Real World Beckons, Portfolio Meeting and Self Promotion Starts

It's really hit home how close I am to finishing this course and being thrown into the real World the last couple of days. We had Chris Arrans' workshop 'Real World Beckons' and Portfolio Tutorials on Monday, followed by self promotion brief on Tuesday.

Real World Beckons

The workshop started with a talk on all the business and technical sides of being a freelance illustrator, and thank goodness! Because I had no idea about any of it... I truly was clueless, quite embarrassing really! But I definitely tuned in and took notes, there's a lot of things I'm going to have to learn on the go when I leave Uni. But this talk definitely let me know where to start and what to look out for. 

This talk was followed by him helping us to set up our own website, something that I've been wanting to do for a while, but not been too sure where to start. He showed us some examples of past students to help us get an idea of how we should set ours up. He gave us the website moonfruit.com which is a free website design company. He showed us the basics of how to use it and then we had a go at making our own. It definitely isn't a quick process! I loaded a couple of images and then it was the end of the day. 

This is a screenshot of the 'website design' website and the start of
me putting images in.

I have an idea on how I would like my website to look but I think it's something I am going to have to do in my own time and not rush. I understand how to make one now so feel like it isn't the end of the World if this one waits until I have a bit more time on my hands. But it is exciting to start thinking about branding myself and getting myself out there. It's giving me more motivation now, more than ever.

Portfolio Meeting

I felt really happy and confident about my work after my tutorial with Jonny and Pete. I showed them work from second year and so far this year and they felt that all of it could go in my portfolio. It was a big boost to know that I have accomplished good work on this course and that my tutors have confidence in me.

They talked about how to present the work suggesting ways on how to photograph the work. For instance, for the coasters I designed to show them in a table setting. Or getting someone to hold up a print and me take a photograph. Basically just have a bit of fun with it, while still keeping it professional of course. Again, this has filled me with anticipation for the next stage of this career. 

Self Promotion Starts

At the Self Promotion brief, they showed us examples of different ways to produce a self promotion piece. There were many different possibilities but I already had an idea of what I wanted to do which was a little book of lino cuts, so I used one of their example on how to fold an A3 piece of paper into a little booklet but changed it slightly to make it have more pages rather than a poster on the back. 

I have already got enough lino cuts to fill it out so it's just a matter of combining the single lino cuts together to make scenes/posters, and scanning in the bigger lino cuts to shrink down to size. Then working out where each page needs to go on the A3 sheet of paper and print out double sided. Oh, and of course coming up with my brand/logo to let everyone know who I am and what I do. Hopefully planning to make a business card also but doubt I will get these printed properly in time. Here's a few pages I have already managed to develop:

This is made up of lino cut prints of a ladder and
vines, wheel barrow and sack of soil. I then scanned
the images into photoshop and coloured.

This will be a double page spread, they are 2-colour lino and
wood cut prints from my book 'The sinking of the USS Indianapolis.'

I want to show the single lino cut prints I used
to create bigger combined images within the book.
These are copied straight from the scans, unedited.

Here is a one of the combined print images. I copy
the black and white scanned prints into photoshop
and position them. When I am happy with the layout, I add
colour. This is 1 of 16 versions I did using the images above.

A Chat with My Tutor

I spoke to Jonny on Thursday and he agreed that I was getting too swamped down by the text and that perhaps I should take it out all together. He liked the images and the mystery that came with them. And explained that perhaps it is better without text as at the time of Timothy Evans, what actually happened at 10 Rillington Place was a mystery and that it would be good for people to try to work out what happened for themselves through my use of imagery. I agreed and suggested perhaps what I should do is re-think the imagery to have one word to explain what it may be about and then at the end have the lyrics of 'The Ballad of Timothy Evans' which explains what happened to the point. I thought this would work well as the Ballad tells the events without all the smaller details while my images can tell all the smaller details that not everyone knows about. This way they compliment each other rather than tell the same story. 

We also talked about how I was struggling with the book layout and he suggested that I forget about it for now, start making the images, and then the book layout can be worked in towards the end. I feel a lot better now and have a new sense of enthusiasm for the project. 

