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Evaluation of FMP and final piece

*Anything in bold is a link to another post.*

My FMP is influenced by a book called ‘The five people you meet in heaven.’ I created my own fictional story which involved social issues such as the jobs my characters had and the communication between people. My characters were emotions personified and were created to resemble the effect we as people have on others. I created a survey asking about the behaviours of people which I used to help me to create my characters.

I looked at the work of artist Sophie Calle at the beginning of my project when I decided I wanted to involve people.  She looks at other people’s lives in detail without permission.  I became more interested in this topic after reading ‘The five people you meet in heaven.’ I also looked at narrative artists such as Edvard Munch, as I wanted to see how other artists interpreted stories and experiences into art. I noticed that the art didn’t always tell the story, but sometimes it is inspired by or is a response to it. My final piece is a mural so I explored the work of mural artists, such as Fin Dac to help me create an effective final piece. I also used some books  (‘Narrative’ by P.Cobley, ‘Writing as a visual art’ by G.Tofoni and ‘The visual narrative reader’ by N.Cohn) which gave me tips on writing the story I had planned.

I wanted to challenge myself with this project and so I decided I wanted to paint my final piece. I improved my painting skills by painting my characters more than once. Through doing this I gained a greater understanding of tone and texture as well as how to document the reflection of light in my work. As part of my project research and development, I decided to take a life drawing class to improve my drawings of the human figure. I did this because I wanted to create proportioned characters that looked good.  I also did other workshops such as typography, mixed media and how to manipulate photos.  I chose a door as my canvas and painted it yellow before taking it to college because it needed to dry for 12 hours between coats. I also had to choose the composition for the mural, and, in doing so I realised my original paintings were too small, so I enlarged them and painted them again. This improved the appearance of the door.

I used time planners to help me track my time as well as making ‘to do’ lists to make sure I could keep on top of the workload. When there was no tutor led sessions, I set my own tasks, such as when I was exploring my ideas. I set myself goals which helped me to maintain a sense of order during a less structured period.

 The audience of my project is people of all ages because the message I am trying to portray is valuable to everyone and useful in everyday life. The way I produced my final piece helps to make it informative for everyone as it is told in the form of a story so younger people can understand it too.

At the beginning of my project I came up with a question, ‘Who lives behind the yellow door?’ My answer to this question now that I am at the end of the project is; everyone, or anyone. In a sense, the door is representative of each individual person. You cannot know the inner workings of a person based on what you see. So, you must be careful of what you say and do.

Analysis of my final piece

The bright colour of my door was described as ‘attention grabbing’ by a peer of mine. This is exactly the response I wanted for my colour choice. My final piece standing out was also something I thought about when deciding what exactly I wanted my piece to be. The large scale helps to draw attention to what at first seems like a nicely composed piece of artwork. The rollercoaster starts at the top of the mural, behind the character Henry. In the story, Henry brings all of the other characters together and the rollercoaster passes by each of the other characters, including them within the piece of work. The tones of the rollercoaster help to create a more 3D appearance and create the feel of a journey throughout the piece of work. I chose to paint the rollercoaster red because I knew it would create a contrast with the background. I wanted to create this contrast because I didn’t want the yellow to overpower the artwork, as the door is just the canvas. The other elements that I painted on the door have relevance to each character and the story, created that same contrasting effect. I tried to paint the elements realistically to connect the fictional story to real life like I did in the written story. I wanted to do this for the purpose of this work is to teach a message that I learned from the book ‘The Five people you meet in heaven.’ This book was one of the main inspirations for my project which is apparent in the written piece of work which the inspiration for my mural is taken from. The six characters on the door are not painted on but stuck on which means they are slightly embossed as the characters are higher than the rest of the door. Not only does this create texture but it signifies the importance of the characters in the story.  Overall, I like the outcome as I think that I managed to paint it well and show realistic tones and textures in the paintings. I think that it displays areas of my story well but could also be its own individual piece of art if the story was unknown to whoever was viewing it.

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Painting the door

The painting of my door started on Monday the 5th, one week before the deadline. I think by starting my painting this late I put myself at a slight disadvantage because it meant that I had to prioritise the painting when there were also other important things that I had to do. 

I started by taking down the paper templates and drawing the objects onto the door with pencil, at this point I chose to change the baby blankets to dummies as I felt it would make it more clear and obvious. 

I was nervous to start at first as I didn’t want to mess up with so little time left so I started with the paper as I felt it would be the easiest part to paint. I then went on to paint the dummies which also ended up looking very effective. Then finally I managed to paint the lower half of the roller coaster so by the end of the day I was very pleased with what I had managed to paint on the first day.

On Tuesday we had to spend the morning at Tavistock Place because of the exam in Palace Court, because of this I only had the afternoon to paint. I painted the rest of the rollercoaster first because the steps of how I painted it the day before were still fresh in my mind. I felt it would be best to finish what I started. I then decided to paint the beer, which changed from a pint puller in the beginning to a beer stein. I then changed it again to a classic pint glass as I wanted to be able to clearly paint the beer inside. I also painted the handcuffs and made sure to add plenty of tone to it so that it had an appearance more similar to metal, I wasn't sure I liked the outcome of the chain between the two cuffs but I wasn’t too worried as I knew the chain would be covered by the character.

Wednesday morning was my last day of painting and the only item I had left to paint was the bouquet of flowers, however, I thought that it might take longer than the time I had so I changed it to a single wilting rose as I felt it fitted better. After I’d finished the rose I glued on the character paintings that I had painted previously and the piece was finished. 

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The people behind the yellow door.

I want to tell you a story, a story about some people in a world only a little different from our own, so please read, and enjoy;

Angie is Angry. Both physically and literally, she’s anger personified, that might be a better way to describe it. The effect she had on the people around her was similar to that of a smell wafting through the wind, everyone nearby would smell it and be affected in one way or another. Angie was like that, she made the people around her angry just by being in the near vicinity of them. If someone were to witness a bust up or a shouting match in the middle of the street, they’d probably be shaken up for a while, but not Angie, it was almost a daily occurrence for her. The way the person reacted would depend on their personality if they're aggressively angry, or loudly angry, or calmly angry. You know, the types of people that would sit there and say ‘I’m angry’ whilst they stare at you solemnly. Those are Angie’s favourite because they cause no trouble, and it’s almost as if she doesn’t affect them at all.

However, right now, as she stands over a man who her colleague Ron had just taken to the ground and arrested, she’s angry. She’s angry because he had only been pulled over for speeding, but upon meeting her, he’d gotten angry and now he had been arrested, he should have just paid a fine. She was lucky that Ron was one of those people that were calmly angry because it meant that he could still focus even with the unwanted emotion that had been cast on him.

