- Your proposal describes several subjects of interest to you: ‘outsider art’, ‘ugly’/intuitive aesthetics, lack of content/comment in illustration, etc. I think you need to narrow down and define your aims more clearly so you can focus your research. Of all these subjects, what is the key area you want to explore and how does it relate to your illustration practice? Your research question needs to be professionally as well as personally relevant. Perhaps framing the question with regard to your practice would help. Think about what you are going to know at the end of this project that will inform your work. You mention that you are looking at the ugly/intuitive aesthetic in your practice - can you reflect further on this?
- You have chosen question 6 about Aesthetic Style so it would also be useful to analyse what it is asking. Do some basic research into the definition of terms such as ‘style’ and ‘aesthetics’ within the context of contemporary art and illustration. Gather a range of definitions from different sources. Think about how question 6 relates to and frames your areas of interest. For example, it would make sense to define Outsider Art or ‘ugly/intuitive’ values and examine where these ideas comes from.
- Once you have defined your proposal and have gathered some focussed research information and materials, start to identify some possible case studies you could look at in depth. You could compare and contrast cases within the context of your research to set out your position on what you have learned
I have done a shamefully small amount of research so far. I took out some books on outsider art*, flipped through a few. Didn't make many more notes than "Wow I just Love these Niko Pirosmani paintings!!" and "yes Henry Moore you're totally right and cool to reject roman ideals of figure and aesthetic". I haven't read into it much but it's interesting to hear that Henry Moore wrote on these topics (maybe almost academically) and it piques my interest a little more than hearing what art critics have to say.
I agree that I need to refine it more, but I'm not sure where to at this point. I love the phrase intuitive aesthetics and maybe after looking into aesthetics as a basic concept I'll have some more info to go off. Regardless of whether I look at outsider art as a practice or aesthetics it's all things that I am interested in and would like to be relevant to me.
