Evaluation of Research

My initial issue that I was focusing on was the effects of animal agriculture on global warming and the environment. Having discussed this with my tutor, I realised that it would probably be more effective to focus on a single aspect of this issue, for example, rainforest destruction or wasting water. This way, I can research more extensively into the subject and produce more reliable information to advise people.

There is no denying that animal agriculture has a huge effect on the environment, so one of the obvious solutions would be to encourage people to be more conscious of their environment and stop eating meat, (and ideally dairy and eggs). Having done some research into children’s books, set design and animation on these issues, I actually found surprisingly little, if anything on the effects of animal agriculture on the environment. The article by George Monbiot, “It’s time to wean ourselves off the fairytale version of farming” I felt made an interesting point, it suggests to some extent we are disguising what happens in the real world for children, and even adults! I think it’s so important to come to terms with what is happening in the world in order to save it.

I was particularly interested in children’s book illustrations on the environment, I found some really beautiful books that encouraged change in quite a heart-breaking way. For example, Barroux’s “Where’s The Elephant” shows the effects of deforestation by seeing the animal’s homes slowly being destroyed. Lynne Cherry’s “The Great Kapock Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest” uses very beautiful imagery to illustrate the effects of cutting down trees. I think having scenic drawings with lovely colours, allows us to realise what we are destroying. I think this is a very wise approach in encouraging people to realise what we are doing to the planet.

However, I feel taking an entirely negative and aggressive approach seems to be what puts people off helping. I think maybe I should focus on a positive outlook and what we can do to save the planet rather than scaring everyone into change. I think maybe including some of the shocking facts and research is vital, but then offering some suggestions on how to support our planet will perhaps have a more effective result.  In my work, I want to use the technique that appeared popular in the books that I had found: using colour and imagery to draw attention to the effects of animal agriculture on our environment, but I also want to point out the possibilities of where we, as individuals can make a difference!

In my opinion, this is what we need to focus on, the power that we have individually to save the animals, the rainforest and the people.

Set Design Market Research

Set design in terms of film doesn’t really appeal to me, but I’ve always been quite fascinated by theatre set design and its traditional elaborate style.

History of Western theatre: Greece, Italy and Turkey hold the oldest ruins of outdoor amphitheatres.

These theatres were very cleverly constructed, obviously back in Ancient Greece they didn’t have lights and highly technical equipment that we have today for theatre performances, so they relied on expertly assembled amphitheatres which were designed to allow the entire audience to hear what was going on.

In the late 17^th Century Ferdinando Galli Bibiena introduced the idea of multiple perspectives, set started to become as attractive as the performances themselves. 

The first permanent theatre in France had been the Hotel De Bourgogne. What we now call the Globe, was the first in England.

Modern set design began in the 20^th Century, a lot of these sets were appropriated by the dramatic performances and were very exuberant. Theatre set design arguably moved with the trends of the arts and set design began to move towards abstraction. We also started to see more of a change when the props became more interactive and lights and technology became more accessible. Today we see a lot less traditional set design of painted sets, and a lot more use of modern lighting. There has also been a huge change in how the sets are produced, for example having the technology and the ability to print etc. For example, The Lion King uses light, props and painted scenery: 

whereas The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time, focuses much more on light. This could be because of what these stories are about and where they are set.

I wanted to research a few sets that might relate to the issues I have been looking at. The two films I thought of, both comment on animal cruelty, which does of course link to reasons not to eat meat. The first film is Wes Anderson’s (written by Roald Dahl) animated fantastic Mr Fox:

The second is Nick Park and Peter Lord’s Chicken Run: the chickens attempt to escape the evil farmers that force them to lay eggs and kill them if they can’t.One thing I notice about these two films and what they have in common in terms of set design is their warmth in colour and homely feel. I’m not sure whether this was deliberate or not, but for me, it creates a relatable feeling towards the characters, maybe to allow people to empathise with the animals?

Global Warming & The Environment

The issue that I have been focusing on is global warming and the environment: in particular, the effects of agriculture on the environment.  I have researched from a variety of sources, focusing in on the subjects of water and rainforest destruction.