Angie didn’t know why she made people angry, it’s just the way it seemed to be, she’d made observations and worked out the effect she had, but she hadn’t worked out why. She watched as Ron pulled the man to his feet and opened the door, allowing Ron to sit the man inside, she shut the door and sat in the front seat.  “ Are you alright Ron?” She asked. “I’m a bit angry if I’m honest Angie.” He replied with a  sigh. Ron was 50 something, bald and wore glasses, the back of his neck layered a little over his shirt collar and his stout figure meant he couldn’t run as fast as he used to. He didn’t come out as much as he did in his golden days and spent a lot of time in the office, but he’d join Angie when she did community work. He was still strong, just not as fast anymore.  

“Oh, I see.” Angie turned to look out of the window, it had started to rain and her eyes focused on following the trails that the raindrops had left behind. Angie often wondered why she made people angry, or if she didn’t and actually just found herself working in a career with a lot of angry people. She wasn’t sure.

It was early evening when Angie finally got to leave the station, her large camel coat covered her uniform and she pulled the checkered scarf from around her neck and stuffed it into her pocket. She didn’t stop walking until she reached the bus stop, and then she stopped and waited, leaning against the glass screen because she was tired now, the day was taking its toll on her.

The bus pulled up, she paid the fair, and she sat down, some of the strands of her black curly hair fell over her face as she pulled it out of the tight bun. She put her bag down on the seat beside her so that nobody could sit there, she didn’t want company on this journey home. She shut her tired brown eyes and rested her head against the cold glass of the bus window.

There was another important person on this bus, and by important I mean a key person in this story.

Henry was stood up on the bus, stepping forward and backward to stabilise himself with every jolt of the vehicle. His thick arm stayed above his head as he held onto one of the swinging bus handles. His chunky stature filled up a large space.

Henry was happy, and everyone else seemed to be happy too until the last stop, now they all seemed a mixture of emotions, more so than normal. Henry knew exactly what he was, or who he was. Henry had always known, that’s what he would say anyway, but of course, he didn’t really always know. At 10, after he’d accidentally smashed a window at school with his football and hadn’t gotten in trouble, the other boys he was playing with got shouted at but he just got a few mere harsh words.

He got his job at the amusement park in his early twenties, his reasoning was work somewhere where people are happy, and make them happy, make them primarily happy the entire time they’re at the park, and he’d worked there ever since. It made Henry happy that people were always happy around him, he thought it was a gift, you know, how some people are gifted with humour, others with a beautiful singing voice. It wasn’t until the theme park fortune teller had stared at him with such a look that he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up that he realised it could be more than that, all the fortune teller muttered was;

“You are happy.” She put such emphasis on the word ‘are’ that Henry thought the word 'happy' to be his name rather than his emotional state. The fortune teller had watched Henry leave her tent and she continued to watch him as he walked away through the crowds at the amusement park. She watched him with complete awe in her dark eyes. Henry had avoided her ever since.

Now, Henry’s blue eyes pierced his surroundings, looking around the bus trying to work out who exactly was enhancing another emotion, it should be happiness. He looked around the moving vehicle his eyes trailing over the features of the passengers, some were smiling, some were frowning. Then Henry’s vision landed on a woman who sat alone, she looked tired, not happy nor angry.

Henry thought in that moment that perhaps she was who he was looking for. The most difficult part now was how to introduce her to a world she’d most likely never even thought could exist. It was difficult to start a conversation with someone when you know that what you’re going to say will change their life.

He slowly made his way toward her, his hands grabbing the back of seats and poles as he moved closer to the tired lady who was resting her head against the window. “Excuse me, sorry, can I sit here? My legs aren’t quite what they used to be.” He chuckled softly and the woman smiled, nodded and moved her bag on the floor, allowing him to sit next to her.

Henry twiddled his thumbs waiting for an appropriate moment if there was one.   “So how was your day?” Angie asked, smiling at the stranger beside her, she hadn’t wanted to talk to anyone at all on this journey, but this bald happy man seemed sweet and gentle. Her starting the conversation with Henry almost took him by surprise.

“Hmm? Oh, it was good, I went to the library, read some psychology books on emotion and things like that.” He breathed heavily as he spoke, his voice wheezy from the extra weight he carried on his bones. He hadn’t read books on emotion at the library, he’d actually spent the day at work, but it felt necessary to start the conversation that he so desperately wanted to take place. It didn’t, the conversation didn’t take place naturally, and at the stop before his own Henry found himself blurting it out. He said, as loudly as he could without drawing attention;

“I know how you make other people feel, everyone was happy before you got on the bus and now, well the mood has changed.” His wheezy voice whispered.

“Excuse me? Are you saying I made everybody on this bus mad?” She scowled and stared at him.

“No - well yes but you can’t help it- it’s just the way it is.”

Her scowl got harsher, but then it softened. “If it’s not my fault how do I make people mad? She asked as Henry reached up to press the bell.

“It’s what you are, it’s- it’s like it’s your job, you aren’t alone, me, I’m happy and then my friends they’re all the other emotions.” He stood up from his seat and grabbed the pole to help him stabilise himself.

“Wha- you can’t leave now, I have so many questions to ask you.” She stood up herself, picking up her bags. "I want to know more.”

“Well, you’re welcome to come back for a cup of tea.” He smiled.

The two acquainted strangers climbed off the bus together. Angie had thought that perhaps it was strange of her to go home with someone she barely knew, but the fact that he had answers to all the question she had was reason enough for her to go with him.

“It’s just around the corner,” Henry reassured her, his breathing was shallow and his voice husky from the walking. Angie nodded and held her bag in front of her, kicking it with her legs every time she took a step forward.

“How did you know it was me?” She asked quietly as the pair turned a corner and started walking down the street.

“You were neither happy nor angry.” He smiled. “I thought that it must be you.” He turned and walked up a set of 3 steps towards the house, the lights turned on as he neared and he unlocked the yellow door. “Please, come in.” Henry smiled and held the door open for her.

Angie sat in the kitchen on the wooden chair, her hands wrapped around the steaming cup of tea watching the 4 unfamiliar faces that watched her in return. Henry had gone into the garden to water his roses and so now the strangers and Angie were waiting for his return.

When he did return, he pulled the gardening gloves off of his hands, hung the back door keys on the hook and poured himself a cup of tea. He then sat down and took a sip.

“I suppose I should introduce you all.” He pointed to the only other man in the house. “This is Andy, he’s anxious.”

“Oh about what?”

“No, no he is anxious.”

“Ohhhh I see,” Angie responded, smiling at the man.

Andy smiled back, the sides of his wide green eyes creasing a little as he did so, his dark features would trick you into thinking he was braver and more powerful than he actually was, appearance does that sometimes, tricks you into assuming things without even realising you’re doing it. Andy had spent, and would always spend his life as a nervous wreck, he worried himself senseless over the smallest of things, and that caused others to worries too. That was his reasoning for why everyone was always nervous around him, but obviously, that wasn’t the right reason.

