Charlotte Hawkins Illustration BA1b

This is a blog to show my BA1b work for illustration at NUA. 

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This blog is to document my Ba1 illustration journey at NUA and what it entails.(If you want to enlarge images of my artwork to have a closer look, simply click on them)

Link to my BA1a blog.

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Project Summary.docx

PDF version of my project summary.

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Collab final_030517.docx

PDF version of my collaborative report.

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Self Publishing Report_v1.0 final.docx

PDF version of my self publishing report.

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Charlotte Lawrence Hawkins Year 1 BA (Hons) Illustration BA1b ‘Project Summary’ ( 2 pages of A4 )

Following BA1a I wanted to ensure that I learned from the tutor’s feedback 

and worked on aspects such as time management, blogging and development 

to improve. Therefore, during BA1b I organised myself more so that I could 

make the most of my time, had a regular blogging schedule and made sure to 

develop my ideas and show the process of development. I worked on each of 

these aspects and now, at the end of BA1b, I can say that I am happy with my 

progress and can see how far I have improved in these areas.

Sequential illustration was the first project of BA1b and for this project I did a 

lot of research to build a good foundation for my final piece. Before I began 

filming my final piece, I researched a lot into pre-existing opening sequences, 

such as those for Coraline and City of God, and videos on different kinds of 

shots for example establishing shots and high and low angle shots. I did this to 

give myself a better understanding of the different filming and editing 

techniques such as close-ups, establishing shots, slow motion and layering of 

shots so that I could incorporate them into my piece. However, one negative 

of my work in this project was that I followed my first idea rather than 

considering what ideas I could follow. I spent too long on my acetate 

experiment piece and to save time I stuck with the first Idea that I had, 

Folklore, but made sure to develop that idea later, such as re-ordering shots 

and picking out the most important points of the stories to include.

The next project was the Self Publishing report. After receiving the feedback 

for my BA1a Research Report I made sure that for my BA1b Self Publishing 

report I did more research as recommended. I did this for both essays to 

ensure sure both were rich in research to back up the points I wished to 

convey. In the feedback, I was told to do more research outside and not just 

what I had learnt from lectures and so I focussed on this for BA1b and did a lot 

more individual research as present in my bibliographies. Doing so made my 

essays stronger and more informative due to including more examples and 

facts.

Text and Image was my favorite project of BA1b. It included workshops such 

as the bookbinding and typography workshops which were influential to me 

and my practice. These workshops helped me explore a larger variety of 

media and pushed me out of my comfort zone to broaden my skill set. I 

enjoyed the stitching aspect of bookbinding, especially chain stitch and 

pamphlet stitch, but less successful at paper folding and this was only 

something I could have discovered by attending the workshop. This workshop 

inspired me to hand stitch my own book. I enjoyed the typography lecture and 

workshop as in the past I have experimented with type, however, this lecture 

and workshop taught me to use type in conjunction to imagery and improved 

my knowledge on composition; these skills are present in my book. With this 

project, I experimented a lot with materials, for example rose paper, water 

colour and ink pen. I also experimented with how to use watercolour and ink 

on rose petal paper without the colours bleeding and making the delicate 

paper dissentigrate or weaken. I considered multiple ideas for my book, as I 

learned from the previous project that it would help me to choose the most 

effective idea by exploring more options. I kept the overall theme of witchcraft 

when looking at ideas for my publication but researched five separate 

witchcraft related stories before settling on the unearthed witch’s cottage.

The final project in BA1b was Illustration as an Event. This project taught me 

how to work within a group. I found it helpful to work with others as working in 

a group enables you to bounce ideas off each other and pool knowledge. For 

example, one of my group members had previously studied archaeology and 

so had lots of knowledge to offer. Being able to discuss ideas with others 

helped us work out which ideas were the most successful and meant we could 

share the workload between us. However, sometimes it was hard to keep 

everyone motivated but we combated this by frequently conversing and 

sharing ideas over a group chat.

