Bibliography

References

Ball, W. (2014). Home - Victoria Ball Illustration. [online] Victoria-ball.co.uk. Available at: http://www.victoria-ball.co.uk/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2014].

Easyhealth.org.uk, (2014). easyhealth.org.uk. [online] Available at: http://www.easyhealth.org.uk/listing/mental-health-(leaflets) [Accessed 7 Feb. 2014].

Gemmacorrell.com, (2014). Gemma Correll - Illustration. [online] Available at: http://www.gemmacorrell.com/ [Accessed 14 Jan. 2014].

Healthysocialcreative.org.uk, (2014). Download | Healthy, social, creative. [online] Available at: http://www.healthysocialcreative.org.uk/index.php/download/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2014].

It, W. (2014). Victoria Ball: contemporary lifestyle and children's illustrator. [online] We Heart It. Available at: http://weheartit.com/entry/group/8884436 [Accessed 3 Feb. 2014].

Mhws.org.uk, (2014). Mental Health & Wellbeing in Ealing. [online] Available at: http://www.mhws.org.uk/gujarati [Accessed 12 Feb. 2014].

Stephencollinsillustration.com, (2014). Colillo. [online] Available at: http://www.stephencollinsillustration.com/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2014].

Trust, 2. (2014). 2gether NHS Foundation Trust: Home. [online] 2gether.nhs.uk. Available at: http://www.2gether.nhs.uk/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2014].

Evaluation

I feel that I have successfully completed my aims but haven’t necessarily achieved the best possible outcomes. I think I am still involved in the process and would like to continue this further.  The route I took was the right one and led me to the right conclusions.  My aims started off simple and I wanted to tackle the stigma of mental health using quirky, in your face, characters. I found this hard to do as I didn't want to offend or confuse my target audience. I also wasn't sure where I was going with it or how it would solve any of my objectives. I realised I wanted my work to have a good purpose and to help people and I started to look into mental health charities and organisations. I got a lot of tips and advice and illustrated one of their advice sheets. I changed the style I was originally working in to illustrate the different tips. This meant my objectives changed. My initial illustrations conveyed different mental health issues and the different characters had quirky facial expressions. Whereas the illustrations for the tips and advice sheet were characters acting out the advice. My objective became to create gentle illustrations that helped young people to relax when first approaching the topic of mental health. My target audience also changed from 13 - 20 to 11- 13. I did actually begin to prefer the idea of a younger target audience and it gave my project much more direction. I felt I had achieved what I had wanted in terms of reaching out to young people and promoting sources of help. Although I would also like to continue to use my original style, at times, in order to keep a personal touch to my work and the brighter, quirkier style is more suited to posters and badges as is much more eye catching. Using illustration and quirky ideas I want to continue reaching out to young people regarding mental health issues.  I’d like for the tips and hints to become common knowledge among young people and for there to be mental health workshops in schools. If children are made more aware of how to take care of their physical and mental wellbeing (and the importance of doing so) from a young age, then they will be better prepared to tackle difficult or disturbing situations and will be more aware of how to look after themselves physically and mentally. I’d like my illustrations to be a useful tool in promoting this information and advice.  Overall I think I am on the right track but my time keeping could have been better as I ran out of time to create some really professional outcomes.  I feel my objectives were met but on a small scale and I hadn’t had the chance to test them.  It was easy to research children’s books and what appeals to children but difficult in terms of my chosen area. This is because, so far, photographs are usually used for leaflets and posters regarding mental health - it is not something that is often illustrated. So it’s hard to research exactly what the appropriate style to use is. There has been a lot of trial and error, and there will continue to be. I feel this was a worthwhile project,  I enjoyed it and will continue to work on it.

Finished Pieces

My finished pieces are a selection of all completed work that work together in different style to promote sources of help and illustrate tips and advice. My final work is a selection of images that are available to be printed onto merchandise, used for leaflets and posters.





 

 

2gether

I managed to arrange a meeting with the communications manager at 2gether and it went really well.  It was useful to talk about my work and my project now has more direction.  They suggested some software that I could use called doodle which would turn my work into a presentation video. I 'm not sure if I will have time to experiment with it before the deadline but it is definitely something I will consider.  They gave me a lot of leaflets and hand outs. Photographs are typically used for leaflets and I quite like that I have come up with the idea to illustrate them in a way that hopefully will appeal more to children and help them to take in the advice.

 

Guide to good mental Health

They gave me a hand out that has tips and advice and is a guide to good mental health. They suggested I illustrate the different tips. I felt this was a good idea as I want to illustrate tips and advice but needed to know what advice is given out by mental health organisations.

