Evaluation

Strengths
I think a big strength here was the format and shape of the panels. I took the inspiration from Jesse Jacobs work and I've seen that it helps to keep looking at current work because it fuels my ideas. Another strength was the colour scheme, I spent quite a long time working on different colour pallets and using coolors to help me. Since I'd designed such full images with so much going on it became quite hard to put colour in without it looking over the top and loud. I decided then to colour all the characters/ objects in the boxes in one colour. The detail is too small to have individual colour and shadow and I want to be pushing the line work over the colouring because thats the element I've been working on.
I think that for once text didn't go horribly in my work, the writing is just my handwriting which I picked because I assumed it would work well with the drawing since shapes I draw will inherently be similar to the way I draw letters. But I think its the layout that has made it acceptable. It's well spaced and the whole thing is one thought split over lots of different characters. I think this showed that the issues are things that have affected many.
Normally when trying to name a comic, which is always the last thing I do, I struggle to think of a relevant title. But this time I think the title worked well because it gives a sense of condescending humour. It belittles and makes fun of the issues inside. Putting the lettering in little boxes really sewed the whole thing together, the continuity of the boxes made it work as a set otherwise I feel it would have looked like a mess of news stories and it wouldn't have the same affect. The uniformity is almost clinical.

The character I think I drew best is the spot illustration for female circumcision, the facial expressions worked really well. At first I was only going to draw her bottomless but the nudity adds an overwhelming sense of vulnerability. It makes the image more distressing to look at. I think that the head size to body ratio worked on showing that this is definitely a child. I felt the best way to play on peoples heart strings was to have a young girl rather than a teen/young adult. The instinct to protect plays up and the image is repulsive.


Weaknesses.
The female circumcision illustration is my favourite drawing but I feel that it was rushed because after printing I realised that all the other spot illustrations I pushed the line as texture to extenuate the gore.  But in this she's smooth, I think I just forgot and the image is the most horrifying which almost makes up for it but i wanted everything to have a strong sense of continuity since the subject spanned across so many different issues.

I think that one weakness was the saturation of my colours, the digital file had quite vibrant colours. But I picked a thick cotton paper to print on and it harshly reduced the saturation, but it looks so much better this way. I think that the brighter colours looked to gaudy mixed with the large amounts of line. So a happy accident has improved my work.

Blogging has been a weakness again in this module, and that is mainly down to time management of all the different projects I've been working on. If I was to take on this again I would not do as many projects at once because I think it has reduced the quality of my ideas and drawing.

In my process I feel like I jumped a bit from my beautiful gore to the million mouths panelling. I think that shows that the beautiful gore idea wasn't really going anywhere and I had reached a wall. I think in future when proposing an idea I need to be really specific with what I want it to do and say. Because otherwise I get lost just playing under the general theme of my idea and lose sight of the task at hand.

I think my essay was weaker than my visual, written work isn't usually my forte. I tried to do more research this year so that I could back up my ideas. But I think I went into it with pre decided ideas about my subject and when I was researching I wasn't just exploring the information, I was searching for information to specifically back up my ideas and intentions. I think for next year I need to fully get into the research process and stop myself thinking about the end before I've even started.

Have advancements in technology caused desensitization in design and the way we perceive it?

Have advancements in technology caused desensitization in design and the way we perceive it?

Over the last century technology has advanced into our everyday lives. It is a way to communicate, play, work and in the last decade a way to define and express yourself. But with constant access to a world of information, what is the effect it has on us? Have we over exposed ourselves and has it caused a change in our behaviour?

In 2005 a site was set up call Reddit.com, Reddit has since become a widely used site and finds it way onto social media everyday. It is user operated web news service, people can create a user and post links to whatever they want. The site organises these links into categories called subreddits, these range from r/aww; which is full of everything adorable, to r/wtf which is just reems of images to shock people and make them question wtf? A particularly graphic page is r/fiftyfifty which is a subreddit created to be like a game. The caption will have two options and you have to click the link to find out what it is,  for example 'Shat on cock NSFW/L| Cat in sock'. This is a page with continuing popularity despite its gruesome nature and with over seven million page views a month it shows that people are not repelled by the graphic images. We are approaching violent images in a more curious way rather than labelling them taboo.

