CoP2 - (kinda) Establishing a Research Question

I'm still having trouble deciding which topic/question to choose. Ben suggested focusing on narratives, since that's what I like doing, so I think for any of them I'll connect them with comics and narrative illustration. So far, my ideas are:

☼ Mental health
How comics can help connect people suffering from mental health issues and stop the stigma associated with it. This is an issue very personal to me, as I struggle with mental health sometimes, so I think I'd stay interested in and passionate about CoP if I picked this topic.

Practitioners/resources:
- Sarah Andersen
- Ruby Elliot
- Bethdrawsthings
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/35564616/mental-health-week-how-drawings-on-social-media-are-changing-the-conversation
- Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
- Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green
- Marbles by Ellen Forney

☼ Women in history
One of my favourite illustrators, Kate Beaton, focuses on comic strips that parody literature and history. A lot of her strips are feminist, and explore the fact that women throughout history have been erased. Similarly, Jacky Fleming, another comic artist, does this too, especially in her new book, The Trouble With Women.

There's a lot of potential for this topic I think, as I'm sure there are a lot of academic resources discussing it, but I'm not sure I'd be able to keep the momentum going through-out CoP if I picked this topic.

☼ Women in cinema
From looking at Laura Mulvey etc. for Study Task 3 and from my essay on advertising and gender for CoP1, I think I could expand on those ideas but looking specifically at women in cinema. I am a feminist, so I can see myself getting quite riled up and passionate about what I'm writing about, which will at least help me stay motivated. Probably.

Some resources I've already identified are:
- The Bechdel test: Alison Bechdel is a comic-artist who also came up with a way to test how well women are represented in films. The main criteria for a film to pass the test is that at some point in the film, two women have to talk to each other about something other than a man.
- The Hawkeye Initiative: many female characters  in comics (particularly superhero comics) and on movie posters are shown in compromising (ridiculous/impractical) positions compared to male characters. The Hawkeye Initiative is the suggestion that if a female character can be replaced by Hawkeye (a male superhero) in the same pose without it looking ridiculous, then the pose is acceptable and not sexist.
- Women in Refrigerators: a list of female characters in comics who have died/had some kind of violence committed against them (quite often purely to further the plot of a male character)
- Naomi Wolf
- Germaine Greer

☼ Narratives/comics (in general)
This is what Ben suggested I do. I'm worried about doing narratives in general because it's not focused enough on a specific area. There are so many types of sequential illustration, comics and books etc. that I think I'd be overwhelmed by the amount of information available, and not know which bits to focus on.

However, perhaps it might be good for it to still be quite a vague question? I can choose which bits of information to focus on and then perhaps create my own narrative for Studio Brief 2.

☼ Music - gig posters
This is the only topic I've thought of that may not necessarily be comic-related. I love music and gigs, and I like the idea of investigating gig culture, music subcultures and the illustration within them, such as gig posters.

However, I could also choose to explore narratives still, by making up my own stories and comics in response to what I find out about certain subcultures.

10 Potential Themes

☼ Mental health - how comics can help open up the discussion about it
☼ Representation of women in the media
☼ Comics (general)
☼ Music and art that accompanies it - gig posters, album covers etc.
☼ Art education - political aspect, why it's important
☼ Social media and increasing reliance on technology - Black Mirror
☼ Women in history (erasure of)
☼ Comics and feminism - zines, underground comix
☼ Print media compared to digital - Made You Look
☼ Greetings cards

CoP2 ideas!

Just from the initial lecture today, I had a couple of ideas about possibilities for CoP2. I want to pick something that I'm really passionate about so that I stay interested in it throughout the year, and maybe even like enough to expand on in CoP3.

1. Women in history - some illustrators I like already explore this, like Jacky Fleming in her new book The Trouble With Women, and Kate Beaton in her ongoing webcomic/book series Hark! A Vagrant. This might be a good starting point - I've already identified specific illustrators who tackle this topic, and it would be an interesting topic to research considering there are many important and interesting women in history, but history was predominantly written by white men. As a feminist, I anticipate this topic keeping me engaged. 
2. Mental health - I know several illustrators who use comics and other forms of illustration to discuss mental health in an accessible and informal way such as Rubyetc and Sarah Andersen. As someone who struggles with mental health, this topic could keep me engaged throughout the year, as I could potentially focus on it even when I'm feeling down.

I really enjoyed modules and briefs which let me explore these issues last year, such as 'Persons of Note' in Visual Communication, where I researched Valentina Tereshkova (a cool woman from history!) and made some comics similar to Kate Beaton's, and also PPP with my final poster which visualised some of my creative process, including the negative aspects like self-doubt.

