Ideas

Illustrate poems about mental health?

Encourage other to send in their poems and share how they feel, in order for them to not feel alone.

The Story

     

My Work

Inspiration and useful sources

Useful books:

 Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud

99 Ways to tell a story - Matt Madden

The End of Mr Y

I have started reading the end of Mr Y. It is quite different to my story but I wanted to read something written in first person in order to get used to this kind of writing style. This book is about a girl who comes across and incredibly rare book that is supposed to be cursed. The book she finds is about a man who enters another world. So this is relevant to my story and I'm interested in the techniques used to convey a surreal world to the reader.



Other artists' work that inspires me:

Orly Orbach? Work for the nhs?

Tony Moore? The Walking Dead?

Mental Health Awareness videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a2f58XyydM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYGpA2swqQo

Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YImIvmtuHAE

What? How? Who? When?

I am still defining what it is exactly that I'd like to have achieved by the end of this year.  I know where it is I'd like to start and am working out which to do as part of the research project, and what to do for the FMP.

My communication objectives are to inspire and engage my target audience. In terms of outcomes, my two main tasks are;

1) To create a character who suffers with mental health issues and create a short story following her ups and downs

2) To collaborate and create a finished graphic novel from the novel my friend has written.

My Story

     For my short story I would like to explore the possibility of helping people with the story. I'd like it to appeal to people who may struggle with life's ups and downs and for them to find it inspiring. I'd like for there to be an element of humor but mainly to be about self discovery and realisation. A lot of the story will be about character development.  The idea is that the reader will be able to emotionally engage with the main character and therefore empathise. The target audience is mid teens upwards. Depending on how dramatic I make the themes (drugs/no drugs. Rape/no rape). I also like the idea of advertising my story to the NHS to be read by those with mental health issues as an inspiring (and hopefully helpful) read. 

The Story Outline

     Main female character who hasn't had a great upbringing and falls into depression. Is either suffering from severe mental issues and has hallucinations or falls into a bad crowd and takes hallucinogenic drugs. Either way, the girl chooses her fantasy world over reality as a form of escapism. She prefers her fantasy world to the harsh real world. Eventually a young child comes into her life (either she was raped and has a child or comes across a child with no parent figure). She begins to realise that this child depends on her. She finds this out the hard way and the child comes into great danger due to her lack of care and attention. Main character is addicted to fantasy world (or the drugs) and still can't stop avoiding the real world (despite child having been in danger and despite feeling guilty). But the hallucinations become bad. Where there were kind and fun characters and environments in her fantasy world there are now evil and horrible things. This shocks the main character and she realises her subconscious may have been trying to tell her something. She works on focusing on what's really important and starts to get better. She learns that she hid from reality and her reality was bad and her fantasy world was good to her, but that ever since the child came into her life, all that has changed. Protecting and caring for the child gave her life purpose and meaning and a reason to be happy. She focuses on giving the child the life she could never have. There are a lot of interesting characters and moments where everything nearly goes wrong. There will be a lot of suspense in this story. I want it to be heart warming, with lovable characters. Yet also evil characters who try to hinder the girls. The fact my main character has hallucinations will be an opportunity to create surreal chracters and scenes. 

I want to have a lot of fun with this, despite the serious undertones of the story. I'd like for this to show in the final work. Once the outcome of the story is decided (short story, comic or series of comics) I'd like it to be possible for there to be some other outcomes. Such as handmade characters from the imaginary characters in the story. Maybe even t-shirts and other merchandise.

Graphic Novel

     The novel was written by my friend Giles Mchugh and is about a zombie invasion. The target audience probably ranges from about 17 to 30. It is part of an ongoing series he will be writing called 'Infected Britain'. A lot of the characters are around mid twenties but the ages vary a lot.  It is from various characters points of view and is based in a small village not far away called Dursley. The Novel is a bit of a mix between the Walking Dead and the book World War Z. I aim to put a lot of effort into turning this into a graphic novel as it is a chance to push my skills to the limit and work in a style I have been trying to perfect for awhile. 


I will be doing a lot of observational drawing in order to ensure I have a solid understanding of the technicalities of drawing ,in particular, the human form. I will be starting with character design and technique. I tend to use water colour and fine liner a lot but have also started using ink. Whilst drawing and experimenting I will be working out what works with what and whats works as a research project as well as what to research and what to do as my FMP. I will be exploring the work of others and taking inspiration from TV shows, films, graphic novels and stories.