 

“Animal livestock (beef, chicken, etc.) — mostly grown on industrial factory farms — is responsible for 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust of all motor vehicles worldwide?”  http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/agriculture/

“2,500 gallons of water are needed to produce 1 pound of meat.” http://www.earthsave.org/environment/water.htm

“136 million rainforest acres cleared for animal agriculture”  http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/

 

Having read the article, “It’s time to wean ourselves off the fairytale version of farming” by George Monbiot, I felt that there is very little, (or at least for me there was when I was younger) in terms of educating children on global warming, ESPECIALLY the effects of rearing meat on the environment! I hadn’t even considered this to be an issue as a child. I think it’s important to educate people of all ages what is happening in the world. I found a few children’s books that focus on compassionate living and caring for the world, I feel I will definitely take inspiration from these books.(http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2015/may/29/its-time-to-wean-ourselves-off-the-fairytale-version-of-farming)

Barroux’s Where’s the Elephant is a powerful children’s book about the effects of deforestation. It follows a parrot, a snake and an elephant, who find they can no longer play hide and seek because all the trees get cut down. I feel it’s a strong message portrayed in quite a light hearted but sad way. I think this is perhaps the approach to be taking when informing people. In my experience people tend to be more affected by less forceful messages, it gives people a chance to reflect and think.

Lynne Cherry’s The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest has an affect on me because of its aesthetic beauty, a reflection of the Amazon itself. The tale is about a man who falls asleep after trying to cut down a tree and is encouraged by all the creatures in the rainforest not to do so because of the effects it will have on everyone. The man wakes up and changes his mind. I think the beauty of the illustrations in this book remind us of what we are destroying and therefore create a very persuasive message.

Anouck Boisrobert , Louis Rigaud and Sophie Strady’s In the Forest and Under the Ocean, also have a strong and beautiful aesthetic appeal. However, if we look closer we realise that there are things wrong with these beautiful images, an illustration of what happens in reality. Again, they use very subtle methods of persuasion, “In The Forest” leaves me feeling truly sad, it is a pop up book that presents us with wonderful illustrations of a full rainforest and by the end it leaves us with only one tree, after all the machines have cut them down.

I also looked at Nicola Davies’ Gaia Warriors, Kenneth Steven & Jane Ray’s Fragile Planet, all of these books share a theme of living on the planet co-operatively and empathetically.

I also decided to take a look at what animations I could find that were relevant to the effects of animal agriculture on the environment. I genuinely struggled to find any, there were a couple in the documentary “Cowspiracy” that were useful: (these have been taken from the film and abbreviated into a YouTube Clip)

 

Aside from that, I found very little in animation on agriculture. I did however, find a few useful videos that were interesting in terms of commenting on environmental damage or demonstrating what global warming is:

This video is Greenpeace campaigning for Shell to stop drilling for oil in the arctic. I think the message is very clear and I’m fairly certain that the video came out a few months after the Lego Movie was released so it did attract a fair bit of attention.

This video was also quite good in terms of showing the facts: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2015/jul/08/vegan-climate-change-video

I also liked this video because of its animation techniques and illustrations:

Animation Market Research

I’ve always found animation quite interesting, when my sister and I were younger we used to use my dad’s camera and create our own stop motion animations using play mobile or our dolls house toys. But generally I know very little about the subject. So I decided to inform myself about the different types of animation.

Traditional Animation

 This is an older form of animation, it requires drawing every frame in a sequence. It’s sequential drawings, in which the frames move very quickly to create the illusion of a moving image. Traditional animation usually uses 12 frames per second.

Computer Animation

 or “3D animation” means the animator will use a computer programme that controls the drawings like a puppet. e.g. can individually move the legs, arms, eyes etc. The frame rate in 3D animation tends to be 24 frames per second.

Motion Graphics

This generally does not involve characters or storylines, but moving graphic elements or text. This could involve animated logos, advertisements or film opening titles.

Box gif by Bryan Findell – Dribbbl

Stop Motion

This means photographing an object, moving it a bit and then taking another photo. Similar to traditional animation, it creates an illusion of a moving image.

Different types of stop motion can be: Claymation – using clay or playdo. Cut out stop motion – using paper or card and filming from above. Silhouette  animation. Action figures or toys. Pixelation – this means using real people with an unrealistic way of filming (photographing the persons movement, as if they were an action figure) .

 

History of Animation

We could suggest the earliest form of animation is the 17th century Magic Lantern. An early type of image projector that could have parts that would move.This is arguably not animation, in the 1800s the zoetrope and the flip book appeared, these were perhaps more recognisable as animation today.   

During the 1900s, cameras had been invented and we started to see animation developing further. The first filmed animation was the enchanted drawing by Thomas Edison and J. Stuart Blackton. It was a humerous video of a man drawing a face that would change facial expression when the man took away his alcohol or cigar etc.

J. Stuart Blackton’s humerous phases of funny faces in 1906.

This was closely followed by Winsor McCay’s (a newspaper cartoonist) short animations in 1911: Little Nemo, and Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914.