This 'game' is something you choose to participate in though but the graphic nature of it is like what we see every day on the news, movies, art, documentaries. In the past a like for the extreme and violent was considered morbid and suspicious but now a whole explosion of horror takes hold of the country. New movies are made each day pushing the boundaries on what can be shown, movies banned for their violent content are sought out specifically and praised for their gruesomeness.

"In psychology, desensitization is defined as the diminished emotional responsiveness to a negative or aversive stimulus after repeated exposure." (Desensitization (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2015.Desensitization (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desensitization_(psychology)

Horror films are trying new shock tactics, charity campaigns push images of poverty in our faces and disasters are documented in detail and available to read at any time. With the human nature to always improve, always push the boundaries have we pushed ourselves too far and are now so overexposed to information that we no longer feel a personal emotional response to it.

I've compiled a short time line of popular horror films over the years and the age certificate system as it developed and changed. Nosferatu was under the A certificate but at that time there were no restrictions on who could see each one. The certificates were used to give the viewers the decision before they watched rather than instructing what can be watched. In 1975 the  BBFC's secretary Stephen Murphy informally viewed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). He said it was " a good, well-made film but felt strongly that the level of  terrorisation, particularly towards the end of the film, and the film's focus on 'abnormal psychology' was unsuitable for a BBFC X certificate to be issued." (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | British Board of Film Classification. 2015.The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | British Board of Film Classification. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/case-studies/texas-chain-saw-massacre.) At this point I feel the reason that the movie was rejected for even an X certificate is because the age limit on X is 16+. In Britain and in America 16 is considered legally a minor and the content of the film was something they would not feel comfortable showing to a minor even 16+. Therefore with a rise in horror production skills and new movies being made there was a clear need for a higher age certificate. 1982 saw the release of the first age certificate system most like ours today, the AA was replaced by a 15 rising the age restriction by a year and PG was placed so that younger children's viewing can be decided by parents/guardians.And finally an 18 certificate so that films could be made that were strictly for adults and therefore loosened the boundaries on horror content. 

What we can take from these time lines is that over the years as Horror has developed as a genre, the skills involved in making a horror film have developed and improved as well. Therefore the BBFC has been forced to consider what  movies should people be allowed to see. They had to question if children of the time needed to be protected, they changed from labelling the movies to enforcing strict guidelines. There was a moral standing issue and by restricting the adult content for the adults only their hearts were at rest. 

With age certificates being made with children in mind surely this moral sense to protect our young shows that we are not a nation of desensitized zombies, we think and care. But by sheltering them from it with strict restrictions are we creating a taboo and manifesting our own fears into the children. The argument against desensitization is a culture of over sensitization. In Herbert Blumer studies of children's fright reactions to movies (1933) ( Jennings Bryant, Dolf Zillmann, Mary Beth Oliver,  2002. Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. P287-88 Routledge, 2002) 93% of the children were frightened of the videos they had seen, in a more recent study there was only 75% of children affected. The drop in numbers of children affected is a large amount, this could be down to a desensitized response. But it could also be down to other factors, such as the integration of classic horror characters. When the first study was taken horror characters such as vampires, werewolves and witches stayed mainly in the horror genre but in recent decades many classic characters are featured on shows with little horror; such as the count on sesame street. In this way children are introduced to these 'monsters' early on and can understand that it is an imaginary character. In this sense we have become desensitized to the original horror design, werewolves and vampires are child's play in today's society.

Scooby doo originally aired in 1969, it introduced a new monster or ghoul each episode and with it exciting escapades to catch them. Introducing so many possible fears to children could have been a big risk to the moral standing to protect them. But the  cartoon introduces them to a routine plot line structure where the bad guy always looses there fore leaving them to enjoy the antics under the assumption that all will end well. It also showed that all the monsters and ghosts/ghouls were no more than people dressed up and there is no such thing as the monsters they portrayed. Shows like this develop children's experience of horror or as close to horror at that stage, more like ghost busters sci-fi than full blown horror. This shows that the cartoon industry branched out by using other genres but diluting them down to children levels. 

