MissLightningBolt

I'm a student at Plymouth College of Art. I love to draw, create, gaming, reading and share my work with other people who share the same interests as me.

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Evaluation

The journey this year for me has been very challenging and I have often doubted my ability to complete it.  However, this project has been both the most enjoyable and yet most frustrating project I have had to complete in my life.  Not only that but I have done much soul searching along the way and I have learnt many new things about my condition and myself.

The Good Points:-

What I really enjoyed about the project was the fact that I could get very creative with it and I could theme it around something that was close to home, something that meant more to me than anyone else.

Coming up with the actual brief design was very difficult as I could chose to work on whatever theme I wished.  This in itself was very hard as there was so many that I could chose from.  I wanted something that would be personal to me, something that I would be able to show others who I am and how I am made up, something that in the real world, due to my Aspergers, I find very difficult to do. I wanted a theme that would allow my creative side to flow and that I could develop in a number of directions.

It was a learning experience that I really enjoyed because I feel not only that I have learnt so much about myself, but how others see me and I have developed my skills as an illustrator even further than even I thought possible. This project has also helped me to learn to manage my team keeping skills also.

The Bad Points:- 

The project was no walk in the park, there were times when I had no idea how to start this project or where to take it to next.  It involved a lot of thought processes and investigation into how I wanted it to develop.  This was very frustrating for me.

The artist research was the most difficult part of the project because there were not many artists that inspired me or whose work demonstrated the style that I was looking for. So this lead me to think in another direction and rather than looking at artists only I looked at Campaigns for my chosen theme i.e. Aspergers and collected some of my ideas from the slogans and topics that the Campaigns used to promote their aims and goals.

My final piece was one of the main things that I actually had trouble with so much so that I began to hate it.  The end result wasn't how I had imagined it to be and it was far from what I had pictured in my mind.  However, even though it was not what I had envisaged I was still very proud of the end result and what I had achieved in just three weeks. 

This project was both enjoyable and a nightmare at the same time but it has been one of the most satisfying projects and final pieces that I have completed. Yes, I do wish I could add a few more things to the final piece and re-work some things but overall I am very proud of this project and myself, everything that I have learnt over this last year I will be taking forward with me into the next and I sincerely hope that this will make me both a better artist and person.

I hope that you will have learnt things through this project and that you will have an insight into what makes me me!!

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GIGA Tutorial sheet

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Final Piece - an escape

For my final piece I wanted to create a different way of showing how Aspergers Syndrome can effect an individual i.e. me.

My animation is a representation of myself and how I cope with the daily challenges of having Aspergers. I wanted the target audience to see the effects but to also show people with Autism that they are not different than anyone else and that they can do anything they put their minds to.

My chosen target audience were people who didn't truly understand what Aspergers Syndrome was and what it meant for people who have the condition.

I wanted to show people that people with Aspergers/Autism are not different to anyone else, we are simply wired differently and sometimes struggle to understand the world as they do.

I believe that I have portrayed this very well in my animation and I hope that my message was conveyed to the target audience.

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Creating/Constructing Final Piece

Before i even begun drawing up the animation i created a draft up of the storyboard to get an idea and a feel of where my character would going and what was going to happen during the process of the animation. 

(Storyboard)

After drawing up the storyboard for my animation i started drawing up each individual slide one at a time drawing each individual movement of my character and what they are doing and all the tiniest of movements created with each action of movement.

(a small example of each movement)

After creating each in individual movement i exported the images into PNG’s so that i could generate each image into a sequence into flash to join the images together to create a short animation with the individual images at my disposal.

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Final piece idea

For my final piece i want to do an animation because throughout my projects final pieces i felt that my strongest final piece was in fact my animation and it’s also something i wouldn’t normally do for a final piece so in doing this i’m challenging my ability not just as a artist but also as an animator and it would also show me if i have improved from my first animation.

(an example from project okido - okido animation)

I’m hoping to make this animation much longer then my previous animation because this time around I have given myself enough time I believe to complete my final piece which is going to be from my perspective but in third person where I can see myself and how I look through my eyes and how I feel as well.

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Autism Campaign Research

Charity Name: Autism Campaign (AC)

Website: http//www.autism-campaign.co.uk

About Them: Founded by Kevin Healey in his 12 years campaigning for autism rights. Mr. Healey has campaigned for better services and support for people on the Autism Spectrum Condition.

Font Style: I Believe he has used Ariel Bold.

Colour Pallet: The colour pallet this time is an arranged of much deeper shaded colours. Different shades of grey from dark to a medium tone, ocean blue, orange and black along with a white background with a display of images showing his campaigns and the work he does.

