development of proposal

After researching into this idea, looking at costs and how we would actually go about setting it up, it became clear the tunnel aspect would be quite difficult. We didn't know what it would be made out of, we were thinking a poly tunnel:

But they're not very safe, or particularly aesthetically appealing. So we then we had the idea of using shipping containers, I found some flatpack ones that fold up so it would be easy to trasport them around

If we had a couple of these exhibiting work, I think it could work quite well. Shipping containers have been used a lot for creative uses:

new book

Got a new photography book for christmas - 'Cosmic Communist Constructions'. Lots of constructivist architecture and soviet brutalism from the last decades of the USSR.

ford advertising

Found this advertising campaign for 'Ford Transit' by Ogilvy and Mather, which I thought was quite clever. I like the idea of taking illustration off the page and putting it into environments. 

PEST and SWOT analysis: Association of Women Art Dealers

The Association of Women Art Dealers is a cooperation of people who work to create collaborations and business deals between women art dealers, art consultants and gallerists. The association meet to hold networking events to make ties between dealers. They often collaborate together to set pop up art fairs and galleries which is very similar to what we are wanting to create.

POLITICAL FACTORS
- it is a members only association, and the members can only be art dealers, art consultants, gallerists or art advisors so people wanting to apply have to fill out an application form to prove their job status
- they often hold exhibitions where they sell artist's work so copyright laws have to be addressed
- the pop up galleries are often done in unused buildings, so permission from the owner or government is necessary 

ECONOMIC FACTORS
- money comes into the association through the membership fee which is about £200
- the art dealers sell artist's work through the exhibitions, so a percentage of the profit goes to the art dealer
- money is needed from the association to pay rent for the empty spaces used for the exhibitions and pop up galleries

SOCIAL FACTORS
- the association is about connecting women art dealers, consultants etc. and allowing networking between professionals to happen
- they focus on new, emerging artists who have not yet been established to give them an opportunity to present and sell their work which wouldn't be possible in one of the big galleries

TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS
- the fact that the exhibitions are often 'pop up' and are held in empty spaces all over London and New York makes it very accessible to people to visit and see the artwork
- social media means it is easy for the association to meet up, talk about future exhibitions or new artists that have ben discovered. It also means the exhibitions can be advertised efficiently 

STRENGTHS
- the association is made up by a large group of women who are all networking and discussing new art and possible business ideas, so new exhibitions are held frequently 
- the constant change in scenery for the exhibitions means that it is always new and exciting, and it is only up for a short period of time so it gets a lot of attention while it is up as people don't want to miss out

WEAKNESSES
- setting up the galleries takes a lot of effort and possibly money, especially if the building is not in the best condition before the exhibition

OPPORTUNITIES (they have taken)
- when wanting to set up the pop up exhibitions they have taken opportunity from buildings that are not being used and pay to rent them out for a short period of time
- they recognise strengths in new emerging artist's work, see whether there is a selling point there and agree to take on their work to exhibit
- they are constantly meeting new art dealers, curators, consultants that they can make business deals and partnerships with 

THREATS (they face)
- the council could have a problem with exhibitions being set up in certain places
- the exhibitions might not get enough attention in time and the turn out of visitors might not equal out to the cost spent on creating the pop up 
- the art being sold might not be popular with the people visiting, considertions of the area the exhibitions are being held is important; looking at the specific market.

heart agency

I have recently been introduced to illustration agency - 'Heart Agency'. 

http://www.heartagency.com/artist

I really love all the work on there, I feel like it relates a bit to my work. There is a lot of mixed media illustration on there which I am really interested in. I think my favourite is Laura Carlin, her naive use of materials but with such strong compositions and concepts make her work so intriguing, especially the work she did for 'Iron Man' the use of 3D adds so much atmosphere to the images.

