Final Major Project Process Journal Stephanie Howe by stephhowestudio

Final Major Project Process journal Stephanie Howe

Contents 4 - 9

Project Proposal

10 - 70

Process Journal

71 - 77

Final Outcome in context

78 - 79

Final Evaluation

80 - 84

Personal Timetable

Final Major Project Proposal

The illustrations will be formatted into various sized frames on each page to highlight key elements to the narrative and place different levels of emphasis on the different sized illustrations. The combination of small, medium, and fullpage illustrations allows the narrative to remain visually interesting, while also giving the opportunity to give a different level of detail within the respectively sized images.

Project title: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Between the pagesâ&#x20AC;?

The narrative will feature three voices; The two characters in a continuous dialogue throughout the book, shown through speech bubbles within the illustrations. The third voice is the child, now older, relaying thoughts and memories brought to life from the illustrations. This text will be positioned on the adjacent left-hand page to the corresponding illustration.

Content:

I Intend to create an illustrated book based off my childhood memories of visiting my Nan at her apartment on the Spanish coast. The book will be constructed of five separate stories that are based off photographs from my personal family photo albums. Each story will be from a different period in my life to show the passing of time and will focus The final outcome will be 148 x 148 mm on the key memories that I now cherish as square and printed on natural off-white an adult. paper to give it a gentle handmade feel and enhance the reading experience. I hope to instill a sense of nostalgia and reflection within the narrative, making it something relatable and comforting for the Context and Audience: viewer. I plan to focus on the most common activities and conversations from the past I intend for the outcome to be printed as a and use them to create a narrative that physical book to be read and interpreted by brings attention to the everyday things that the individual. we took for granted, but now look back at fondly. The outcome is designed to appeal to 4

different age groups in different ways. companies and prices â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what tie Young adults will be able to interpret the frame will this need to be done in? story on a fairly deep level as they were - Research paper samples and also young not that long ago. Most young production methods adults will experience losing a grandparent before they are 20, making the memories of them happy but also bittersweet. For adults Learning Methods: and elderly people, the narrative should instill a much deeper sense of nostalgia and Childhood memories research reflection for a time long past. My intent is that the narrative will spark the recollection - I will write and distribute a of the readers own fond memories of their questionnaire survey asking childhood and grandparents. about peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s memories of stories from their childhood While everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s childhood experience is holidays, and if they have any old individual, the vast majority will have some photographs that they would like kind of significant memory about a holiday, to contribute to my research and trip, or day out with their grandparents help my visual development. I will from their childhood that they can recall, use this information to create a therefore being a topic that they are able to catalogue of memories that I can relate to personally and fill in the gaps with use o construct my narrative for their own history. the book. - I will document my own memories Research: from my childhood and use my personal family photo albums as - Surveys to the general public a starting point for visual research asking about their memories of for personal narrative and outdoor childhood holidays landscape imagery. - My personal family photo albums - I will watch films with the themes documenting all of the trips. of childhood and nostalgia - Research online for articles and and document information journals focusing on the memories and imagery to influence the of childhood in general development of my own narrative. - Researching current graphic - I will research through online novels in a similar format catalogs and archives for - Research external printing interviews, articles and past 5

exhibitions relating to the childhood theme and documenting childhood experiences.

processes to see what is the most effective and appropriate for the outcome.

Visual inspiration research - I will look at small publishing companies to see the kinds of books/publications that they produce and distribute. - I will research on social media platforms (Instagram, Pinterest, Behance) to discover other artists producing similar illustrated narrative books for aesthetic and production inspiration. - I will look at published narrative story books to investigate appropriate layouts and visual design to tell my story appropriately and effectively. - I will visit commercial and independent book shops to see what published and independent books are stocked.

Learning Outcomes: I intend to improve my skills of narrative creation/story writing to create a wellstructured and cohesive final outcome. I hope to improve my time management even further to produce a professionally designed and constructed outcome as my first short narrative that will be my first introduction to the working world after graduation. Proposed timetable: Weeks 1 – 3 (Jan 13th – 31st): - Initial research and idea generation - looking through photo albums, - selecting large bank of images/ stories to work from. - Write & distribute survey questions - Collate data & investigate possible narratives.

Final outcome production - I will research into possible production methods, such as perfect binding the outcome myself using the campus bookroom, or outsourcing the printing and assembly to an external printing company to Weeks 4 – 7 (Feb 3rd – 28th ) achieve a professional finish. - Continued research and idea - I will research into different kinds development of paper samples and printing - Analysis & annotating of survey data 6

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Research production techniques/ processes Storyboard experimentation Refine bank of images Create illustrated draft of book layout & final outcome mockup

Weeks 8– 14 (March 2nd – April 17th) - Test sample paper for printing. - Investigate and select page size and format for final book - Outline main narrative themes & content - Detailed storyboard plan for production - Finalise narrative Weeks 15 – 19 (April 20th – May 18th) - Visual experimentation - Colour palette development - Produce final illustrations - Create PDF document for print Weeks 19 – 21 (May 18th – 8th June) - Photograph books - Finish research folder and sketchbook - Assemble process journal - Create PDF’s for all hand in requirements.

Visual References

Where to start?

memories of childhood, and how grief physically manifests itself. Each of these held a lot of potential for a well-researched and creative outcome. I later chose to combine narrative within landscape and nature and memories of childhood together as most of my memories from holidays as a child were spent in the outdoors. I continued to develop both ideas further with mind maps and note taking to analyse the potential of each idea. As much as I was interested in creating an outcome about grief, I decided that this topic was a bit too close to home and would be very overwhelming to focus on for so long, therefore I decided to press on with the memories of childhood holidays topic.