He suggested putting some more symbolism within the images to hint towards Timothy's future. I have to say, I like this challenge!

I also spoke to Pete who said to reduce the title to 'The Misfortune of Timothy Evans'. It's less wordy but still has a mystery behind it.

Time to re-think some images. Can't wait to start lino/wood cutting and printing then seeing the results!

Unfortunately, it may have to wait as I've got self promotion coming up, which we have to create something which advertises our work and send to possible agents/clients. I want to create something to high standard so going to focus mainly on this for the next week. It will put me a week behind schedule but I know if I work hard, I can catch up.

Developing sketches and planning book layout for Timothy Evans

I've stumbled a bit here... I'm finding that developing the sketches is going well but as soon as I have tried to bring the text and the images together into book form it's not working as well or as easily as it seemed to for my last book. I think it may be because this story has a lot more 'behind the scenes' information than I initially thought, while the last book was a bit more straight forward so it was easier for me to write the text. I feel like I'm getting really bogged down by the text, and its stopping me from progressing. I think the images I am creating so far are working, and I really just want to get on with making, printing and developing the images. However, the book format also seems to be restricting me. It's time to go and speak to the tutors.

I rushed the text here again, and I think the
title is a bit long as well. Needs to be re-drawn.

page 1 and 2 - The images look awkward in this layout, and the text doesn't compliment the image. Need to think how i'm going to address this problem.

page 3 and 4 - This double page works better than the other,
but I still think the structure is prohibiting me from
developing these images further.

page 5 - This is the last page I've drawn
as I want to talk to my tutors before
continuing. Again the space on this page
just isn't working. The text is cutting
into the page too much.

The start of Consolidating my Research and Initial Sketches - Timothy Evans Book

The book '10 Rillington Place' arrived through my door just in time for me to start writing the events of Timothy Evans. Its really nicely written. And luckily for me, its very methodically laid out and easy to follow. So I started at page 1. Writing down anything I felt was neccessary. There were bits I was finding out about Christie too, so I went to his section in my sketchbook and updated the research. This was a long process, as everything minute, I was stopping to write in my own words, the events that led to Timothy Evans' hanging.

After gathering all this research, I've began to write the story, in a very basic way. I have written a paragraph of information at the top of every double page spread in my sketch book. The idea being once I have written out the story in my own words, I can go back to the beginning and begin my initial sketches. Some of the paragraphs have a sub-title 'Misfortunate Event no.' (with a number at the end depending which one it is. This is because some of the paragraphs are just about his life in general while others, i believe, are the ones which all lead to the most misfortunate event - his hanging. 

The title of this book is going to be 'The Misfortunate Events of Timothy Evans'. I have created three sketches for the book cover design;

Front page design 1 - No. 10 - where it all
really begins, think this should be an image
within the book rather front cover.

Left : A bit too obvious
Right: Did a quick sketch of Timothy Evans and I really like
it. I've also never attempted a lino cut face and I'm up for
the challenge. Neaten the text up, but this will my my front
image.

Now to start some initial sketches for each written paragraph, before going on to make a book maquette to decide on composition etc.

Here are the first 14 pages of my book in initial sketches:

The start of consolidating my research and initial sketches - John Christie character illustrations

I ordered a book called '10 Rillington Place' a few days ago but it's taking a while to come through. But I've continued with the resources I have so far...

After reading and watching documentaries of John Christie again, I have started to compile a list of words which I think relate to his personality such as (the obvious ones) liar, murderer etc. (and the not so obvious) low self esteem, attention seeking. I then looked up these words in the reverse symbolism dictionary and listed any exciting imagery that I thought could work.

After creating my symbolic reference list to look back at while creating my initial sketches, I began to look more in depth at his earlier life, his murderous life, and his arrest and conviction. Writing any main events which happened during these periods of time. Then, again, writing anymore adjectives/words and their symbols which I thought were appropriate.

