AD34 - word document early extracts

Things written in Italics are my original notes and regular type shows my reflective notes in post. Highlighted things represent crucial moments in my study process that helped to fuel the next sections in the post. 

Monster ideas of presentation

Long scroll containing timeline

Tiny wardrobe or cupboard that has a load of monsters inside with discriptions

Make a miniature bed with monsters in

Huge poster

Illustrated characters

Dracula

Mummy

Zombie

Monsters children are afraid of

Interest in monsters

Wide range

Such a massive variety

Origin stories

Creatures, aliens …… all sorts

The effect they have on children. Kids are terrified of monsters and yet they are the most popular protagonists within children’ s illustration

The evolution of a monster and how they have changed over time, how they are then depicted through illustration  - comparison imagery, classic monsters verses monsters in the now? 

The psychology of monsters within children’s illustration and how they have adapted from a phobia to a metaphore to help a child get over their fears

Illustrate monsters to represent common child hood fears and reflect on the fact that i have generated my own idea of how I perceive monsters and how that deals with fear.

Introduction to monsters… why they exist and how they metaphorically exist?

How long have they been around for?

Monsters come in many different shapes and sizes – examples of biggest and smallest?

Fear of monsters at a young age

Inaminimate obkects becoming a monster, monsters under the bed blab la bla

Childrens books about monsters

Conclusion

One of the first pages I had written during last summer, I believe I was trying to figure out what my artefact would consist of. I also seem to have started planning the content of my essay where I talked about metaphorical and psychical monsters. I also mentioned my interests in monsters in the bottom section where I talked about variation and the effect monsters have on children.

You can see that these notes were hastily made as there are a lot of spelling mistakes but I just wanted to get it all on paper before I had forgotten it. The timeline idea seemed like a good place to start as that would allow me to order my illustrations chronologically. 

Below are some more notes. 

Monsters

Egyptian – mummies – sphinx

English – dragons – trolls -

Folk lore – gog and mahog – loch ness – sprites and imps etc

Computer games – dark souls – sky rim -

Childrens books – edge chronicles -

Comics – swamp thing – hulk – mutants – beast

Films – monsters inc – meet the Robinsons – five children and it – spiderwick chronicles. Hotel translevania, the labyrinth. Dark crystal. Futurama – fosters home for imaginery kids

Toys – monsters in your pocket, trash pack,

What is a monster?

Literal or non –literal

Human monsters – Sweeney todd, Jack the ripper,

Metaphorical

Classics (jeckel and hyde, frankenstien, Dracula )

Non human classics. Godzilla, king kong, mothra, big foot

Halloween – Headless horsemen, mummy, witch, ghost. Zombie

Monsters purpose?  Existence?

Because the movie demands it?
to convey a point
to scare someone
to convince someone
to consult
to believe
to become a metaphor 

I guess here I was still thinking large scale and I was trying to address the topic of monsters as one singular genre. This was far too vast as the list went on and these were only a small number of examples, again here I am talking about the metaphorical and the literal so that concept seemed to have had an impression on me. 

Finally here is my first essay plan which came together just in time for my first tutorial with Mel in September. I had a brief idea of what I wanted to do but it was still early days and I just needed to get some feedback to direct me. 

Rough essay plan

The evolution of monsters and how they are depicted through illustration

General introduction to the topic, what I intend to find out and why am I interested in such. What is it about monsters that enticed me, talk briefly about the ever growing categorization of monsters and how they have expanded into their own little culture.

1^st case study – the evolution of the stereotypical move monster (Frankenstein, Dracula, mummies, werewolves and so on)

 Talk about how these monsters made a huge impact on our culture and are often parodied within illustrations and cartoons, explain why they have changed and why they have stayed with us for so long. Was it necessary for them to change so much, do they still stand for terror and anarchy, do their morals still remain the same even though their shape and design has changed to fit into our culture.  All the while compare using children’s media – cartoons – books films etc

talk about colours used – Frankenstein is originally greyish in colour and now is commonly green and doesn’t have many visible scars… stuff like that. Look more at the future and the now, touch on the past

Monsters are always important, they help us overcome things, they are really popular at the moment and they had a huge spike in popularity a while back, history will repeat itself again and again with this ever expanding culture.

They have always existed and have always had purpose.

Dinosaurs were the world first beast – original man would have been terrified – when they went we lost sight of what beasts were. Big huge imposing monsters that could eat us whole, so we told stories, we had nightmares and we saw things that weren’t real, we passed things on and monsters have survived.

2^nd case study – The connection between children and monsters.

During this part I wanted to conduct some research based on the way a child’s mind works and how they create monsters as a visual aid which is then used to map out fears and emotions. I also want to look at the empowerment that a monster gives a child, how they make children want to become bigger and stronger so that they can overcome fear. This metaphorical transformation is interesting as the child essentially becomes the monster and it would be good to write about the connection between the two.

Talk about popular children’s books and how monsters are conveyed; maybe talk about how the younger audience designs a monster which isn’t that scary, one that is friendly. In comparison talk about a slightly older audience that create monsters with human characteristics in a way to connect with this seemingly terrible creature, talk about the monsters motifs and their general purpose.

Artefact keeping with the theme of evolution and moving forwards, may it be a timeline depicting how characterization of monsters has changed over time, or illustrating children transforming into their metaphorical monster superform which they use to fight their fears. Either way it will depict the change a monster takes and will link their characteristics to humans.  

That entire last section was really important for me as it made me think more contextually about the monster concept. Focusing on how a monster interacts with a child and the different kind of relationships that are present throughout picture books allowed me to condense my research topic down into something more manageable. Focusing on illustrated picture books also linked in better to my practice so it made a lot of sense to pursue this topic.