The Final Major Project brief is the most creative freedom I have been allowed as a student. Having full autonomy over the entire final project of my degree, scared me to say the least. To begin, I started to mind map all possible subjects I am at least vaguely interested in, to see what ideas could be sparked. From this, I reduced down the areas to three possible pathways; Narrative within landscape and nature,

I Found the creative writing and Idea generation workshops very helpful. Although i already had a basic outline of what topic I wanted to pursue for the final major project, the workshops enabled me to think on my feet and not focus so

much on the content of what I was writing. One of my personal fall-backs is that I tend to overthink things, especially at the beginning of a project, so this helped me to get out of my own head for a bit and just focus on writing anything.

Research To start making progress on the project, I chose to begin with primary research, rather than visual research which would be my normal starting point. With the key point in mind to make my project personal but still relatable, I felt that gathering information from members of the public was the best way to discover what things are common, and what isn’t. I chose to distribute the survey via the online platform Survey Monkey and distribute the link on my personal Facebook page, the UCA student page, and on my personal and illustration Instagram accounts to target a varied range of people. I wrote a collection of 10 questions to help me collect the key information I need to develop a relatable narrative.

1. Did you go on any holidays/trips/days out as a child? 2. Where did you go? 3. Who did you go with? 4. What did you enjoy about them and why? 5. What didn’t you enjoy and why? 6. Did you find them boring at the time? 7. If yes, why? 8. Do you remember them fondly now as an adult? 9. If yes, why? 10. Are there any specific stories or moments you remember happening? If yes, describe them: (Can be simple or detailed, all stories are helpful!)

I received a total of 41 survey responses, giving me more than enough information to pick out key trends. I printed out each response and annotated the common trends, and highlighted the key stories that I could potentially use within or to inspire my narrative.

Q 5 - What didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t you enjoy and why? Most common answers were traveling by car and for long periods of time, walking long distances, and bad weather. Q 6 - Did you find them boring at the time? Most people didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t find them boring at the time.

Survey Responses Q 1- Did you go on any holidays/trips/ days out as a child? All participants answered yes Q 2 - Where did you go? Most common places were in the UK countryside and mainland Europe

Q 7 - If yes, why? Most common answers were that there was lots of dead time travelling to places, having to go to places that werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t interesting, and having no say in what you were doing.

Q 3 - Who did you go with? most common answer was family, extended family, and friends

Q 8 - Do you remember them fondly now as an adult? Most participants answered yes.

Q 4 - What did you enjoy about them and why? - Spending time with family and friends - Time away from normal life/a change of pace - Experiencing new cultures - Trying new foods - Exploring nature - Sightseeing - Time doing nothing

Q 9 - If yes, why? - Reminds them of a simpler time with no stress or pressure - Having the opportunity to experience new cultures and environments - Time away from normal life and having a change of pace. - Memories of family that have died - getting to sightsee - trying new foods - Spending time with family and friends that is a lot more difficult now 13

I began sketching rough storyboards of some of the stories submitted to the survey to work on my visual narrative construction and image framing. I found this quite difficult as I had no visual references to work from, but it challenged me to think on my feet and be more inherently creative with the visuals. I found this exercise very helpful going forward.

Research Trip Visiting Gosh! Comics and the Charring Cross Foyles store was a great opportunity to discover the kinds of commercial and indie graphic novels/ illustrated stories that are produced and stocked for the commercial market. Seeing the variety of different stories available for purchase really helped me to start thinking visually about my own project. While I already had a fairly sized collection of references to work from, seeing a variety of outcomes in the flesh is very different from viewing the artwork on a screen. Viewing the books in person allowed me to observe the different methods of binding used (Saddle stitch, staple, perfect binding, case binding) and various printing processes (Digital, Riso, Screen), therefore showing me all the possibilities and differences that the production methods can make.

Experiment In order to keep the project moving forward both conceptually and visually, I began experimenting with one photograph from one of my family albums. At this point I was unsure what stylistic approach to take, so developing the visuals alongside the narrative was key to finding the appropriate aesthetic.

I began with a quite graphic style, focusing depending on the amount of time available on highlighting the different shapes within to produce the final outcome. the landscape with light and shadow. It took me significantly more time to complete than I had expected, flagging up as a possible problem further down the line, 17

While originally I had intended to use a natural, realistic colour palette, I felt that the colouring of the previous experiment looked flat and muddy. Which is hardly going to instill that warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia or make the reader drawn to the images. I thought it would be worthwhile to experiment with a more unnatural colour palette, similar to what I had previously used for other editorial illustrations.

The pink and blue colour scheme completely transformed the image and made it so much more atmospheric. The style itself was still very time consuming, however I felt as though I had a break through in terms of the aesthetic and visual style I wanted to achieve. 18

I produced this double page spread mockup to get an idea of what the style might look like in context. The image condensed down into smaller frames highlights the various details within the image. It can also be used as a way of breaking down the single image into its own story of memory fragments.

Although the pages look a bit repetitive, the mock-up had the desired effect to envision a potential spread and layout that I could continue to test moving forward, once I have produced more imagery.

Film Research Following on from Iroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recommendations, I turned to film as my next area of research and source of inspiration. Wes Andersonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coming of age film Moonrise Kingdom featured the themes of retro nostalgia and uses consistent heavy framing to communicate the narrative.

The soft dreamy colour palette enhances the narrative, transforming the viewer directly into the cinematic universe. There is a strong focus on ephemera (Letters, Items, Locations) to tell the story through methods other than voice. I found this really inspiring and found that the visuals boosted a lot of creativity within myself, looking at my narrative in a completely different light. 20

Stand By Me is very stylistically similar to Moonrise Kingdom. Framing plays a big part in communicating the viewpoint of characters and the unfolding of events. The narrative itself is actually a flashback, narrated by the main character. Only at the end do we learn the true meaning behind the narrative with a big plot twist/ reveal in the present time again. I found this structure really interesting and enjoyable, even if bitter sweet. The reveal at the end of the narrative acted as a firm closing point to the story, leaving me satisfied, but still with questions.