The Early Life research and symbolic reference list along with some quick sketches

I then began to draw. It didn't go so well... I was attempting to just draw the symbols that I had found combined to make an image. This was what I was planning to do but they just didn't seem to be creating the message I was hoping for. I tried a few initial sketches for the earlier life, and a few for the murderous time, but didn't try any for the conviction time, this is because I knew something wasn't working but I couldn't put my finger on it and I didn't want to waste valuable time before speaking to my tutors. 

Initial sketch - I do like the mystery behind this image
but is this something that could be in the background/within
an image?

Initial sketches - story gets lost within the image. Too abstract.
I need to work out to subtly hint towards these symbols.

Again, I quite like the bottom right image here, but need to refine
the idea and put it more in context.

So after speaking to both Jonny and Pete Lloyd, they helped me figure out what was wrong. (It was quite obvious in the end!) The story was getting lost. I was concentrating too much on the symbolism and I'd forgotten to get the story across. Originally I was, sort of, going for this, but was hoping it would still seem relevant to the character John Christie. However, after doing the initial sketches and talking to Jonny and Pete, I realise it's just not going to work. This is not to say I'm not going to use symbolism in these images. I just need to illustrate the story and then find a way to work the symbols into the illustrations. So the research hasn't been a waste of time. And at least now I know what I need to aim for. Its going to have to be back to the drawing board for these images! And thanks to Jonny I have three books he's lent me which are going to help;

'Scene of the Crime - Photographsfrom the LAPD Archive'
I think this will help me for both the Christie images as well as the
Timothy Evans images. Every page of this book has a dynamic view
of a crime scene and often hints of more than is scene, can I take this idea
into my images?

This book is where all my text comes from. It is a book
filled with posters and flyers throughout WW2. This is the same era
as the story so it ensures the text is in-keeping with the time.

This book is to help with both text and image - It is filled
with board games from the era of Christies childhood, right through
to adulthood. I think I may include children's toys in some of the images
and I think this book will help a lot.

First though, I think I may have a break from this bit of my FMP and begin on the book about Timothy Evans. I described my plan for this book to Jonny and Pete and they suggested I get on with it first as it's the one I'm most confident about.

Before I forget from the tutorial meeting, I've written a quick list of questions I should ask myself when I do return to the John Christie Illustrations;

My slightly disastrous trip to London...

During my research, I stumbled upon a Museum in London called 'The Black Museum'. It stated that it had a few objects from the case of John Christie. I automatically started to look whereabouts it was in London. While looking for it, a website said The Museum of London Police was often referred to as The Black museum. So I tracked down The Museum of London Police and found out it was by the Bank tube station, which was also walking distance from London Waterloo. So I set off to London yesterday, bearing in mind the weather at the moment is terrible, luckily I got to Southampton Station dry, this was not how I was to end my day. My train was at 10.30, it didn't arrive at the station until 11.30, setting my whole day an hour behind. I had already found out that the tubes were on strike, but I couldn't see another day in the near future which I hadn't already got something important to do or see at the studios and I didn't want to leave this trip too late in the project. Anyway, arrived at London Waterloo, where I met a friend. Of course, it started pouring down as soon as we stepped outside. So umbrellas at the ready we started our 30 minute walk to our destination. (The umbrellas weren't much use, as the wind was so powerful they were turning inside out every couple of minutes...)

Finally getting to our destination, which turned out to be inside the police station, we asked about the museum. After about 10 minutes of waiting, the tour guide came out to tell us it was closed for the day! Obviously we were rather disappointed, but after explaining I had come all the way from Southampton, he generously opened it up just for us! So he took us through the first door, and asked what my project was about, I explained John Christie. After which he went on to tell me I had got the wrong museum! That this one was about past crimes, but mainly about the police who worked on them. And the museum I wanted was actually closed to the public. I was rather frustrated that after so much effort, my research had let me down! Anyway I got to see the first room of the museum which was filled with historic policing uniforms, badges etc. but I think the tour guide just wanted to head home who can blame him with weather like this! So he showed us out, but not before telling us to try the Museum of London which was just round the corner.

