Summary of Research
Research can be spilt into a few different areas. There Is primary and secondary research, they can both be either quantative and qualitative. Primary research refers to research that has been gathered by yourself and is ‘raw data’. This raw data can be obtatined by collecting data first hand by various methods. This can be as simple as taking photographs, taking sketches, but can also be more involved with collecting information via interviews, surveys and questionnaires, as well as doing some sampling, testing and experiments with regards to what you are researching. Visits to galleries, museums and studios are also a means of primary research as you are going out there and collecting information first hand by visiting these places, learning what you can and talking to people about what you need to. Secondary research is exactly that. Secondary research is gathering information that has already been gathered by someone else, researching using what others have already put together. Some very common forms of secondary research are using books, websites, archives, existing research records of any kind would be considered secondary. Also using social media, viewing TV and film. These methods depend on content that has already been gathered as primary research by a third party.
There are some real advantages to using secondary research. Its usually easy to do and not costly, it can also give you an idea towards gaining some of your own primary research by gaining ideas from what others may have done to gain theirs. There is also disadvantages as with anything, you cannot control the quality of research when it is secondary as it has already been done and with that you have less control over it, with primary research you have complete control over what you are collecting with would make it more reliable than secondary. Secondary research can also be biased, which may be a problem as it would be less accurate due to the bias of the research.
A lot of my research has been secondary as I tend to be inspired by looking at work by others, looking at stories and ideas that make me think and reflect, as opposed to doing primary research methods like surveys. During this project I have been trying to look into a lot of work that has been produced using mixed media and digital illustration, this interest has come from seeing a lot of work within the book ‘Biografikation’ published by nobrow press.
As an illustrator I am a very visual person, and I find that visual inspiration gained through secondary research really helps me with deciding which way to take my work in. Although when looking at all these different pieces of work can sometimes overwhelm me with ideas and I struggle to narrow it down to a specific theme.
Initially I did a lot of research into content of work as apposed to the style of illustration. I found this helped me decide what to focus on with the content. I looked into some caricatures by Gerald Scarfe and Chris Riddell, which were very politically motivated and although I liked the content and themes, I really disliked the traditional caricature style of work they shared, despite being different artists.
Looking at political satire illustrations definitely informed my research in content, but I really didn’t take anything visually from my research.
After thinking about going down the route or political cartoons I decided I didn’t want to focus too much on the type of cartoons you see in the news paper about convententional politics, and focus more on social issues that affect me and things that get me to have a strong opinion. I feel if something has made me angry or irritated in my day to day life, or something I hear in the media has the same affect, then that can usually turn into an interesting focus point for an illustration.
I did do some primary research in the form of sketches and test drawings. I illustrated some ideas I had using digital methods, and it really helped me focus on what I want to achieve from this project. The idea behind these pieces mainly dealt with day to day mundane situations, but I found them interesting to illustrate.
I feel I could have documentaed more research as I am constantly finding new things but forget to document or make note of those findings. I perhaps come have benefitted from doing more primary research in the form of questionnaires and surveys to find how other people felt about things, and whether they had similar opinions to mine on various issues.
I think that from here I should probably focus more on finding illustration styles to inform my own and inspire me to take my digital illustration experimentation further. I found myself really drawn to a lot of the work in ‘biografiktion’ which is published by nobrow press, there is a lot of work associated with nobrow that I really find interesting style wise, and think it would be helpful to me to further research books they have published.
Bibliography
Biografiktion, Ana Albero/Till Hafenbrak/Paul Paetzel, 2013, nobrow press
Crap Hound 6, Sean Tejaratchi
Crap Hound 8, Sean Tejaratchi
Drawings from the gulag, Danzig Baldaev, FUEL, 2010
Fanzines - the diy revolution, teal triggs, 2010, chronicle books, san Francisco
The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R.Crumb, Robert Crumb, 2009, Jonathan Cape, London