 



Hand out from meeting



Hand out from meeting - This is one of their handouts that they give to the children they see.  Different things appeal to different children and I thought it would be interesting to try a couple of different styles. I initially wanted to use animal characters because I thought they might be more interesting and less intense for such a heavy subject, therefore helping children relax.  But I decidied I also wanted to experiment with children characts too and in a looser more 'childrens book' style. 

Below are the animal illustrations I created for the 5 tips above. I tried to incorporate the different colours. I initially practised drawing the different animals, sketched out the ideas, then created a simpler version of those ideas and then used Photoshop to add colour and effects. I used bold colours for these illustrations to make them eye catching and to make them work better as posters.

Monkey - I chose a monky for this particular tip because they are considered cheeky and playful which makes you think of being happy and appreciating things.

I'm not sure why I chose a mouse for this particular illustration. I quite like the character, though. 

I tried to think of a mixture of animals. It was difficult for me to draw them in poses that weren't natural poses for the particular animal.



I used a cat and a mouse for this to try and highlight being kind to others despite any differences



Hippo

Some of the above illustration work better than others. I think I need more practice drawing animals in different poses. I quite like the ideas.

 

 

 Below are the illustrations I created using children characters. I quite enjoyed working in this style. I used pen and water colour and then finished using photoshop. I really like keeping a hand drawn quality to them. The have a childrens book feel to them but are in a much more traditional style.  I'm not sure if they will appeal to children today. I think they are quite sweet for leaflets, nice and simple with a plain background so they can look quite natural on a leaflet and don't take away any focus from the information and advice.

 

I kept the style quite loose and like the effect.

I didn't change too much on Photoshop just made them look neater, in order to keep a hand painted charm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think both styles work in their own way.  I think I prefer working in the second style and having children characters.  I'm not sure if it is the best style for communicating my objectives though.  I don't think they would work as stand alone pieces or as posters as they look nicer together and aren't eye catching. 

 

 

 

I put the illustrations into context by creating a leaflet with them. I think they do work quite well for a leaflet.  Not eye catching but quite sweet and calming. Maybe too boring or serious to appeal to children, though. But it was difficult to come up with something extreme or edgy given the subject matter.

 



I think the colours and layout are quite nice.  The illustrations make the leaflets look like a nice thing to keep instead of looking at it once and throwing it away. Maybe this is a good quality as you are then more likely to keep it and remind yourself of the advice more otfen?

 

Experiments with creating characters and artist research

     Below are some rough ideas I have been experimenting with regarding character design. All of which have been created using watercolour and ink. The aim of these characters is for each of them to represent a certain aspect of mental health. Some work better than others. I'm not sure exactly what text I would use for each mental health issue and what will and wont work yet. I can use these as a starting point and see what people think of them and whether they convey the right message. I don't want any of the characters to appear to mock mental health. Hopefully I can create characters that simply convey a mental health condition, adequately, as a promotional tool for a mental health charity. I will also work on text, font and composition.

I quite like the style of these and they are eye catching. But I'm not sure how they really communicate my objectives. They are quirky but don't convey any advice or information. The idea was, if someone didn't know what they were suffering from, the cartoon may look familiar and help them. But I wouldn't want them come across as presumptuous.



Agoraphobic Tortoise

Alcoholic Fish



Anorexic Cow



Anxious Rabbit

Attention Deficit Cat



Depressed Chameleon

Hoarder Squirrel

Personality disorder Uran Utang



Bushbaby Insomniac

Narcisisstic budgie



OCD Dog

I used photoshop to enhance one of the above illustrations.  I'm not sure I like it as much.  It is more striking but I feel something is lost.

Artist Research

 

 

Victoria Ball

Examples of her work: http://www.victoria-ball.co.uk/2.html

 

Victoria Ball is an illustrator who's work I discovered a long time ago online. I think a lot of my illustrations of animals have been influenced by her illustration work for children. With their slightly human mannerisms yet still true to their animal form and drawn with a clean, simple line.

The piece below is similar to some of my animal illustrations. I like how she colours her work and try to get as neat an effect with my own work. Her children’s illustrations are quite traditional and sweet.  A lot of illustrators try to push the boundaries now and a lot had changed. But I quite like traditional illustration. It is nice to look at and quite calming. 

 

 

 





Victoria Ball



Rough draft of one of my pieces



Victoria Ball has worked for a broad range of clients. She enjoys illustrating for children’s books, magazines, merchandising, advertising and packaging.

Client List

•Scholastic

•Usborne

•Little Tiger Press

•Gullane

•Woman & Home

•The Children's Company for CITV

•The Sunday Times

•Hallmark, UKG, Paper House

•Museum of London



 

Victoria Ball - Childrens Illustration



Victoria Ball - The Owl and the Pussycat



Victoria’s aims are to produce pretty illustrations that can enhance a brand, be decorative or illustrate children’s books. Her illustrations are designed to be pretty. Her aims are similar to my aims for my leaflet illustrations in the sense that I’m using a delicate and gentle style to be decorative and enhance advice in a decorative but subtle way. Victoria's childrens illustration is aimed for a slightly younger age than my target audience. I like the way her work looks finished and she has a good use of background space.