Thoughts: Throughout my research into Mr. Healey's website I have noticed that like the other two campaigns I've seen he uses a minimal colour ranged pallet throughout his website as I believe as not to distract the target audience from what they want them to see. 

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Autism Campaign Research

Charity's Name: Ambitious about Autism (AaA)

Website: http://www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk

About them: 'Ambitious about Autism is the National Charity for children and young people with autism. They provide services, raise awareness and understanding and Campaign for change through Treehouse School and Ambitious College they offer specialist education and support.' (from Website Source)

Font Style: From my research it appears that they use Arial font.

Colour Pallet: Their colour pallet is very limited only using three colours, light blue, light green and yellow. The colour pallet is very translucent and once again all of this is presented on a white background with a few pictures of what they can do.

Thoughts: While I was looking through AaA's website I noticed that they do not use a lot of colours on there site because I believe that they don't want there target audience to be distracted by big bright colours so they use a very minimal pallet of colours.

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Autism Campaign Research

Website: http//www.autism.org.uk

Charities Name: The National Autistic Society (NAS)

About them:

They are the leading UK charity for people with all forms of autism and their families. They provide information, support, pioneering services and Campaigns to make the lives of people with autism better and provide help for their families.

Font style: They used to use the Rabiohead font, however, they have recently changed it into Baskerville.

Colour Pallet: Dark pink, dark purple with a white background with photos of their work.

Thoughts: Through my research into NAS I have noticed that they do a lot of group work all over the UK mainly through events where dressing up in a colour or a character or even a onesie was the topic of the day. Taking into account their achievements and their goals I will utilise some of their ideas in my project.

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Post Deadline Workshop - Badge and Notebook making Unit 8

As part of this Workshop I was privileged to work with one of the heads in the illustration department Mel Brown.

Notebook

Mel gave each of us ten sheets of A5 paper and a selection of cards which had been made by a previous group of her students.  The cards were also A5 size.

After lining up all of the A5 sheets in the card with the images being on the outside we then put this into a double sided stapler that is called a Stapler Binder.

This allowed me to successfully bind the sheets together with the card to form a booklet. The booklet was approximately A6 size as a result of my folding the ten sheets in half.

After creating the note book Mel gave me more sheets of paper, they had circles, squares and triangles upon them.  She then asked myself and the rest of the group to create eleven things using the shapes, keeping the size about the same as that of a 2p coin.

This caused me a slight problem in that I had already created my own designs before Mel gave us the sheet with the shapes upon them. Mel agreed for me to continue using my designs and after the final design was created I cut out three 2p coin shaped circles and put them into the badge making machine.

First I placed the image in with a thin piece of plastic over the top then I pulled the lever to press the plastic on top to protect the picture.  This process was repeated on the other side of the badge this time with my inserting the back of the badge into the machine and once again pulling the lever to create the final badge.

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Compare and contrast

Stephen Wiltshire and David Downes.

Similarities:-

Both artists suffer from a form of Autism.

Both draw cityscapes in great detail

Both went to Art College

Both use the same mediums in which to create their work

Differences:-

Even though the artist are very similar in their area of work, the way they create their individual pieces is very different e.g. the way they draw their Cityscapes

Stephen Wiltshire creates his work from memory only taking on average about 18 minutes to memorise the City from a birds eye view and then he starts to create his drawings from memory only whilst listening to music.

David Downes creates Cityscapes also but he does not draw the whole City he simply draws small segments of the City. However, unlike Wiltshire Downes can draw a Cityscape but from a different angle without previously seeing it from that angle.

Colour wise Downes fills some of his work with colour but it is not a bright colour, he uses a very dull pallet of colours mostly dull browns or reds.

Wiltshire very rarely uses colour in his work at all, almost all of his art is black and white.  When he does utilise some colour in his art it is mostly different shades of red, he uses a very minimal pallet to create his work.

Throughout my research into these two artists I have noticed that there are many similarities in their art, however, there are also a number of differences that make their art unique. The two artists appealed to me because of this, on the surface they are seen as similar yet underneath they have very different methods of creating their work and showing this to the public. Both of the artists have embraced their uniqueness and have fully utilised this when developing their ideas.

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Interview with AS workers

After having the group discussion about are projects and what we could do i got into contact with a AS group who deal with children from 11 - 18 years of age at a local school and asked if i could interview a couple of there staff members to have a better understanding of someone who hasn’t got autism but has to work with someone who dose has it.

I decided to ask up to 10 questions not wanting to take up a lot of there time due to the fact that they must be very busy.

