tutorial

Had another tutorial with Pat about my professional practice and presence. I showed my categories of work which he thought was a strong collection which I'm happy about, the main actions I need to carry out:

• start working on my creative CV and website design (look at 'Wordpress'); do some research into examples I like and post on blog. Keep the text to a minimum, juts focus on my skills, make the CV a piece of work
• buy a domain name
• do some research into children's book/illustrated book publishers, go to waterstones and have a look around at some good examples - try and see where my work could fit
• prepare a list of editors that I want to contact (picture editors)
• start writing an email for a picture editor, bullet point some questions - Pat has a contact email to let me use
• maybe consider going back into animation as my cut out work would look good simply animated

categories

Patrick suggested breaking my work into categories before setting up a website - auditing my work as well, throwing out all the bits that are irrelevant to my practice or just not as good. These are the sections I came up with:

Book Covers/Narrative

Food

Nature

I feel like these give a good breadth of the type of work I do - they show different processes (watercolour, collage - digital and handmade, mono print, textures) yet still fit together, there is a tone of voice connecting them all. 

amanda hall

John mentioned an illustrator, Amanda Hall:

Her work isn't really the style I am interested in, but it does fall into a market within children's books, and she has had a lot of experience. But what was useful about her site is her question and answer page - http://www.amandahall-illustration.com/faqs/

She goes through advice for approaching illustration as a career - agents, publishers, getting paid, portfolios etc. which is really useful. 

agents

Pros and Cons of agents:

Pros:

security 

- you are less likely to be messed around by clients if you have one

promotion

- they have a wide range of contacts and resources to promote you to

authority

- they have more confidence to barter clients for a higher price

advice

- they have experience and so can offer useful advice on portfolios, your future, and general related issues

point of contact

- agent will talk to client about fees for you

Cons:

control

- you may feel less in control there is a risk of not getting all the information thats being passed around, you won't know what is exactly being said on your behalf

contacts

- can't build a relationship with the client as agent sounds most of the time with them, yu just belong to an agency 

fees

- 30% of commissioning fee goes to the agent, that can add up to quite a lot, especially if they're not well paid jobs

art directors

- they often find agents unnecessary, they can find it off-putting having to deal with the corporate middle man

extra info:

- be sure to develop your style, they want to be able to see your work as consistent 

- some agents will ask for 30% of all the work you do, whether you get the work yourself or through them so be wary

- don't ever pay agent up front, wait till they get you a job

This was all useful information, I'm still unsure whether I will want an agent. For me, having one would be beneficial because I don't feel very confident with the promotional and fee discussing side of an illustration career, which they could do for me. 

John suggested some agencies to look at:

Heart Agency

the Central Illustration Agency

Jelly London

Association of Illustrators

Lemonade Illustration

Directory of Illustration

victo ngai

Victo Ngai came to talk to us! She gave loads of useful, interesting information about how the industry works, how to go about doing editorial, narrative, design, advertising etc. and she did have different approaches to each.
There were some pieces she spoke about that stood out to me, like:

This was an editorial about breast cancer, she said in New York they won't print anything with obvious nudity which is difficult when dealing with breasts, so she had to find a way around that, and used a maze of trees to map out the shape. Also, dealing with cancer is very sensitive as most of the readers could be patients, so she made the 'cancer creature' quite cute and non threatening because patients ant to feel that it is something they can overcome and treat. These are both things I wouldn't have considered, but make the piece so much more interesting.

Another editorial about the Egypt revolution, also called the lotus revolution which is why the main shape is a lotus flower, but what was interesting was the way the text and image works together. I thought with editorial, they give you the article and you work to their space but there was more communication with this between editor and illustrator which I liked. 






Also, you can tell a piece of work is good if it still looks good in black and white, that way it isn't all about colour; the composition and highlighting has to be good as well. 

editorial:
- business sections of papers tend to prefer more straightforward illustrations, not too conceptual

stories:
- its all about picking the right moment to depict for book covers and inner illustrations, it can be simple but still meaningful to the story
- foreshadow the ending without giving it away

which is what she did here beautifully; the story was apparently about a couple who go on lots of trips but eventually drift apart and break up which is a shock to the reader, but here she foreshadows that ending. The line of the boat splits the page, the swallows symbolising the freedom, which she is leaning towards while he is locked away, being grumpy in the car.







