a comparison of John Bond’s work and my own sketchbook drawings with watercolour and ink, you can see the inspiration that has taken place however we’re also completely different.

John Kenn Mortenson

John Kenn Mortenson is a Denmark artist, film director, illustrator. Who creates dark and creepy storybook art, his method looks like its mad of ink. I am a huge fan of his work as when i was creating my incubus character a year ago i found in John Kenn Mortenson for inspiration. His work is dark and this gave me the idea of creating a character who was an anxiety demon and i wanted to create my demon with ink and quill, this was a success.

Mine and John Kenn Mortenson’s work in comparison. As you see we have got similar work styles with was inspired by his fictional fantasy drawings however we are different by the methods we use and the style of drawing/materials.

Nothing more I can say really I just really like these 2 artist and a summery of what my goals are

Rachel

🙂

Bibliography

Bond, J. (2018). Ohh Deer Meets John Bond. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibsf2iKXlT0 [Accessed 2 Oct. 2018].

Mortensen, J. (2015). don kenn gallery. [online] Johnkenn.blogspot.com. Available at: http://johnkenn.blogspot.com/ [Accessed 20 Sep. 2018].

 

 

Hello. This is Rara’s Illustrations. technically my names Rachel Davies but i do prefer Rara, I am an illustrator and i prefer traditional artwork, such as i do head towards ink and a quill, drawing, painting with watercolour and photography. However if i was to go down the digital route i am into graphics so therefore a mixture of photography and my own traditional work, Adobe Photoshop is my go to software but i do know Adobe illustrator. Im an honours student at Newcastle College, I study illustration for my final year but i did come way from a 2 year course with a FDA degree in animation and illustration, Since the age of 10 years old I’ve always wanted to be a cartoonist, However since being on the course I’ve enjoyed what i’ve done and the experiences therefore have changed my role and after my degree i wanna become an art teacher in level 3, basically college

Rachel

🙂

 

 

A quick summery of what I am intending to do for my BA Hons Illustration course of 2019. Noting that this is my final year I am planning my learning objective for this year to focus on my future on being a teacher and using research to help not hinder myself in learning and progressing more. A little quote I have been taught over the 3 years of doing illustration and being a part of Newcastle college is that “there is always place for improvement” (Hails, 2018) I strongly believe that this is the way of thinking and how to progress myself into become a teacher. From this my learning plan for this year is to create a multi textual children’s book with the intentions of the book being interactive and that all children with or without a learning disability and difficulty can read it including those who are visually impaired. I found a few references of which I am stating in my proposal and treatment, Here is an ideal research and reference for a guidance into the book I am intently making.  I looked at the “Baby Touch and Feel” (Kinderlsey, 2008) books for guidance and stated that this is an ideal upfront of what potentially my book could be like however with my intentions for it being interactive for children with learning disabilities and difficulties. The book will optimistically have a interactive and tactile fox character. I intend to create a book with pages showing the fox and have a multi function background based on materials   and digital effects. I wanted to create digitally to enhance my skills in digital paint such as Illustrator and Photoshop, I find this will benefit my on growing skills for when I go into teaching and progressing my art skillset as an illustrator.

I took it to myself to learn about learning difficulties and disabilities so that I have a full understanding about what is needed for the multi textual children’s book. I looked at books such as the special education handbook (Farrell, 2012) of which I used to teach myself on learning disabilities such as deafness or how to observe someone with learning difficulties and disabilities, I am teaching myself this so that I can be more knowledgable for future case studies that I am arranging over the academic year. I also taught myself with the book on visual impairment (Mason and McCall, 1997) on the section about braille. This is an idea for the multi textual children’s book as I mentioned I wanted to include children who are visually impaired (blindness) so I taught myself how to understand their needs. A final book I purchased is about dyspraxia (Ripley, Daines and Barrett, 2016) I self taught myself about the difficulty and found that its a difficulty that can involve education skills and development, I took it to myself to learn about this and try and involve it to my multi textual children’s book.  

