while I had begin this project knowing I would do work under the umbrella term of feminism, I wanted to ensure I focused on something that effected me everyday - and people around me. I was looking for an issue that I could give a truly personal side to.
What came to me next was inspired by a lot of the connect oi see on my for you page, on tiktok. while I know thing can be faked on these kind of platforms, the sheer amount of videos I see of women documenting their experiences cannot all be faked. these videos also hit home quite a lot, I feel like I can relate to so many of these experiences so many women go through - and this led me to want to see just how normalized and relatable it is for all women to feel fear or unsafety when so much as walking around in public alone.
This is basically me jotting down ideas for what the potential booklet will depict
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I began first by messing around with fear - perspective and colour use. I have quite a style when it comes to drawing women so I tried to push on that style with very impactful and dramatic line work with black and white- i liked this and thought it already had quite some potential to work some dramatic expressions into my booklet.
while i thought the coloured pencils had some vibrancy, I wasn't sure it gave off a true fearful expression nor gave me the dramatics I was looking for. I think the use of colour is very important to give off the fearful paranoia type vibe I want to go with.
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my main research came from motivation of just how big this issue is, so i went around to look for statistics on miost womens opion of this uunsafe feelign they get when walking home and i found that
“Of the 2,700 female respondents to a shock survey compiled by Newstalk, a staggering 87 per cent said they felt unsafe travelling alone at night. Worryingly, more than one in three women say they have been followed while walking home. And 13 per cent of women revealed that they have been the victims of attacks after dark, while 60 per cent said they have been on the receiving end of verbal harassment.” (Feral, C. 2021)
Another site states that:
• “Nearly half of all women in the UK 41% say they take steps on a regular basis to protect themselves’ from sexual assault, ‘one in five women never walk alone at all’ (Collingridge, M. 2022)
Another set of stats also reveals that during the period 2nd – 27th June 2021:
•One in two women felt unsafe walking alone after dark in a quiet street near their home, compared to one in seven men.
•One in two women felt unsafe walking alone after dark in a busy public place, compared to one in five men.
•Four out of five women felt unsafe walking alone after dark in a park or other open space, compared to two out of five men.
•Two out of three women aged 16 to 34 years experienced one form of harassment in the previous 12 months; with 44% of women aged 16 to 34 years having experienced catcalls, whistles, unwanted sexual comments or jokes, and 29% having felt like they were being followed. (EVAW, (2021), 2021 )
Ferrel C , (2021) ‘harassment horror Nearly 9 in 10 females uncomfortable walking alone at night as survey finds 13% of women have been attacked after dark’ , The Irish Sun, 20th of September, available at: https://www.thesun.ie/news/7622541/women-fear-uncomfortable-harassment-night-attacked-survey/#:~:text=Of%20the%202%2C700%20female%20respondents,been%20followed%20while%20walking%20home. (accessed on 20th of October 2023)
Collingridge M, (2022), ‘walking home alone: why women feel unsafe in public places.’, Lacuna Magazine, 12th of October, available at: https://lacuna.org.uk/justice/walking-home-alone-women-feel-unsafe-in-public/#:~:text=One%20in%20five%20women%20never,night%20even%20in%20busy%20places. (Accessed on 20th of October 2023)
EVAW, (2021), ‘new data shows extent to which women feel unsafe at night’, End violence against women, August 25th, available at: https://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/new-data-women-feel-unsafe-at-night/ (Accessed on the 20th October 2023)
So in a short story here was quick and easy information to gather, and so gave me what I needed to know how upsettingly large this issue really is.
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This workshop work booklet I found quite helpful when it came to the more abstract side of art. I was happy with how the colours played with each other and the contrast that came with the bright vibrant colours vs the greyscale. In fact the outcome was quite like how I had wanted it to be, I was a big fan of the finished product.
I think the best part of the experience doing this work was how different it was, i wouldn't have thought to do a booklet in such a way before, it really had me thinking in new ways which I was a big fan of. i would say the worst part was that i feel like i could have done it better! the way i went with some patterns could have been smarter and i could have depicted some thing a little more than just completely abstract, while I love how it looks, I dont think my actual subject is really put across and easy to tell from this.
what this exorcize really had me thinking about was about how I could bring more abstract thoughts into real things. what I mean by this is it has me wanting to play on the paranoia and fear of what could be following you in the dark walk home and show just how my mind plays around with me because of this unsafe feeling that comes with being a woman walking in the dark alone.
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This piece was mainly me trying out new ways of using colour effectively and trying out new medias such as alcohol pens.
I was going for a fearful expression in which I just used myself as reference
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The Utopia Manuscript
this work, from one of my favourite shows, Utopia, helped inspire me for how to draw the more demonic shadow creatures that I began to experiment with when drawing. the style is very raw and quite terrifying. the show being about what will happen when the worlds supplies run out - and following a group of normal people going against the network of the UK that are trying to unleash a disease that will kill off more than half the population. The shows topics itself are very morally questioning which I think gives the bizarre looking artworks that much more fearful meaning. The blacks vs whites are my favourite thing about it and I will use that kind of thing for my work going forth.
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This is my first work messing around with drawing a demonic looking creature. I want to only give it black and white for colour, as far as these pieces go I'm a huge fan of the top drawing. I think it looks bizarre and terrifying which its exactly what I'm going with. the creature itself being fully inspired by a enemy in a video game called anemophobia- which is depicted in the personal inspiration part of my website.