So that's where we headed next. Unfortunately there was nothing about John Christie... But I did get some photos of a few ancient human and animal skulls, posters and items of clothing from that era. Which I thought might be useful as visual aid when drawing. Here are a few of my photos;

After our visit to this Museum, we walked towards Tate Modern, having excess time after our failed museum visit. We took a rather long way round, but I'm glad as we ended up at Borough Market - a lovely food market selling fresh seafood, fruit, veg, cheese. I absolutely love food markets and it did brighten my day up seeing the market and the good busy atmosphere which surround it. After walking round the market, we arrived at Tate Modern, which unfortunately didn't have much on which interested us. Starting to feel quite disheartened (and cold!), we attempted one last stop to the Hayward Gallery which had an exhibition called 'What's the point of it?' by the artist Martin Creed. Being desperate to see something properly as to not waste our journey, we forked out £8.50 - we thought it was a lot, but everything so far had been free so thought why not? His work involved objects placed in certain ways, A4 pages coloured in with felt tip, and walls with different adhesive tapes stuck on it. I wasn't a huge fan. However, thought the irony of the title 'what's the point of it?' with such pointless pieces of work within the exhibition was quite funny. That is, if that's what he was going for? There was one room I loved in this exhibition, however. It was a room filled with thousands of balloons. As you walked in you became instantly static, felt weird and it was definitely a new experience. 

So what have I learnt from my trip to London?

1. Never travel to London when the tubes aren't working and the weather's terrible.
2. Don't always trust what you read on the internet.
3. The Black Museum is not open to the public.

OK, wasn't the most successful research day, but it was nice to get out of Southampton, see some new things, discover new places and get a lot of walking done.

Written Proposal

Here's my written proposal that I am going to hand in to my tutors.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT WRITTEN PROPOSAL

ALIX DE COURCY

I have chosen to look at Serial Killers as my chosen topic. This is because I originally wanted to do a manmade disaster such as a plane crash due to a book I enjoyed creating in Second year on a sinking ship. However, after looking into plane crashes, train crashes etc. I felt it would be a bit repetitive and easy to create another book on a similar topic. I enjoyed another project at the beginning of second year called ‘fairytale and folklore’ which we had to use symbolic imagery to illustrate the short story we had chosen. I chose Bluebeard, which is a story about a man who murders his wives but ultimately is killed himself. This gave me the idea to combine the two, man made disaster and a murderer – Serial Killer.

After research, I have chosen to illustrate John Christie who was a serial killer in the 1940s until the early 1950s, when he was hung. He killed a total of 8 women. This particular case stuck out to me as there is great controversy surrounding it. This is because an innocent man, Timothy Evans, was hung for the murders of his wife and baby daughter, due to poor police procedures and forged confessions. Christie was a witness at his trial, and gave fake testimony knowing that he was the one who had actually committed these murders.

I feel this story has several angles in which I can illustrate, which are – The character of John Christie, The hanging of Timothy Evans, and the victims. I would like to illustrate each in a different way;

1.     The character of John Christie – 3 Symbolic images of three stages in Christies’ life; his early life; his time as an active serial killer; and his arrest and conviction. I will use a reverse symbolism dictionary to find symbolic images which illustrate his personality and life events to bring together in three separate prints. I would like to try and print one of these on old wooden floorboards as he would sometimes hide his victims under the floor.

2.     The hanging of Timothy Evans – I would like to create an A3 concertina book named ‘The Misfortunate Events of Timothy Evans’. This will have mainly images with small bits of text explaining what happened. I have found a folk song about Timothy Evans by Ewan Macoll called ‘Go Down ye Murderers’, so I may use this as the text throughout the book.

3.     The Victims – I would like to create a chest filled with different objects and illustrations for each victim. A closed chest symbolizes secrets, so when the box is closed, the secrets are hidden until you open it when all is revealed, much like how it happened it real life. I want to try doing some 3D work for this. Also, a chest may be difficult to get hold of in which case, perhaps a big box, or something similar.

Timetable for FMP

Throughout the project, I will update my blog 2 or 3 times a week. I will also continually research into different typefaces and ways of creating text as well as images from 1940s and 50s, and artists to inspire me.