In conclusion, during BA1b I worked on previous issues that had become 

present during BA1a such as time management, frequently blogging and 

development of ideas. To further improve my practice, I intend to continue to 

be organised and to continue frequent blogging to ensure I am consistently on 

track with my work.

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Charlotte Lawrence Hawkins Year 1 BA (Hons) Illustration BA1b ‘Research and Writing’ Self-Publishing Report (1000 word report)

Self-Publishing Report

Publishing is defined as ‘preparing and issuing books, journals and other 

materials for sale’. Publishing came about through the invention of writing, 

paper and printing and as new inventions are created the publishing process 

develops. Self-publishing is a piece of work published at the creator’s 

expense. Self-publishing is something I have always been interested in 

partaking in for my own illustrative practice, however there are downsides 

such as cost and time.

Bea Willey gave a lecture revolving around publishing which helped inform me 

of what it entails. A publisher’s role includes selecting/editing, designing and 

disseminating/dispersing which includes marketing, storage, distribution and 

promotion. This lecture helped explain publishing and gave examples of 

publishing practices. After this lecture, I started doing my own research of 

different publishing formats and styles, I was particularly interested in looking 

at zines. Zines are mostly photocopied and arise from self-publishing. They 

are a cost-effective way of creating content and incorporate alternative ideas, 

alternative paper conventions and alternative binding to create work that 

appeals to a niche artist. Kiosk are London based, run by Nick Greenbank, 

that specialises in zines that are independently published. They came 

about through wanting to bring light to emerging artists work and publishing 

zines is a cheap and efficient way of doing so.

I attended a workshop called ‘New meanings, new connections’ in which we 

gave a text a new meaning. This workshop introduced me to Tom Philips, a 

self-published creator, specifically his project ‘A Humument’. His work on this 

project reminded me of Palimpsest as he took a book and repurposed it by 

illustrating over the text and incorporating the text into his work. His work 

related to my booklet that I made due to the layers of history prevalent in my 

story as well as the new purpose the unearthed building was given due to it 

becoming a piece of history and interest. Philips’ work inspired me to re-use in 

my work and inspired me to use paper made from rose petals and recycled 

paper to give the old a new meaning and new importance. I was also 

interested in Philip’s use of text in his work in a compositional way. I liked the 

way he laid out art and text to create a piece and this inspired me to be more 

creative with my layout of text combined with illustrations and you can see this 

in the book I created. It helped me be more experimental with how I presented 

my narrative in text and illustration form.

 Above left and right: Philips 1970 – A Humument

  Another workshop that I attended that inspired my practice was the ‘

Disconnected Connected’ workshop. This workshop was about taking 3 words 

and taking 2 words to illustrate and a third word to show in text. This workshop 

later influenced me to think carefully about what I wanted to illustrate and what 

words to make stand out more by using different type. Considering this helped 

me to bring more attention to certain aspects of my narrative and using 

different styles of type, to help make certain words stand out, it also helped 

break up the text in my book.

Publishing is changing and this project made me discover this. Lots of 

illustrators are starting to move their work online in this digital age to meet an 

online demand that previously didn’t exist. This has led to the creation of E-

zines, I-books and tablets. This was mentioned in Bea Willey’s lecture and I 

later researched further. Digital forms of viewing are now more popular than 

physical and this has led to a huge change in reading, format, context and 

media. Books are now incorporating digital aspects and one example of this is 

them taking on augmented reality. This offers the product another interesting 

level and is transforming the publication industry.

One example of this is a book called ‘Idinosaur’ which incorporates learning 

with interactive visuals. It is marketed on WH Smith’s website as bringing 

‘prehistoric creatures back to life’ as well as making learning more exciting for 

kids. This got me thinking about my own practice and if traditional publication 

will still be popular when it comes to my practice. Although I don’t have the 

resources to create an augmented reality book in my practice currently, it is 

something that I am interested in experimenting with to meet the new digital 

demand. As I mentioned previously, with constant progressions in technology, 

the publication industry changes and develops and Idinosaur is an excellent 

example of that.

