Visual journal, Early days

So, having a complete essay, i can start firing in to the visual element of my cop work. Best place to start, was to play with the illustration i reference. 

Which lead to these three little doodles, i basically put a version of myself in place of the character or person in the work, i.e. myself running for the presidency etc.. This was interesting in terms of really thinking of the connotations of the work, especially when creating the poisonous mushroom, i had to consider what it is to haver your being, your heritage poked fun at, granted i do get questions about kilts, haggis and irn-bru when people find out i'm Scottish (Yes i've worn a kilt, yes i wore underwear with it, Irn-bru is the shit and Haggis is just shit), but this certainly doesn't compare to the jewish struggle during the second world war. 

(Extra note): Speaking of this point of considering the Jewish struggle, I have recently read Maus, and man what an excellent read, an incredibly in depth, honest portrayal of both the time and long term effects that can have on one of the victims, was incredibly helpful for additions to my Essay. 

What i found most interesting and novel about that process though, was the creation of the hope poster, it was kind of fun to have a mini imaginary ego trip as i started to consider myself as a leader (god help us all if i ever get any semblance of authority), but the positive figure seemed kind of boring to me, i returned to "State of deception", a book on nazi propaganda i used for my essay, to consider an evil approach. I just couldn't get over some of the portrayals of Hitler, a personal favourite being Hitler in knights armour called Der Bannerträger ("The Standard Bearer"), by Hubert Lanzinger, its kind of daft if you really think of it, but in the right context quite an empowering image. What really struck inspiration was little Nazi figures that included a Hitler to lead, relating strongly on the subject of interest for my essay, propaganda towards children, i drew a version of this for myself and knew absolutely this idea is what i wanted to explore throughout my visual journal.