These cartoons are the first step on a ladder of restrictions and as children age they can progress to the next level, see more content and understand it. But then by creating this hierarchy do we make children feel like it is their right and obligation to view more, then for every level of horror they watch are they not just expecting that there is something that is one step further. In this way does it justify watching gruesome content because we have grown through the levels and  earned it and there's always something worse. Although even with age certificates in place who is to say they are being enforced at home; therefore there will always be some children who see adult content before the age when the government deems they are ready.

In the news there is constant stories of terror and turmoil and its all something we are exposed to at some point in our daily life. The focus on the negative as being more news worthy than the positive means that we are bombarded with horrible truths about the world and it has taught generations to fear each other. For example; hitch-hiking, a couple decades ago hitch hiking was a well used way to get from point A to B. But since then with rising stories of serial killers and rapists, hitch hiking has become something of a horror story. People prefer not to hitch hike any more because our awareness of strangers has been raised, 'Stranger Danger' is implemented in our children's minds, we cannot trust people we don't know and therefore we fear them.

In an interview with Sue Coe she talks about how she saw a man at 1am and he was screaming that he was blind, 'I analysed my fear: "what I'm frightened of is someone who is so vulnerable they can't see"' 'My heart beat and I thought 'He's scary. He's like got a knife or a gun or something' but it's confronting why don't we treat each other like brothers and sisters' (Coates-Smith, W, 2009. Sue Coe in New York. Varoom, 09). Sue Coe highlights an issue of trust that we has so ingrained in our fears that it has become part of our culture. Technological advancement has broadened the scope of our media coverage, with more coverage there is logically more negative stories. Now news stories frequently blaze into media frenzy where the story is updated every news instalment with little change yet somehow more tension. The news has shown us a biased view on the world where the focal point is on terror and destruction. Fear sells and with over 70% of the British population tuning in regularly it has become the norm to consume fear. 

The more a news story is run the more noticed it gets. The more eye catching and shocking is bound to remain in peoples hearts. As a nation we want to be sympathetic and caring to the rest of the worlds needs but although we achieve that mentality do the ends justify the means? Trust among us had diminished to the point that legal steps have been taken to protect people from possible legal allegations in almost every occupation. Parents ingrain into their children a fear of white van men coming and offering them sweets, of someone taking them in crowded places or paedophiles talking to them on the internet. Although these are possibilities and we have to warn them of the dangers, the news coverage of these events send out urgent messages of suspicion and emotionally exaggerate the likelihood of it happening. This slow transition into fearful has made it hard to judge whether the ends justified the means because as we climb the ladder in technological development we step further away from our past. It becomes unclear how we lived before.                                            

But maybe the bombardment of news has also kept us in check to see the story to the end. We want an ending to it, closure, justice. In this way has it not sharpened our senses to wrong doing. Now we are ready to 'out' someone if they are morally wrong. For example racism, while still around in Britain, is fought against. There is an american based show called what would you do? in it actors stage a conflict, in this instance; a waitress acting racist towards a black family. The idea is to provoke the unknowing public into intervening, in this case a multitude of people stood up. One woman told her 'You're really walking on a line here (...) politically majorly incorrect' 'Insensitive racists' (Police and Predator Channel. (2014). Mother Of Eight Children Criticized For Large Family - What would you do?. [Online Video]. 20 January. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpoxQhGm6jA) . politically incorrect is a phrase we have learned from media, in the coverage of the steps we take to reach equality. People learn from news coverage and they have been showed that if you think something is wrong you can get justice.

In the 50s a scientist named Harry Harlow had been doing experiments with infant monkeys questioning does love exist?(Michael Baker. (2010). Harlow's Studies on Dependency in Monkeys. [Online Video]. 16 December. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrNBEhzjg8I.) In his main experiment he gave the monkeys two surrogate mothers; one made out of wire which had the milk, and one cotton one without milk. In all cases the monkeys chose comfort over food. In another experiment which he call the pit of despair baby monkeys were brought up in isolation for a year in a box with sloping sides so climbing out was impossible. 