Above left and right: Idinosaur 2013

 Brian Selznick is another artist adapting to our current digital age. He created 

‘The Marvels’ which incorporated illustration and animation to make something 

interactive which would cater to more audiences. A trailer for the book was 

created, similar to the trailer for the film, that brought his illustrations to life. 

Due to him combining digital and physical art he opened himself up to a wider 

range of people that would be interested in his work. As well as catering to the 

digital demand, his use of composition also inspired me. Within his work text 

and illustrations are rarely on the same page and to me this gives the text and 

imagery their own importance and this is something I wanted to include in my 

own product. I wanted some of the images to speak for themselves, as they 

do in Selzneck’s book and to have importance with the text they are partnered 

in but also on their own.

Above left and right: The Marvels 2015

For this project, I attended a bookbinding workshop and this workshop taught 

me how to create my own book. In this workshop, I learned important skills in 

paper folding and in how to stitch a book together. This workshop was 

extremely helpful as I wanted to create my book by hand. After trying out all 

the different paper folds and stitches I decided I wanted a simple, regular 

paper fold that is common in books and a chain stitch to bind the book 

together. I chose the chain stitch because the tightness of it worked best for 

the thin paper I was using.

In conclusion, I learnt a lot throughout this project regarding self-publishing 

and how digital progress is changing the industry. I was happy with my final 

outcome for this project and what I learned from lectures and other artists 

helped influence and improve my work. What I learned regarding being a 

practitioner in the industry helped inspire and educate me and helped create 

an outcome that I was proud of.

 Bibliography:

Anon., n.d. The Atlantic. [Online] Available at: - https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/09/innovating-the-illustration-brian-selznick-where-the-wild-things-are-the-marvels/405391/ [Accessed 13 February 2017].

Anon., n.d. The Marvels the book. [Online] Available at: http://www.themarvelsthebook.com/about_book.htm [Accessed 13 February 2017].

Kiosk, n.d. K-i-o-s-k. [Online] Available at: - http://k-i-o-s-k.com/ [Accessed 13 February 2017].

Philips, T., n.d. Tom Philips. [Online] Available at: http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/humument [Accessed 13 February 2017].

Smiths, W., n.d. WH Smiths. [Online] Available at: https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/idinosaur-an-augmented-reality-book-not-found/9781780973043 [Accessed 13 February 2017].

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Charlotte Lawrence Hawkins Year 1 BA (Hons) Illustration BA1b ‘Research and Writing’ 1000 word Collaboration report

Collaboration Report

This report will be discussing collaboration and how it can be used to raise 

money or awareness. I want to touch on how collaborations can be used in 

conjunction with charities and the benefits that this opportunity can provide to 

both parties.

I began my research by coming across Hellohead and being inspired to focus 

on artists working together for a mutual cause. The collaborations I decided to 

focus on were so successful due to the large scale they could reach through 

working together. That would be more difficult to achieve by an individual.

Hellohead was an event held in the Cargo in London in 2012. It was a one 

night only event where 60 illustrators came together to raise money for the 

National Autistic society. The event was curated by Lucy Joy and Rosie Shorter 

and included a mix of roughly 60 illustrators and designers drawing portraits of 

eachother to raise money for the charity. During this one event, they raised 

‘over £2000 for the NAS’ (Hellohead, 2012) and raised awareness for the 

cause. I personally have a friend who was diagnosed with Asperger’s several 

years ago and so this collaboration to raise money for this charity touched me 

as I know how much Asperger’s affects her daily life. Therefore, this 

collaboration was special to me as it was a collection of artists using their skills 

to support Autism that affects one in every hundred people in the uk alone, as 

stated by the NHS.