He preferred silence, that’s why he took on the job of exam invigilator during exam season, walking up and down in the silence was bliss to him, but of course he still worried about everything, whether it would be tripping up or needing to sneeze. He didn’t like disrupting things, just in case, he couldn’t deal with the consequences.

When it wasn’t exam season, Andy was an Agony Aunt for a teen magazine, most of the time he wouldn’t know how to answer the questions they asked him in the fear that his answers would ruin their life, so he’d usually say something along the lines of;

‘Hey there (insert name),

It is very normal to worry about things, in fact, I worry about absolutely everything. If I were you I would think up every single possibility that could possibly occur as a result of your problem. After that, I’d just hope for the best I suppose.

Best of luck,                            A :)’

He was pretty close to losing that job when Lou spotted some of his responses in the back of her copy of the magazine.  She’d thought it odd that an Agony Aunt would choose a solution that would resolve in more worrying rather than less so she showed the magazine to Henry, who decided to follow up on ‘A’, just in case.

After much research, Henry found Andy and then, after much persuasion, Andy moved into the house with the yellow door. He felt better knowing that he wasn’t really alone anymore. However he constantly worried about all the people he had made anxious in his lifetime, and for the first 3 weeks, he wouldn’t leave the house, just in case he made some poor soul too nervous. He soon figured out that it was okay to feel nervous, it was up to the people how they responded to it. So really Andy was helping people to learn a lesson and after he realised that. He didn’t feel so bad.  

Now Andy had settled in wonderfully, still anxious, still both an exam invigilator and Agony Aunt, but now he had a home too, a place where he belonged.

“Then this is Su.” Henry continued, pointing to a woman who had her hair wrapped in a pink towel,  a few brown hairs escaping from the wrap, a cardigan covering her scrubs. “She’s a midwife, her shift starts soon.” Henry clarified, whilst Su smiled and stuck her hand out to shake Angie’s. The skin was rough and Angie assumed it had something to do with the fact that her hands were a primary tool in her trade.

“Nice to meet you,” Angie said softly, beginning to get slightly overwhelmed.

“I’m surprised.” Su piped up. “My emotion I mean.” She smiled.

Su was surprising. At least that’s what she was always told, and that’s the way people always seemed when they were around her. Whenever they found out her name, age, job, anything and everything was apparently surprising when it came to Su. When she was at work the parents always seemed surprised when they actually got to see their baby, even though they almost certainly knew the child was coming. It wasn’t just her job that helped her to surprise people, it was her, it was everything she was.

For a long time, she just assumed people underestimated her and that the phrase ‘Oh that’s surprising’ was just a reflection of that. Of course, it wasn’t, it was her effect on the people around her, her presence emphasised how surprised they became. She didn’t find out until she discovered the existence of the others and moved into the house with the yellow door.

The next person in the room was a woman with short hair dressed in a blue sweater. The colour complimented her skin tone and matched her blue socks, which were peeking out from under the ends of the legs of her trousers as she sat on the kitchen counter.  Henry pointed to her and then looked at Angie. “This is Sam, she’s well… sad.” Sam was always sad, and in her world, so was everyone else, smiles and laughter were something only people with great distance from her got to experience. She got a job as a funeral director when she was 23 after she moved into the house with the yellow door. Originally she’d lived down the street in a house with 3 other people.  However, the three people decided to move out, thinking the house had negative energy or something. That left Sam alone and worried about exactly how she’d afford the house. One day Sam sat on the front step and cried, as if by coincidence, although it was obviously fate, Henry walked past after purchasing the weekly newspaper from the corner shop and asked if she was alright. Sam was surprised that he wasn’t sad and Henry was surprised that he hadn’t ever noticed her before.  He sat with her, and she didn’t feel quite so sad, so they talked and to solve her problems she moved into the house with the yellow door. She was the second to move in, after surprised, who was the first.

After discovering the effect she had on people, Sam wasn’t sure what to do with herself. So Henry suggested she get a job, and that’s how Sam ended up as a funeral director. She helped people feel what they were supposed to feel in that moment, and life for Sam wasn’t so bad anymore.

Sam slipped off the counter and looked at Angie for a few moments before giving her a small smile before her head dropped to look at the floor like a wilting rose.

"Then the last person I have to introduce you to is Lou, Lou is lust." Henry pointed to her and smiled.

“Hi.” Lou grinned at Angie

Lou was the youngest, you could tell by the youthful glow of her clear skin and the way she styled her hair into large voluminous curls. However, she was not the most recent newcomer to the clan of the emotionally gifted. She worked in a bar to make her living after moving out of her parent's house, almost immediately after becoming an adult. It had been Sam who had found her there, Sam had walked into the bar and been completely perplexed by the lustful atmosphere of the bar. Now, of course, Sam knew that bars were lustful places, but there was something about this one. It was the fact Sam didn’t feel sad there, and that’s when she knew she had to find exactly who was causing all this behaviour.

So Sam hung around for a while and eventually she caught on that it was the pretty girl behind the bar, so Sam waited, all night until Lou’s shift was over. She didn’t mind too much, Lou’s presence meant her emotional effect wasn't quite as strong.

Lou’s shift ended and she walked towards Sam, Lou was a gutsy character and had noticed Sam watching her since the moment she’d arrived, so obviously, she had to confront her. The pair talked for a few hours, Sam explaining everything to her. Lou didn’t believe a word of it and got up to leave pretty hastily, but not before Sam managed to slip her business card into Lou’s pocket. Sam knew Lou wouldn’t be able to go long without wondering or even figuring it out for herself.

Sure enough, a week later Sam got a phone call from a particularly bewildered and confused Lou. Sam showed her everything, the house with the yellow door, all of the other people and then waited for her response. Lou only smiled, everything that had ever happened, now made sense, and soon, Lou moved in too.

“So Angie are you moving in?” Lou asked her, tilting her head to one side to peer at the pleasant stranger.

“Moving in? Why would I -” She trailed off and looked at Henry

“Well there's a room for you, here, you don’t have to stay here forever, but if you want to stay so that you can learn more tomorrow,” Henry answered, his eyes looked hopeful for her answer.

Angie nodded “I just have one more question.”

“What is it?” Henry asked, he looked at her, both kindly and with a puzzled expression on his face.

“Will it always be like this?”

“Yes.” Henry smiled. “You will always have an effect on people.”

A story like this is a simple one and a pleasant one. However, it is a real story, well not the characters but the story. The way these characters affect others is not as absurd and unrealistic as one might think. Each of you has the same powers as the Henry, Angie, Lou, Sam, Andy, and Su. Admittedly it’s not quite as unusual and exciting as their gifts. However, you can affect everyone by something as simple as a facial expression. You can change someone's mood with a sentence. You can change someone's life with your presence. You as an individual have power and influence to change the minds, hearts, and lives of anyone and everyone around you, but perhaps you just haven’t realised that yet.  You don’t know what is going on in a stranger's life, and you don’t know the effect that you will have. Always think.

