Dan-ah Kim

I found these illustrations by Dan-ah Kim on pinterest and quickly stuck it on my 'Aesthetic' and 'Content' boards. I love everything about these, they're so beautiful and delicate, with fine lines and warm pastel tones. I really love anything plant based swell and I love how these plants looked aesthetically and how they were the only part of the image that used much colour. I also like the way the girls have been drawn, very simply with solid black hair, tis really compliments that more developed images of the plants. I'm so awful at trying to explain academically why I like something or why it inspires me, but hey, I like it and I find it inspiring so I guess that'll do. 

I think i want to spend a little more of my time creating work around things that interest me, such as plants, it's just hard to find the time to fit it in. 

OUIL402 PPP - How Illustrations on Social media are changing the conversation on Mental Health

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/35564616/mental-health-week-how-drawings-on-social-media-are-changing-the-conversation

I found this article at some point last week while just scrolling through Facebook. I found it really interesting to hear about how Illustration was having an impact on how people talk about and view mental health and how this is helping fight the stigma that surrounds it.
Mental Health is a very important subject to me, one that affects my life daily and that has repeatedly affected friends and family around me at various stages in my life. This article combined my passion for Illustration with a subject very close to me and got me thinking more on how illustration can be used to make a difference.

Sylvie Reuter

There were a few pieces of illustration in the article that i found quite striking, this being the first. Though not much was said by the illustrator about the piece I found it ridiculously easy to be able to understand this piece and the feelings that it provokes. I struggle to find the words to explain how i feel sometimes, and I've seen other pieces of work that have discussed mental health but this is one that I completely 100% get. This is exactly how it feels and it is so much easier to look at this and understand and to show people this and have them understand than it is to talk about things. 

Rubyetc

I've followed Ruby's work for a while now, her simple, gestural cartoons have an honesty to them as well as a humour. In the article, Ruby says her drawing aim is to 'talk about it in a way thats honest. Theres a lot of imagery and writing out there that's very positivity centred and not enough credence is given to the distress of it'. I completely agree with whats she saying here. It's always nice to see imagery or text that promotes positivity and inner strength and what not but there really doesn't seem to be as much out there that just tackles mental illness head on. 

Lauren Reis

Lauren Reis created a character named 'Selfie' after managing her own mental illness and found that a lot of people were reacting to her work and seeing parts of themselves in 'Selfie'. This really struck me, after just finishing a brief based around character design suddenly everything fell into place. Characters like 'Selfie', with no specified gender, no specified style or identity are relatable to people across all levels. People can look at this and say 'yes, that is exactly how I'm feeling' no matter what ethnicity, gender or class levels they come from.

I'm not entirely sure what point I'm trying to get at or why exactly i decided to post it to my blog but it just felt important to me, the article explains everything a lot better, but I just thought I'd keep this on here for future reference, or something like that. 

OUIL402 Poster Task - Personal, Professional and Ambition

I missed the session where we were briefed in this task so to start, if I have got the wrong end of the stick with this task that is why.

Anyway, after talking to some people in the studio I figured that I needed to create three posters based around lists made for the following categories: Personal, Professional and Ambition. I figured the aim of the posters was to sell/promote ourselves in some way so started making lists for those categories.

First Lot of Lists

Final Lot of Lists

Personal:
. Kinda lame
. Stupidly shy
. Super friendly once I've gotten over being so shy
. Plant lover
. I want to explore
. Adventurer
. Avid nap taker
. Bookworm
. Small person with BIG ideas
. Dog lover
. Average cook
. Ghost hunter/scaredy cat
. Super awesome air guitarist

I found writing a list of traits I valued about myself extremely difficult. I severely struggle with my confidence and I'm so unbelievably uncomfortable talking about good things about myself. I can talk crap about myself no end but ask me to name something I like about myself or something that I think I'm good at and I don't know what to say. Even though I struggled making the list, once I'd managed it I was quite okay making a little poster about who I am as a person.

Professional:

. I always try my very very best

. Committed 

. Motivated (mostly) 

. I am in love with what I do

. Major stresshead

. Averagely organised person

. Adaptable, I can adapt my visual signature

. I am eager to create

. I love researching and finding out new things

. Ink and pencil are the best

This poster sucked to make mostly because at this point in my life and my practice I do not in anyway consider myself a professional yet. I am a student, I can't really look after myself and I still need my mum to sort my life out for me occasionally. I have very little idea how I would begin to sell myself as a professional, once again down to the confidence thing so I thought screw it, lets just be honest with this one. So here it is. 

Ambitions: 

. Draw, draw and draw some more

. Lets make zines and books

. Lets spread an idea

. Lets spread an opinion

. Lets spread a thought

. Advocate for mental health

. Advocate for the end of cruelty towards animals and humans alike

. I just want to spread good vibes and make people feel something

. I want to get better and be a better version of myself

This was ridiculously hard to get my head around. I know that I aspire to be an illustrator but an illustrator of what? I don't have a specific goal set in mind I am just hoping that I can find what I love,  and that other people will love it enough to let me earn a living from it. I will at some point find a more specific direction that I want to go in but for right now I just went for something simple, honest and straight from the heart. This poster, although difficult, means a lot to me, spending the day completing this task has kind of helped me realise what I want to be doing. I am an emotional person, sometimes I make emotional work and this is usually the work I invest my time into most and the work I am happiest with at the outcome. 

At the start of the course and for the past few months I've been trying to figure out what the point is to PPP, how will it help me develop? And now I think I get it a little more. This module gives me a bit of time to reflect on my practice and my professionalism but more importantly myself. I think a bit of attention as to how I'm working and how my mind is working and how this influences my practice would be beneficial to my work as a whole.