The Interview Questions:

1. How many years have you been working with AS students?

2. Did you have to obtain any specific qualifications to do this job?

3. Why did you choose this career?

4. What are the methods you use to help the AS students?

5. What is the most difficult case you have ever had?

6. What is the best outcome you have had?

7. What is the most efficient method of teaching?

8. Is it easy to understand the needs of an AS student?

9. Do their parents get involved, like asking questions or try to see what they can do?

10. How many students with as do you care for?

The rationale behind these interviews was so that I could conduct research to develop a deeper understanding of how those who come into contact with all different forms of autism on a regular basis manage it and whether they have developed any kind of coping mechanisms that help.

I interviewed three AS workers who have different experiences of working with AS students.  Their experience ranges over differing periods of time. 

First Interview - Mo Lovell

1. I have been working with AS students for about 18 years now.

2. I did training with an interactive team and took a course at the university of ASC crective training.

3. Because i like working with AS students and because its very interesting with every minute of everyday being as different as the next.

4. Everyone is Different - youtube, calm room, talking to a teacher, playing games, drawing, just sitting a side helps calm them down.

5. Sometimes they’ve had to have on because we are not the right people to help them and so they move on to someone who can.

6. Students who’ve come in and have had it rough but they’ve gone on to university and done better in socializing then in there grades coming out with C’s.

7. Just let them go if they kick off but to make sue they’re in a space of there own give them space because when there angry there not gonna talk or process what your gonna say.

8. No - You’ve got to be a detective got to read the students body language to figure out what is wrong with them because they would not tell you straight away so you must find out for yourself.

9.Yes - Some parents are involved they ask questions and do the training, een texting on a daily basis to ask questions and to try and understand there child even more.

10. We currently have 80 students with us now however we do get 18 new AS students come through the doors with every new year.

Second interview - Maria Barret

1. 5 Years

2.Yes - Special Education needs University Plymouth

3.Because I find it really awarding to help break down barriers and working with other people.

4.Talking about there needs, structure, understanding of there needs.

5.I find it different when I can’t help a student and it makes me feel like I've failed them as a teacher.

6.There are some students that have start off rough but something I feel that I've done or something has changed for the better and they go off and do great things.

7.Structure - making sure things are fine , behaviour, how to approach different things or situations. A structure is very good to them cause its gives them a routine that they are familiar with or get familiar with.

8.Yeah - I think its easy to understand but it is complicated because every student is different from each other.

9.Yes - When meeting with parents they ask about behaviour understanding of their child or how to understand their child needs even more.

10.80 AS students come in through those doors and the numbers keep getting even more bigger with each passing school year. 

Third interview - Laura Ralphs

1. I have been working with AS students for 2 years.

2. I didn't need qualifications but I chose to undertake a 6 month training course at City College Plymouth.

3. To work with AS students wasn't my first choice, however, I really enjoy working with AS students.

4. Let them have their time to chill, calm down and then you can talk through what has been bothering them and try to find a way forward.

5. I had a student who was being particularly un-responsive, nothing I did seem to help them.  At times I felt a failure and that I couldn't do my job.

6. Getting a student back from a meltdown. I felt positive and good, it was great that I could help the student and together we found a way forward.

7. Knowing the students, knowing what their triggers are and finding strategies to enable them to get past their triggers or to help them successfully move through them so that they remain calm.

8. Yes/No, in the beginning it was hard to read the students but after getting to know them it was easier to understand them and to read their body language and how to help them quicker.

9. Yes - all the parents are fully involved, they ask questions, they take on board the coping mechanisms that we have developed and they ask for regular updates on their child's development.

10. I currently look after 12 students but usually I try to look after them, have responsibility for one child at a time, this way I can give them the attention and care that they need, however, this is not always possible.

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Rhetorical Tropes

For this piece of work, as a child and even sometimes in my adult life I’ve never had a very good understanding of rhetorical tropes and what i mean by this is that I’ve always taken rhetorical tropes literally and always thought that if someone told me like if I had a frog in my throat i would believe that there is a frog in my throat.

So I thought I would do a few sketches of rhetorical tropes showing what i thought it meant, what it really means and my little twist on the trope.

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Music Final Piece Idea Expanded

I expanded on the Music idea because i really like the concept of the idea because it’s really something that i’m comfortable with and find i really like doing.

However i wish to challenge myself and not do something so simple that it makes me look like i didn’t even try to do my work and that i was lazy in doing something more to push my level of skills.

Back to the drawing bored to challenge my skills as a artist to show what i have learn over the past year at being at college.

