For this assignment I will creatively explore the statement ‘you are here’. I will produce a short self-published fanzine. This assignment brief was really open so I firstly needed to think about what I was going to do. I started off with idea generation as I didn’t know where to start, I needed to pick a direction.

Idea Generation – ‘You are here’ for Fanzine:

Chosen Idea:

This idea came to me as ‘You Are Here’ is something my therapist said to me when I experienced disassociation with my mental health. So I decided to focus on the grounding technique that I use. Here is an example of it below from the internet.

https://www.lpft.nhs.uk/young-people/lincolnshire/about-us/whats-new/grounding-activity

Text for each Illustration:

• Front Cover – You Are Here – Written and Illustrated by Tabitha White
• Page 1 – Relax your body, take a few deep breaths and focus on the following…
• Page 2 – What 5 things can you see?
• Page 3 – What 4 things can you feel?
• Page 4 – What 3 things can you hear?
• Page 5 – What 2 things can you smell?
• Page 6 – What 1 thing can you taste?
• Back Cover – This process is called grounding, it will help you to stay in the present moment without letting your intrusive thoughts control you, you will get through this, you are here.

Thumbnail Designs:

Creating Thumbnail Designs:

Coloured Illustrations without text:

Creating Coloured Illustrations without text:

Coloured Illustrations with text:

Final Design: Digital Print:

Evaluation:

I am really happy with this digital fanzine, it turned out how I wanted it to. I think the story that it’s telling is strong and personal. I feel as though it would be used as a tool to help people with disabilities (mental or physical) to feel better about themselves, sort of like a self-help fanzine to make people see how far they have come and how they are starting to gain control again in their lives. I am happy with the composition and colour palette as I feel this also helps with the emotion I am trying to show in each panel, I tried to keep a continuous flow of the same palette.

Reflection:

I need to look at the assessment criteria in the Introduction and make sure that my work meets the standards set.

Assessment Criteria:

Demonstration of technical and visual skills – materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills.

I feel as though my technical and visual skills are improving, I am finding my art style and really enjoying working digitally, I think this will be my main medium. I feel as though I still need to improve and come out of my comfort zone when it comes to working with other materials and mediums but there have been improvements in this part as shown in ‘Illustration as Object’. I think my observational, design and compositional skills are very strong.

Quality of outcome – content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas

I find that because my outcomes are more digital than they were previously yhr quality of the outcomes are clearer as I don’t need to focus on lighting when taking photographs of my outcomes. My conceptualisation of thoughts and communication of ideas is getting better but I feel it still needs some work. I show my design process now but sometimes forget to take photos of my progress and by the time I remember it’s too late, that’s another reason why I enjoy creating my illustrations digitally using Procreate because I can create a playback video showing my design process. I feel as though my content is of a good standard but I can always push more.

Demonstration of creativity – imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice

I think this section is my strongest in the criteria. I enjoy letting my mind go wherever it wants now, I create whatever comes into my head as long as it stays within the brief. I tend to swerve towards creating things that mirror my mental state and a lot of my graphic stories are based on real events in my life, I feel that doing this gives my ideas character. I will continue to build on my personal voice.

Context reflection – research, critical thinking (learning logs and, for second and third level courses, critical reviews and essays)

I think this section is my weakest in the criteria although I think I am improving. I am finding my research tasks more interesting and I am starting to gain an understanding of why it’s needed. I now need to focus on developing this section the most as I feel as though the amount of research is only going to get bigger! Writing isn’t my strong point but I feel as though I get my point across better then before.

I will ask my tutor at my next feedback meeting whether they think I will be ready for assessment at the end of the course and what I need to improve on. I have submitted a draft outline of the critical review.