My next steps were to note down my own memories from childhood holidays to add to my bank of research as I wanted to make a narrative combined off universal experiences, not just my own

My Holiday Memories Places visited during childhood : - France - Austria - Switzerland - Spain - Germany - Denmark - Singapore - Thailand - Hong Kong - Malaysia - Greece - Italy Prominent memories

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Nan’s apartment in Spain -

We would visit nan in Spain quite regularly, but she had to sleep in Louis’ apartment down the corridor as she snored too loudly. Dad never came because he hated the hot weather, so it was just me and mum, and sometimes my cousin Taylor. We would play dominoes on the balcony, once I accidentally knocked the double six off the

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table and it fell down into the bushes below the apartments (nan lived on the top floor) We visited the crocodile park and held a baby alligator, my mum held it for the photo, and I was scared to only touched it with one finger. It made me sad that It had its mouth taped shut. We went to Aqualand the water park and had to buy water shoes as the floor was so hot the soles of our feet got burnt. Me and mum went to Tivoli world the theme park, she made me go on the haunted house ride even though I was terrified. Still haven’t forgiven her for it. We would go to Fuengirola Zoo on the train to see the animals My nan would buy the long twisty ice lolly’s that you could only get in Spain whenever we visited She had a picture of my Grandad Stan hanging up on the kitchen wall We would sit on the balcony and watch people walk along the caruella and playing on the beach We would watch the fisherman pull his boat up on the beach with whatever he had caught that morning We bought a fishing net on a stick so that I could try to catch some fish in the sea, I didn’t manage to

catch anything. My nan had a mini deep fat fryer in her apartment, and she would make her own skin on chips from scratch for us.

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Taking a wrong turn/getting lost and having to walk all the way down the mountain Stopping for a sit down and snack break at small chateau’s for an ice-cream and drink

Summer Mountain Holidays Winter Skiing -

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Because dad hated the heat, we would most often visit different parts of mainland Europe’s alpine ranges for our summer holiday. Up and down in the gondola bubbles, the sound of the mechanisms going around, the big wheels, views from in the bubble. Mountain cows, sheep’s, spot the marmot Tried to give a marmot a bite of my apple, and it took it out of my hands and ate it. Going swimming in the freezing lido. Having to stop at every bench we saw because my legs were tired Optical illusion installations – perfect photo ops Being above the clouds Looking at the horizon maps and trying to spot all the different mountains/areas that we’d been to before. Following the specific markings for the mountain trail we were walking.

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Again, dad loved skiing so we would go on holiday skiing most Christmas breaks for a week. I learned to ski at age 3, so I was pretty good. I went to ski school every day, starting out in the beginner’s group. We were following along in a line, when I decided to join in the intermediate group rather than stick with my own. Apparently, I knew exactly what I was doing. Hot chocolate and cookie stops Mum giving me a little bag with squares of chocolate to keep in my pocket before I went to ski school. I was always hungry so I would nibble on the squares during the day, but the chocolate was so cold that it didn’t melt in my mouth. Cold fingers – I always had very bad circulation Up and down in the chair lifts, spotting poles that people had dropped. On the lift in bad weather, snow

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would collect between your legs and arms and make you even colder. Getting on and off the chair lift, one time I forgot to get off and started going back down again, they had to stop the lift and get someone to help me down. I forgot to take my pole safety straps off my wrist before getting on the chairlift, and one of my poles got stuck underneath the chair and broke in half. My dad had to use some of the tools at the lift station to stick the two halves back together so I could still use it for the rest of the day, even though it was about 3 inches too short now. Hair getting frozen on really cold, snowy days Hot French onion soup for dinner Having very bad weather, and then the sky clearing to blue and full of sunshine First tracks on a fresh powder day Stopping for lunch, skiing up to the restaurant as fast as you could so you didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to walk up the hill. Unclipping feet from skis, sliding them together and finding a spot in a rack to store them.

Days out - - -

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Thorpe park and Chessington regularly with my family Eating fresh doughnuts at South end pier Going to Southend for lunch with my nan and Grandad and little cousin, walking along the beach, and getting blown about Going to â&#x20AC;&#x153;the duck parkâ&#x20AC;? in Hornchurch, a goose tried to eat my finger. Going to galleries and sightseeing Spending time outdoors in nature. Pottery painting

Secondary Research I spent the following week conducting artist research to inspire new concepts for visuals. Although I had produced experiments that were successful, I was finding it very difficult to come up with any solid aesthetics to move forward with. At times like this, I always refer back to artist research in the hope that I might come across something that is a visualisation of all the rogue ideas floating around in my head. Even though I had gathered a lot of primary research and had a solid basic concept for the narrative, the project in itself felt very lucid and hard to pin down. In reality I was working with a general idea, rather than an actual narrative and plan. In hindsight, its no wonder that I struggled to piece things together.

Jon McNaught Jon McNaughtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Illustrated book Birchfield Close is a simple yet brilliantly executed narrative.

Jon uses a very graphic and linear approach to illustration, similar to my previous experimentations. The graphic shapes and mark making create a very cohesive aesthetic that is enjoyable to look at.

The 22 page book has an almost screen print like finish to it, with the imagery being made up of only 3 colours.

I think that this style is a little simplistic for what Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m after, even though flat colour can be very effective, I think my narrative will need more detail.

The stunning visuals and construction of the book actually prevent you from realising that nothing really happens. The narrative is basic and fairly mundane, but you would never even realise.

Lizzy Stewart Lizzy Stewart’s illustrated book “Walking Distance” features a collection of memories and thoughts of a woman walking through London. Lizzy’s illustration style is dynamic and emotional, adding to the communication of the narrative, which is also enhanced by the monotone blue colour-scheme. The non linear structure of Walking distance is a good point of reference for when developing my structure later on.

Tom Haugomat Tom has created a well-paced, thoughtful structure that provides the reader with time to ponder and reflect on what they are looking at. This is a key point that I am trying to create within my own narrative. Overcrowded pages and lack of blank space makes for a very hectic read, while also stops the reader from fully understanding the story. The limited colour pallet makes the book feel very cohesive, even though time has passed, there is still a connection between each image that lasts throughout all of the characters story.

