What do I want? - Answering John's Task

Happiness, What makes you happy and why?

Good work. What kind of work do you feel happy/excited by?

Great people to work with What kind of clients/collaborative people you wold love?

Earning money. What do you want money for?

Travel. Where would you love to go and why?

Happiness

- Drawing. Seeing that I’ve made someone else happy because I feel like I’m doing a good job and that I’m good at something. Being with my family-Although I want to travel, I want a base near my family.


Good work.

- Stationary. Product and packaging. Education materials. Objects and motifs not scenes. Wildlife. Food.


Great people to work with

- People that work with product and packaging.

- Enthusiastic people

- Cleinets around the world


Earning money.-

to live on easily. Buy dream house. Be able to afford to look after a few pets. To be able to still go skiing with my family. To buy my mum nice things. To be able to travel.



Travel.

- I’d like to travel everywhere so I can to get everything out of life. See and experience everything. Travel for work and holidays.


I want to feel like I’m getting the best of life and doing everything I can do.

Trip to Ingleborough

Today I went to Ingleborough in the car with John and Shauni for the Natural England Project we're working on. I felt like I was going on a trip with my parents sitting in the back haha. The aim the trip was to get a chance to discuss the project further with all the partners involved and do a bit of research. Until today I'd only spoken to John and Shauni from Leeds Uni so it was great to see people working for Natural England and what they thought of the project. I was asked to take some work along with me, including my wildlife pack from CoP2. They absolutely loved it!! I'm so happy!! They were so impressed, I can't believe it. What stood out to them were my birds (everyone seems to like the birds). He said I'd managed to capture them really well and get the proportions and markings right, yet they still has an illustrative feel through my line work and digital editing. It meant so much to here them say that.

Until today I've not really understood what John and Shauni are during in terms of the project, and although I do now, it's a bit hard to explain. They're looking at branding and media and bringing in visitors. Shaun's also looking at bringing in the use of the 3D Google Cardboard.

It was really interesting to see how this project is going to develop. The Natural England partners were really impressed and are keen for us to maybe be involved in a much bigger 4 year, £4million project, but this is just an idea so we'll see! I was given some very ugly leaflets to take home and I gave them my email so that they can send a list of species over for me to draw. Can't wait to get started!

After a very long meeting in the coldest office EVER, we went and had a pub lunch next to this lovely warm fire. Perfect! 

Commissioned Work - Weasel

I've had such a nightmare with this stupid weasel! I never want to look at it again! In terms of the weasel's character design and form, I was reasonably happy with it. However, then the client wanted wanted me to draw it wearing The House of Lords coat. I tired for sooooo long to make it look good but it didn't! The collar didn't look too back but when I added the red rape it looked messy, and just a bit stupid. I rang him up and explained and suggested that I perhaps we keep the collar but not the rest of the red cape. This with the words 'His Lordship' written on it (another requirement he asked for), it should still illustrate the same ideas he wanted to get across. He agreed. Woo hoo!

I added the top had with 'you can trust me' written on the inside and some money labelled 'uni fees' around him. Suggested he actually can't be trusted and he's using all the high uni fees for his own financial gain.

Hallmark Placements

I've become really interested in illustrated stationary and gift wrap etc which I showed during my OUIL505 response in level 5. Something like a Hallmark placement would be really good for gaining something experience in this area of work. The briefs that they set will be based on my strengths shown in my portfolio, so they tasks will all be work I'm capable of doing. The creative placements themselves are unpaid but they will provide accommodation (if requested) and if there is a room available. However, any work that is subsequently selected by Hallmark as a result of the creative placement will be paid for. so not all too bad!

Commissioned work - Mouse and Rat

I've completed the mouse and rat! I think out of all the animals these were going to be the quickest and easiest, so I'm dreading the rest. I've sent them to the client and he loved them, especially the rat! The idea is that they all work together and the mouse and the rat work together particularly well. The rat is supposed to be seen as a robber and stealing from the public purse. The mouse, blinded by money, is a back stabber and is stealing from the rat. This is supposed to suggest that politicians are back stabbers and too busy thinking about financial gain. These illustrations are simple and too the point. I have a feeling the rest is going to be a to harder. I don't know much about politics and character design isn't my strength, so this is already proving to be a challenge!

