Monday 24 October 2016

Study Task 1 - Illustration And Authorship

Roland Barthes 'Death of the Author' explores the idea of authorship and the relationship between reader and text and whether or not they in turn are more responsible for the authorship of the text than the author is. I will be looking at Jean Julliens practice in order to illustrate some of the themes in Barthe's text.

Looking at the popular 'Peace For Paris' image we can start to think about authorship. Both the peace symbol and the image of the eiffel tower are borrowed images, prompting the question of wether Jullien is the original author, a question which is brought up by Barthe in Death of the Author, when he states, ' we know now that a text is not a line of work releasing a single theological meaning, but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, non of them original, blend and clash'. I believe that the Peace for Paris image is a good representation of this idea, with the main components of the image being borrowed from elsewhere to create the image that we know now.


We can also start to look at how the reader holds more responsibility to the text than the author does. Upon receiving a text, the reader does not always understand fully that context that it sits in, only the author can know this. With that being said we can begin to understand how it is up to the reader to interrupt and make their own understanding of the image rather that the author. This can also relate back to the Peace For Paris illustration. As it is a recent illustration drawn from recent events we can understand the context this was created in, but to someone who doesn't know about the attacks in Paris, they are pushed to make their own interpretation of the image, 'the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author'.

By beginning to look at Barthes' Death of the Author text we can start to understand how authorship doesn't always lie with the author themselves but with the reader and how they come to understand the text and which context they begin to understand it in. Maybe there are no authors as such and instead we all have a sense of authorship over work that we come into contact with, as Marx said in his 1846, The German Ideology, 'in a communist society there are no painters but at most people who engage in painting among other things' 



Thursday 5 May 2016

OUIL401 - End of Module Evaluation



Leeds College of Art
BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION
Level
04
OUIL401 Context of Practice
Credits
20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME
Leah Haywood


1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I think mostly I have improved my analysing and academic writing techniques, this is evident through my blog and through my essay and I think I have applied these well in order to convey an idea/thesis appropriately. I also think I’ve developed my research skills and that this helped me most when writing my essay and then when producing my visual journal. I have also developed skills in referencing texts and articles, something I used to be quite uncertain of but am now a lot more confident with.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your practical outcomes?
I have looked at a variety of different media whilst researching where as previously I would probably just have looked through books. I now see the benefit of watching films/videos and how they can inform research which then leads to informing practical outcomes, much like how the TED talk I watched had a huge influence on how I approached my practical work. I also think that drawing from reference has really helped me develop my practical skills and this is something I would like to develop more.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
One of my main strengths would be my practical body of work and the quality of the work produced. I think I used shape well to communicate effectively and clearly and that the bold, colourful images I produced work well in communicating body positivity and acceptance. I will capitalise on this by focusing on shape more in second year, it’s definitely a way of image making that I would like to develop. I also think I wrote my essay well and that I referenced a good number of sources and used them appropriately through my essay. Next year I would like to include more research and more references to back up my essay.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I think I could have been more exhaustive in my sketchbook. I did not allow myself enough me to develop my work too its fullest potential. I would address this in the future allowing more time for COP and not letting it be something I just put on the back seat in order to prioritise other modules. I also think one of my weaknesses is my lack of research into both my essay and visual journal. I think I would have benefited from doing a lot more research to have a better developed body of work.

5. Identify five things that you feel will benefit you during next years Context of Practice module?
. Allocating a set amount of time to COP on a weekly basis
. Attending every COP session
. Doing more research into both my essay and visual journal
. Being more exhaustive with my practical work
. Prioritising COP like I have prioritised other modules














6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
(please indicate using an ‘x’) 

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

1
2
3
4
5
Attendance
x




Punctuality
x




Motivation
x




Commitment


x


Quantity of work produced

x



Quality of work produced


x


Contribution to the group
x




The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.