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When planning the production of this story I created a survey to help me.

The information I found told me that planning characters can be useful for helping to create depth as the background you have created for them can feed into their characteristics as you write the story. I decided to actually include the backstories in my story because I felt like it created a connection between character and reader. I also decided to do this to prove my point that all people had a life before they met you. There seemed to be some disagreement between the authors and writers on how much of a character should be left to the reader’s imagination. I decided the pick out a few key features of the character and then leave the rest to the reader’s imagination. However, my characters have been painted so room for imagining them yourself may be lost if the mural is seen first. Another piece of advice I received was to make sure I  didn’t describe something every time it was mentioned. So for example when describing the door I Had to make sure not to write ‘yellow door’ every time. These writing tips helped to make my piece more fluent and readable so I am really glad I put the time and effort into making the survey as overall it did help me immensely in the end. 

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Door design

 The target for this day: Experiment and decide the composition of door, and write about your decisions. 

I went shopping for a door and decided to get a flat door as it would make it easier to paint the characters on the door, as at the time I planned to paint the characters and so a flat surface would have made that easier than on the ridges that you get on some doors. 

The instructions on the can of yellow paint said that it was 1 coat of paint every 12 hours, because of this I decided to paint the door at home so as not to waste valuable college hours.

This was my first draft of the layout of the door, however, the characters seem very isolated and separated, which leaves a large amount of yellow space between them.

The next thing I did was make the characters larger and place them close together to see if it made them appear less isolated, it did, however, the characters then became surrounded by yellow space, and this takes away from the characters themselves.

I decided to spread the characters out to full more space but keep them connected, however this lead to the bottom half of the door is completely empty.

I then decided to double them up to use up more space, however, this wasn't as successful as I had imagined as there was no real reason for the characters to be doubled up.   

I then set the characters like this, I decided I liked this layout as it fills up the space as well as giving some sort of pattern to the layout, however it was still missing something. 

I then decided to add key parts of each character, which is the jobs that they have, Henry (Happy) works at an amusement park and founded the others, notice how the roller coaster passes all the characters to reflect this. Then Angie (Anger) who is a police officer, so she has handcuffs, then Lou (Lust) the bartender has a pint puller. Sam (Sadness) is a funeral director, so has flowers, Andy (Anxious) works as an exam invigilator has a pile of exam papers, and finally Su (surprise), is a midwife so has baby blankets, however I might change it to dummies as that is a more obvious object that relates to babies.

This is the final design for my final piece as it is both busy, thought provoking and it looks good, I plan to paint the objects on the door and stick the characters on top as this will created more texture and interest to the piece. I’m glad I chose to experiment as my new layout is a lot better and a lot more informed and more eye-catching than my first design.

Peer assessment comment

“A bold representation of individuality constructed in a completely original medium. Even though the piece remains unfinished it already captures extreme characters through the portraits and their varied appearances. 

I do however feel that the piece would benefit from a more finished look, the paper could be applied to the wood in a more effective way.” 

The comments I received on my work are appropriate and useful given that the person assessing knew very little about my project. They have both commented on my originality with my final piece and they stated that I needed to work on the overall appearance to create a more compelling and thought-provoking final piece.

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The five people you meet in heaven.

‘The five people you meet in heaven’ was one of the inspirations for this project, the other was the yellow door that I found whilst walking around the Barbican. 

The five people you meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom was not the inspiration for my project itself as the story has little relevance but the message of the story is quite literally something that changed my life

Blurb

‘All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time...”

On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie, a lonely war veteran, dies in a tragic accident trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his - and then nothing. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.’

The reason this book inspired my project is that it talks about how each life is affected by others even if the people are completely unknown to each other. Below is a passage from the book that expresses this idea;

‘TAKE ONE STORY, viewed from two different angles. Take a rainy Sunday morning in July, in the late 1920s, when Eddie and his friends are tossing a baseball Eddie got for his birthday nearly a year ago. Take a moment when that ball flies over Eddie’s head and out into the street. Eddie, wearing tawny pants and a wool cap, chases after it, and runs in front of an automobile, a Ford Model A. The car screeches, veers, and just misses him. He shivers, exhales, gets the ball, and races back to his friends. The game soon ends and the children run to the arcade to play the Erie Digger machine with its claw-like mechanism that picks up small toys.

Now take the same story from a different angle. A man is behind the wheel of a Ford Model A, which he has borrowed from a friend to practice his driving. The road is wet from the morning rain. Suddenly a baseball bounces across the street and a boy comes racing after it. The driver slams on the breaks and yanks the wheel. The car skids, the tires screech.

The man somehow regains control, and the Model A rolls on. The child has disappeared in the rearview mirror, but the man’s body is still affected. thinking of how close he came to tragedy. The jolt of adrenaline has forced his heart to pump furiously and this heart is not a strong one and the pumping leaves him drained. The man feels dizzy and his head drops momentarily. His automobile nearly collides with another. The second driver honks, the man veers again, spinning the wheel, pushing on the brake pedal. He skids along an avenue then turns down an alley. His vehicle rolls until it collides with the rear of a parked truck. There is a small crashing noise. The headlights shatter. The impact smacks the man into the steering wheel. His forehead bleeds. He steps from the Model A, sees the damage, then collapses onto the wet pavement. His arm throbs. His chest hurts. It is Sunday morning. The alley is empty. He remains there, unnoticed, slumped against the side of the car. The blood from his coronary arteries no longer flows to his heart. An hour passes. A policeman finds him. A medical examiner pronounces him dead. The cause of death is listed as “heart attack.” There are no known relatives.’ 

This passage comes to my mind quite often, I think about how something as mundane as throwing a ball could result in the death of another. When written in that simple sentence, it sounds extreme, it isn’t. I value the insight that this book gave me and so without it even really being planned. This book became one of the sources of inspiration for my project. 

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Mural art

Target: Research mural art to discover some of the common attributes shared between them to help inform your final piece.

What is a mural?

A  painting or other work of art executed directly on a wall. 

I picked this mural by Street Artist Fin Dac in Melbourne & Adelaide // Australia because it stood out from the others. It stood out, because unlike other murals that I found this one isn’t particularly busy or overwhelming like other murals. From what I have seen of murals they appear to be very busy so that they create interest and there are lots to look at, whereas in comparison this one is much calmer with its white background. However, saying this, the bright colours and patterns within the portrait create a type of business but it appears much more controlled than the business of other murals. 

This mural by Bicicleta Sem Freio is an example of a busier mural, however, even this one could arguably be classed as simple. What I mean by this is that the colours create a complex, complicated appearance however the fact that the piece is only block colours dulls down the complexity of the piece, however this also makes it easier to understand and take in the image, the contrasting colours help to give the mural a bright and lively appearance.

