Week 1 (After Brief Launch)

For every week I will be summarising what I have been doing in bullet points

• Study the original text of The Snow Queen thoroughly and take notes from current analysis/reviews with a focus on recurring themes, symbolism and characters
• Write up FMP proposal and a timetable for the next four months
• Presentation document workshop 
• Research artists for inspiration 
• Watch film/TV adaptations of the story  
• Figure out which version of the text to use and which target audience my book will be aimed for
• Look at current children's picture books (layout, style of text used...etc.)
• Guest speaker Jamie Keenan

Negotiated Study Project: An Evaluation

Before starting with final major project, I am going to reflect back on Negotiated Study as it can be quite helpful to bring to light the aspects that did and didn't work so well.

I'd chosen to illustrate tarot cards, specifically the Major Arcana deck as I have always had a fascination with the meaning behind each of them; there is a sort of mystery and allure surrounding the cards and the artwork has an ancient, majestic feel to them, as well as being wrought with symbolism.

In the beginning I wanted fashion to be my main influence on the cards as that is another area that I am interested in, something along the lines of  "Fashion forecast tarots". I changed my mind after a while into the project, however, as I preferred simply interpreting the cards in my own way. So I ended up researching more into the meanings of the cards, gathering inspiration from artists such as Frida Kahlo and Aubrey Beardsley.

I decided to focus on only certain cards that were more exciting to work with and had more potential for symbolism as there are quite a lot of cards in one deck. The cards I worked most with were Death, The Moon, The World, The Devil and the four below which are my final images.

The Hierophant represented conformity to social standards and religion therefore I wanted him to be quite rigid and cold which was depicted through his straight gaze; I also drew a cross for obvious reasons and the chains represented him being bound by his religion.

 The Hermit I symbolized by drawing a face with eyes closed and a veil covering most of her face to create a sense of mystery. The card can be interpreted in that she is waiting patiently or keeping to herself as a recluse, both of which is what the Hermit represents.

 The Lovers card was produced with aesthetics in mind more than the others because love is a beautiful and intricate thing and so I tried to replicate that in my card. The man and woman are joined by the different symbols in the middle all representing love.

   The Sun card was actually a by product of the World but I thought it worked well cropped as it was quite simple in contrast to the other cards and more reminiscent of the older existing tarot cards which I quite liked. The modern style text helped create a more up to date feel.

Overall, I think the outcome of this project was quite successful, although next time during FMP I will allow myself more time to resolve the project at the end. Instead of focusing so much on producing a variety of different illustrations using several different materials, this time I want to stick to a few specific materials that I enjoy using and feel more confident in such as acrylics, gouache, water colour and ink and concentrate on finding a style that suits me. I will set myself more to learning how to use Photoshop as well in order to neaten and tidy my illustrations and achieve a more professional look.

A few things about me and some past work

Hi, my name's Selina and I have created this blog in order to document my work involving FMP; the aim is to help organise my thoughts for a smoother creative progress and to share with you my work.

   I prefer to work with paints including water colour, acrylics, and gouache. I also enjoy using brush and ink, at times combining these with dry materials such as colour pencils and copic markers. Afterwards I usually scan the image into Photoshop and play around with filters and effects to emphasize colour or clean the image up.

  The things that inspire me would have to be music, ranging from film/TV soundtracks to music from other cultures. I also love reading and imagining what the characters, worlds and landscapes would look like in the story; I am especially influenced by fantasy novels by authors such as Patrick Rothfuss, Philip Pullman, Trudi Canavan and Richelle Mead. I love all kinds of art but old fairy tale/myth illustrations, and graphic novel are my favourites.

Here are a few examples of some of my past illustrations:

Man and Lion, work from college, Selina Quach, 2009

The Haunted Doll's House, 'Ghost Stories' project, Selina Quach, 2012

Little Red Riding Hood, using symbolism & allegory,
 'Fairy Tale & Folklore' unit, Selina Quach, 2012

The Cat Lady, 'Sequential Narrative' unit, Selina Quach, 2013