Jacky Fleming

Kate Beaton

Rubyetc

Sarah Andersen

Evaluation

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

NAME	Molly Halson

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
·         I developed my research skills and essay-writing skills, and I think this is evident in my essay and my bibliography. ·         I've thought about the visual aesthetic of the work I produced, in order to explore the themes and ideas relevant to my topic. Thinking about what media and methods of drawing were appropriate to the body of work for its purpose. ·         I've improved my critical thinking skills and analysis skills of academic texts, and I think I have applied these skills well.
2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your practical outcomes?
·         I used first-hand research of drawing real people out and about to inform my visual response to the subject of my essay. Looking at real people, I was able to test and challenge my own hypotheses about what I would find, and make work that was informed by real life experiences. ·         I've look at a lot of adverts in various sources; books, the internet and real-life among others, and compared all of these adverts to assess trends alongside my academic research, which has helped me to hypothesise themes that would be present in my visual work.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
·         I've always enjoyed and been good at writing essays throughout school years, and I think I have good research and analysis skills when it comes to reading and understanding academic texts. ·         I've addressed a breadth of research for the essay from sources such as the libraries (the university, my own and my parents') and the internet, and next year in CoP I will continue to seek a wider variety of sources, such as documentaries and other video sources.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
·         My visual research and practical outcomes - these were not exhaustive as I could have achieved, and I struggled to develop my ideas, particularly at the start of the visual brief. ·         I didn't really identify any artists' work that informed my own for this module. Obviously over the whole year, I have looked at many artists, but none really in relation to this brief. Next year I will seek out more examples. ·         My visual journal is only A5, which I got at the beginning of the year before exploring the Visual Language module and realised that perhaps a bigger sketchbook would have been more appropriate. ·         There's no final piece, which was not necessary but perhaps would have helped to tie the module together.
5. Identify five things that you feel will benefit you during next years Context of Practice module?
·         Going to every CoP session, even if I feel I haven't got enough work or haven't 'done it right'. ·         Starting work on the visual stage earlier and being more exhaustive. ·         Conducting more primary research, particularly for the visual part of the module. ·         Look at more artists that influence my work, specifically related to CoP. ·         Using a bigger sketchbook.
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.

Visual Evaluation

Final Essay

More development!

I've started trying to put my female characters into a scene, to juxtapose them to the men, to make the whole idea seem even more ridiculous. My main goal is to create a scene where nothing really looks out of place until you look closer:

And then you start to question why the women are all naked from the waist down and the men aren't...

Different media and other ideas

I've been looking at gouache in comparison to inks, because I couldn't quite get accurate skin colours by mixing the more fluorescent inks:

However, although the skin tones are more realistic, I feel like they don't portray my intent as well as the inks. The colours I achieved with the inks, as well as the texture of the brushstrokes and mild variations in colour across the application, are more childlike and naive, and therefore tell a different story. For example:

This naivety of image-making contrasts with the more serious message behind the artwork, initially making people laugh at their abstractness and playfulness, but actually inspire a second look and more thought behind what the images are saying.

Another thing I thought about was the decision to put all these women in heels. Although it does make a statement about the differences in clothing and fashion between men and women, and WHY there are these differences, I feel like it's not as strongly implied with the other content within the studies. I think the fain focal point and area for discussion is the nakedness of the bottom half of the woman, and why I'm making that statement, and because of this I think the heels idea may be overlooked.

I also made a point of looking at how women will be paranoid about stomach fat and maybe hide it with their arms or a strategically placed bag, but will still wear tight jeans. An ironic contrast:

I also started thinking more about the comparison to men in this piece. As I've noticed that male trousers are generally baggy and shapeless, more for function over form as compared to womens' clothing, I decided to go with the leg-shape idea with men too:

As most female clothing on the bottom half is very shape-revealing, male clothing is the opposite - there's not always much room for interpretation as the leg shape of the wearer. In this study I play on that idea as if the baggy jeans WERE shape-defining - what if this was what male legs looked like? Again, this kinda plays off the ridiculousness of the idea, but in comparison to the female legs I think the message is quite clear.

Originally I didn't add hair, but I wanted to make it clear that this was the leg shape and not trousers! I mean, it is fairly clear from the visible penis, but y'know. I think I could make the folds of the jeans as legs a bit more pronounced to make it even more stupid and fun.

Development

SO

I had an idea that's a bit more outside the box:

These are an extension of the idea that women are always on display, as though they are products on the sexual market, for men to view and judge at their leisure.

They're kinda silly and funny, but also get the point across quite well I think? I'm not sure how to juxtapose the men into this though.

Continuing visual responses

I'm continuing to look at my legs theory, by studying male and female legs primarily. I was walking round my hometown to observe people and found the same kinda thing here.

Most women's bottom half will display the shape of her legs. Women are always therefore being studied for their sexual appeal, whether they realise or not. And most probably don't think about it too much - skinny jeans and leggings are just fashionable, and they don't think of the ulterior motives to show their bum and legs.

Again I also started to expand on the idea that women are always kinda protecting themselves subconsciously, physically. Folding their arms across their bodies as they walk - protective. As if they know they are being observed, constantly sized up for their sexual appeal.

Men walk more freely and confidently, and their trousers more often than not are unrevealing of the shape underneath.

I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this set of drawings. I don't know how to more explicitly say what I'm trying to say? Maybe a larger comparison piece - physically changing the sizes of people so that the men are larger and more imposing?

I've been using pens and ink because they're easier to take out and use whilst I'm out, but maybe I need to start considering other media and different applications of line, shape and texture.