The last mural I want to look at is by Retna, I wanted to look at this one because of the heavy contrast between the busy, eye-catching background and the subtle beauty of the black and white portrait. The colours of the background stand out against each other, and to me, it’s almost as if both the red and blue sides of the mural are fighting for your attention. The portrait is smooth with lots of tone, the skin appears soft and even though it is not the brightest and busiest part of this mural, (in fact its the calmest) it wins all your attention, I think this is because it creates a difference. Difference between the busy and the calm and the difference between the colour and the monochrome.

The reason I wanted to do some research on murals is because my final piece is in some ways a mural as it is large scale and has quite a lot going on, so I wanted to discover some of the key components of a mural to make sure my work is informed, some of the key components of these murals are;

1. contrast

2.business

3.pattern

4. colour, or lack of

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Research: Inside out

It was brought to my attention that the movie Inside out by Disney Pixar has a similar concept to my own idea, as both of them are about emotions, I had never watched the film before but decided it could potentially be helpful with finishing my own story.

In the film, the first emotion was joy, in my story the first emotion is happiness, however, the difference is that the emotions in ‘Inside Out’ stay strictly inside the characters head, the emotions in my story are outside in the world living lives as that is a key focus in my story. The characters in inside out are the emotions, they control the emotions of their person, Riley. Whereas my characters only enhance the emotions of the people around them.

The purpose of inside out in my opinion is to bring to light that a person has very little control over how they feel and that their emotions are not always something they decide, and the movie starts to show an insight into mental health, as the main character Riley loses all joy from her life and begins to feel numb.

The purpose of my story is to subtly highlight that all humans are connected and that the actions of others can affect your mood, and on a larger scale, your life. In simple terms, each person's life and story can be altered by another person, and even though each person has that sort of power over another human being, you have no insight into what your influence does or the changes that you make to their life, you really know nothing about anyone, yet you have the power to change them and make them feel things.

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Final piece ideas

Three graphic canvas’ with the characters and a few sentences that describe them on a yellow background.

I thought this could be a good idea as it links to the work I did on mixed media and will create some interesting outcomes that will show off the characters I have created. However, it wouldn’t be incorporated much of the written work I had done so it wouldn’t be completely informed of the work I had been doing. 

A piece of wallpaper with the characters on.

This could be a way to make the work I’ve been doing something that is actually useful and can be sold to people with a purpose. However, I don’t think it would be particularly informed by the work I’ve already done.

A book with drawings.

This could potentially be a brilliant final piece, but only if it’s executed well, if not, it could look unprofessional and make a weak final piece. It is also quite a predictable outcome for the type of work I have been producing and I want to go further than that.

Yellow door with characters painted on and stories through the letterbox.

This is my strongest possibility because it is unique, could potentially look great visually and it is more interesting and slightly more complex. However, the only difficulty would be getting the door to college to work on it. 

Animation introducing the characters with a voice-over that tells the story. 

An animation would be a fantastic way to show of what I’ve been working on in a digital manner, it could potentially look really good, however, unfortunately, there is not enough time to create the animation as in the past it has taken me a month to produce 19 seconds of footage, and this animation would have to be longer. So it would not work in the time scale I have left. 

I think I’m going to create the door as it would show off skill as well as being really interesting to look at, I would paint the characters on the door and use transfers as a template, I would also create something to go through the letterbox that holds all of the writing side of this project. 

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Narrative art

Target: I am interested in narrative art so I would like to research more on the topic as well as researching 3 paintings with stories behind them, and analysing these paintings.

http://lucasmuseum.org/collection/narrative-art

‘Narrative Art tells a story. It uses the power of the visual image to ignite imaginations, evoke emotions and capture universal cultural truths and aspirations. What distinguishes Narrative Art from other genres is its ability to narrate a story across diverse cultures, preserving it for future generations.’

The illustrated dictionary of art terms defines art as  "Art which illustrates or tells a story. It usually describes self-explanatory events from daily life or those drawn from a text, well-known folktale or myth."

Narrative art has been around since the beginning of mankind, it’s arguable that it was the first form of art to ever exist. Drawings done on cave walls were done to tell stories, to document events. Then later, Egyptians with their hieroglyphics and tomb paintings the Romans and Greeks with their mosaics and vases that depicted battle scenes. 

Narrative art has changed over the years, it started as documentation, recording battles and other events through art. Nowadays history is written down and the most common type of narrative art is illustrations to stories that have been made up for entertainment, rather than for documenting previous events. 

http://blog.orangecarton.com/10-famous-paintings-and-stories-behind-them/

The ‘portrait of Dr. Grachet’ by Van Gogh is one of many paintings that has a story. 

The story is;

‘After Van Gogh was released from an asylum, he was sent to Dr. Gachet, so that he was still under some supervision. The doctor was also a fan of working artists. Some days later, Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo that the doctor was sicker than he was and should look for someone else. However, a couple of days later, he wrote to his sister, “I have found a true friend in Dr. Gachet, something like another brother, so much do we resemble each other physically and also mentally.”’

Before I knew the story behind this painting, it was just a portrait of a sad man by Van Gogh after I learnt the story behind this painting it meant more. It suddenly became a story of a man who found a friend in someone who felt the same way as he did. This would have been a rare thing to occur in a time period as mental illnesses were mistaken for madness, so to find someone like you would have meant everything. 

One of my favourite parts of Van Gogh’s paintings is the texture he includes within it, the lines and marks he makes with the paintbrush add pattern and interest to the work. What I like about this one is the lines seem to point downwards, it in some strange way seems to add to the atmosphere and mood of the man in the overall painting.

Another painting  is  ‘The ‘Guernica’ Story’ by Pablo Picasso 

The story is; 

In 1937, the German and Italian warplanes bombed the city if Guernica, taking many innocent lives. The Government asked Picasso to create a painting about the bombings and suffering of people. This brought the best out of Picasso and he went on to create another masterpiece art. This painting was later displayed at the World’s Art Fair in Paris. In this painting, Picasso illustrates the sufferings of humans, animals, and birds, caused due to heavy bombing. You will see this painting at The Sofia museum, Spain.

To me, at first this was just an abstract painting in black and white, I probably would have thought it related to good and evil because of the colour and shade difference, it still could link to that as the bombers would have been considered as evil and the people of Guernica would have been considered as good and innocent. 

Now that I know the story behind the painting the struggle depicted within the cubist figures is much clearer, there are flailing arms and amputated limbs. Now that I know the story, the black and white aspect of this painting perhaps isn’t good and evil, but more representative of utter despair, and with that knowledge, this painting becomes an incredibly sad one. 

