Evaluation of Project

EVALUATION 

I enjoyed this brief as I feel as if I've been able to freely work through my own processes and develop my experimentation with different materials. 

This project I feel has furthered my skills in illustration, as well as in research and development skills because of the amount of time we had for it and the amount of time I could use in making successful narrative illustrations. 

I had trouble keeping a time scale and plan of development and progress, this could be due to my own disorganization and having to balance other project deadlines along with this project deadline which I am unaccustomed to. 

I feel as if this project has pushed me in terms of thinking of how my process of development and final images could be improved and I feel more prepared for other projects, in which case this project has also helped me a great deal in having to work through difficult briefs. 

Over the course of this project, I have mainly focused my research on historical influences such as the Soviet propaganda and the Russian youth in regards to the Revolution. 

I did this because of the historical references of Animal Farm and because it's based on historical events and figures such as Josef Stalin and Karl Marx. 

My final images could have been better as could my development and time management, however I feel as if my final images were appropriate for what key events they were referencing within Animal Farm. 

Final Designs

FINAL DESIGNS

1. I tried to make this final design as powerful and grabbing as possible, I attempted to make the figures look empowering and I wanted this design to have a symmetrical element to it too, to show that Snowball and Napoleon were equals at this point of the book.

I gave Old Major a flag waving behind him to symbolize Communism, with the bright red colouring. 
I put the more minor animals below Snowball and Napoleon to show a disconnection with the beggining of their power struggle as a kind of foreshadowing.  

2. I drew out the seven commandments being written by Snowball instead of Napoleon or Squealer as I felt as if Snowball believed in them and needed them to be there. Above the board though, I decided to show the animals chasing Mr Jones out with his men as I felt as if the layout would work better like this, and in the top corner I put the farmhouse but had it in a black silhouette to show the irrelevance to it at this point in the book so that I could put it in one of the later on designs to show its increasing relevance as a symbol of the pigs greed. 

3. For this design I drew out the apples being eaten by Napoleon and Squealer, as well as a minor other pig for layout purposes, with the animals below them starving as another sort of foreshadowing of the animals eventual hunger. 

4. I wanted this design to be again more of a propaganda poster than anything else as I felt as if this would have more of a visual impact, I also decided to shadow in the humans faces and some of the minor animals faces to place emphasis on the pigs. 

5. For this design I decided to show the windmill before it was built to hint at its importance in the story as a metaphor for impossible dreams as well as the animals enslavement and oppression, with Snowball being chased by Napoleons dogs infront of it. 

6. For this design I drew out the trading produce to reference the beginning of the trade with the humans, but with Napoleon behind it as an imposing figure to ward off any hungry animals. 
7. This design was one of my most favoured, I drew out a pile of dead animals with Napoleon sitting on top of them and his dogs eating the corpses below. I put the beginning of the poem that Minimus put forward in place of 'Beasts of England' just for comedic effect. 

. 8. With this design I wanted to reference the Raised Fist symbol within lots of different propaganda across the world, I put the fists infront of the farmhouse to give a feel of 'angry mob' aesthetic. 

9. Because of my earlier drawings, I wanted to make this design a lot more subtle with what it was portraying, to reference the subliminal messages within Russian children's illustration books as well as to reference how the animals don't see Boxer die but they find out he is sent to a glue factory.

10. For this final I used one of my earlier designs because I felt it was the most fitting for this chapter and that it was a perfect and bold end to my illustrations. 

Book Research

After recieving the list of books to choose from for our narrative brief, I looked into the ones that interested me to see what the were ab

Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
- traditionally considered a coming of age story, noted for its atmosphere, characters and action, basically about pirates looking for treasure, it also influenced a lot of stereotypes for pirates such as x marks the spot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Island

The Princess Bride – William Goldman
- a fantasy romance novel, basically about a privelidged pretty girl mocking a poor boy, she realises he loves her, The story ends with a series of mishaps and the prince's men closing in, but the author indicates that he believes s'all good
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Bride#Plot_summary