Above, Image 1: Uberkraaft by Rachel Green, 2012           

 Above, Image 2: Rachel Green by Uberkraaft, 2012

Above, Image 3: Lauren Crow by Miss Led, 2012 

Being so common, it is something rarely discussed and so events like 

Hellohead are so important as they inform the public as well as enabling them 

to help raise money for societies such as the National Autistic society to 

improve the lives of those dealing with a form of autism, such as Asperger’s.

The Royal College of Art also hosts a collaborative event yearly to raise 

money. The ‘secret’ postcard event was started in 1994 to raise money to 

provide ‘scholarships and bursaries for students who need financial support’ 

(RCA Secret, 2017). The ‘secret’ postcard event is an exhibition of artwork all 

to postcard scale. The artwork is anonymous and although some of the pieces 

are created by known artists such as Paula Rego, others are created by 

unknown artists, illustrators and designers. The creator is only revealed after 

purchase.  Each postcard retails for £50 and, depending on the artist, could be 

worth a considerable amount more. Since the event started it has raised over 

£1 million to support emerging artists. In 2014 alone ‘2,900 postcards were 

created by over 1,000 artists’ (RCA, 2014). Being an art student myself I was 

interested in this collaborative as for those who wouldn’t be able to support an 

education in art, it gives them a chance. I was also interested in this 

collaboration as it enables the public and established artists to support 

emerging artists. Whether that be through raising money to support them or 

through their postcards, brought by the public, enabling awareness to be 

brought to their artwork and the cause.

In the RCA ‘secret’ postcard collaboration there is no hierarchy. Every artist 

involved is given the same size restrictions and their postcard is sold for the 

same price, this eliminates the glass ceiling that can sometimes be found 

within the art world where if you are not well known it is hard to get your work 

noticed. This event benefits not only the students receiving the funds but also 

the emerging artists gaining exposure of their work.

Above, Image 4: Thayen Rich, 2010

Above, Image 5:  Baroness Carrie Von Reichardt, 2010 

Above, Image 6:  Wayne Chisnall, 2016

Shifting Perspectives is a body of work that aims to change the way Down’s 

Syndrome is viewed. In 2003, some photographers, including Richard Bailey, 

worked together to produce work for Down’s Syndrome awareness week. In 

2005 Bailey was asked to exhibit his photography at the gallery Oxo again for 

Down’s Syndrome awareness week. It was during this exhibit in 2005 that 

shifting perspectives originated. This exhibit was compiled of photographs of 

people affected by Down’s Syndrome either embracing their ‘cultural 

backgrounds, family values, aspirations and environmental influences’ to 

present those with Down’s Syndrome as individuals, despite their similarities in 

appearance. Bailey, along with Alexa Dizon and the DSA used shifting 

perspectives to not only draw awareness to the syndrome, which affects 

60,000 UK citizens as stated by extra21 (2017), but also to appreciate them, 

their beauty and individuality despite the syndrome. In the past, images related 

to Down’s Syndrome were noticed, by those involved in shifting perspectives, 

to have just been ‘medical’ or ‘charity based’ and Bailey, along with others, 

wanted to portray Down’s Syndrome in a different light and portray them as 

more than their syndrome. Bailey himself has a daughter born with Down’s 

Syndrome and so for him this was a personal project to help show her and 

others with the condition that they can be whoever they want to be and that 

they are all beautiful and no longer just surrounded with charity and medical 

associations. For me this collaboration stuck out to me as everyone is entitled 

to individuality and to embrace what makes them different. This exhibit, along 

with others for Down’s Syndrome awareness week, have supported the 

employment campaign to offer those with Down’s Syndrome to have the same 

opportunity’s in the workforce as those without.

Above, Image 7: Shifting Perspectives, Richard Bailey, 2013

Above, Image 8: Shifting Perspectives, Richard Bailey, 2013

Above, Image 9:  Shifting Perspectives, Richard Bailey, 2012

In conclusion collaborations can be effective in helping gain awareness for 

causes, such as Autism and Down’s syndrome, as well as raising money for 

charities and those in need. In such a selfish world, acts of selflessness and 

generosity such as these shows that no matter what you are skilled at, such as 

illustration or photography, you can use it to help those who need it. These 

collaborations offer artists the ability to reach a much larger audience to raise 

awareness or money on topics that they wouldn’t be able to do to such a 

magnitude as an individual.