Robert Hunter Robert Hundterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; s illustration style is playful and dynamic. It really captures the atmosphere of the narrative and immerses you into the fantasy universe. I really like the simlicity of the ghosts, its not often that ghosts are depicted as people, rather than a flating sheet. I think it adds a really humerous and unique take on a quite taboo topic. The colour base colour scheme is very consistent throughout and evolves depending on the time of day which really adds to the atmosphere. This is a very important element to encapsulate within my project to ensure My narrative is visually communicating the atmosphere I intended.

Back in Time As my second source of primary research, I went back through my personal family photo albums that my mum had put together since I was born. While I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t intending on making the narrative a necessarily personal one, the albums provided me with the visual references that I needed to help me produce realistic visuals, and prompt ideas for possible plot points and locations.

I found lots of preserved ephemera hidden in the backs of lots of albums that my mum had kept. I found that these made the memories feel a lot more tangible; While

a photograph is still a physical reminder, having a plane ticket stub with faded ink and crinkled edges brings the past back to the present.

I spent a bit of time experimenting with the tickets that I had found to find out what potential they had for inclusion in the narrative. I was quite happy with how they

turned out, although they would need a bit more dimension going forward if I was going to make them a feature.

Peer Review Peer reviews are always a great opportunity to get a range of honest, critical feedback from others that are in the same situation as myself. Since the start of the course, I have got considerably better at taking negative feedback and constructive criticism, looking at it as an opportunity to improve areas that are lacking, rather than a personal attack or something that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;failedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; at. I was pleased and surprised that my peer feedback was very positive; While obviously no where near a fully resolved concept, my peers were helpful in identifying the key areas that I needed to develop further to achieve my goals. The key areas I needed to work on were as follows: - Research into transitions for between the stories, could an object trigger the change? - Work on developing an appropriate style for the narrative. - Work on the clarity of the story, it will become clearer through trial and error. - Test various sizes and shapes of books - Work on developing an appropriate layout.

Narrative Development While talking to my mum about all the photo albums she had put together over the years, she said something that really struck a cord with me.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nothing feels as good as flicking through an old photo album.â&#x20AC;?

This sparked a change in my narrative concept. While I am still moving forward with the recollection and nostalgia from childhood memories, the act of flicking through a photo album with all itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s details, brings all the memories flooding back to a new level. From this point forward I decided that the hidden meaning behind the book would be the experience of flicking through past memories within a photo album.

Progress Review My progress review with Iro felt as though we re wrote my narrative at least 6 times over. I went into the tutorial feeling quite secure in my direction, only when i was asked important questions about it did it all seem to fall apart. While I had happily deiced on the visual content and basis for the book, the narrative was severely lacking in purpose and meaning. My key points to move forward were as follows: - Focus on capturing a feeling/sense of place through the sequences and framing of details. - Work on developing an appropriate working title to help drive the project forward & encapsulate the key points of the narrative. - Inclusion of the human presence without focusing on a character physically. - Focus on it as a collection of moments, memories, and people preserved between the pages of a photo album. - What do these moments say. - Capturing the flavours of a place and time, while also investigating human connection. - Write a list of key themes that I want to include in the narrative. 35

Book Making Workshop I found the book making workshop really insightful and inspirational. Although I was already planning on getting my book printed professionally though an external supplier, the workshop was a great learning curve to help me understand the different possibilities of physically making my own book.

Re-evaluating Narrative

After reevaluating the themes I wanted to feature within my narrative, I thought that introducing chapters or short stories may help me with the pacing of the narrative and allow me to include more locations and memories. I went through my collection of photo albums again and selected a key bank of photographs for each location that I could then base the short stories off of. - Torremolinos - Courcheval, France - Saas Fae, Switzerland - South of france - Malta

Visual Development Now that I had settled on the locations and visual references for the narrative, I went back to focusing on visual development. Seeing as my first experiment was very graphic, I wanted to g back to my roots and experiment with loose sketches and playful colours. I surprisingly preferred this outcome a lot more than the first attempt. The overall appearance of these illustrations was exciting and much more dynamic. Although the style would need to be refined considerably to reach a professional standard, they encapsulated the dream like feeling I wanted to exhibit through the story.

I decided to test the idea of the photo album even further by making each image 6x4, the standard photograph size, and adding sticky labels with dates and hand written notes, similar to the ones my mum would write in our own albums. I really liked the look of this and felt that the project was finally moving in the right direction.

Final Review Prep

Final Review

This structure felt the most natural way to put together all of the stories that I had collected. By spanning such a vast period of time it would be much easier to create a contemplative piece by including slightly melancholic events as long as the happy ones.

My final review helped to clarify a lot of the points I had struggled to resolve by myself. With Iroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advice, I settled on narrative option 3, depicting a characters family holidays over the course of their life, for the final outcome.

Where we are now Narrative: Spanning the lifetime of a character with select stories from their summer holidays. Text: combination of speech bubbles within the images and possible text outside the frames like a voice over. Layout: Range of image sizes and shapes depending on the story being told and the pace of the sequence. Themes: Small, mundane yet memorable moments Exploring nature and outdoor spaces Time with family Passing of time Monotony of a summer holiday Bittersweet memories Loss Change Page count: Not sure at this point. Was originally aiming for around 24 pages, but that might be too small considering the time span of the narrative. Maybe aim for 36/40? Production: Will depend on what is happening at the time due to Covid 19. Currently MIXAM are still open, but printing and shipping times are much longer. 43

Storyboarding Working from the key photographs I had previously selected for each key location, I began working on rough storyboards to flesh out the basic structure and content of the narrative. After lots of testing and alterations, I settled on a narrative of 12 short stories in each of the selected locations. I was able to use the chosen photographs as inspiration for the basis of each story, and then filling in the dialogue myself as something that could have been said in that situation.