OUIL401 - Visual Journal Evaluation

OUIL401 - Final Essay Issuu

OUIL401 - Visual Response Further Body Shape Work
























Really getting into this idea of shape and image reduction. The final images are so clean and bold, but still manage to convey a message of body acceptance and positivity without being overly detailed.
The two images at the top were based around the idea of nipple censorship for women, I particularly like the image of the blue and pink nipples on reversed backgrounds. This was meaning to represent the similarity between male and female nipples and how there is literally no difference between them except the fact that women nipples and breasts have become overly sexualised and therefore have to be censored.

I think as a set of images these are all really strong. I think they promote body confidence and diversity in an effective yet simple way, using bold bright colours and shapes to convey message and meaning to an audience. I'd really enjoy making more work like this, the visual journals taught me a lot about how to create work that revolves around a contextual theme, and in this case a theme that i can relate to quite a lot. I'm looking forward to creating more work like this that can help people come to terms with their own body and self-acceptance.

Wednesday 4 May 2016

OUIL401 Visual Response Body Shape Image Reduction























I've been writing the words 'body shape' down for a fair while now and it's only just clicked with me that maybe thats how i should be approaching this work, using shape! Shapes something I've enjoyed using in other briefs/modules and it seems like a fitting way to further explore the idea of body shape. I developed some of my previous drawings into reduced, simple images and think they work really well. I love the colours, the pale pink and darker blue work really nice together, theres a good level of contrast and it makes the images really bold. Definitely into this aesthetic, I started sketching out a few more ideas, I want to do something with nipple censorship for women, I think in this style it could work quite well and it relates back to some of my themes.

OUIL401 - Visual Response Body Positive Drawings
























I'm really happy with how these turned out, I was aiming to promote body diversity and confidence and think through the range of body types I drew and the confident postures I drew them in I managed to achieve this. I wanted to stay away from drawing sexy postures, it's something we see too much of already, I wanted to show women being confident and comfortable in their bodies.

I added some text to some of the images as well. My type could be better but I think that the type enhances the message of the image. Body positive affirmations help promote a better mental wellbeing, positive affirmations and mantras in general can help build a more mindful approach to life so I think when trying to get people to accept themselves, text like this is good to include.

OUIL401 - Visual Response Artist Research

Frances Cannon

Frances Cannon

I found Frances Cannon's work on a late night scroll through Instagram and instantly fell in love with her fluid and honest drawings. Focusing mainly on feminism and body image, Cannon's work radiates self-love, positivity and body confidence, executed in a simple yet effective style.




- Really love the quality of line, and the scribbly, fluidity of her drawings

- Love the type that accompanies the majority of her images, it's got a really personal feel to it which makes these images that little bit more relatable

- Relatable subject matter, I'm sure a lot of people struggle with body confidence and her work pushes to make people realise there own self worth and the beauty they hold

- Super nice drawings, super nice type, super nice gal!

OUIL401 - Visual Response Survey Answers

My survey was pretty successful, I got around 40 responses from a mixture of males and females, although the vast majority of responses were females. I looked through the responses and picked out recurring things that were being said. One thing i picked up on majorly was the fact that people were bringing up very similar things that they liked/disliked about their bodies, for example a lot of girls disliked their stomachs and thighs and a lot of girls liked their eyes. I wanted to visualise this just to see how all these body parts would look group up on paper.

I hate my.... thighs, stomach, nose, boobs, feet, hips, bum, skin

I love my.... eyes, freckles, hands, hair, body shape, legs, wrists
 From how i see it, girls seem to be unhappy with larger parts of their body, and happier with smaller, maybe less noticeable features? Such as freckles, wrists, eyes. There was a large number of girls that weren't happy with their stomach and thighs and from the research I did for my essay I think this is mainly down to how a lot of women in the adverts that these girls see are really slim with toned thighs and really flat stomachs.

I had a look through the answers that I got for what people though a perfect body was and the majority were descriptions of the usual kind of woman you see in an advert. Size 8/10, slim, tall, toned, flawless skin. It was really refreshing to see on the other hand that some people out there recognise the fact that a perfect body isn't necessarily down to how a body looks, but that it's whether the body is happy and healthy. I'm wanting to make some body-positive images, promoting the idea that a perfect body is a happy, healthy body.
I think this could be a lot more effective than going down the route of looking at body dissatisfaction and instead make some work that starts to get people seeing that they should begin to love their body and themselves for who they are.


