I struggled with this exercise. On paper, it made a lot of sense and seemed straightforward. However, I was also suffering a lot from personal issues that were affecting my mental health and ability to progress. In terms of news events, I started the exercise in the run-up to the general election. You would have thought that it would make the exercise easier with such a prominent focus for the news coverage. However, instead of an abundance of riches, I found myself struggling to come up with ideas. I was assaulted by professional satirists producing work almost every day, and nothing I came up with seemed to work.
I eventually managed to complete some sketches in my sketchbooks to play around with some ideas. I didn't like them and still felt intimidated by the cartoons I kept seeing in the media.
After I had done these sketches my mental and physical health deteriorated, and I did not feel capable of coming back to the exercise for many weeks. All of the delays compounded my poor mental health and exacerbated my ADHD challenges. Some weeks later, the band Oasis had announced their reformation and a new tour. It felt like a subject that people were talking about and ripe for satire. It also felt like less pressure than politics, and built up enough momentum to pick up my sketchbook again and explore an idea that had been building in my head.
I did everything I could to try and keep the momentum I had built, so ! took a photo of the sketchbook page with my iPad and imported it into Procreate to explore further. With my wife sitting nearby for body-doubling support I persevered, playing with the idea in real-time and editing my choices as part of the process. I was able to experiment with ideas as I went to try and get the effect that I had in my mind's eye.
Given how I have been feeling physically and mentally, I was glad to find enough focus to complete this exercise. I think the cartoon works well and employs a combination of words and images to communicate the ideas. I was concerned initially that making the focus of the cartoon two middle-aged fans would not be on-brief as it didn't focus on the Gallagher brothers directly. However, I think that I have been able to capture the brothers' presence well. The clothes of the fans are part of the satire, representing the thousands of middle-aged people who will attempt to re-live their youth at the tours. I think the whole thing works to satirise the situation and my feelings on the obvious greed and hyperbole of the reunion.
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