Further research & the direction of my project

 In this blog post I will answer a couple of questions to establish where I am with the project. This post is just to measure the progress and to make sure I know where I am and what I need to do in the time left. 

What research I have already carried out?

I have already looked at a couple of artists: Tom Bancroft, Craig Bartlett and Ali Soozandeh. Looking at those artists, not only made me more familiar with important people in the industry, but also inspired my work. I have also looked at characters whose basic design is very far from the human proportions and I looked into my theme and some mental health campaigns. I looked at resources and how they are advertised. I have also carried out primary research about mental health awareness. 

How has my research so far informed my project?

The research I have conducted, has informed my project work in many ways. From my Bancroft research I looked at character design sheets where the artist draws sketches of different expressions of the character. I looked at this artist's work and at what makes the character real. I have learned more about bone structure and movement. When designing my own character, I have made sure to make an expression sheet as well. From looking at characters from already existing cartoons I got inspiration for my character and I explored how much I can change the proportions of a human body and the body parts, for my character to still look like a human or at least be seen as a human. I have looked at Ali Soozandeh and the general approach to mental health to get an understanding how to create an animation that carries a meaningful message but is quite heavy. That research definitely informed my storyline process and the storyboarding. I looked at Bartlett's work where there was used contrast to distinguish night and day and I am definitely going to use similar tools, it has also enriched me as an artist because I decided to study a movement from Bartlett's cartoon. 

How useful has my research been?

I think so far, my research has been very useful. I have learned a whole lot, not only in terms of creating this particular project, but also in general. I have just learned so much as an artist and I will use it now as well as in my future career. I think that it is critical to not only quickly get some idea for the given project but also to gain skill and abilities from doing research that will also be useful to me in some other time. 

What research can I carry out to build on the previous research?

I will definitely look at poster design for my project, but to build on the previous research, I will do secondary research on the approach towards mental health. I have already done a lot of digging into the topic, but I do not really have a lot of data on how adults see the problem. Most of my research has been surrounding teenagers, but the truth is that the adults are really the ones creating the stigma and making the problem even bigger.

How will the further research inform my work?

Knowing and understanding how adults and generally people see mental health will help me with the poster design. I want to make something that will really speak to them. I have the general idea for the animation and the storyboard is ready, so I think the responses I got from young people and the research I have conducted so far, helped me a lot in understanding how to approach the problem.