- she uses a lot of vertical perspectives which is often used in Asian art, where things that are far away are further at the top. It creates quite a surreal aesthetic but is interesting to possibly explore

advertising:
- the more money a job is, the less freedom you will have
- big companies have complete creative control over what you draw even if they don;t have any creative experience
- when working with big corporate companies it is important to have a small job on the side or keep a sketchbook to release creativity
- when working with editorial, they usually buy one print right and if they want to print in their russian version of the paper for example, they will have to pay you again. But with advertising, they usually pay for a time period of unlimited print run, e.g. three months, where they will get everything they can out of that design, and they can do anything they like with it for that period of time

tutorial with pat

We had a useful tutorial about our portfolios, what I got form it was:
- less is more in terms of amounts of work, we should have about 10-20 pieces of really good work in our portfolio
- there should be consistency interns of quality and content throughout
- I should have both a website portfolio and a print version
- I need to get a website, that way I can have several portfolios within it with different categories of work, and then keep my blog for WiP and current work with more description alongside it
- my website needs a statement which is reflective of my work and how the website works (how the work is organised)
- I need to have an image audit; order my images into relevant categories and take out ones that aren't as good

Print Portfolio:
- include different versions of a print (one in colour, one just line work, one more digital or hand crafted)
- show a range of application
- have prints no bigger than A3, for practical reasons
- decent printing quality is essential, thick paper that won't warp

Meetings:
- research the prospective client
- look at previous work they have commissioned so that I know what kind of work to bring in
- don't bring in examples of work that are irrelevant to the brief
- be honest about what I can't do e.g. type, ad say that I will need to work with someone who can
- before the meeting ask what the brief will be or for a creative steer in a direction of the type of work I will be producing so that I can alter my portfolio to fit that

zine for thoughtbubble

I started making imagery at the start of the term so that I could get back into making again. I had the theme based around fish and sea life; these were some of the initial bits I did:

I enjoyed making the fish but I left it too long to start back up again and lost interest in the theme so started again but with jungle imagery, which I got really into.

I decided against using text in the zine because I want the focus to be on the visual images and the process/textures, also text and type isnt really my strong point. Here are my final images:

I am really happy with the final images, I planned for it to be really quick and simple job but I actually ended up spending quite a bit of time on it. I had fun making the images and wanted it to look good, and I think I've ended up with some strong illustrations which I could maybe blow up into bigger, single prints or maybe even screen print some. Here's the zine with its coloured covers:

getting paid

tutorial

John gave me some useful things to look at that relate to my practise:

- Shotopop
http://www.shotopop.com/case-studies/
Which has case studies that shows the development of illustration work for big companies and projects. I often see finished product and advertising work and think I wouldn't be able to do something like that, but seeing the process makes it seem a lot more do-able. 
Also my process is my main focus within my work so seeing how big projects like this develop is really useful

- Creative Mornings
http://creativemornings.com
This site has lots of talks from creatives around the world. It splits off into cities with information on up-coming creative talks/events in that city, it creates a general community of creatives

I should be using LinkedIn to connect with people, he suggested contacting children's book writers and just talking to them, offer my services as an illustrator to a possible up-coming book they might have - the worst they will do is say no so I may as well try

wish list

What I am doing with work now:

• Process and craft is what really excites me, I love experimenting with new processes, spending time on getting the right aesthetic. The content/concept of work is very important within illustration, but I view the development of the visual aspect just as important
• I want to develop skills in condensing ideas into simple images, I sometimes try to fit everything in at once, which is why I am looking at projects to do with education
• I have always had a love for literature and illustration enables me to be part of that, to condense narrative themes into imagery
• I am choosing projects that will show a variation of abilities within my work (process and area of illustration) but I will have the main focus on narrative/book design
• I need to be more pro-active with sorting out my life after uni, I talk a lot about practitioners I like and things I want to do but haven't got round to actually getting in contact with anyone

Wish list for future:

•  I want to have my practice to be involved with books, as well as other areas in illustration
•  I want to have a working studio space with other practitioners, as I am more productive and creative when around other people working
•  I want my job to have opportunities to travel and to be exciting
•  I want to be making work that I enjoy and am proud of, obviously there will be time that I will have to make work I don't really like but I want to try and not make that a regular occurrence 
• I want to possibly be part of an agency (but need to know more about what that means)

Where I see illustration going in the next 5 years:

• Traditional print is definitely coming back, collectives such as 'design for today' focus especially on screen-printing, lithography as well as bringing back mid-century illustration design
• Everything is becoming so digital so quickly that there will be a retreat back to printed items, beautifully printed and illustrated books might be rarer but I think there will still be a market for them 
• Illustration will also thrive with digital advancements, like having animated gifs on online newspapers

some new illustrators I like

I've been using instagram a lot as a tool to find more illustrators. It's a good way to keep up to date with their work and also to see their processes and way of working - and to get an idea of how to promote yourself as an illustrator. 