The final piece of artwork I want to talk about is ‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch

The story is;

One fine evening, the artist was walking through the city roads. For a second, he stopped walking and looked at the skies. All he saw was the setting sun and clouds, which appeared in blood red colour. There was also a faint creaking sound from under the city. According to him, the whole setting made him feel like nature was screaming for something. Then, he went on to paint The Scream with blood red clouds and screaming backgrounds. Thus, the painting was born.  

Before I knew the story, I didn’t really think much of this painting, it just appeared as a shocked person in front of the setting sun. Now that I know the story behind it, it’s a little more interesting. The inspiration for this painting was pretty simple, and it created a very famous, very expensive piece of art. When you start to think about who was screaming, and why they were screaming it opens up different ideas about that night, which adds to the story of the painting.

 I like the way so many colours have been included in this painting, I think that the streaks of colour add depth as well as the distance that is painted within the photo.  These two techniques create something more interesting to look at than a flat painting which helps the onlooker to develop their own interpretations if they haven’t heard the story.

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Mixed Media Workshop

The mixed media workshop was good because it showed me different ways to explore paint along with other materials. 

I created two pieces of work. 

The first was a mixture of paper, pen, and paint. It resembles the yellow door. 

I added the paint to this piece to add more texture to it, which is why the white paint is quite messy with streaks through it. I think this improves the work because it adds more depth to it. 

The second was a little more experimental as I just wanted to try out the technique more than anything else. I didn’t really like the art I created, however when I put it into the photocopier and turned negative, it was much more interesting. 

When I asked someone else for their opinion on these pieces (my Mum) she started telling me all the different things she could see within the painting, she said she saw a frog, and pug, and a man in goggles and a fetus, among other things. I was happy with this response as it meant that it wasn’t being seen as a few squiggles of glue on a piece of paper. 

Although the workshop itself, and the techniques I learnt are not the most useful for my project and what I’m thinking of doing for my final piece. However, the workshop did help me to think of other mixed media methods I could use on my artwork. 

Such as transfers, 

I could paint, or draw my characters and then scan the finished artworks onto a computer before printing them onto transfer paper and sticking them onto the door, not only could this possibly be easier but it might also look more effective.

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Higher education workshops

For unit 9 we had to do some higher education workshops to give us an insight into the course at higher education level. 

The first course I did was called craft design and in it, we learnt how to recycle old jewellery into new jewellery and learnt about different ways to piece the old jewellery together in a way that was effective. The most interesting part of the activity was finding different ways there are to connect the pieces of jewellery effectively as well as making sure it doesn’t fall apart. A lot of the necklace I made is tied together. Doing this workshop hasn’t shaped my opinion in any way as the workshop didn’t really involve any of the activities or show any insight into what the course would be like at HE. 

This necklace is made of three separate necklaces as well as the pendant in the middle. I wanted to keep a colour scheme throughout and I also wanted to create layers. The whole necklace is tied together with string however it is broken because one knot was not strong enough. I’m not sure if I like this necklace or not as it is quite busy but I also really like the colours.

The second workshop was illustration, badge making. In this workshop, I learnt how to make badges as well as doing a little activity to get me inspired which involved making a character. The most interesting part was the badge making machine, and the overall process of making the badges. Doing this workshop effected my opinion on higher education positively as it gave a small insight into the course however the lecturer said that the activity was just a warm-up he’d use at the beginning of the course rather than something they’d actually do. However, he also said that the courses can be shadowed so you can get a real insight into what goes on.

I made this badge to link to my FMP, I really like the badge and I think that it worked effectively, however, the top of the badge was cut off from the machine as it was wrapped around the back of the badge, but I still really like the badge. 

[lucya-dthings-blog]

Research

Author Surname: Colby             Title of book: Narrative                                                                                            

Author name or initial: Paul (P)    Place of publication: Oxon

Year of publication: 2001          Publisher: Routledge

Pages: 37,38

This book reminded me of how important narratives have been throughout history, before writing equipment was readily available, stories about ancestors were told orally and passed through generations. It was the only way to tell stories and information easily. ‘Narrative is therefore also bound with the notion of large-scale identities such as a nation.’

When I began to think about this more, I realised that so many of these stories would have been adapted and changed by the people, to make them more entertaining or easier to tell. I then realised, that in the sense of story telling people haven’t changed all that much at all. Stories today, if they are supposedly real, are manipulated to make them more entertaining to an audience, it happens frequently in the media, however the public knows the story how it is told and it then becomes the truth to them, unless they choose to research further - which is unlikely. This is the same series of events that would have happened so many years before, before the age of magazines and newspapers.

The manipulated stories became history to these earlier generations of people. Some stories are lost with those nations, and some have become folklore or myths and legends.

I suppose this is how literature and novels came about, the art of writing down the stories you tell, or create, using written words instead of oral words to tell your story to a wider audience, and to keep your story exactly the way you worded it. Then writing books became its own art form, whether they were completely fictional or not.  

Author Surname: Cohn            Title of book: The visual narrative reader                                                                                         

Author name or initial: Neil (N)    Place of publication: London/New York

Year of publication: 2016          Publisher: Bloomsbury publishing plc

Pages: 2

‘Humans as a species have only three primary ways to convey our concepts communicatively - we create sounds through our mouths; we move our bodies, especially our hands and faces; and we draw images, using our fingers or other tools.[...] These are our only ways to convey meaning to each other. These meanings are not just novel forms though - in all channels we use systematic patterns stored in our long - term memories: words and idioms are systematic patterns of sound mapped to meanings. Gestural emblems are systematic meaningful manual expressions (like ‘OK’ or ‘thumbs up’) in contrast to the novel gesticulations that often accompany speech (McNeill, 1992).  Drawings also use systematic patterns, whether as conventional ways of drawing people, houses, or stick figures, or more complex pattern styles of superhero comics or Japanese manga.’

I had never thought of this before, but humans do have only three ways, excusing written communication, which is really just an advanced script of spoken language. Through these ways a whole history of storytelling and art has been created, and if you really think about it, all art has a story, a reason for the creation of the piece, sometimes only the creator knows the story, sometimes everyone does, but everything has a story.

[lucya-dthings-blog]

Print workshop

Target: Create prints that link to your final piece

We did a print workshop with a man called Aidan Saunders, he is a travelling print maker and illustrator from Wales.  

Aidan Saunders started travelling around the UK in his van as a project for university. Whilst he travelled selling his work, he realised that it was about reaching people, because not everyone enjoys the idea of a gallery, so by going to the people, he helped them to understand and appreciate something they never usually would.

His work is brightly coloured and bold. He uses multiple techniques to produce his work, such as layering different materials and printing on top of these materials to add texture to the piece of work. Another technique, which I used for my  own work was rubbing with your knuckles rather than a printing press, this meant I could apply pressure when and where I wanted it and personally I think the prints looked better because of it. 