Bibliography:

Bibliography  

Anon., n.d. Autism  Speaks. [Online]  Available at: https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/asperger-syndrome  [Accessed 20th April 2017].

Anon., n.d. cargocollective. [Online]  Available at: http://cargocollective.com/hellohead/About  [Accessed 14th April 2017].

Anon., n.d. Daily Mail. [Online]  Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2297971/Secret-Postcard-Sale-Fans-queue-days-freezing-weather-buy-postcards-artists-45.html  [Accessed 22nd April 2017].

Anon., n.d. Downs-syndrome.orgg. [Online]  Available at: https://www.downs-syndrome.org.uk/news/shifting-perspectives-2/  [Accessed 28th April 2017].

Anon., n.d. Extra21. [Online]  Available at: http://www.extra21.org.uk/facts-and-figures-faqs/  [Accessed 29th April 2017].

Anon., n.d. hellohead blogspot. [Online]  Available at: http://hellohead.blogspot.co.uk/  [Accessed 15 April 2017].

Anon., n.d. London Secret RCA. [Online]  Available at: http://london.secret.rca.ac.uk/2017/  [Accessed 22nd April 2017].

Anon., n.d. NHS conditions. [Online]  Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autistic-spectrum-disorder/Pages/Introduction.aspx  [Accessed 15th April 2017].

Anon., n.d. RCA news. [Online]  Available at: https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/stewarts-law-rca-secret-2017/  [Accessed 13th April 2017].

Anon., n.d. Shifting Perspectives. [Online]  Available at: http://shiftingperspectives.org/small.html  [Accessed 15th April 2017].

Anon., n.d. Time Out. [Online]  Available at: https://www.timeout.com/london/art/rca-secret-whats-on-offer  [Accessed 14th April 2017].

Anon., n.d. Wikipedia. [Online]  Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Autistic_Society  [Accessed 20th April 2017].

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Items I picked up from some of my classmates stands at the forum.

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Some of the visitors to the forum interacting with our stall.

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The forum kaleidoscope event.

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Our stand. Each puzzle was partnered with a tip to help the audience work out what to do for each part of our display. We tried to keep the theme of our table quite minimalistic and incorporated numbers to keep with the museum language approach we were going for.

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Kaleidoscope event at the forum

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Final certificates

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For the final display i made a felt foot to match the felt hand I had previously created. I then wrote facts and descriptions about them to print out and put in the bowl: -soft, squishy and yellow and you have two of them -this body part is made up of 26 bones each and the bones in these make up 1/4 of the bones in our body -orange and soft to the touch -there are 27 bones in each of this part of our body and there are no muscles in this body part only tendons

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Final poster that was displayed at the forum.

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For the certificates I made two different designs and chose the second and third to make into the certificate designs. I felt the dinosaur one was more fun and children are fascinated with dinosaurs so I thought it might be more suitable for a younger age group. The archeological tools certificate seemed more suitable to an older age group and I wanted to provide both to provide a choice for the audience.

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Before the final display in the forum and after the feedback we received last Friday me and my group re planned our display. We wanted to follow the feedback we were given and improve areas such as: -including a range of difficulties in terms of the puzzles -improve the poster puzzle by making it silhouettes and also by making it easier by placing the objects closer together as the bits of white in between the silhouettes made the puzzle harder to piece together -including facts within the display and we did this through having a puzzle where you connected the facts (which were numbered) with the object and placing the object next to its designated number on a numbered black card -not having the word search or spot the difference anymore -including something to take away, for this we made certificates for people who completed the puzzle -we flipped the tools around on the poster so it looked more like they were digging and made sure all the paper on the different sections of the poster were the same and made the bottom layer white objects on black