The monkeys were psychotic, depressed and uninterested in the opposite gender. But Harlow had wanted to see if they could be parents themselves. So he invented the 'Rape Rack' so that they could still be inseminated. But the monkeys who did conceive were too traumatised to care for their child at all. There was public outrage and Harlow's experiments are still a subject of philosophical debate between scientist and animal rights activists. People stood up for what they thought was right and that trend has continued to grow over the decades. Although it seems our lifestyle has made us become more introvert and lone creatures we still show the instinct to protect what is vulnerable. Today many products boast 'No animal testing' as a sale point playing towards our almost 'maternal' instinct to protect.

In 1991 Cantor and Ohmdahl conducted an experiment on children ages 3-11.  ( Jennings Bryant, Dolf Zillmann, Mary Beth Oliver,  2002. Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. P289 Routledge, 2002) Split into two groups the children were partook in activities; building a fire and swimming. One group were shown a dramatisation of A forrest fire and a drowning. The children exposed to the stimulus showed hesitation and significantly less excitement. This shows that people learn from what they see whether it be a real experience or a synthetic one. Therefore I assume that as we absorb the information from news and movies etc around us we inherently learn from it. 
Have we learnt our fears from exposure to mass media? Are we drifting apart as a culture and loosing the trust that once united us? 

The summer of 1960 Alfred Hitchcock released what is considered to be the first modern horror film; Psycho. Psycho was filmed in black and white even though Hitchcock had already moved on to colour, but he knew that bright red blood and gore wouldn't have been allowed in 1960.What they created was a new way of making horror, the gore was more realistic, the tension; heart gripping and they took you inside the characters. Psycho inspired countless horror movies with its new tactics.
Psycho toys with the audiences emotions by literally putting them in the point of view of different characters. Hitchcock keeps his audience on edge by destroying their trust in basic movie plot of good praveils by killing off the supposed protagonist. Psycho may be the first film to use a false protagonist and being the first it was the most shocking. Hitchcock considered this so important that in the cinema screening he enforced a strict no late admissions policy.

The poster was withholding and didn't give anything away, Hitchcock was trying to shock his audience by keeping the story a secret. Hitchcock anonymously bought the rights to the book from Robert Bloch for $9,000, he then bought up as many of the copies as he could to try and keep the ending secret. The music was a large factor in Psycho that in a pre release screening of a cut of the film, before the music was added, many of the audience reacted with mild indifference. In modern horror the wailing of the violins is a recognised cue for something climactic to happen. So much so that it has become a bore. It lets us know that something is going to happen rather than keep us on edge. Just as the previous generation out grew the  early 1900's monster horror so have our generation grown out of tired scare tricks. Some smaller tricks have been learnt to try and counteract the pre existing knowledge of horror structure. In modern horror films more commonly the violins are used as a false scare. The tension will build up, the character  reaches out to draw back a shadowy curtain the music reaches crescendo the curtains are drawn back fast but it is nothing. The music disappears and for a moment there is calm and in that brief lapse of guard is when the true scare comes.  A prime example would be the relatively recent release of The woman in black. It used many a false scare and the jumps were relatively predictable. With such a wide library of horror open to us online nowadays we can learn the structure and predict the results, in this are we just learning from experience or are out senses dulling to the shock.

Horror culture is growing up, we've learnt the tricks and we are no longer afraid of things that go bump in the night. But as we tire of the horror we see feeling it to be less and less horrifying then what steps are we willing to take to get the adrenaline rush of fear. Now the upper barrier of horror are the films that went to far; banned films carry a sense of taboo to them and its become almost a competitive nature among horror fans to have watched them. Directors and screen righters are trying to bring their work to the next level, seeing how far the boundaries can be pushed, with this constant strive for growth will we go too far. When does it stop being a film for a fright and become a horrifying glimpse into the stretches of the human imagination, but at that point would we even flinch?