Experimentation

Moving on from the previous experiments, I wanted to take a less sketchy approach and focus on making the image look realistic yet stylised. The loose pencil drawings that were discussed in my final review worked well, however, I felt that the style only worked due to the mountainous/nature content of the images. In a sign up tutorial with Iro, she pointed out that this style felt very rigid and overly realistic, like it was being copied directly from a photograph. She noted that a looser more stylised approach would fit the narrative much better, which I totally agreed with. 45

Rain Check Unfortunately, the storyboarding process took me a lot longer than I had planned. I was faced with the option of completing all 12 stories but run the risk of having a much lower overall quality and simplified style of illustration, or, cut down the number of stories to make the outcome more manageable to completed to a high standard within the 3 weeks allocated.

I opted to focus solely on the stories set in Spain with my Nan, firstly as all the storyboards made sense together and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t require any changes, and secondly as this felt a little more cohesive as a shorter narrative rather than jumping around to different locations.

Although I really did want to complete the whole narrative that I had planned, I decided to reduce the number of stories and change the plot line slightly.

This reduction in stories meant that I would be able to produce the illustrations in a more detailed style and execute the book to a professional standard.

Once again I began experimenting visually using the previous feedback I had been given in an attempt to find a middle ground between very loose and very graphic. I quite quickly found a style that felt more suited to my narrative and gave the impression of a dream like experience.

I tested out some possible layouts with the first two illustrations I had completed. I felt very positive about these experiments, although the pages with more white space

definitely felt more tranquil and effective.

At this point, I liked the Visuals that I had created, however they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really fulfil the brief I had set myself in terms of evoking a sense of nostalgia. I decided to refer back to visual research to see if I could find any more inspiration to revamp the illustrations to achieve the aesthetic I had intended.

Thomke Meyer Meyer’s work has always been a big source of inspiration for my work. Their use of mark making and loose drawing style adds a sense of fluidity and motion within each drawing and really communicates a story well. The pacing of Meyer’s narratives is key to effective communication. Some pages move very slowly, placing focus solely on one element of the story, and other pages are more densely packed and progress very quickly.

Meyer’s illustration style is quite similar to what I am trying to achieve within my own work. Finding a nice medium between loose sketches and clean lines is the end goal to communicate my narrative.

Wenyi Geng The use of warm hued colours really enhances the atmosphere of each image. This is more of the feeling I want to achieve with my illustrations, rather than the stark bright colours.

I really enjoy the simplicity of Gengâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Illustrations. Their use of light, shadow and gradients makes up for the lack of detail within the images. It has a very stylised aesthetic, but feels very immersive and realistic at the same time.

colours were far too bright and cool toned, creating a very present and realistic feeling. As my intent for this project was to evoke a sense of memories and nostalgia, I thought that a much warmer range of colours may give the desired effect to further the narrative.

Colour palette reevaluation After taking time away from working on the first story, I felt as if the colour palette for the illustrations didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t match the feeling and aesthetic which I intended. I felt that the

Original

New

the first story and continue with a similar colour scheme throughout the rest of the book.

Much more effective - has a more tranquil atmosphere and softer appearance. I will apply this to the rest of the illustrations for 52

Instead I decided to cut back on all the different elements and instead use a gradient base colour to give perspective, and using light shadows and texture to show small details.

Stylistic Changes Looking back, I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like the way I had drawn the texture and details of the sand. It had the desired effect of displaying the shadows and varying colours along the surface, but the appearance was far too busy and graphic looking.

The overall look of this is much more stylised and in-keeping with the aesthetic I am after.

New Look

I am much happier with the aesthetics of the images now. It feels a lot more in-keeping with the narrative and has completely changed the atmosphere and vibe given to the reader.

Photo Corner Tests give the reader a subtle hint that the stories are actually memories, without giving too much away.

To add to the concept of the photo album narrative I decided to test methods of “securing” the illustrations to the page to

The traditional photo corners had the desired effect, but looked a little overpowering on the images as they’re black and the colour schemes are quite soft.

They also looked a bit too digital for my liking - considering that the point of adding the corners was supposed to make the images look like they are realistically stuck to the page.

I then tested some “sticky tape “- This was sill drawn and applied digitally, but by making it slighlty translucent, it allowed the rest of the illustration to show through.

It looked a a bit haphazard at this point, having a more precise placement would improve the overall look. 55

is stuck down. This would be to represent that the stories shown after are a memories triggered by the photographs.

Possible â&#x20AC;&#x153;Title Cardâ&#x20AC;? To change the pace of the narrative and give an indicator of the start of each story, I thought that it could work quite well to place the first illustration of each story on a separate page with the tape to show that it

I considered pottentially adding the corners of other illustrations that are also stuck down to further the idea of the photo album and give more context to the main photograph.

In terms of production, I was not planning on having any full bleed images, however this concept would have required the images to be printed full bleed and could have made the file set up and production more complicated.

I liked the idea of this but not sure if the execution really works with the rest of the layout. 56

I found that the extra elements around the page were distracting the eye away from the main illustration, therefore taking the viewers focus off of the main narrative .

Layout Development

with that. The final product will be printed on off white natural paper to take away from that clinical white feel.

Tutorial w/ Iro - 4th May - Overall drawing aesthetic, colour scheme and cropping of images is all good.

- Cover design: title is “between the pages”, cover could be quite simple but the title can reference the idea of the stuck photographs within the book. Can create a border for the title to be “stuck down” as well, echoing on the inside.

- Black photo corners look too digital, needs to be something that looks a little bit faded and tactile. - Keep the photo corners on the first image of each story only to avoid confusion, otherwise it isn’t clear where the stories start.

- Going straight from the cover to the first image is a bit abrupt. Might be beneficial to have a title page where I set the scene with something like a date or location. What could be useful and create a cohesive link between the cover and the first image, but also doesn’t take away the surprise from the end of the book.

- Could be possible to add some kind of pause between stories, or leaving hem together to flow the whole way through. Solid pages of illustrations are a bit compact and difficult to take in all at once. - This could be done by separating the first image of each story on a separate page in the long photo format. Always starting a new story on a separate page with a central image, without needing to introduce a blank page.

