COP3: Final Evaluation

This project has brought me a lot of ups and downs throughout the past few months. As someone who has been struggling a lot with their mental health, it really took a strain on my health and motivation so I struggled with doing the work and trying to get it done on time. Overall though, it has been really rewarding seeing all my work done and finished and I feel a sense of achievement. I have learned a lot throughout the process of the project, and the study of semiotics has become something that I am really interested in. I also think that the project has helped my individual practice to grow, as my character designs have become more emotionally involved and more interesting to look at as I've been told before that my work is quite bland. So throughout the project, experimenting with the way I work has been really fun and I think without this COP project, my illustration practice would be a lot different. I am not going to lie and say that it has been easy for me as it has been quite a tough road to travel down but I am happy that I have completed it and feel a good sense of accomplishment. When it comes to the next projects I will be pursuing I will use the knowledge that I have learned from this project and apply it. I will try to practice better time management as this project hasn't been my best, and I will also try to push myself when it comes to my illustrative boundaries as I have been known as someone who goes easily back into my comfort zone and doesn't branch out much.

COP3: Presentation Boards

COP3: Final Outcomes

I am super happy with how these have come out because I think that they relate to my essay perfectly. I wanted to open the conversation about first impressions and how we view things by changing around the captions so that people will be shocked by discovering it was not what they first thought. I think that these relate to the idea of 'un-knowledge' because each of the words could still possibly relate to the imagery, it's just what we have been taught to perceive in society and therefore this work challenges these ideals.

COP3: How's It Going?

I am beginning to really struggle with the writing part of this essay as well as the practical. My motivation is in a slump and I can't seem to make myself do anything. I not even don't do work, but I don't even do things I would find fun. I think I need to do more practical work first to get my motivation back because this is the type of work that I really enjoy and try to tackle the essay when I am in a better mindset.

COP3: Choosing Case Studies

When it comes to my Chapter Three, I wasn't sure which case studies I wanted to analyse. I knew that I wanted to analyse contemporary illustration because I think that is what I can most relate to, and I think it works well within my essay because I am trying to talk about the evolution of the opinion of cats, so looking at contemporary examples will be interesting to see how our opinion has evolved in the modern era.

When in the library, I came across an interesting book called Panther by an illustrator called Brecht Evens. At first I thought that the book was a children's book and I thought it would be interesting to have a look at. However when I brought it home it turned out it was a lot more different than I first thought. The book insinuates childhood abuse and is more a graphic novel than a children's book. I think this would be an interesting case study for me to look at because it talks about the relationship that the main character Christine has with Panther, a cat. It shows Panther in different ways, insinuating that he is the abuser or that Christine relates to him. I think this would be interesting because it looks at Panther in different ways.

The next book that I came across whilst I was looking on the internet was 'They All Saw A Cat' by Brendan Wenzel. This is actually a children's book and is quite simplistic when it comes to the language it uses. However I thought the imagery was really interesting as it talks about how different animals percieve the cat that they are coming across. Each animal has it's own opinion of the cat that we can see in how they are illustrated and the page I am most drawn to is the one with the mouse, as he sees the cat as a massive black monster. 

COP3: Changing my Essay title

I have decided to change my dissertation title. I found that having 'A Semiotic Analysis of Cats' wasnt helping me because there wasn't a question for me to answer. I think I would find things much easier if I had something to strive for, something to be able to answer. Therefore, I am changing my essay title to:

A Semiotic Analysis: How Do We 'un-knowledge' what has been taught about cats?

I am using the idea of 'un-knowledge' as influenced from Tobias Gutmann's study A House and The World because I think I found this idea of un-knowledge really interesting. I think that it also helps me to link my essay to semiotics and also to cats.

COP3: Starting To Use Ink

I have began to use ink in my sketchbook as a way to loosen myself up and I love it! I never knew that this could make me draw more freely and it is and I think I am beginning to produce some really interesting stuff. Pencil work is nice but I find myself over labouring the drawings and making them look too perfect or not knowing when to stop on the details so the ink medium is perfect for me because it's making me stop spending so much time on one drawing and begin to work more freely.