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

These are what I believe to be my best prints, in comparison to his prints, mine are messier and less refined, however I’m willing to put that down to it being a reasonably new technique to me. All of these were done using my hand rather than the printing press, however I am curious as to how they would have been different if I had used the printing press. Another thing I struggled with was lining the second layer with the first, however on some occasions that was done deliberately, such as the 2nd and 5th prints. Even though some of the others didn’t quite work, I think they look quite effective. 

In the 2nd print, one of the doors is much more prominent than the rest of the doors. 

This was a deliberate move, I wanted one door to stand out to show that it is extraordinary in comparison to the other doors, which links to the story I am telling for my final piece. 

The edges of my prints are all very messy, a way I will fix this is either by framing them, or cutting them down to size and mounting them onto card so that they look more professional. 

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Typography workshop

Today I learnt about typography and practised some different styles with different tools. 

http://practicaltypography.com/what-is-typography.html

‘Ty­pog­ra­phy is the vi­sual com­po­nent of the writ­ten word.’

Typography is useful for showing off a particular theme or idea about the work after it, that’s if you’ve used the typography to make the title more interesting. The words could be the art themselves. 

A really interesting typography artist is Alex Trochut.

This artist has created work for major brands such as MAC Cosmetics, Nike, Coca Cola as well as posters for the Oscars and typography for Vanity Fair.

Some examples of his work; 

The reason I like his work because it’s complimentary to whatever it is he’s doing the work for, it doesn’t over power, it matches. If the work is heavy with patterns the background and colours will be simple. If the colours are simple the work will be more detailed. I think that this is done so that the purpose of the poster or whatever piece he is working on is not overpowered by the typography. 

A piece of his work that I really like is the advert for Dior Poison Girl

What I really liked about this piece of work is the connotations I immediately linked to it. The obvious link is the pink colour being linked to female, and feminine as that is the general connotation for that colour in the media. At first I thought it to be predictable and stereotypical. However the shine of the word adds more definition to the word itself, I think this was done to replicate the effect of liquid as its a perfume advert. The perfume is called ‘Poison girl.’ I think that this is the reason why the letters are sharper and consist of straight lines rather than curves. This is because the letters are representing the harsher connotations of the name, the more deadly aspect. One thing I did notice, is that the ends of the letters are rounded, I’d expect them to be harsh like the rest of the word. Then I thought about how adding a softer edge could be linking to the poison, because poison is a hidden weapon and so the softer edges could represent that. 

My own attempts at typography;

The ones with X next to them are ones I didn’t think worked out, this was either because the overall style was not the way I wanted it to turn out or because the ink ran too much. The ones with nothing, or a tick next to them are ones that I think worked well, usually because I like the style of it. 

Overall I really liked the workshop as it helped me to think about how I was writing words and see them creatively, which is really good for the concept I have for my final piece. 

[lucya-dthings-blog]

Artist Research

 Sophie Calle

The reason Sophie Calle interested me is that she placed herself in situations and used what she found out, to create her art. 

Calle is a photographer, the piece of work I am interested in is called ‘The Hotel, Room 28′ 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/calle-the-hotel-room-28-p78301

‘On Monday, February 16, 1981, I was hired as a temporary chambermaid for three weeks in a Venetian hotel. I was assigned twelve bedrooms on the fourth floor. In the course of my cleaning duties, I examined the personal belongings of the hotel guests and observed through details lives which remained unknown to me. On Friday, March 6, the job came to an end. (Quoted in Calle, pp.140-1.)’ - From the Tate website.

 Calle would look through all the belongings of the guests, writing notes and taking photographs, she looked at what nightwear the guests wore, read their diaries, looked in their suitcases, she would also apply their makeup and perfume, she’d eat their leftover food.

She would even go as far as to listen to the conversations the guests had when she was outside their rooms, record them, she’d hang around when room service would arrive to get a glimpse of these guests whose lives she now knew everything about.

‘The absent occupants described in Room 28 are a couple who the artist imagines to be ‘some older well-off people’. She notes that only one twin bed was slept in on  the first night, helps herself to their Chanel No.5 perfume and photographs a row of four pairs of ladies’ shoes (size 38), a suitcase full of identical Brooks Brothers shirts and a white man’s pyjama bottom left draped over a chair, among other things. She lists incongruous traveling objects such as ‘a 7” x 9 ½” photograph of a sailing boat on the sea’ and a portrait of the Pope.’ - From the Tate website

I would describe this work as shocking and would go as far to say that it makes me feel a bit uneasy. To think that a person is going through your belongings unknown to you is a bit scary, and then to discover it was documented. Privacy is an important part of human nature, and I think Calle worked with this. I think that by going through the guest's belongings she broke the boundaries between people and experimented with the idea of observing from a distance, like with animals, but with people instead.

However saying this, I still think that this is morally wrong, particularly to go as far as using the occupant's belongings and listening to their conversations. However, if you sit back and view the entire piece from an artistic point of view, which I am trying to do. It is arguably a very creative process. She had spent three lives investigating lives. 

This is not the most haunting thing Calle has done, this happened in 12 rooms, for three weeks and the guests often changed, that’s a lot of peoples privacy. 

This all started in 1979, after 7 years traveling she returned to her home in Paris and found herself feeling lost. During this time she would follow people and follow them as they went about there day, writing notes on them.

‘From this, she has developed a particular way of working, collecting information about people who are absent and investigating her subjects like a detective.’ - From the Tate website.

 This extended further when she spoke to a man who said he was going to Venice, so she followed him in a disguise and took notes, this became her project known as  ‘ Suite Venetienne 1980′. After a year of planning and waiting she returned to Venice in 1981, to be a chambermaid. 

Both Calle and I are exploring lives with our projects, however, the difference is that the lives I will be exploring are completely fiction, whereas the lives Calle worked with were real people, completely unaware of the impact they had on Calle’s life.

[lucya-dthings-blog]

A collection of yellow doors

Target: collect as many photos of yellow doors as you can find

London

London

St Ives

Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth

I did the yellow door search to firstly, see how common the yellow door was but also to help me to think, by looking at the doors I started to wonder who would be behind them which again helped in beginning to form the narratives of my own characters, seeing so many different types of yellow doors showed that there are a lot of different styles of door, and maybe there could be different styles of people too, which is one of the reasons I decided to do some research into people. 

[lucya-dthings-blog]

Character development survey.

Along with the help that I received through creating my design sheet. (The design sheet helped me to realise I wanted my characters to be emotions personified as real people who work in situations were the emotion they are is most common e.g Anger is a police officer, Anxious is an exam administrator, Lust is a bartender.) 

I also created a character development survey to ask authors and writers tips on how they like to create their characters, below are the questions asked. 

1. What is your name? (So I can quote you in my research, if you would rather stay anonymous then please move to question 2.)