- Look at albums, do they have any end papers that I could replicate or adapt? Sometimes people insert loose ephemera into the pages, plane ticket stubs, notes, receipts etc. Traces of ephemera to spark curiosity but not give too much away, and keep the viewer guessing.

- Could possibly make the background of the first page of each story more reminiscent of a real photo album; dusty, a bit creased, finger marks. Or by adding corners of other images on the page to give the indication of being surrounded by other photographs.

- Speech bubbles and thoughts - is it too confusing? Does it read okay? Speech bubbles work well. The thoughts need to be more centred to the page, not lop sided and irregular. Feels a bit strange in terms of layout. - Serena Kaat - Sunday’s Child. Two voices

- Doesn’t feel particularly old, but I’m okay 58

(Text) identified with different colours and fonts. However quite different in terms of layout; a lot of empty space when she was talking/thinking, and the rest worked more like a traditional graphic novel layout.

stories.

- Might be better for the thoughts to be placed on their own on an adjacent blank page to the corresponding illustrations. Would help to slow the pace and create pauses, and taking the viewer out of the narrative momentarily.

- Should keep with 5 stories as a good baseline as the passage of time needs to be shown to pass.

- If I feel that the workload is too much, be concise and cut out things that arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t needed.

- Speech bubbles need to be visibly coming from outside of the image frame to show that its an external voice. Bubbles need to be coming from an appropriate location relating to the characters position. Needs to be consistent throughout. Very important for how the audience will interpret the narrative.

Next Steps

Moving on from the tutorial I continued to produce the final illustrations for the narrative with no real issues, other than there being a lot for me to produce within the time frame. I felt pleased with what I had executed so far and felt as though my vision was coming together.

- Might be useful to skip forward and sketch out the ending to see how it works. Middle has been established and I know what Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m doing, but I need more advice on the beginning and the end of the narrative. - Concern about individual story length: there is no obligation to have each story the same length. How do I want to pace the book and give them their own rhythm. Some memories we have might be very fun and fast and others might be slow ans stressful. These emotions need to be reflected through the structure of the 59

Adding Thoughts The addition of scattered text was designed to replicate the internal recollection of memories that occur when a person is looking through old pictures.

I felt that the placement was a bit awkward. It made sense if the text was next to the correlating image, but did make the page a bit overcrowded.

There was also the potential for the thoughts to clash with the speech bubbles - I contemplated if they needed to be in two different fonts so clearly show that they are different voices.

Alongside producing the internal illustrations, I began experimenting with potential cover designs. The first attempt to make something that looked reminiscent of a photo album cover looked far to pain and uninspiring> it definitely wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t catch my eye in a shop or make me want to look inside. To make it a bit more eye catching, i testes using a sky pattern that I had drawn for one of the interior illustrations. I thought that this was very visually interesting and make the book look very tranquil.

Cover Development

I decided that this trial was the most effective. The edge block colour wrapping around the front, spine and back cover gave a professional feel and highlights the perfect binding. There would be no issues with trying to execute an accurately aligned a full wrap around cover as they are separated by the spine feature. The design is atmospheric and gives a good impression of the contents of the book. Design is cohesive and looks inciting, it would catch peoples eyes on a book shelf or display.

Ending Plan After talking through the ending plan with Iro in a sign up tutorial, I decided to remove the ending dialogue from the narrative as it didn’t feel necessary and wouldn’t have necessarily added anything to the story. Instead, using “that was the last time I

visited her there” as the final statement, followed by four silent pages to end the book. This then leaves the ending open to interpretation by the viewer and makes the narrative more relate-able.

Tutorial w/ Iro - 5th May

- Ending test; end dialogue between two people doesn’t really work, we haven’t met that other person before so it adds a layer of confusion. Leaving it at “that was the last time I visited her there.” Still follows the format of the thoughts that are featured throughout the book. Keep that on a separate page as before.

- Cover development, chosen one works well, it is a happy compromise between having something that looks a lot like an album cover but also not in an obvious way. Would continue as a full wrap around cover with an orange spine. - First cover test would work well as the title page inside the book. Could need extra things on the page to take up some of the empty space.

- The zooming out from the album works well & is a nice touch. Might be nice to have images on the layout that we haven’t seen before - but this will be dependent on time.

- Changed the black photo corners to sticky tape. - Whereas the title page needs to feel a bit “scrapbooky”, the first image of the story needs to feel a lot more precise with the tape placed carefully to stick it down.

- Could make the last page a full bleed as a more dramatic ending - quite immerse. Need to test it out.

- Test of different font for thoughts. Seeing as now they are on a separate page, a different font isn’t really needed as there is no direct confusion with the speech bubbles. - Align the text to the centre of the pages so that there aren’t any strange gaps left on the page. - First image of story pages with ephemera a round the edges works well, however, I feel that the image by itself works better and is less distracting. 64

the order of illustrations for the final story, which consequently altered what Illustrations are featured in the end album sequence.

Ending I decided to cut down the amount of illustrations for the 5th story and ending as I was running a bit short of time according to my plan, and in reality I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need all of them for the narrative successful.

I felt much happier with the ending than I had done previously as it felt overly explained. This ending was clear, concise and left the reader with plenty of questions about what happened next.

This resulted in me changing around

Adding thoughts

image. This will hopefully make the reader take more time to focus on each of the elements within each spread, rather than rushing through an over-crowded page and missing key details.

To slow the pace of the book, I have decided to move the “thoughts” onto a separate page next to the corresponding

The addition of these extra pages has meant that the layout of illustrations is incorrect in some places, meaning that I have had to re-evaluate the framing of the illustrations and altering the page order and narrative to flow nicely.

I think this layout works a lot better rather than having the thoughts mixed in between the images. Firstly, it makes it clear to the viewer that this is a different voice from the speech bubbles, and secondly, it completely slows down the pace of the book to make for a much more poignant and contemplative read.

