CoP3: Summative Statement

The focus of my dissertation was on The Establishment, a close matrix at the top end of society that keeps those with power in such positions. What I found when I carried out my research was that there isn’t much of a discussion about The Establishment at the moment. To rectify this I decided to focus my practical piece around the Conservatives, who are perhaps the most recognisable face of The Establishment. The satirical work, inspired by Spitting Image and cartoonists such as Steve Bell and Martin Rowson, portrays a short series of behind the scenes stories at Number 10. The strips relate to my dissertation through subjects such as privatisation and capitalism, with The Establishment itself being specifically mentioned on a few occasions.

For the most part, I created these strips to act as a topical response to daily news stories. It was my intention to bring a wider audience into the political sphere by attracting them with my satirical humour, thus making the subject more accessible.

The book was originally intended to be completed in hardback format, however, this didn’t come to light. With that in mind I do plan to create a hardback copy, with more stories in the future, as I feel I have found a great source of topical comedy within this project. My aim is to produce enough quality stories to create a book worthy of being sold in stores such as Waterstones or Foyles. 

CoP3: Development Boards

CoP3: Final Outcome

Here is the final outcome for my practical work. The final digital images have been collected into Issuu form below, with photos of the physical copy below that;

CoP3: Development Summary

Here is a selection of my developmental work throughout this module. You'll notice that my work began digitally then moving away from that, before becoming digital once more. Although this was not my intent, I am happy with the atheistical value of my final product.

CoP3: Final Dissertation Crit

With the deadline fast approaching, I'm happy to say that I have completed my dissertation. From the last tutorial I had with Pete the main issue with the writing was how bulky the text was. By breaking it down in smaller sections with headings and making tighter arguments the remained of my time writing went exceptionally well.

Before I sent the work off to be printed and bound I asked my girlfriend to critically read it for any outstanding textual or grammatical errors. Luckily there was very little to change and my work was ready to print.

Below is a digital copy of my dissertation;

CoP3: Final Crit

Today we had our final crit before hand in and it went extremely well. Apart from a few blogging issues my feedback was very positive.

However there are a few things to discuss;
- Firstly, I would have liked to have produced the book in hardback format but their never occurred - I plan on taking the Tory Chums idea forward into my Extended Practise module so will attempt that there.
- Secondly, I would have liked to have presented my piece in a small box that would have looked similar to the Chancellors red statement box. That was a last minute idea and I've been advised not to attempt it. Again this can be explored in Extended Practice.
- Finally, I would have liked to have thought about a product range to accompany the book, but that never materialised.

Here is my Practical Response proposal form;




Here are the boards I produced for the crit;




Additionally, here is my feedback;

CoP3: Final Print Session

I missed a print session earlier in the week due to illness, however due to forward thinking I had a second print session booked in case of an emergency. With that in mind I was determined not to have to return to the digital print room following today and extensively reviewed my work before printing.

The final digital work looked okay, my layout choices appeared fine, with the inclusion of a foreword before each strip complimenting the narrative perfectly. So I printed and the end product looked like a professional, high quality piece of work.

CoP3: Tory Chums Strips Revised

In the past week I've worked to revise the Tory Chums strips I have created over the past few months. I began by making reworking the dialogue to make it more relevant to the Establishment, this will help reinforce the synthesis between my dissertation and practical work.

After this redrew my stripes, this time in pencil by hand rather than tracing them digitally as I had done originally. This allowed for the characters to be more fluid in design, and less constrained. After this the pieces were inked using my inking nibs and scanned into photoshop.

Before I went any further however, I played around with Kyle T Webster brushes. Matt spoke to him in a Big Heads talk (seen here) and I was eager to experiment with some of his brushes.

With little in the way of finances I have no way of replenishing the watercolours I am low in. So despite wanting to stay away from digital colours for my final piece, I decided to colour in with digital watercolour pens. The use of watercolour was to evoke similarities with Bell's cartoons, whilst still keeping a unique feel to the pieces.

I chose Times New Roman as the typeface for the contextual dialogue before each strip as it is trusted and evokes a sense of the upperclass, which I feel the work needs, with it's subject being the Conservative party.

Here are the process pieces from pencils to inks, to colours, to dialogue;



And finally, the completed work;




Additional. I chose to remove 'Halloween' piece as I didn't think it worked the best within the book. The extra two pages would also upset the multiple of four page factor when I came to print.