A factor in my theory of desensitization is the access we have to the internet. Sites such as Reddit are just hosts compiling information on any subject we could dream of but when you've seen it all it doesn't have the same glory as before. The internet was a revolutionary invention but now it is taken for granted. There are pages of specifically gory and nauseating images or videos that are there just to test your nerve or satisfy your sick curiosity. These images are open to view whenever you want with only a small (warning:gore) label next to it. This is not a site that's locked away in the depths of the internet with 6.175 billion page views per month (reddit.com: about reddit. 2015. reddit.com: about reddit. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.reddit.com/about/.) it is a very popular site among this generation. If this is something that's popular are the people viewing it doing it as a game, are they just curious or are they trying to shock themselves or friends. Its become a joke to send each other spam of horrible pictures, a prank made possible by the developments made in technology. It seems that in these pictures of torture and horror the spectacle is always a step away from real, your watching from behind a screen where it's safe. In this way have we become desensitized to the suffering of others.

In conclusion I think that the advancements in technology has changed and shaped our society. Technology is a part of our everyday lives and we have whole lives stored inside it. But when half our life is happening on a screen are we becoming disconnected from reality? Horror films have adapted to satisfy our need for fear, it tests us and makes real life seem less scary but have we learned all the tricks in the hat? To what length will we go for that shock? I think that desensitization is happening because as we experience things we learn from them. But we have filled our minds with stories of horror real and fictitious and what is left is a mind distrusting of it's fellow man and unaffected by the real life conflicts.

Bibliography:

(Desensitization (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2015.Desensitization (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desensitization_(psychology)

 (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | British Board of Film Classification. 2015.The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | British Board of Film Classification. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/case-studies/texas-chain-saw-massacre.)

 ( Jennings Bryant, Dolf Zillmann, Mary Beth Oliver,  2002. Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. P287-88 Routledge, 2002)

(Coates-Smith, W, 2009. Sue Coe in New York. Varoom, 09)

 (Police and Predator Channel. (2014). Mother Of Eight Children Criticized For Large Family - What would you do?. [Online Video]. 20 January. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpoxQhGm6jA) 

(Michael Baker. (2010). Harlow's Studies on Dependency in Monkeys. [Online Video]. 16 December. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrNBEhzjg8I.)

(reddit.com: about reddit. 2015. reddit.com: about reddit. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.reddit.com/about/.)

Research:
Desensitization (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2015.Desensitization (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desensitization_(psychology)

Desensitisation theory. 2015. Desensitisation theory. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.slideshare.net/05lewis/desensitisation-theory.

Media influence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2015. Media influence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_influence.

20 Most Controversially Violent Films Ever Made - Page 2. 2015. 20 Most Controversially Violent Films Ever Made - Page 2. [ONLINE] Available at:http://whatculture.com/film/20-most-controversially-violent-films-ever-made.php/2.

BBC News - How Psycho changed cinema. 2015. BBC News - How Psycho changed cinema. [ONLINE] Available at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8593508.stm.

Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research - Google Books. 2015.Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research - Google Books. [ONLINE]

Modern horror films reflective of desensitization to violence in audiences - Greensboro Horror Movie | Examiner.com. 2015. Modern horror films reflective of desensitization to violence in audiences - Greensboro Horror Movie | Examiner.com. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.examiner.com/article/modern-horror-films-reflective-of-desensitization-to-violence-audiences

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | British Board of Film Classification. 2015.The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | British Board of Film Classification. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/case-studies/texas-chain-saw-massacre.

13 Terrifying Modern Horror Comics :: Books :: Lists :: Paste. 2015. 13 Terrifying Modern Horror Comics :: Books :: Lists :: Paste. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/10/13-terrifying-modern-horror-comics.html.

Mad Scientists – Harry Harlow’s “Pit of Despair” for Baby Monkeys | UA Magazine. 2015. Mad Scientists – Harry Harlow’s “Pit of Despair” for Baby Monkeys | UA Magazine. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.united-academics.org/magazine/earth-environment/harlows-pit-of-despair-for-baby-monkeys/.

Harlow Dead, Bioethicists Outraged | Speaking of Research. 2015. Harlow Dead, Bioethicists Outraged | Speaking of Research. [ONLINE] Available at:http://speakingofresearch.com/2014/08/03/harlow-dead-bioethicists-outraged/.