design for today

This is a publishing company which collaborates with young illustrators who are inspired by mid-century design and lithography to create limited edition books, cards etc. for the 'discerning collector and enthusiast of design and illustration'. I only recently found out about them but I really love the work being created. The instagram account shows both old illustrations and new but all are of a similar style, I love that they are bringing back this style, retreating back to traditional screen-print and lithography rather than digital. This is definitely a company I want to look more into. 

http://designfortoday.co.uk/

esther cox

Love her use of shape and pattern - very simple designs but they are very bold and lively. She uses lots of exciting textures in her work - and uses them in a way where she physically moves them about the page which I really like. 

http://www.esthercoxskiosk.com/

lizzy stewart

I've always liked Lizzy's work, but I've been getting more into it recently. Her recent instagram/blog shows her sketches from holiday which she then makes into zines which I really like. They are quite simple drawing s but they are very charming and definitely create a sense of atmosphere around the location. 

http://www.abouttoday.co.uk/

lucy sherstson

Again, uses a lot of great textures and shapes, but she also brings her work into 3D which is interesting - creating sculptures with the illustrations. 

http://www.lucysherston.com/

jing wei

I love her compositions, it is all quite flat but the overlaying of textures works really well to create a sense of depth.

http://jingweistudio.com/

louise lockhart

She works for the agency 'printed peanut' which generates a lot of great work - a lot of screen prints. I still haven't got around to doing it so want to this year, so many of my favourite illustrators use it as a main tool so I think it would only make sense that I give it a try. 

http://louiselockhart.co.uk/

lizzie lomax

I've been following Lizzie on tumblr, but she's only recently graduated and is now working for 'heart' agency. I love all the work at heart, it is definitely a direction I want to be working towards. It is comforting to see that it can actually happen - getting into a really great agency straight after uni, so it is something to work for.

http://lizzielomaxxx.tumblr.com/

alice pattullo

She works for 'designfortoday', I don't know much about her work but I recently saw some of it (below) which I loved. The 3D illustration is something I have thought about a lot but never actually got around to. I think these scenes are great and create such a strong narrative when you can see all the layers and characters,it becomes a set almost. I'm thinking about maybe using a similar idea for my CoP work. 

http://alicepattullo.com/

sketchbook

I have a really nice watercolour sketchbook I thought I should make use of while on holiday, some of the views I saw were stunning so I tried to capture that. I find it so annoying when you can't get the right colour in paint that you see right in front of you - like sea blue, its an amazing colour but so hard to get right. But I still like these paintings, I also enjoyed getting back into watercolours. 

more sketchbook

Some more sketchbook work. I'm still awful at figure drawing but I thought I would do some practises while on the beach, they aren't great but are slightly better... I really like my last image - I was just using a photo of buildings looking up as reference but it came out looking a bit constructivist, I might use a similar style to start off my CoP sketchbook. 

courtauld gallery

I went to the Courtauld Gallery for the first time at Somerset house, I couldn't believe I hadn't been there yet because it has a permanent Impressionist exhibition with lots of Matisse and Braque who I love. So after seeing it I definitely felt more inspired to do some work.

the use of colour makes the otherwise boring views really vibrant, and there is so much texture and fluidity in the brushstrokes making the paintings energetic. When I see paintings like this, I always want to get back into painting again, I did it a lot in A levels but stopped at uni, I might try bringing it back as part of my process somehow. 

some summer sketches

I found it hard to get back into drawing, I left it too long after we finished uni. I started again when I went on holiday as there was lots of pretty things to do observational drawings of. By the end of last year I was mostly just working with cut outs and not actually doing much drawing/painting, but when I was away that was all I had access to. I feel like I'm not as good as I used to be with watercolours as I have fallen out of practise, which is annoying, so want to try get back into that. 
I've always found it difficult to just draw without a purpose, I love doing it when there is some motivation, like for a project where I know what it is for, but when its just for fun or to keep my practise up, I find it hard. But here's a couple that I thought turned out alright.

first commission!

A friend who I often work for over summer asked me to make her some labels for her shop, this is the first time I've been asked to do some illustration for someone before so it was quite exciting.

She owns a prop house which hires out cutlery, plates, chopping boards etc. for food related photo shoots. So she needed a collection of labels for her cutlery drawers. Here's what I came up with:

I was pleased with how they came out, I have worked with ink in this way for a while, so it was nice getting back into straightforward observational drawing.