Research Task: Before you Begin

This research task allows me to reflect on my tutor's feedback on my self-directed project.

"The question I think you should ask yourself however, is why am I doing this? Do you just want to tick the box and crack on with the next unit of your degree as soon as possible, or do you want to create something and learn from creating it?"

The big thing that came up on my feedback which I had expected was the deadline. I had set myself an achievable goal but was way too ambitious, it was a real push for me to be able to get this done; a lot of what my tutor also mentioned is the intention behind my self-directed project.

Moving the deadline was a difficult decision for me to do, with the encouraging feedback and a recent therapy appointment, I realised that reason I was pushing so hard to get it done was due to my own personal anxieties. My ego really wanted to improve and be able to get everything done and get this whole course completed by next year, but realistically with other commitments it doesn't work-- it would ultimately end up with me burning out.

"It is worth considering what you want to do with your work once it is created, how will you share it? Is it something you want to self publish? Sell at fairs? Approach a publisher with?"

I really want this project to push me further and to also allow me to kick-start my art career, I intend to self-publish this with the goal in mind to possible sell this at my local art store. I would like to use to get my name out there, maybe a London Comic Con stall in October?

I want to make the most out of what I have got, I am lucky that a friend is helping me proof-read the script I've written for my graphic novel; in my two weeks off I plan to ensure that my sketches are well done that the character designs are effective for the story and that the monsters are creepy.

Overall, I do believe that my project is ambitious and exciting, there's a huge risk of doing any piece of media in first person and to involve the audience in this way; so I really have to combat that by thinking of ways to keep the readers attention.

Even if it doesn't work out though, I could at least say that I've tried :)

I'll be working on some more early developments of the project as I complete this section (6).