Cruelty to Animals in Laboratories | Animals Used for Experimentation | The Issues | PETA. 2015. Cruelty to Animals in Laboratories | Animals Used for Experimentation | The Issues | PETA. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animals-laboratories/.

10 Famous Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today | Mental Floss UK. 2015. 10 Famous Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today | Mental Floss UK. [ONLINE] Available at:http://mentalfloss.com/article/52787/10-famous-psychological-experiments-could-never-happen-today

Psycho (1960) - Trivia - IMDb. 2015. Psycho (1960) - Trivia - IMDb. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv

40+ Amazing Reddit Statistics. 2015. 40+ Amazing Reddit Statistics. [ONLINE] Available at: http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/reddit-stats/.





                                                   

FINAL

Cover

I hadn't actually thought about a cover until now. My idea came from a brainwave while blogging at some ungodly hour last night.
Since i'm trying to patronise in order to evoke emotion why not go all out on the cover.

Little boxes full of ticky tacky things
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_2lGkEU4Xs << this is the song I got the idea from

The actual song doesn't have much to do with my project but I felt that the line of the song perfectly belittled the issues. And its like we put the issues in little boxes in our minds and don't think about them.

For the title I decided I wanted it in little boxes so that it fit in with the layout of the visuals inside. I only did 3 variations as a time saving method. but it turned out to take a long time to layer the letters on top and repeat the boxes so that they sat in a balanced formation.

I did my name in the format too and then because I wasn't sure what to have as a back cover I just repeated the boxes without the lettering. 

Colour and Poetry

So I didn't feel like I would have enough time to write 14 line poems like I did for the others because it took me a really long time and I want to avoid too much repetition of the same words and I've been running out of ones I know the meaning of. I'm looking up definitions in a frenzy trying to find rhyme possibilities.

POEMS

In a cardboard box by the train station,
Due to money, drink or amputation
Lies warmth and contentment deprivation
Pleading for change to cure starvation


A government sanctioned installation,
Relied upon for medication,
Stripped away by legislation,
The only hope? Asphyxiation

Maintaining purity of a female relation,
They keep them clean with mutilation,
Sealed shut in fear of flirtation
Only to be opened for pro creation



Then I needed a concluding poem. I've known since I discovered the ation rhyming gold mine that whatever the final page says the last word will be desensitisation. I think it just sounds snappy to end on. And its the subject I'm doing it on so I want it to be the last thing in peoples mind.

So if this book of illustration,
Challenged you like an accusation,
Save me your excuses and fabrication,
You are a victim of desensitisation.


NOW FOR COLOUR

Spot on

Getting my spot Illustrations done, turns out since with the other topics I've had to come up with at least 14 different characters/positions and stuff it wasn't as hard as i expected to just come up with one representative image.

With the homeless man initially I had drawn the box too shallow so when I drew him in he didn't fit, but I worked with it and made his torso eaten by rats. I want to shock the audience by showing them the extrmemes.

Female circumcision was going to be the gory-est from the start so I felt the composition of the piece would be important.

Here the body shapes are too awkward to fit in a box nicely.

This one I tried to make the hands holding a big part of it but the giant hands are making it look a bit 'fairytale'

I tried the hands on the outside but it makes it look more tribal like she's a virgin sacrifice.

I decided to have multiple hands coming in from the box to show how outnumbered she is but also to draw the line of site between her legs where the gore will be.

I think the facial expression went really well here the right amount of distress and confusion.

For the sanctions one I basically had to literally show someone dead by suicide. I was thinking either someone hanging or a pill overdose for the possibility of vomit drawing. But I like the hanging one better because it offers up a different box shape, creating variation in the book. And because its more recognisable from just a silhouette.

Time is against me

So the big drawings I was doing are taking far too long and its a matter of days until the deadline. I still want to be able to have my variety of world issues because I think it gives a balanced account of things that are going wrong in the world. But the format of the drawings is very extensive and theres a minimum of 14 images because thats how many lines are in each poem.
I need to cut down the amount of time it takes me to make the images.