2. How do you begin to form a character?

3. Do you have a system for forming a character? (E.g a grid or mind map)

4. If you do, why do you think character development is so important?

5. How much of a character should be left to the readers imagination?

6. Are any of the characters you have created yourself inspired by people you know in real life?

7. What is the name of your favourite character that you have written about/created, and where are they from? (Name the book.)

8. Is there anything that is vital to building up a character's personality? (E.g creating a backstory.)

9. Any other tips or advice you may have?

The responses.

Q1: What is your name? (So I can quote you in my research, if you would rather stay anonymous then please move to question 2.)

Hannah

Q2: How do you begin to form a character?

Define their qualities

Q3: Do you have a system for forming a character? (E.g a grid or mind map)

No just write them as I imagine them

Q4: If you do, why do you think character development is so important?Respondent skipped this questionQ5: How much of a character should be left to the reader's imagination?

Not too much but not too little

Q6: Are any of the characters you have created yourself inspired by people you know in real life?

Myself, close family or friends, or characters that I read or watch

Q7: What is the name of your favourite character that you have written about/created, and where are they from? (Name the book.)

Artemis and an ongoing story

Q8: Is there anything that is vital to building up a character's personality? (E.g creating a backstory.)

A backstory has morphed them and changes them and can affect their choices

Q9: Any other tips or advice you may have?

Be passionate and stick to it

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Q1: What is your name? (So I can quote you in my research, if you would rather stay anonymous then please move to question 2.)

Laurie

Q2: How do you begin to form a character?

Come up with a name and bio

Q3: Do you have a system for forming a character? (E.g a grid or mind map)

Work out how I need and wish them to be in my story

Q4: If you do, why do you think character development is so important?

Because it helps your readers feel more immersed

Q5: How much of a character should be left to the reader's imagination?

Just enough

Q6: Are any of the characters you have created yourself inspired by people you know in real life?

Yes a lot

Q7: What is the name of your favourite character that you have written about/created, and where are they from? (Name the book.)

Between Amir Loar and Olen Cain in Rule Are Made To Be Broken

Q8: Is there anything that is vital to building up a character's personality? (E.g creating a backstory.)

The Bio, Where they came from, Who they are connected with

Q9: Any other tips or advice you may have?

Do what feels right for the character, Don't just add something for the sake of adding it.

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I posted the survey online with the hopes that some professional authors would answer the questions or get in contact with me, unfortunately, this endeavor was unsuccessful. Luckily a friend of mine found a Facebook page and managed to get in contact with and get response from a few authors. 

Leonie Plumeria, 

I am an aspiring author and English teacher. I usually just know my characters, they are a mix of me, who I want to be and people I know. Character development for the main characters is important. The reader has to feel a connection to the character or they won't read. The characters have to be flawed too or the reader has nothing to connect with. I think the physical description should be left to the reader. I feel disappointed when I, as a reader, am told what the characters look like, especially the male characters. Characters are shaped by people I know, movies I have seen, me, (secretly sometimes students). My fave character is a girl named Alice, who goes through a self-awakening. I think a character has to be relatable... or at least that is what I teach my students about character personality.

Lindsay Lupher 

I've been in the book world for three years now and just published my first book. I've been a reader, blogger, Personal and Promotional Assistant and now Author. 

1. Usually, they just pop into my head. Something I hear or see inspires the character to come alive, and they form from there. 

2. I have a doc that I write out that has my character's full name, what they look like, and a little bit about them such as what they do for a living, how they're connected to other characters and maybe even a little bit of history.

 3. Character development is important because we all change. When my main character meets the love of their life, they don't stay the same. Love (or tragedy in some cases) change a person irrevocably. They either spiral down or they learn from it instantly. My job as an author is to get them to grow as a person and piece them back together or to fit into their new surroundings.

 4. I'm a very detailed person, but I also love reading about a character that I can imagine as my own. I don't need to necessarily know every time their eyes meet what colour they are. (I just finished a book like this and personally it was a little annoying for me.) When I write, I tend to get into great detail, but I don't describe something every time it's seen. I don't tell the reader that they sit in the "brown wooden dining chair" every time, I would just say "chair."

 5. My characters have bits and pieces of people from my life. Sometimes they're a mix of people, sometimes they're based on one person. 

6. Don't laugh, but my favourite character is Kraken, the lovable mastiff from my first book. He's based off my Lab/Mastiff mix and he can steal the show at times. 

7. Yes. The biggest thing for me about a character's personality, is that they are consistent or have a period of growth. You can't have a mousy shy girl who has one friend and never leaves her house, also be a party girl a chapter later. It doesn't make sense and talking to readers, it's one of the top reasons they flounce a book. The top reason, they can't connect with the characters. Which comes back to personality building. When building your character's quirks keep in mind that they should be relatable. You don't necessarily have to follow whatever trend is flowing at the time, but you want to keep the readers' attention. A big trend lately has been Billionaires, but my focus was on a guy who yes had money, but he owned his own tattoo shop and was tied to the mafia. Another big trend lately, Nannies. My main girl isn't, she's a photographer who was raised by her grandmother. So write who you WANT and FEEL you should write, but try to keep the reader in mind as well.

Yvonne müller from Germany

Hi, I'm writing and publishing on the www since 2011. I will try to answer your questions, but honestly I don't approach writing this technical. 

1. I often have a scene in my mind all of a sudden, either planted by others or as a result of my dreams. More often than not this scene/idea grows roots and I start to wonder what kind of story could I wrap around this scene. I look at the character(s) and start to imagine how they could be. What could be their strengths and weaknesses. And the longer I think about it (sometimes a couple weeks, sometimes several months) the more the characters take shape. 

2. No, it all comes from within. I let my heart and imagination speak to me. I seldom if ever make notes, it's all in my head and continuously grows.

 3. It's a question of taste. Some people like to write and read stories with shallow characters, others want more depth. Since I prefer characters with depth I put a great deal into developing them before I start writing and they keep growing while I write. Which of course means that I often have to go back to already written chapters and change things to make them work with my new vision of my character. 

4. Again it's a question of taste. Some readers wants to have everything written out, others want to have room for their own imagination. I tend to describe my characters clearly without much room for interpretation. 

5. No, they are pure fiction 

6. Hmmm ... I love them all otherwise I wouldn't have created stories around them. No favourites. 

7. This is again a question of personal taste. I prefer my characters to have curves and edges. That's vital for me. Therefore I put a lot of thoughts into them and adjust them again and again as the story develops. But my advice is to keep it somewhat real. There's nothing wrong with idealising things, but keep it somewhat real. Otherwise, it's too unrealistic. But that's just my opinion.

What I have learned from this survey will be really useful when it comes to planning and designing my characters. It will be useful to have multiple opinions to look to when I have to make important decisions, particularly when they come from people who know what they’re talking about.