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With this piece I wanted to swap how I did colour on my last piece like this, I wanted to draw the girl in grey scale and the background with colour. I love how it turned out however I feel like I could make the expression much more terrified and that is what I need to work on, but as this was my first time only working with greyscale alcohol pens I'm very happy with how it turned out.
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here is where I really started practicing how the creature, that's going to follow my main character in the booklet, will look like. all of these designs were also inspired from enemies in the game anemophobia which is shown and explained in the personal inspiration part of the website.
I really love how some of these designs came out, particularly the tall monster in the first piece, I like how bizarre and terrifying it came out as, which is what I was hoping for - something only a mind truly fearful could come up with. I think the lack of any colour other than black and white works for it very well and I think that's how ill keep drawing them. I was less of a fan of the two at the end though, i think while still bizarrely creepy they dont strike me personally quite as terrifying as the first image.
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this type of art is what drove inspiration for how i wanted to draw the demonic creatures in my story. this art in particular is done by an individual with schizophrenia, his friends and bandmates upload his work onto the Instagram @stalaggh_art as he himself wishes to remain anonymous
This piece was done with the in person workshop based on contrast and dramatics
I quite like how the colours clash, i went for complimentary colours for the woman, and kept with my black and white for the creature, while i like that contrast idea and will definitely use it again for the booklet itself, I'm not the biggest fan of this piece. i think i draw the girl too large and it makes the creature seem less imposing. i will definitely make sure to keep that size disparity when i draw something like this again. as i think that is another great way of creating a fearful power imbalance.
More on contrast but here i focused on continuous line which i love for the aesthetic on the monster like creature.
I went for black and white plus red to bring forth some more eye catching parts
this is just basic character design on the main character for the booklet, and ideas i could use for what happens on a couple of pages. all just simple pencil sketching
i used inspiration from a couple of female characters i like in games, which is shown in my personal inspiration page on the website, And myself with the clothing - its literally one of the main winter outfits i usually wear.
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here is my rough plan for what going to happen in the booklet, only sketched in pencil what io have decdied on doing is a small story that shows a girls experience walking to the shop at night. we all have a time where we need to grab food for dinner so at about 5 we leave to go grab some food, however in the winter by 5 ts already pitch black.
what goes on in the mind of someone with paranoia and fear is up to interpretation , however sometimes i feel a presence that may not even behind me- but from all ive been told throught my life i know i should fear being alone in the dark. this very thing is what im going to travelk through in my booklet and hope the issue im putting across requies a time to think about, but still gets the issue across.
my researchj has led me to think the best media is black aand white through out the girls experiance outside, and when she feels safe colour springs back into the story- i think this contrast will both be very vivid and help really get across the emotions the main character will go through.
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here is my primary research on the setting I'm going to use for inspiration in my work, in which i used my own house and roads that i use myself to walk around.
this will be the front cover. i used digital art for this so i could mess around with colour and lighting. really happy with how it turned out especially with how i made the light sit behind her, and have her face in the shadows. i also thought it would be dark humour like - or would show a hint of irony that the name is a 'sweet night-time walk' as when you read the book, it is absolutely not that.
after such i messed around with mono printing for a final little idea burst regarding how i wanted to do the audio visual. while its a little minimalistic and didn't take me too long, I'm happy with how the monster looking creature turned out.
here is just some process on the frames of the audio visual, and how i used procreate for it. I've never really done much animation before so i struggled a little to adjust to it but when i did and got the hang of how to use procreate for it, i was pretty happy with the results.
the final audio visual really created just the right atmosphere for me, i was extremely happy with the end result of it.
i feel like what i have learnt from amplify has shown me how important it is to work a large amount of hours, this was the first project that felt very stressful and daunting with how much i felt i needed to do to use the best of my abilities. the book itself came out exactly as i had wished it could, though as i was drawing with a sense of urgency, i felt there was parts of it i could have definitely put more time and effort in. a few times i felt like the work was a little bit rushed and that it showed.
i enjoyed being able to further push my choice of social issue and really felt like how i expressed it was very clear and well done, hopefully women who read it would feel some what familiar and relate to it. i was going in the direction of making the book more like a campaign, however this i dont think i perfectly achieved. i believe there was a way to make that more obvious to a point as one could just read the booklet as a bit of a scary story.
what i felt i did well was create a relatable protagonist and visualize very common streets that would allow most women to relate to the story and what it tells. i feel like some frames and angles i did were very adventurous and i am proud of the way i have drawn a good few of the pages.
i also think my use of media for the book, whilst sticking to only two types, worked for the story i was telling, the black and white kept the dauting atmosphere only to change when the protagonist felt safe once again. o think the contrast really spoke there and I'm very happy with it.
like i said before I'm sure i could have spent more time on some pages, what if eel when wrong was how much the daunting workload has effected me and how it probably let my skills slip a little to keep[ in pace with finishing the piece
i also feel i had little time for experiment around with work, the difference between this year and last was i felt in this project i needed to get to the finally piece very early on just to be bale to finish it in time. i would've liked to have done more media experimenting and character designing.
the audio visual however i have few gripes, i feel like it worked out very well for my first try outs with animation and i feel the small colour palette and music really creates that uneasy atmosphere that i was going for.
again i feel like what could have been better was if i had more time to hone the craft more, i feel like when i come back to animation i will be able to perfect it just that bit more and make some frames smoother, but for now i am quite contempt with how it played out.