After some brain storming with Hollie I think I have a solution. Since I have four big images done then it would be symmetrical to have four floating spot illustrations. I will just have to do one image to represent each topic left; Female circumcision, Homelessness and suicides due to government sanctions cutting benefits. The images have to be distressing and full of detail and texture since they have to stand alone.

Finnished linework

Unfortunatley each of these has taken a whole day of planning boxes adding in characters and sorting out hwere the speech bubbles go to make the most sense when reading.

Bride Trafficking

Info
In mewat district there are 879 women for every 1000 men.
national average 927:1000
Women are brought in from poorer parts of india.
Women cost less than a cow.
Very common that people are sold at age 12 and pregnant within a year.
The bought brides are treated as outsiders in their new community because they are thought to be more course and initiate arguments with their husband.
There are more animal shelters in india than women shelters.
A lot of the brides think that they are being taken somewhere for a job to earn money for their families but in reality are being sold

POEM
Too young for flirtation,
Bred on starvation,
A family of desperation,
Tempted with vocation,
Only to be sold to molestation,
Forced fornication
Causing yearly lactation.
Does providing accomodation,
Justify the deprivation,
Lets have a conversation,
It's simple contemplation.
Is it a question of adaptation
Or is it simply violation.

But don't worry if you're not sold on it yet.

Ferguson Riots

INFO

12 bullets in Michael Brown

Residents created a makeshift memorial and reportedly a policeman allowed his dog to urinate on it.

Tear gas. Rubber bullets. Used by the police because protesters started to throw rocks.

August 12 several hundred protesters gathered in Clayton seeking criminal prosecution.

Smoke bombs, flash grenades also used by police.

Protesters started to throw molotov cocktails

Obama addressed the country: 'there's no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protestors'

"Militarisation of the police escalated the protestors response.

12-5am curfew was inputted.

some Police have been wearing 'I am Darren Wilson' bracelets on duty.

POEM

A twelve bullet decoration,

A racist infestation.

Wildfire allegations,

At a Missouri police station.

A memorial for the altercation,

Purposely defiled by urination.

An uproar of confrontation,

Peaceful and violent demonstration.

Clashing opinions lead to escalation,

Authorities strive for unification.

A community riled by indignation

Without mediation.

What is real and what is fabrication.

But don't worry Dear, you've got a dozen other things to worry about.

Female infanticide

INFO

It is likely to have serious consequences on the balance of the sexes in population

Girls leave parental family so there is no one to look after parents in old age of they have a girl

Some females are killed because they are regarded as being lower in the caste hierarchy than males 

In rural areas anti female bias is stronger
In some cases the baby is half birthed in an induced setting and a large syringe is entered into the base of its head and they simply extract its brain killing it instantly.

POEM
One proud nation,
Struggling with overpopulation,
Limited the generation.
There was an inclination
For male domination
And a female creation
creates a complication
Frustration and asphyxiation
Better luck in incarnation.
They are trapped in a situation,
Where girls are financial devastation.
It's only blood relation
If there's male confirmation.

But don't worry Dear, if you're not man enough to handle this.

ISIS

ISIS

info:

the islamic state is run by a Caliph - Thought to be the political successor of Muhammed.

Approx  600 young muslims are believed to have left Britain to join ISIS fighters in Syria

Jihadimania - heard in an interview 'Boys want to be like them, girls want to be with them'

Ancient city of Hatra was destroyed along with the artifacts there. it is 2000 years old.

"Some of the infidel organisations say the destruction of these alleged artifacts is a war crime. We will destroy your artifacts and idols anywhere and Islamic State will rule your lands"

More than 2,000 air strikes have been carried out by the US

There was a news report that rumours that the area where george lucas filmed for star wars as Tatooine was going to be bombed. The claims turned out to be completely false as that area of tunisia is still stable and accepting tourists. Whats interesting is that people showed more care when it threatened something they liked personally.

POEM

A media sensation,

A child throwing away education

In the hope of liberation,

Only to be met with damnation

As a concentration 

Of immigration and rising inflation

Causes agitation across a nation.

When you think a single donation,

Can create a foundation.

We make no personal relation

And call it thought mutation,

An abomination

When stakes rise to decapitation

But it's ok Dear, don't lose your head.