"I think the perfect body comes from self confidence. If you're confident in yourself and what you look like, it doesn't matter if you're fat, skinny, tall or short."

" A happy, healthy body is a perfect body."

" A healthy one."

"A healthy happy one."

"One that keeps me living, that i can walk, run, cycle and dance in. One that feels soft and not sharp."

" One that works"

"Having self love."

OUIL401 - Visual Response Body Studies

While I was building up responses from my survey I set about to draw some female figures. To my understanding, the female figure is overly sexualised in near any form of advertising as my essay research suggests. I wanted to have a go at drawing nude women that weren't necessarily sexualised and that didn't fit to the norm of bodies that we usually see plastered on billboards and in magazines. 



It was so refreshing to be drawing actual women. Personally, if i ever draw a female figure I tend to make them slim, and tall, with perfectly round breasts and bums because that's what I perceive to be a desirable body shape. It was nice to be able to draw women with curves and bumps and fat rolls and all that other stuff, it actually made me feel a little better about myself because I was drawing these bigger ladies and they didn't look bad at all, they just looked like ordinary people. 




I was listening to some TED Talks in the background while sketching these out and found one that really resonated with me. It talks about how if we see more images of larger bodies rather than photoshopped 'perfect' bodies we in turn become happier with our own and start to prefer the idea of having a bigger, curvier body than one that's slim and perfect.  The idea of a 'visual diet' is brought up, and refers to the images that we consume everyday. We are constantly fed images of slim, toned, tanned women, so that is what we want to be. If we were to be fed a variety of images with a huge diversity of bodies, we would become more accepting of a wider range of body types and therefore our own. 









"The more we see that kind of body, the more we like that kind of body" 
- Lillian Bustle 

After watching and listening to this TED talk I think I want to focus a lot of my visual journal work on a range of different bodies, exploring body diversity and self-love.

OUIL401 - Visual Response Initial Ideas

I think one of the main things I want to focus on with my visual journal is the subject of Body Image, both negative and positive. I think advertising and social media has a massive influence on how we see our bodies and whether or not we are happy with our weight, height, general look.

I'm wanting to create a survey to see what kind of views people have of their bodies, and then will move onto responding to some of the answers that I get.

Survey Questions:

Are you male or female?
How old are you?
Would you say you're a confident person?
Are you confident about your body?
Have you ever felt bad about how you look?
What is your favourite thing about your body?
What is your least favourite thing about your body?
What do you think has impacted your body confidence and why?
Do you feel that theres a certain pressure to live up to what society portrays as being the 'perfect body'?
Have you ever suffered from a mental health illness that has been related to how you feel about yourself/body? If so, what and why?
How has advertising affected your body confidence?
How has social media affected your body confidence?
What is your idea of the 'perfect' body?

Below is the link to the survey that i made and posted on social media

http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/0F51X/

OUIL401 COP: Visual Response Proposal


BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 04
Name

Module: OUIL401 Context of Practice 1
Date


STUDIO BRIEF 2: Visual Response

The Themes I am going to explore are….

1. Body Image


2. Gender Stereotypes


3. Sexualisation


The theories that will in form my work are…..
1. Negative body image is encouraged by societies unrealistic expectations of how we should look


2. Gender Stereotypes are an inaccurate generalisation of both males and females


3. Sexualisation exploits the female body more so than the males.


The specific subjects that I want to investigate are………

1. Body image and body confidence – the ‘perfect’ body and how this affects our confidence


2. Breaking the existing gender stereotypes


3. The female figure and it’s over-sexualisation


In order to visual investigate this content I will……..

1. Conduct a questionnaire and respond to it


2. Draw from life and from reference to explore gender stereotypes


3. Investigate the female figure, looking at clothing, nudity, and why the female form is overly sexualised compared to a males.