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Final Piece Ideas

For my idea development for a final piece I started to sketch out four main ideas that just popped into my head while i was researching for my artists.

Now these are just raw ideas and are not drawn in the style of the artists I’ve been looking at they are drawn in my style.

1. Solitude - Solitude is based off the feelings that i sometimes feel when people point out my quirks or that fact that most days i feel like I’m all alone in the world because of my aspergers and i wonder if this is what most people feel like with autism or if everyone feels like this.

This piece is to show that i’m just like everyone else and that i can feel what they feel because i’am a human being to i just see things differently to you.

2.Music - I created this piece as an escape because when things get too much and i feel that the darkness is closing in I escape into my music and sometimes with this i escape into my own little world that is filed with everything that i enjoy and understand.

This sketch is also an idea to represent my depression and anixety as well because eventhough aspergers is my main focus point depression and anixety are also a part of me and my aspergers.

3.White Noise - White Noise is a piece designed off a autistic kids (and mines) emotions on a crowded place and how all the noises come in to loud and too much information all at once and how all i want to do is go home to my quite home where i don’t have to hear all the noises of the outside world.

I feel like this represents how a lot of people, including me, feel about crowded places in general and i believe a lot of people don’t realise this about people autism that it is hard for us to go out into crowds.

4.A walk into imagination - A bit similar to the Music piece i use music as a means to escape reality and the outside world and this is one of the ways that i use to forget that i’m in a crowded place because when i listen to my music i escape into my own little world that helps e to cope with a lot that goes on in my life and thats why i named this piece ‘A walk into imagination’ becuase when i’ve got music in my ears my imagination runs wide.

These are just ideas so far of what i can use as a final piece to represent me well as a person and into my personal project.

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Gaming Workshop

After reading the tasks given to me i started to practice on the human anatomy for both male and female.

Male Sketches Tests - For the male testing i started off with the torso area of the male anatomy before moving on to the hands, head then legs for last how i did this i studied the male body stances and drew the most average/generic body structure.

Female Body Sketches Tests - As the same with the male body i started with the torso first then the hands, head and legs last again following the same tactics i did for the male body i studied the female body.

Comparing - While drawing the different the bodies i found that woman bodies are mush more rounded and more delicate compared to the male body which was more made up of squares and rectangles much more sharp and straight edges compared to the females.

Full body test one - Female with background -I chose to draw the female body because i found it more challenging then the males body because the female body had more curves and wasn’t just made up of straight lines.

I drew her at a side view because at the time i was heavily influenced by manga books and the way they drew touching scenes within there books and thats what gave me the idea to draw her like this and in the style of anime/manga.

Test two full on face - Female - with weapon in for ground - Coloured -

I wanted to experiment with different angels and mediums with this one i used pens coloured pencils and an A4 sketch book i designed this character off of an oc i created years ago called scarlet due to her flamed orange/red hair and the idea for her to hold a gun came from the fact that during the time i was drawing her my dad was watching a James bond film and he was standing the way my oc was standing.

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Creative CV Workshop

A creative cv is a cv but with a twist.

For example putting your ordinary cv on to a normal can of soup. 

Your cv in a can.

The image below is a generation of images that i put together that i could put into a cv or even use as a cv because all these images represent me and my work and also things that i like.

Thumbnails - the thumbnails below are what i would like my cv to look like to either to look like a poster which is the least favourite idea however the main idea i like is the book cover and blur because i really like books and wish to either become an author or to illustrate books for children or graphics novels.

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Artist Research

Stephen Wiltshire - (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223790/Autistic-artist-draws-18ft-picture-New-York-skyline-memory.html) 

Born 24th April 1974

Is a British architectural artist. He was diagnosed at the age of 3 with being autistic in the same year his father died in an motorbike accident.

Wiltshire was mute when he was younger however when attending Queensmill school at the age of 5, Wiltshire’s instructors would take away his art supplies so that he would be forced to ask for them back, however it didn’t go to plan as he would only grunt or make strange noises until he said his first word - “paper.” By the age of 9 he could fully speak full sentences.

In June 2015, BBC’s reporter Lucy Ash reported ‘Soon people outside the school started noticing Stephen’s gift and age 8 he landed his first commission - a sketch of Salisbury minister Edward Heath.’

However the only reason that i even discovered this artist was because of his latest work of when he took a 20 minute helicopter over New York city and drew a 18ft piece of the whole of New York all from memory. 

During my research of Stephen Wiltshire i was very shocked and impressed by his talent to draw the whole of New York City just from looking at it for 20 minutes and then drawing it from memory and that he also has a form of autism as well which one i could not find out.