# data[].attributes.body
For this project, we were given the word ‘’revolution’ to base our theme around. I chose the theme ‘advocating for a revolution in animal rights’. I chose this because I already knew I wanted to go in a political direction, and this is a topic I have always been really passionate about and have ideas for. Within this theme, however, I decided to take a more unusual direction, one which isn’t talked about as much. This includes thing like a type of neglect of household animals which isn’t often identified as neglect- such as bad pet nutrition, small cages, lack of attention and more. I also wanted to look at how animals are objectified and how their lives lack value- sometimes in terms of labour like horse racing and donkey carts but also things like goldfish being sold at funfairs to people who can’t look after them properly. Since these things aren’t well known about, I wanted to use this project as a medium to encourage a revolution in which people make big changes to the treatment of animals. Over the project I used a variety of mediums, mostly paint, colouring pencils and alcohol markers. I practised a more illustrative art style this time, being influenced by a lot of different artists but also ensuring to use my own interpretation as I have found that previously I was stuck in a cycle of simply copying artists ideas or photographs and not allowing myself to make it my own art. I feel I was able to break this cycle this project and my art was better because of it. I did research quite a few artists so I could discover original ways to portray animals elegantly and work out what kind of art style I would like to use for my campaign. I also did some contextual research on statistics and health risks in many of the different subject matters I had focused on. These helped me to generate ideas and add elements to my work which better communicated my message as I had researched thoroughly and fully understood my concept. My artist research also helped me choose my more gentle and inoffensive art style throughout my project, which contrasts most other animal rights art. I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to this project as I had some interruptions some weeks which impacted my progress, but I plan to develop some of my ideas for my portfolio after this project. For my final outcome I created 2 posters, so that I could cover the 2 different topics I had been focusing on through the project. My first poster, depicting a race horse and a horse with wings, is meant to allude to how the racehorse is only allowed to be free in death, showing the cruelty of horse racing. This was initially supposed to be just a race horse contrasted with a ‘free’ galloping horse but I felt this idea was more impactful. I also changed the background which was going to be a pastel colour to black to make the white winged horse stand out. I thes added subtle but bright colours to the horse to emphasise the idea of freedom and also the fact the horse is not real. For my other final piece I created a ‘false’ dog advert which exposes the truth of certain dog foods, it’s lack of nutrition and the long term health effects. I was going to do this digitally initially but I wanted to use a certain style which I felt could only be achieved in person. I made the dog look sick and presented the many effects of the food, but also kept the rest of the advert looking more aesthetically pleasing and set in nature, as this follows my theme alongside showing the irony of ‘’natural’ dog foods. I had planned to do one more showing a goldfish in a bag at a funfair, contrasting beautiful fun surroundings with dark subject matter, much like how real animal neglect like this is ignored and seen as fun and cute, however I didn’t get time to complete this. I think the most effective parts of my project have been my concepts as I felt I came up with some quite original ideas and this wasn’t something I struggled with- I was very inspired and had lots of topics I wanted to cover, and I feel that going down the route of using posters linked the theme nicely back to revolution. I still would like to improve developing these ideas into outcomes as some of my practical skills are still limited and I can’t create exactly what I have pictured, but overall I am happy with this project and the progress I have made.