Tom Fletcher

Last year I did a illustration of Chris Martin for the Responsive Module. I wanted to do some more illustrations in the same 'style' and draw some more musicians because they have great action shots. So I was doing this illustration of a musician called Tom Fletcher from Mcely/Mcbusted and I've decided that I'll be putting it in the Travelling Man exhibition. Anyway, I've been posted updates of it on my Instagram and decided that now that it's coloured I'd tag Tom in the hope that he'd see it. And he did!! AHHH! He actually liked it! Because of this, I got quite a few new likes and follows because of it which is great! 12 year old me would be crying right now haha! Not going to lie, I think it's pretty cool!

Stephanie Cole

British designer-maker Stephanie Cole's work predominantly explores nature and shapes, patterns and colours. This is exactly why I liked her. For a start I love subject matter she illustrates. She works in paint a lot which I think I struggle with but I'd love to capture the textured digitally maybe. 

The images below stood out to me more. I think they're more 'me'. The limited colour palette works really well and I'd like to try just using one or too colours in my future work as I feel I tend to overcomplicate my illustrations. I like the subtle mix of shape and detailed line work. I'd like to work on to products like tea towels like Stephanie has.  That blue is also my favourite colour so it's definitely my coup of tea. Her website said to email for any questions, so I think I will!

I emailed her this:

Interviewing The Real Junk Food Project for my CoP

The other day I contacted The Real Junk Food Project in Leeds to ask if I could interview them. They were happy to speak to me, so I visited the cafe yesterday. I thought what they do is fantastic and impressed with how well the are doing. They have over 100 other cafe's across the UK and one of the guys I spoke to is heading out to the US to set one up out there. Feeding the hungry and using up food waste is their main concern, not how the place looked. They don't judge people or turn them away. Customers can how in any way they can, whether that's with what money they have or just by helping wash up their dishes. It makes me happy to know that's there's such kind people out there. 

 It will be a great help towards my dissertation and they told me of some other contacts I could get in touch with. It was interesting to hear what they had to say and what they do compared to my interview with Love Food, Hate Waste.

I mentioned my practical idea and asked if he had any suggestions. He said what would be great is if they had some kind of imagery that would help communicate what food they are serving, as they have a lot of customers that can't speak English. One of the guys I spoke to goes in to schools to teach children about food waste. Could this be an area to look at? 

He recommended I speak to the teacher there.

I did a couple of quick sketches in my visual journal:

Contacting People for CoP3 - Rejection

I've written some emails out as part of my CoP3 research. I received this back. I guess it's all part of emailing people... not everyone's going to have time to talk to me.

Love Food Hate Waste Interview

Today I went to The Big Freeze event in Leeds as part of my CoP3. I had arranged to speak to one of the organisers there, so I prepared some questions for her. The interview was a success and I found out some great information. It was really interesting!! I recorded the interview so I have all the information saved. What was also great was that she told me a lady from Asda was there that I could talk too, so I got two interviews.

I've talked more about the interview on my CoP blog post. I've really seen a confidence boost in myself since the of the course. I've started stepping out my comfort zone and trying to get in touch with people. I used to be so nervous about going out and interviewing someone I don't know and I still was today but it's all part of becoming a professional. There's going to be loads of new people that I meet in the next few year and I'll need to present myself professionally. It's all part of growing up I guess haha. I'm actually proud of myself, I've really seen be grow these past few years. Cheesy I know!

Re-evaluation of Promo Pack.

This is my promo pack from level 5. The feedback I received was good but if I'm honest, I'm not impressed with my pack. I wanted something fairly simple to make which I did. I don't want something too complicated if it's something I have to make multiple times. Part of me doesn't like the repeat pattern I chose for the inside of the pack. It was something I used out of convenience and but it was still my work so why it was ok. Maybe it's the pink? Pink isn't really me. Blue is my favourite colour maybe I should use more blues?

This year I want to actually send my promo packs out to people! I don't want to send out a pack them I'm not happy with and that doesn't scream 'me' as a practitioner. I'm going to research in to what might be more 'me' and slightly redesign it.

Business Card-Feedback

Over the summer I put my photos of my business cards of my instgram and facbeook page. I received some good feedback! Even my old media teacher thought they were genius haha. I received a lot of possible verbal feedback too. The general opinion that I got was that they were a clever idea! YAY!

Aim for Level 6-Figure Drawing

Figure drawing was something I used to be ok at. I did life drawing for a couple of years with really helped my drawing skills. Since then I haven't really drawn many figures since foundation. Character design is also something I do have have an interest in although it isn't a strong point. For that reason I've always avoided it. I worry that in some point in my career I may be asked to draw figure/characters, and I don't want to turn the job down.

For these reasons I have set myself to target this during level 6. Perhaps I could draw a character once a week as a weekly brief?

Handwritten Text

Follow Rebecca's board Handwitten on Pinterest.

After writing on old slate boards at work during the summer, I thought I'd look in to handwritten text. It's something I'd like to improve on as it I've never really used it before. I'm not massively interested but it would be good a bit of practice.

Evaluating Facebook Page

I made a professional Facebook page as part of my online presence during level 5. At the time it seemed great and I received some great feedback. However, as I re-evaluated it now I've seen it's not that successful after all. I felt limited to how many people I could 'invite to like the page', the majority of people 'liking' and seeing my page are family and friends. How do I get I don't know to like it?

GEOFFROY MONEYRON

During the huge group crit between all 1st, 2nd and 3rd years I found this loosely illustration in one of the first years sketchbooks. I realised last year that I'm not good at illustrating scenes and much prefer drawing motifs and objects if that makes sense? But this is just so lovely I had to make a note of it!

Admittedly, after reseraching the illustrator further, I was slightly disappointed in his other work. That not to say it isn;t good it just wasn't my thing. What I love is the the use of texture and depth in his work which you see and the water. The thing white lines illustrating the water movement adds little bits of details against the dark blues and subtle shapes of shadows. Isn't it just lovely?


Here's another I quite liked much not as much. But again, the textures really come through and make the piece. The really subtle scratches and layers on the white blocks give a icy texture.

By looking at his work I saw that he worked mainly with character design which was disappointing as I wanted to see more of this!! Nevertheless, his character designs are great and if I am to ever to character design myself I'd look in to them but it was mainly the use of texture, line and colour that I wanted to talk about.

Wedding Commission- Feedback

The other day I posted the commissioned wedding gift I produced a few weeks ago. I tagged the bride in the photo and her comment reads 'I love this! Thank you so much'. 

YAYY! a happy customer haha! It always feels so great when people commend my work. I was worried as when you draw someone it's hard to get it right and as they'll be putting it on their wall, I had to do a good job! Even though it was just a little brief, I'm really pleased!