Critical Review – Thought process

I first looked at subjects I could research for the critical review at the end of part two of the unit (catherinerouxillustrationdegree.uk/illustration-year-2/responding-to-a-brief/coursework/part-2/critical-review-proposal/).

I chose anthropomorphism because I like creating animal characters but I could feel that there was something I did not quite understand about the way to humanise animals. I thought that this was a good opportunity to do some research on the subject.

When I submitted the proposal to my tutor, she suggested in her feedback that I should try to define the subject of the critical review with a question. In order to do that, I asked myself what I wanted to find out. I realised that I wanted to understand degrees of anthropomorphism and the impact on an illustration. I therefore chose the following title: Animal characters in children’s book illustrations: What are the different degrees of anthropomorphism and why does it matter?

I searched for information on anthropomorphism in general as I did not want to limit my research at first. I also knew that observation was important in that case and tried to look at as many examples of anthropomorphism as I could.

It was beneficial to start defining the subject of my research earlier in the course. It meant that I was could observe examples of anthropomorphism and reflect on the way it was applied.

I then wrote the critical review and submitted it to my tutor. Following her feedback, I realised that I had not understood how I needed to reference my sources and did some more research on the Harvard referencing system. I found referencing sources challenging at times as there can be so many different situations including indirect referencing on websites for images.

Following my tutor’s feedback, I also tried to quote my sources better in the review as I realised that I was not always clear.

I have enjoyed doing some research and reflecting on the results in my critical review. This has really helped me to understand how to apply anthropomorphism. It also mean that I can now observe examples around me and understand better the impact of anthropomorphism and how an artist decides to use it.