James and the Giant Peach – Roald Dahl
plot is pre much theres this orphan and his parents get killed in a storm so his aunts adopt him but they're awful and eventually he accidently grows this giant peach
'Originally titled James and the Giant Cherry, Dahl changed it to James and the Giant Peach because a peach is "prettier, bigger and squishier than a cherry'
Michael Simeon did british illustrations, been changed over years originally illustrated by nancy ekholm burkert, others redone by  Emma Chichester Clark, Lane Smith and Quentin Blake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Ekholm_Burkert

The Big Book of Nonsense – Colin West
basically a book of weird poetry, illustrated by colin west too
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Big-Book-Nonsense-Poems/dp/0091768799
http://www.colinwest.com/

The Three Mulla-Mulgars – Walter de La Mare
based on three monkeys looking for their mother,
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4493667-the-three-mulla-mulgars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_P._Lathrop

Street Art

MODERN PROPAGANDA

Graffiti development and Poster

Animal Farm shows what a power struggle and corruption among the people can do to a society and I wanted to show this with my designs somehow, which brought me onto looking at street art because of the current anti-establishment type street art coming from prominent and rebellious figures like Banksy, street art can be used as a freedom of speech as well as a kind of power to the people.

I did some background designs using spray paints for a smoke and brimstone effect for the background of my final images, however I tried using some of them for my final images and they didn't work well with the harsh colours and black outlines. 



Sources
Exit Through The Giftshop (2010) Banksy

Ormesby Hall images and drawings

ORMESBY HALL 

For drawing references I went to Ormesby Hall in Middlesbrough and drew from the old building. 

I wanted the design to be more farmhouse though than what it was so I made the designs more basic looking and tried to make them look ominous as I wanted to push the idea that this farmhouse was a man-made creation and that the animals didn't belong in there. 

I took away some of the windows and added a barn structure to the side of the building. 

I got the idea to use Ormesby Hall as a reference for my farmhouse as it tends to have sheep and horses at the front of it and has an imposing structure which is what I wanted my farmhouse to have too. 

Animals Images and Drawings

Own image

ANIMAL LIFE DRAWING

I also drew from some of the animals whilst I was at Ormesby Hall as it's surrounded by farms that you are able to walk around and the animals tend to be grazing outside. 

The day I went was really windy though and as I reside in Hartlepool, it's difficult to get there so I took more photographs than I did draw and used some of these photographs when drawing my animals. 

I found two horses that would be perfect for Boxer and Clover as the smaller one is feminine looking and the larger horse looks more like a workmans horse. 

I did some other more obscure drawings of the horses too but didn't like how they turned out as they looked too simple for what they were intended to be, which was surreal. 

Influenced propaganda and drawings

PROPAGANDA

Alexandr Rodchenko, Plakat

Alexandr Rodchenko

I looked at different books that were filled with old Russian Propaganda, the majority of which I really loved the visual concepts of like; Beat The Whites With The Red Wedge by El Lissitzky, 1919, and Have you volunteered for the Red Army? By Dmitry Moor, 1920 as well as a lot of Alexandr Rodchenko's work which I really liked because of the contrasting colours and sharp and aesthetically impacting aspects.

Dmitry Moor, Have You Enlisted in the Army?

El Lissitzky, Beat The Whites With The Red Wedge

Pacifiers, Aleksandr Rodchenko

My homage to Beat The Whites With The Red Wedge

I looked at Propaganda as a lot of it was open to interpretation to whoever viewed it and I want to make my designs like this too as I feel like Animal Farm is also open to interpretation as it's used by both right and left wing politics, right wing for the belief of freedom to succeed over equality as well as survival of the fittest, this shows with the pigs powerhold over the other animals and left wing for the belief of equality and what valuing success over equality will result in. 
http://idontgetpolitics.co.uk/right-left-wing

'there are only two classes: the capitalist class which possesses but does not produce and the working class which produces but does not possess'
- http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1980s/1986/no-986-october-1986/political-ideas-george-orwell

'Despite Orwell's influence political journalism is as corrupt as ever. However, if we, individually, question what we read and try to be honest and objective in what we write then it is a start. Above all it is important that our socialism is not compromised and that we do not put our trust in leaders but our confidence in the power of the working class.'
-http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1980s/1986/no-986-october-1986/political-ideas-george-orwell