For this project, I decided to make an animation where the narrative was driven by drawing and a central theme, rather than by a storyboard. After looking into darts competitions for my first project ‘Farm Panic Breakup Interview’ I realised I was really interested in the concept of competitive sport, especially the kind that did not require much endurance. From this, I started to think about competitions on a much smaller scale such as an egg and spoon race or a bean bag race. The idea of “Hot Potato” came from my research on these kinds of childhood games.

This project was a live brief for the poet Hollie McNish. Her poem ‘Parent Bench’ is taken from her experience of awkward and forced conversations with other parents whilst their children are playing in the park.

I chose to use oil pastel relief as the medium for the animation, as the varied texture and occasional mistake-marks left by the pastels I felt created a more childlike quality. I wanted to visually translate the humour in the poem, making obvious the awkwardness of the situation in the mannerisms I animated.