WEEK STARTING	PLAN FOR WEEK
27-01-14	Research into what topic to choose and illustrate. Choose subject and research further. Choose how to illustrate topic.
03-02-14	Start to consolidate research into different areas of interest. Visit to London. Research symbolic images for John Christie images and start initial sketches.
10-02-14	Choose several initial sketches to develop further. Start Timothy Evans book by choosing what text to use and separating the events leading to his death into different possible illustrations in order of timeline.
17-02-14	Start to draw developed sketches of Christie at the correct scale and develop further. Start to draw initial sketches for the book of Timothy Evans. Choose what text to use. Play with layout of text and image.
24-02-14	Finish image and layout of three Christie images. Start to create screen printing traces of each individual coloured layer. Scan into the computer to bring together on photoshop to ensure the layers work and experiment with colour. Start to create a mock A3 concertina book putting illustrations and text in the right order, ensuring the images work together. Also to help me decide how I am going to create the final images, text and book.
03-03-14	Fix any errors discovered on screen traces, change anything which doesn’t work as well as originally thought. Scan back into potoshop to see if it works better. Start making lino cuts, images for book. Start research into the different victims.
10-03-14	Create the final screen traces, create screen of one image. Print on different papers, and textures, using different colours, create as many different outcomes as possible to choose best print as final. Carry on creating and developing images for book. Start to write information found about victims and thinking about how to illustrate each victim.
17-03-14	Create screen of second image. Print on different papers, and textures, using different colours, create as many different outcomes as possible to choose best print as final. Carry on creating and developing images for book. Start initial sketches for each victim.
24-03-14	Create screen of third image. Print on different papers, and textures, using different colours, create as many different outcomes as possible to choose best print as final. Carry on creating and developing images for book. Develop sketches and ideas for each victim.
31-03-14	If any images for book are ready to print, print them. Carry on creating and developing the rest of images for book. Start creating developed drafts of objects and illustrations for victims.
07-04-14 (Easter)	Look at screenprinted images for Christie and ensure I am happy with all three. If not, get a new screen tracing ready for return to studios. If managed to print any book prints, look at them and see if any changes need to be made. If changes are to be made, get them ready for return to studios. Carry on creating and developing images for the rest of the book.
14-04-14 (Easter)	Start making the images, items, 3D models for each victim. Look for some kind of container to keep them all in once made. Get the rest of the book images ready to finish once back at studios.
21-04-14 (Easter)	Carry on making the images, items, 3D models for each victim. Get as much as possible done at home before return to studio. Fully prepare for final push to the finish.
28-04-14	Re-print anything which was changed over the holidays. Start printing book illustrations ensuring enough space is around each print to make the finished book. Carry on making victim illustrations.
05-05-14	Finish Presentation Document and make sure I’m happy with how it’s written, the layout and appearance of it. Finish off printing book images, look through all of them, and make any changes if necessary. Carry on making victim illustrations.
12-05-14	Start choosing the best prints of book and making the finished book. Create hard book ends and screen print a front page and back page. Start finishing off victim illustrations.
19-05-14	Bring everything together and tie up and loose ends. Think about how to display the victim illustrations in chest-box. Choose finished prints for Christie. Ensure book it put together securely and neatly. Gather sketch book work together. Hand it all in!

Written Proposal Tutorial

I had my tutorial with Jonny Hannah and Pete Jarvis today. They seemed interested with my chosen topic with Jonny claiming he was surprised as it was a very different topic to ones that I had chosen in the past. After I explained I wanted a challenge and to try something different, he seemed happy. They asked how I was planning on illustrating all the information I had gathered. After telling them the three ideas I had, they seemed a bit confused about the symbolic images but I don't think I explained it very well! Specially as I hadn't shown them the Bluebeard posters to remind them of that project, and to illustrate what I meant. Think I will take them to the studios next time I go in, to show Jonny to see if he understands better. Even though they said they were confused about this idea, they said to get sketching ideas anyway. They seemed intrigued by the other two ideas and basically gave me the go ahead, so I've come away from it, feeling excited and ready to go!

Now to write my proposal to clarify and consolidate my ideas and finally get on with the exciting bit - the drawing and experimenting.