Stephen Collins

 http://www.stephencollinsillustration.com/

Stephen Collins is an illustrator who has done some work for the mental health charity ‘Time to Change’.  Stephens’s style choice for his mental health illustrations is quite a simple style with bold outlines. You can tell straight away that his target audience are adults, probably around 25 – 50+. This is because of the age of his characters and the situations they are in – often office situations, showing examples of people talking at work. The cartoon style would also appeal to children but it is a very simplistic and clean-cut style, so children may lose interest quickly.   I like the message in his work (not to be afraid to talk about mental health) and not to cut out those who may be suffering.  His work isn’t in your face and is suitable for leaflets, hand-outs etc.

Stephen Collins

 

 

 

Stephen Collins

 

 

Stephen Collins

I like his use of colour and how the illustrations are split into two parts. The top panels are brighter or dark more intense colours and the bottom panels are calming pastel colours. This highlights the message he is trying to get across.

Stephens’s aims for his mental health illustrations are similar to my aims because the illustrations act as decorative ways to inform people about mental health.  Although his target audience is those who may know someone suffering with a mental health issue and illustrating what it is they can do to help. My target audience is young children who may need help and advice themselves. My aims are the same as Stephens but for a different target audience so will have to be done in a different way. I want to encourage children to talk about how they feel and for them to feel motivated to try the advice that is available if they need to.

Current  leaflets and handouts

 
The information and advice that is already out there mostly uses photographs as part of leaflets or handouts.  They are also quite difficult to come across unless you know about them and where to find them.  By using illustrations I hope to make the advice more available to children and more commonly around in everyday life. In order to do so I am using my work on things such as badges. I ran out of time to create badges but am continueing with this project and will be using badges and aim to get more posters promoting sources of help put up in schools. I got caught up in the illustrations themselves and wanted to make sure they suited my aims and communication objectives and only got so far with putting them into context. Below are examples of what some leaflets that are available are like. They look professional and neat but quite formal. I think hand drawn illustrations would be a nice touch and less formal, helping my target audience to relax and hopefully be a bit more taken in by the leaflets. As an experiment to see what was easily available when searching for help - I searched for leaflets and information online and below are some of the first results.

http://www.2gether.nhs.uk/carers

 

 



http://www.easyhealth.org.uk/listing/mental-health-(leaflets)

http://www.mhws.org.uk/gujarati



http://www.healthysocialcreative.org.uk/index.php/download/

 

 

 

Development work

This is some of my development work showing the process I went through to create my work.  I experimented with different styles and different effects on Photoshop. 

  



These are examples of the simplified versions of my sketches which I scanned in to be Photoshopped. Using a light box I drew round the sketches leavis only the outline.  I kept the outlines and coloured underneath. Having the outline drawn in pen left a really nice effect.





 





This is an experiment I did using an effect on Photoshop and using the original drawing.  I quite like it but it is a bit dull for a poster or leaflet.

This is what the original drawings look like in water colour. I spimplified them before scanning them in and photoshopping them.

I quite like this experiment with Photoshop on one of my quite detailed drawings.  I feel it is too detailed for leflets and would be difficult to comunicate what I want to.

This is a slightly different style again. It is detailed but with obvious cartoon effects. I like it but found it hard to use this style for most animals as would have to work out which features to exaggerate.

 

Using Photoshop I tried as completely different style again. I think this would be nice for badges but a bit too bland and boring for children if everything was in this style.

 

Below are some more practice sketches of animals and some more Photoshop experiments.

 

 

 

I liked this sketch of a hyena and wanted to see what else I could do with it.  The style is quite traditional and would be nice for an illustrated story but isn't bold enough for leaflets.

I then changed my characters to children and below is some of the sketchbook work and Photoshop edits.  I tried a loose, quick style which I thought would be more suitable for leaflets, instead of too much detail.  Having children as the characters means my target audience should be able to relate to them better.

 

 

This shows the comparison between the original and the Photoshop edit.

I then experimented with animal characters again and in a similar style to what I was first using as I think that was one of the most effective styles for leaflets and posters for children.

Photoshop screenshots showing the process I used. I used various layers to build up each piece and used shading and highlights.

I experimented with a few styles but seemed to keep coming back to the last two. Despite the fact they are very different to each other I like both of them for my subject matter, communication objectives and media.  They are not too detailed for leaflets and not too sipmle. They are cartoony but quite tame and hopefully will be a subtle addition to important advice and information without being distracting.