After feedback in a tutorial I have moved the placement of the thoughts on separate pages to the centre, rather than being aligned to the adjacent images. This meant that each page would be consistent throughout the whole book, making for an easier, well paced read as the viewer’s eyes don’t have to jump about the page. 67

Rough Mock-up

Before sending off the book to print, I made a small dummy copy of the book to check the pagination and ensure that everything worked as I intended.

Contact Sheet

Final Outcome in Context

finish for the cover to give it a sturdy yet professional feeling.

Production

I opted for a perfect binding to further the professional appearance and feeling, while also echoing the binding of a traditional photo album.

After extensive research, I had previously chosen to get the book printed with the company MIXAM. While developing the book, I had originally intended the final product to be 210x210 mm square. However when producing physical page mock-ups I discovered that the pages were a lot larger than I had originally thought.

I attempted to create my own studio setup using a large sheet of poster paper as a backdrop and natural sunlight as the light source. I think considering what I was working with, they turned out really well and look quite professional. Ideally I would have liked to use a coloured background to match the colour scheme of the cover, but I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t able to get my hands on anything other than white.

Subsequently, I opted to reduce the page size to 148x148 mm. This reduced size will mean that the overall feel of the book is much more dainty and compact, like a small pocket book of memories that we carry around with us.

My Illustrated story is intended to be stocked in small independent businesses such as Gosh! Comics, Family Store and Beach London. It may also be of interest to small publishing houses such as Avery Hill Publishing or Nobrow Press.

I opted for 160gsm Natural paper for the inner pages as it has a soft off white appearance, giving the book a more natural and handmade feel, and 350gsm Silk paper with soft touch laminate 71

Potential Stockists In the future I intend on contacting a series of independent business to see if they would be interested in stocking “Between the Pages” as a self published work. Brighton based alternative shop “Family Store” stock a variety of independent creatives work and regularly feature up and coming illustrators and artists in their in house gallery space.

Between the Pages by Stephanie Howe

148 x 148 - 44 pages - perfect bound - Paperback The first illustrated story by English Illustrator Stephanie Howe. Between the Pages is an illustrated narrative that aims to explore the themes of nostalgia, childhood holidays and grandparent relationships, all through the pages of an old photo album. The pages of the album act as a preservative time capsule for the thoughts, feelings and people from the past, waiting to be rediscovered in the present day.

Final Evaluation

individual, I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to put myself in a situation where I took constructive criticism personally and opted ignore good advice due to emotional investment. Having lost my nan, who the narrative focusses on, just before I joined UCA, I felt very vulnerable allowing other people into a relationship I cherished so much and still grieve every Throughout the Final Major Project Unit, I day. To my own surprise, I did manage have been continually challenged with new to avoid this for the most part. I think the skills and approaches to tasks. Overall, I final narrative found a really nice medium thoroughly enjoyed this unit; Having the between a personal and universal story, opportunity to orchestrate and execute a as I chose to loosely base the story off my project by myself completely broadened my horizons and encouraged me to think memories, rather than being a factual professionally and outside the box for my account. career after university. Being able to actually get my book printed really made me feel that the project had I am incredibly pleased with the quality been a success. Even though submitting and professionalism of my final outcome, the final outcome digitally would have especially considering the difficult been satisfactory, I really wanted to push situation with Covid 19. My final outcome myself and achieve the goals I had set at successfully met the outlines of my project the beginning of the unit. Although I was proposal and met all the personal targets slightly restricted in production options that I had set myself throughout the unit. due to Covid 19, I was very fortunate that MIXAM were still operating as normal. Since the beginning of the course I have Maintaining the goal of getting the always been very hesitant to engage outcome printed helped me to manage my in a project with personal meaning, as time more efficiently as I still had a working this opens you up to all kinds of criticism deadline to meet so that the books would be that can be a lot more upsetting due delivered with enough time for me to take to a deep emotional attachment to the product photographs as well. subject. This was a big fear of mine from the outset of the project and it definitely Ideally, I would have liked to experiment hindered my progress for a while as I was more with the finish and construction of the so hell bent on not making the narrative book, using different textured papers, and personal or emotional. As a very sensitive 78

constructed and emotionally vulnerable piece of work to date and I am very proud to have completed this as my final time as a UCA student.

binding a copy by hand in the book room to really get the feeling of a handmade album. However, I am really pleased with the finish and overall look of the books. In hindsight, I do wish I had been able to construct the narrative faster. I found it so frustrating to have to cut the number of stories in half just so that I was able to produced them all in time as I had spent so long storyboarding and hand picking the stories to show the passing of time and really emphasise the sense of nostalgia. That being said, I do actually think that the final outcome actually was more successful than my original 12 story plan would have been. While 12 stories would have been very impressive and encapsulated multiple locations and family connections, shifting the focus to one location and one connection made the narrative and meaning behind the story so much more effective. I am really proud of my final outcome and for everything I have achieved this unit. For the most part, I thought that the outcome would just be another piece of work that I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really like in concept or visuals as I am always my biggest, however I am pleased to say that I am over the moon with the outcome. The knowledge and experience that I gained through the Final Major Project unit has allowed me to produce my most well79

Personal Timetable Date

Acad MONDAY Year Week No. TERM 2 & 3 – 2020

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

Jan 13-17

FMP RESEARCH & idea generation

Write rough plan for poroposal with the guideline sheet

Elaborate on proposal

13 MAJOR PROJECT BRIEFING VISITING LECTURER Author & creative writing tutor Jane Hankin leads ideas generation workshop

Jan 2024

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP Jane Hankin

22 23 External Unit Brainstorm verbal feedback possible questions/ Career plan information I research need to get to plan survey.

Make final tweaks & hand in Jan 27- 31

27 MAJOR PROJECT PROPOSAL TUTORIAl w/ Gemma Go over points made in tutorial, make action plan for what to do next/over the coming weeks

24 Format questions into public online survey & distribute on facebook and Instagram Artist researching

29 Career plan research – Industry research, companies/ position im interested in, recruitment process etc.

30 Continue annotating resposnes, highlighting key themes & interesting info

SUNDAY

Career plan basic research

Write questions.