The characters in these short animations were very simple at this time.

It wasn’t until the 1920s that Walt Disney and Warner Bros started producing animations and in 1928 Disney had a breakthrough with “Steamboat Willie”. It was the first cartoon that included a soundtrack, voices and sound effects printed onto the film itself.  Animation rapidly started to grow in popularity, particularly in cartoons. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” had its own sound effects and music, with personalities given to each of the characters, it was the first colour animated full film.

Once colour television had been introduced to the US in 1951, the animation industry continued to thrive and still does today.

Jurassic Park, 1993

The Jungle Book, 2016

Future Trends

There appears to be an interest in non-photorealistic rendering (NPR). where the animator uses the 3D software to create an animation that has an impressionistic quality. 

Like Psyop’s “Walls & Chains”  or the recent Freeview Advertisement.

I’m personally drawn to this form of animation because of it’s aesthetic value, similar to how I prefer a more impressionistic form of art work rather than photorealistic.

We can also see an increase in CG stop motion. I love this idea because it means that we are mixing computer generated techniques with traditional methods, so the old with the new! For example, Laika Studio’s Boxtrolls used a lot of 3D printing. They were able to print thousands of slightly different facial expressions to create a detailed moving image but kept the traditional movement of a stop motion animation.

 

 

Children’s Book Illustration Market Research

History

“And you who wish to represent by words the form of man and all the aspects of his membrification, relinquish that idea. For the more minutely you describe the more you will confine the mind of the reader, and the more you will keep him from the knowledge of the thing described. And so it is necessary to draw and to describe.”

We could suggest that the oldest known illustrative storytelling goes back to cavemen.

But in terms of a physical “book” the oldest surviving one is an Egyptian Papyrus roll -1980 BC.

The printing of picture books appeared in the 15th Century, which allowed an education in the west to be more readily available to those who were not wealthy.

In 1794 William Blake created Songs of Innocence. All colour would have been added by hand!

In the 19th Century Edward Lear Produced a lot of humorous illustrative work. We could suggest this is a turning point in how illustration was perceived and used. rather than being just an aesthetically pleasing image, it was used to entertain and amuse alongside text.

I also notice a lot of contemporary illustrators use this silly humour in their work.

“Caldecott’s work heralds the beginning of the modern picture book. He devised an ingenious juxtaposition of picture and word, a counterpoint that never happened before. Words are left out – but the picture says it. Pictures are left out – but the word says it. In short, it is the invention of the picture book.”
Maurice Sendak on Randolph Caldecott

“The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon” by Randolph Caldecott

Maurice Sendak was evidently influenced by Caldecott’s work particularly when he says “Words are left out – but the picture says it. Pictures are left out – but the word says it” We can see this in a lot of his illustrations.

“Where the Wild Things Are” – Maurice Sendak

We can see this is how picture books began to thrive and begin to notice the absence of text in modern picture books.
“Clown” – Quentin Blake

“The Snowman” – Raymond Briggs

 

Contemporary Practitioners & Content

We can appreciate the importance of the relationship between text and illustrations in communication. A lot of contemporary illustrators play with this idea. For example, Eileen Brown uses counterpoint in the story “Hander’s Surprise”. Her words tell one story and the images tell another.

Quentin Blake’s “Cockatoos” also uses this method of storytelling.

Text can also become the illustrations themselves. We see a lot of illustrators creating their own text. Perhaps in the future we will start to see very little text and just pictures, whether its illustrated words or just images.

Fanny Britt’s “Jane, the Fox and Me” demonstrates this illustrative text.

Media and Technology

Media and technology has also influenced modern illustration. Although digital art has become particularly popular, we still see a lot of very traditional methods, like painting!

Laura Carlin’s illustration in “The Promise” by Nicola Davies

Contemporary artists like Laura Carlin and Rebecca Green still appear to use paintings as their main method of illustration.

However, from looking at most contemporary children’s book illustrators, they tend to use a combination of traditional methods and modern technology.

One example of combining the old with the new is: Lauren Child’s “Charlie and Lola”. A traditional collage, that has been transformed into a children’s animation.

 

Promotion and Publication

Almost all contemporary children’s book illustrators do not use agencies these days, and primarily self promote using websites.

Pages such as Instagram appear to have become very popular in the illustration community, personally I follow most of the illustrators that I’m interested in via Instagram.

I also found an interesting piece of information on publishing: a lot of publishers have a say in the layout and appearance of the final book that is being made.

Arizpe,E & Styles, M.(2003) Children Reading Pictures– Interpreting Visual Texts. Oxon: Routledge.