Life's a Pitch

Life's a Pitch
We were split into groups and asked to come up with an idea/proposal for a business.
My group is made up of me, Joe, Jessie and Janin.

what is the concept/idea for your group's proposal?
'installation of illustration' - a tunnel set up in the middle of towns that exhibits illustration work from up and coming illustrators who are not yet known, with a shop selling prints of the art work at the end of the tunnel. We will use a competition in order to get the work from illustrators.

what service to you propose to provide?

who will benefit/make use of your service?
- we want this to be accessible to all, encouraging creativity
- those interested in illustration
- it offers exposure for creatives

what are the aims of your proposal?
- to spark interest in art and illustration in people who may have not considered it before
- find talented illustrators who have not yet been recognised and promote their work

what are the expected outcomes of your proposal?

how will you measure your success?
- anticipation for the pop up, so if it manages to get a name for itself and people want to see more of it
- if people actually take interest and enter the competition
- if everything goes to plan; people go through the tunnel, enter the competition, buy products from the shop and hopefully make some profit

what problems can you foresee?
- it could be a lot more expensive to set up than we first thought - have to consider travel, permits, how we will actually go about setting up the tunnel (and out of what material)
- no one entering the competition/ work that is entered isn't to a good standard
- safety, if leaving the tunnel over night, how will we make sure it doesn't get broken into
- not being allowed to set up in the middle of town by the council

categories

In groups we separated the different areas of illustration into categories

I then chose 3 categories to explore further into visually; I went out and took photos of things I felt fitted in well with the categories while also doing internet research

PUBLISHING AND BOOK DESIGN

link to book design pinterest page

PRODUCT AND PACKAGING

link to packaging pinterest page

OBJECT AND ENVIRONMENT

link to environment pinterest page

5 types of illustrated magazine covers

Variation of illustrated magazine covers for different audiences:

- An educational magazine, not aimed at children but mostly adults with an interest in science

Richard Wilkinson

Spencer Wilson

- A fashion magazine, primarily aimed at women, designers or those with just an interest in fashion

Andy Warhol

Malika Favre

- A magazine aimed at adults with an interest in contemporary issues in society 

Eric Drooker

Saul Steinburg

- a magazine at educating children about history in a fun and easy manner

both illustrated by Martin Brown

- a magazine aimed at cycling enthusiasts 

both illustrations by Gary Marshall

Not all the magazines are filled with content that will be illustrated; for most it will be photography and written information. However, I feel the illustrations made for the covers are so relevant, well crafted and engaging, more so than photographed covers I find. 

5 things

5 things I have learnt last year:
- how to create collages using photoshop
- learnt how to really explore subject matter when doing observational drawing - through line, pattern, shape, texture, doing repeated drawings
- to consider composition a lot more, I came to realise last year how much difference a good composition makes compared to a piece with one that hasn't been that thought out
- have become a lot more confident with photoshop after doing a whole project using it

5 things I want want to know more about:
- screen printing; I didn't manage to do much last year so want to try it out more this year
- where I can go with collage, I started with it at the end of last year but want to explore more with what I can do with it - how I can incorporate it with other methods of working
- try out other printing techniques; I have looked at practitioners who have worked with woodcut and lino and love the style, so want to give that a go this year

5 strengths:
- my experimentation with materials, I feel I experimented quite a bit last year and throughout my summer sketchbook, I don't usually like sticking to one material
- I enjoy research, which is important with some briefs, I feel I won't be able to do particular briefs well if I don't have a good understanding of what it is I am trying to depict
- I try to include my other interests into my work, like photography, literature, architecture - I find that m work becomes much more rounded when I filter in things I am really interested in

5 things I want to improve on:
- my use of colour, I don't feel I consider it enough when creating a piece - I want to be able to set a mood or draw attention of particular areas through my use of colour
- be more analytical when evaluating my work - really think about what I did well and where I can improve
- be braver when it comes to trying new methods, I experiment quite a lot with materials but not so much processes with print, so need to push myself to go down to the print rooms and experiment

5 images that define where my interests are in illustration at the moment:

- not illustration but saw the Matisse exhibitor, love his use of shapes and colour to depict a scene. very bold shapes that are simplified

- saw Bill Bragg's work for a folio society book, made me want to try to do a bit of narrative work.

