Wednesday 20th April 2011:

I looked at the work of Ralph Steadman again today and decided to create a piece inspired by his piece ‘Vintage Syrah’. I liked the idea of having a playing card with the bully on one end and the victim on the other and having them joined together in the middle to show that ones controls/influences the other.

I particularly wanted to focus on the actual image, but I also considered Steadman’s use of black and line detail and tried to incorporate this into my work. I really like the end result of this piece and feel that it’s a strong and unique image.

It was really important to make the victim and the bully almost identical to yet again show how the bully can also be a victim, and that perhaps those being bullied are then influenced to bully. It was therefore also important to have them joined together in the middle to show this connection and how trapped and tied to each other they can become (ie: one doesn’t work without the other). I decided to also illustrate this in a ‘twisted’ design to show how hard it is to break away from this cycle and how complicated bullying can be at times. I think that this message is visually communicated well and that this could be something which I explore further when trying to show this relationship.

I am also quite proud of the actual drawing itself, which I based on some photos I had taken before (representing the bully and the victim). One thing I noticed was that having the victim at the top of the image (when stuck in my book), worked better because when the bully was at the top, the victim actually looked quite ‘mean’ as well upside-down and I therefore decided to place the image in my book this way up to really show the contrast between them. Also, this piece works well with the grey background as it’s neutral but also quite messy and distressed to convey the emotion behind the piece – and it’s also the sort of background which could relate back to the work of Ralph Steadman.

I feel that this piece is quite engaging and would make my target audience want to look at it, however, if seen from far away it may be quite difficult to understand what the image is and what message it is trying to convey, so perhaps this wouldn’t work as part of the poster design. However, it’s an interesting concept which I could consider developing further to perhaps make it easier to see and understand simply.

I also wanted to show in my sketchbook the three main types of bully (which I read about in the ‘Bullying’ book). These are: the aggressive type, the anxious type and the passive type. I thought it would be quite effective to use the left over part from a previous piece and then to write these different types of bully around it. I think that this image works quite well, especially with the grey and white against the black as this helps it to stand out.

It’s quite a simple image which I think works well for the information which I am trying to give. I could perhaps show the meanings and characteristics, etc, of each type of bully on a different page, but for this piece, I just simply wanted to list them to show that there are different types, and therefore perhaps they each need to be dealt with differently to prevent them from bullying.

After looking at the fact that the bully can also be a victim, I wanted to show this through photography (digitally manipulated). I therefore used some of the photos, which I had taken previously of the same person (to show both the bully and the victim), and to combine these into one image to show the bully bullying the victim who was actually themselves. I think that these work quite well and show what I was trying to portray, however, they are very simple, and could be developed further to make them look more realistic. I could also experiment with different poses and situations (eg: the bully tying the shoelaces together of the victim who is the same person). These could be used within my poster ideas to show this side of the bully.

Target for today: Look at the work of Ralph Steadman and respond in sketchbook looking at both the bully and the victim, create a page (by using the information from the ‘Bullying’ book) to show the three main different types of bully, and digitally create an image which shows the bully bullying the victim (which is actually the same person), to show that the bully can also be a victim themselves.

Target for tomorrow: Choose photos for developing and edit sizes, etc. Annotate sketchbook in detail further and begin to sew/stitch a piece as a response to the answers/comments given from the children at the primary school.