I have considered colours - kinda traditional feminine pastel pinks and purples for the female drawings and blues for men, but maybe I need to think outside the box a bit more? However, these colours are instantly recognisable visual signs.

Study Task 4 - Triangulating and Harvard Referencing

I missed the CoP session when we were given this task and completely forgot to catch up on it, with pressure to finish my essay. Since we've now had some initial feedback on our essays, and I was told mine exhibits good triangulation and evaluation etc., I feel it's pointless for me to now go back and do this task?

Starting visual responses!

I started work on my visual research today. I started my research by looking at how men and women act in public, and how they display masculinity and femininity in the way they sit, stand and interact with eachother.

I went to Leeds station and coffee shops from 10AM for a few hours until I got really cold sitting down for ages! I sat and watched people walk and sit - the station was good because it has a high turnover of people, so loads of people to observe and draw, and also a lot of people staying still waiting for trains!

I noticed a lot of men in suits, a classic signal of masculinity. These men were often portraying classic positions of power in their stance.

I also noticed a lot of 'man-spreading' - men taking up more space than they need. Showing off?

On the other hand, women tended to sit closed in on themselves, which was my starting hypothesis.

Obviously, there were anomalies - everyone's different and this is only one kind of theory about gender displayed in posture etc., but there are stereotypes for a reason.

However, as the day went on, I noticed another thing about men and women. Women tend to wear clothing that shows off the shapes of their legs - dresses and skirts (with or without tights), leggings and skinny genes. Again, obviously there are exceptions, like 'mom-jeans' are quite in fashion at the moment, and I noticed older women tended to have less shape revealing clothing on. Perhaps because their legs are no longer 'desirable' and sexual?

Legs have become an extended symbol of femininity, another factor women must embody in order to fit the standard classification of beauty.

An extension of this is wearing heels. Men don't, and the first stilettos were invented for women to supposedly make their legs look longer. To make them more appealing to men.

All of this trickles down from advertising - what's in fashion and what looks good and makes you attractive.

I did notice that some younger men also wear skinny jeans, but this is perhaps an exhibition of androgyny in fashion - that is, high fashion starting to become gender-free in a way, like one of the sources I looked at for my essay suggested. Although that was more for product advertising, it does apply to fashion too. Even so, most of the men I saw still wore trousers which concealed their leg shape. Men's legs are not deemed a part of their sexual attraction (more often than not), and so the fashion industry that then trickles down, does not deem leg-revealing trousers for men to be necessary.

The final thing I noticed today was another thing I kinda hypothesized - when men and women are talking, men take up more physical space. Obviously as a general rule, men are taller and bigger than women, but this is more about body language.

The women are closed in on themselves, kinda protective, nervous, submissive almost.

Men embody the classic masculine quality of the dominant one in the conversation and interaction through body language, whether they realise it or not.

Accidental essay research

I recently started re-reading 'How To Be A Woman' by Caitlin Moran, as an attempt to start reading more again instead of watching TV before I go to sleep. As well as really loving the book, I realised that Moran actually makes a few points that I could incorporate into my essay:

The point she makes in this chapter elaborates on a point already in my essay made by Wolf - how hardcore porn is now competition for the ad market, and therefore adverts need to be more shocking than porn in order to entice viewers (??? - madness) and keep the customers interested.

She also makes some good points about strip clubs and how they let both genders down, which I think might be going off in too much of a tangent to the focus of my essay, but interesting nonetheless. 

Definitely a great read.

Although Moran is not an academic scholar, she is still a woman who is able identify sexism and misogyny in the Western world, and a journalist who basically gets pain to notice and analyse and question things. - may put a similar analysis in my essay (but worded better!).

Essay Feedback

Main points:

• Overall essay is very good - use of triangulation and analysis of sources sufficient.
• Include more quotes rather than just paraphrasing, and unpick these quotes.
• Included main sources of research in the conclusion (Berger and Wolf)
• Make sure conclusion emphasizes my key points.
• Add more sources to bibliography (I didn't realise we could include sources not quoted in the essay)
• Look at Rosalind Coward and Laura Mulvey - both have links to Berger
• Search for criticisms and comments on sources I've quoted.
• VISUAL - look at how advertising affects manifestations of femininity and masculinity in the real world - how people act and interact with each other.

Visual Response proposal

BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 04	Name	Molly Halson
Module: OUIL401 Context of Practice 1	Date	11.02.2016

STUDIO BRIEF 2: Visual Response

The Themes I am going to explore are….

1. Gender 2. Sexuality 3. Posture/figure/pose

The theories that will in form my work are…..

1. 'Sex sells' 2. The female body is seen as an object whereas men's achievements are valued more highly over the physical appearance. 3. Female sexuality is used against women.

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

1. How posture and how people sit/stand connotes gender roles and stereotypes. 2. Differences between how sexuality is expressed between genders and how people are treated because of it. 3. The differences between the amount of clothing men and women wear, not only in advertising but in real life, on nights out, at the beach etc.

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

1. Draw from life and reference - the differences between how men and women sit and stand in public. 2. Compare imagery of men and women in advertising and media. 3. Interview people