I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what is needed for my multi textual children’s book. I found this to help with my decisions on what kind of teacher I want to be. From my research I have came with the understanding for children and young adults with learning difficulties and disabilities however I don’t want to become a SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) teacher although I do want to say I am openly accepting to have anyone doesn’t matter who, what or what you have in my classroom. I was self taught to understand and have acceptance to those who need education because I believe anyone has a right to an education. 

My potential tasks that I am progressing my strength and weaknesses could have a benefit or a hindrance to my work could be due to time management. This year is going to be fulfilled with research, understanding and progression to my PGCE interviews. This could interact with my progression into the multi textual children’s book but with some ideas and forward actions I would be able to protect the forward plan and intentions but may produce a different final product for my final show. I will make sure that my final product either way will have the content aimed for children and children with specific learning difficulties and disabilities.

For my professional development Plan…

I intend to experience some new skills, knowledge and experience within my project. This will consist of excessive amount of  research of which will make my knowledge more enhanced for my journey into my project and my upcoming future career. Gaining knowledge within this course can progress my career and help with my PGCE interviews that are yet to come. My experience within this year will be coming from commercial projects, a collaboration I have coming up and myself volunteering as an artist mentor at the Artrium Studio in Hartlepool, where I work with those who are artist influences and those with special needs and disabilities. I also have gain experience with working in a school and doing workshops last summer with children aged 5 to 11 years old.

I will ensure to adopt a organised workflow with my processes and methods, I am able to do this with a timetable and using my academic calendar. this will provide my time what to work around and being able to figure out how I can manage all my time with content and development. I am also using a hand diary along with digital diary to keep my goals and aspirations for the project I have intended to create this year. I am doing all of this so that when I go into the career of teaching, I am prepared for deadlines and using my time smartly and efficiently.

The commercial projects can be of myself  translating a scene from a chosen book that is in the brief. I am considering doing this for the wonder book with Penguin Student Awards (Award, S. 2018). I am doing this because the entry list involves book covers and it could benefit my project with the multi textual children’s book I am intending to create. For my other commercials I could consider using briefs of which could benefit my skills because although I am basing my future on becoming a teacher I still want to make sure that my digital skills can expand into that career to help with my teaching in digital arts. From doing these it can enhance my possible opportunities with collaborations within or even out of college campus. I believe doing these and having the skills and knowledge could strengthen myself as a creator and educator and help with the upcoming year.

The possible research I am considering is what I mentioned earlier of where I have taught myself about learning difficulties and disabilities. However I am considering about looking into books such as “Where’s Wally?” (Handford, 2007). Illustrators like Patrick Hruby (Hruby, 2018) for inspiration for the layout and backgrounds for my multi textual children’s book. I even looked for books and children’s books with braille as I did mention that I wanted to also include children who are visually impaired in my multi textual children’s book I found some samples of the books from the Newcastle library, I found a book called the black book of colour (Cottin, Faría and Amado, 2010) As seen this is the book. I found this book interesting and gave me an idea on how I could interpret this into my multi textual children’s book.

These extra studies and knowledge will benefit my research and understanding into my project and how I can make myself professionally educated to my target audience and future career.   

 

 

 

Bibliography

Award, S. (2018). Student Design Award. [online] Penguinrandomhouse.co.uk. Available at: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.uk/work-with-us/design-award/ [Accessed 20 Sep. 2018].

Cottin, M., Faría, R. and Amado, E. (2010). The black book of colours. London: Walker Books.

Hails, D. (2018). there is always place for improvement.

Handford, M. (2018). Where’s Wally? by Martin Handford | Waterstones. [online] Waterstones.com. Available at: https://www.waterstones.com/book/wheres-wally/martin-handford/9781406305890 [Accessed 22 Sep. 2018].

Farrell, M. (2012). The Special Education Handbook. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Kinderlsey, D. (2018). Baby Touch and Feel Animals by DK | Waterstones. [online] Waterstones.com. Available at: https://www.waterstones.com/book/baby-touch-and-feel-animals/dk/9781405329132 [Accessed 22 Sep. 2018].

Ripley, K., Daines, B. and Barrett, J. (2016). Dyspraxia. London: Routledge.