Research Findings and Topic Chosen

I've been doing my research over the last few days, which has involved searching through English Serial Killer documentaries and websites, and I have to say, some of the stories out there are truly disturbing! I started by searching UK Serial Killers in google and found a few interesting ones which I then watched documentaries to get a full understanding of each one. However, none of them had the controversy I was looking for, and I couldn't think of how I would illustrate them. But then I fell on the serial killer John Reginald Christie. He was a murderer from 1943 until 1953 (when he was hung). He killed 8 people, all female, including his own wife, and a baby girl. But what was even more shocking about this story was that he was a witness in the case of Timothy Evans for the murder of Timothy's wife and child, when Christie was actually the killer. Timothy Evans hung for this 2 years before Christie was found out and hung. After Christies capture, it was clear Evans hadn't been the murderer and was exonerated of his charge - a little too late! This eventually became a reason the death sentence was lifted in the UK. The police also had a play in the part of the hanging of Timothy Evans. When 10 Rillington Place (where both the Evans's and Christie's lived) was searched by Police, they did not do a full search of the house, where more bodies would've been discovered. There were also bones on display in the garden which were completed missed by Police. There is also evidence to show that Timothy's confession was written by the police. Timothy was illiterate and had a low IQ, but the confession was perfect English. Therefore, when he was asked to sign it, he would not of known what he was actually signing. After Christie was discovered, a long investigation was made to clear Evans's name which found that crucial evidence actually showed it would've been impossible for Evans to kill his wife and child due to certain time scales, and the missed questioning of builders which had been working on the house during the time of the murders.

A quick biro sketch I did of John Christie

A documentary about John Christie

I thought there were a lot of angles I could take on this story. Also as the time is 60-70 years ago, not too many people may know about this (I hadn't heard of it until reading about it), therefore I can teach people of the tragic event of Timothy Evans and the Rillington Place murders.

So here are the sources, I have found so far, that I am going to use to gather information about the case;

Here's a list of websites and video documentaries with information on John Christie, 10 Rillington Place, TImothy Evans and the Victims

http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/history/christie/index_1.html

http://www.forensicresource.org.uk/old/?Case_Info:John_Christie:Timothy_Evans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Christie_(murderer)#Early_life

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8556721.stm

http://www.10-rillington-place.co.uk/index.html

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xworpb_john-reginald-christie-the-rillington-place-strangler_shortfilms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr1SkIqXkTE

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/25/newsid_3721000/3721267.stm

A couple of books to help me out;

Book about 10 Rillington Place with a focus on Timothy Evans

The Reverse Symbolism Dictionary that I discussed in the last post

A paper on the miscarriage of justice of Timothy Evans

http://innocent.org.uk/cases/timothyevans/timothyevans.pdf

Ewan Macoll wrote a folk song named 'The ballad of Timothy Evans - Go Down Ye Murderers' -which I thought could be interesting to illustrate;

Go Down Ye Murderers Song

Go Down Ye Murderers Lyrics

Here's the film '10 Rillington Place'. It is a movie from 1971 about the murders at 10 Rillington Place.

Link to Video '10 Rillington Place'

From looking at this information I have chosen three seperate points to illustrate;

1. The personality and life of John Christie - 3 prints showing his early life, his time as an active serial killer, and his arrest and conviction. I would like to use the way I illustrated Bluebeard to do these images. So using the reverse symbolism dictionary to find symbolic imagery for each time of his life to then combine into three images. Perhaps printing one on old wooden floor boards as he hid some of the bodies under the floor. 
2. The Misfortunate Events of Timothy Evans - I would like to create a concertina book, illustrating the life and events leading to his death. Using short sentences to explain each image and event or using the song lyrics of 'Go Down ye Murderers'. 
3. A chest filled with images, objects, 3-D illustrations and items for each victim of John Christie. I thought a chest would be a good idea as a closed chest symbolises secrets and when people open it, it will reveal the secrets of Christie, just like how his secrets were revealed in real life.

Now to starts some initial sketches and pitch the idea to my tutors!