- I don't feel I play enough with texture, love Ping Zhu's brush work to create texture

- love Bryan Olson's collages, very surreal and bold

- also, Beth Hoekel's mixed media collages, simple use of paint is very effective in creating a whole new image

402 Personal and Professional Practice - end of module evaluation

1.     What learning have you inherited through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied it? Consider differing approaches to contextual/professional research All the PPP session we had where we had to bring in other practitioner’s work and critique it, meant that I became better at critiquing my own work. Hearing other people’s opinions, which sometimes challenged my own, meant I had a better understanding of pieces, and had a better-informed opinion of my own work. Having continually looked at other practitioners in different areas of illustration has meant that I haven’t just stuck to one area or style throughout all the projects, I feel having a constant influx of different methods, ideas, material, context etc. has made me excited and intrigued to try out as much as I can, so each project I have done is very different from the one before it. In the ‘illustrated self’ brief, I felt I was a lot more confident when composing my pieces, I was coming up with lots of different composition ideas, and the fact that I had to know what I wanted to put in the collages before I made them, meant I was constantly thinking about it and had a clear idea of how I wanted them to look before I even started. Listening to Roman Muradov really helped when thinking about photoshop, because he showed us his initial sketches, which he then coloured digitally, actually seeing it helped me make sense of it as I find it difficult thinking about how I would make my drawings into finished pieces on photoshop.

2. What approaches to image making have you developed during this module and what informed such ways of working?

I managed to use photoshop successfully during the ‘illustrated self’ brief, which was something I have stayed away from this year, but having to make the majority of the collages digitally, I now feel more comfortable with the program, which I am pleased about. I also tried working with collage, which I did briefly in CoP, but I really got into it for this project. It is very different from most of the work I have done this year – mainly being only bits of it are analogue work. But collage is something I have always loved the aesthetic of – like with Kate Gibb’s work, it is something that is so playful and experimental, so I thought I would give it a go. I usually work from lots of reference material that is where I feel most comfortable. But this being a collage project, all the compositions and how I wanted it to look came from my imagination, which I found quite exciting as its not something I have done before. I got the idea of working from quotes after looking at the Folio Society’s collection of illustrated novels, and I just thought they were all so well done, and I found myself really inspired by some of the artists – like Bill Bragg and Finn Dean, that I wanted to give it a go, and it has been a way of working that I definitely want to do again.

3. What strengths can you identify in your practice and how have/will you capitalise on these in the future?

I feel that throughout this year I have been taking inspiration from other areas of creativity – not just illustration. I have made sure that I have kept up my interest in photography, literature, architecture, film etc. I find that I get inspiration for ideas mostly from these areas, and I feel illustration has to be driven from lots of different outside sources, as it is a profession that is so relevant to our society and current issues. I am pleased that I have managesd to keep up to date with my blogging throughout the year, I haven’t let all the PPP tasks set at the beginning of the year, build up on me. And I have made sure that when I come across something I find interesting/inspirational, I have blogged about it so to keep note and refer back to when needed. I have made it a routine to continually visit illustration websites, read magazines etc. because I think it is essential to this practice to keep up to date with new illustrators, different styles and processes. And it definitely has manipulated the way in which I work, before I started I new very little about illustration, and I always drew and painted in the same way, but now I have been continually changing the way in which I approach projects, to see which I feel most comfortable with – and it has been the constant research into other practitioner’s practices that has sparked this.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your practice and how will you address these in the future?

Although I do research into lots of illustrators, I don’t feel I am deconstructing their work as much as I could be, I can identify what I like and don’t like about work, but I haven’t applied processes I am interested in to my own work as much as I could. So in future I want to be able to fully understand a practitioners way of working, so that I can take elements and apply it to my own way of working. I am pleased with most of my final pieces, except my fire collage, it was the first collage I did, before I realised the style of how I wanted them to look, so I feel I could have gone back and improved it or just started again. So in future, if I’m not happy with a piece, I shouldn’t just make little changes, I need to get to the point of why I don’t like it and either start again or make that big change that is needed.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

-       when we were given all the ppp tasks at the beginning of the year, I feel I could have analysed them more on my blog, as it would have given me a better understanding of what I like/don’t like about it when I look back over my blog for inspiration. So I will always make notes about what I think about pieces as it is information that will always be of use to me. -       I will make an effort to try and understand other practitioner’s practice, so to learn new skills/ways of working to apply to my won process. For example, with photoshop, if I tried to really understand how a piece is made digitally, I reckon it would make a lot more sense to me. -       A lot of the research I do, and where I get inspiration from, mostly comes form the internet, so I want to make an effort to use other sources like books, magazines, galleries, just going outside… I think it will be much more stimulating to my practice. 6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor 1 2 3 4 5 Attendance x Punctuality x Motivation x Commitment x Quantity of work produced x Quality of work produced x Contribution to the group x The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.