28 Continue annotating resposnes, highlighting key themes & interesting info

SATURDAY

31 Career plan research

Career plan research – looking online for job listings that I would be interested in, analysing key skills required, and how my skills compare

Collate survey responses & print out for research folder

Assemble research into structured rough plan with accompanying images to talk through on Monday.

Family photo albums brought down – start going through the boxes and post-it-noting useful images

Assemble research into folder

Begin analysing responses & annotating

Feb 0307

Feb 10-14

03 CAREER PLAN TUTORIALS

04 Continue annotating resposnes, highlighting key themes & interesting info

05 Continue annotating resposnes, highlighting key themes & interesting info

06 Collate Stories from survey into a group.

07 Continue drawing rough storyboards

Select stories with the most visual potential to begin drawing rough narratives in sketchbook – focussing on framing and clarity of story

Continue searching through photo albums

11 STUDY WEEK Compile research from trip with annotations for research file

12 STUDY WEEK Research production techniques used by pubslishers & small press companies What is the most effective for my outcome?

13 STUDY WEEK Continue drawing rough storyboards

14 STUDY WEEK Start experimenting with images & styles

17 18 Prep powerpoint presentation for MAJOR Tuesday PROJECT GROUP Cont. visual discussions & experiements coffee

19 Continue visual experiments – drawing from photographs etc

24 Take Off

26 Start rough drawings/ mapping out for potential stories

27 Cont. research into potetntial sizes/shapes for final outcome

10 Illustration & Graphics YR3 cluster London study trip Visit Gosh Comics & charring cross road Foyles for small press & indie publishing research

Feb 17-21

Feb 24 – 28

all day careers event Portfolio guidance AOI talk UCA industry Graduates Get opinion of pdf portfolio if possible

Research deeper into items that stood out.

25 INTRO TO PAPER TALK GF SMITH paper consultant Vanessa Fletcher - Studio – continue fleshing out possible stories - Update sketchbook with visual development

21 Update research folder & admin bits

Mum visting

Prep portfolio PDF for careers event guidance Dad Visiting

Find & potential supplier for outsourcing .

Mock up experiments into frame/ narrative page spreads to get idea of what the final outcome might look like

Select a few pictures from photo albums to use as refrence for visual experiements & styple development.

Outsourcing or binding books manually?

Continue building portfolio website

Continue drawing rough storyboards

Write notes to discuss in tutorial

Mar 0206

02 2 pm progress tutorial w/ iro

03 Themes mind map & highlighting key points to include in narrative

04 Revaluate narrative – new plan featuring chapters/ short stories

05 Cont primary & secondary research

06 Continue building website

Mar 9-13

9 Book making workshop

10 Peer Review

11 Career plan updates

12 Refer back to photo albums for story inspo

13 Tidy uo career plan and portfolio for tutorial next week

Mar 1620

16 Portfolio & presentation tutorials

17 Work on portfolio changes

20 Moving home due to Covid - 19

experimentation

Continue building website

Good feedback received on career plan and portfolio Portfolio needs to be re-imagined with mockups of work to give more ideas to employers Mar 2327

24 Prep discussion Experimentation notes for final & research review

25 MAJOR PROJECT FINAL REVIEWS

26 Portfolio Adaptions

27 Portfolio Adaptions

Portfolio Adaptions

Mar 30 – Apr 2

02 Write up from final review.

Work out Cont. rough plan to development structure stories into / locations of stories

Sign up tutorial Set up InVision w/ iro about revised portfolio. Write Professional Very positive Practice feedback, Summary. minor changes to be made 90% complete -> completed – will finish same day and off at later uploaded onto date once Issuu. all research is annotated and ready for submission.

Continue building website.

Make to do list/ action plan for the coming weeks. Continue developing concept based off notes discussed. Update sketchbook.

Narrative structure selected – stories spanning a lifetime Work on storyboarding imagery

Portfolio Adaptions

Apr 0610

Apr 13-17

06 Conduct more research for folder in areas noted as lacking

13 EASTER MONDAY

07 Research folder annotations

8 Add last elements and finish carreer plan

10 Complete website – create pdf with mockups detailing the function and conscious design of it.

Research and put together 2 pdfs for visual research for the portfolio and website – annotataions and thoughts

Upload all files onto ISSUU and Invision for hand in Create word document with appropriate links to all work.

15 Sketch rough Remove albums stroyboards that aren’t from selected useful – finalise albums – makr stories that will the pictures be used – refine with post its to again later refence later.

Continue rough storyboards

Continue rough Continue Continue rough storyboards rough storyboards storyboards

Rough storyboards complete

Tutorial with Iro – going over more personal take on the story

Visual development – how can I draw each scene is a stylised way that is fairly quick to produce, but also effective?

Continue visual development

Look back at albums again – what do I have and what can I use effectively.

9 Continue with website – finish uploading content & sub pages

TERM 3 – SPRING 2020

Apr 2024

Imagery needs work – more textural, playful & stylised

Continue visual Continue development visual development

Apr 27 – 1 May

27 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

28 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

29 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

30 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

1 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

May 4-8

4 BANK HOLIDAY ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

5 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

6 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

7 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

8 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

May 11 - 15

11 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

12 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

13 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

14 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

15 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

May 18 - 22

18 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

19 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

20 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

21 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

22 ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

ILLUSTRATING FINAL OUTCOME

May 25 - 29

25 BANK HOLIDAY

June 1 - 5 45

June 8 - 13

1 Adding to research folder

8 FMP DEADLINE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Mitigating circumstances

26 Order for books placed

27 Updating sketchbook

08 Updating sketchbook

29 Updating sketchbook

Adding to research folder

2 Adding to research folder

3 Begin work on process journal layout planning and refining notes made throughout the unit.

4 Books delivered

5 final touches & putting together files for hand in

final touches & putting together files for hand in

Product photographs taken.