Contacting Leeds City Council

I contacted Leeds City Council as part of my CoP3 research and I received some great responses back. Through doing my dissertation I'm beginning to really see how important primary research is and I'm actually finding it really interesting talking to people about this subject. I think it's really strengthening my research and overall making my work more interesting.

I sent over a few questions to the Leeds City Council and the lady I spoke to really took the time to give me a great response. It just shows that people are willing to take the time to took to me and help with my research.

Travelling Man Exhibition

The Travelling Man Exhibition is up! Here are a few photos ft Olivia. The exhibition looks great, I think it was a really good idea to choose a colour scheme as it pulls it all together and looks coherent.  I'm also glad however that we got to illustrate whatever we wanted. It was suggested that maybe we should have a sic-fi theme or base it on reading books. To be honest I just wanted to use to opportunity to do something a little different that wasn't intended for anything. However, I do feel that drawing a musician probably wasn't the most appropriate for the people that shop at Travelling Man. If I was to do it again I'd perhaps do a film poster.

Fred Aldous

I found out about this shop the other day from someone in my group and was so excited to go! Aggie and I decided to go on our way home from Thought bubble. It's amaaaazing. I felt like I was in heaven. It was like when I'd go to Hobbycraft when I was younger and got so excited looking at everything. I love places like this, it reminds me how much I love drawing.

Chris Thornley

Chris, also known as Raid71, is actually incredible! He's a screen printing wizard!!

This has to be my favourite illustrator that I spoke to today. His work is unbelievable. Aggie and I first spotted his work, not realising they were screen prints. They were printed at a really large scale too, making them more impressive. The level of detail within these prints is just amazing and the amount of colour involved and the understanding of colour is great! What made it even more impressive is yet to come. After speaking with him about his work, he learnt that the secret is to prints was that he printed on coloured paper even if most of the coloured area is black! And similar to how a CMYK would be printed, the black is printed last. This ensures that the colours remain bright and pop out against each other.  In person, these prints are crazy good, and the colours really stand out and the black is very very black! So to turn them over and see that it's printed on to bright yellow paper is so cool! I wouldn't have thought of that! This guys work stood out to me by a mile!

Dom Mckenzie

Whist at Thought Bubble, Aggie and I found Dom Mckenzie. I first picked out his work because the image above reminded me of Adam's work. They've both been inspired by the same film, yet their work have be approached very differently. What led me to like Dom's work is his use of colour and textures. The above picture in particular illustrates his use of texture within his work, whereas the ones I picked out below she a beautiful understanding of colour. In terms of his textures, what I was most fond of was the brushy effect he creates (this is particularly strong in the oven image and within the skies of the images below). He talked about his process and said that that his illustrations are all produced using ink or Pentel brush pens then scans in and colours. I've used a brush pen in the past and not got on with then. I did how use them to try create steady, more detailed drawings rather than loose textures. Perhaps I should  try again.

Victo Ngnai

Visiting Speaker - Victo Ngnai

http://victo-ngai.com

Victo came in yesterday and gave a talk. It was sooo good! I initially thought it might not interest me that much as her work was very different to mine as she focuses a lot of complex scenes and editorial work. Her work is incredible! – I like at it and actually can’t work out how she’s done things. Her work to me feels like a build up of layers and I think this is something I struggle with. That and composition – In first year we looked at composition and line of sight for visual language and I really struggled to transfer those ideas in to my own work. When looking at her work, this is really strong to pick out and she does it beautifully. Her illustrations are far more complex than you initially think, as she manages to fill all her ideas in to one image. You can see the time and effort that she puts in to her work and you also get a sense of narrative in her illustrations too.

She does a lot of editorial based work for the New Yorker and the New York Times. Her work is so clever. This is what I struggle with a lot – thinking outside the box. I found it hard to draw a message without being literal. She said she looked at it by thinking of the key themes, for example ‘abandonment’, then the imagery can me almost anything you want it to be, as long as it shows abandonment. Some clients may not want this, so it’s dependent on the brief.

It was also nice to see that he work stretched to advertising and packaging – something I’m more interested in.

'its not how good you are, its how good you want to be'

paul arden

LCA Thought Bubble

When I was at Thought Bubble I went to visit our illustration table and look at all the zines. They're all so good and it was nice to see how everyone did something different for the brief. I think it's natural that when you look at what everyone else did, you think 'wish I'd thought of that' or 'their's is better' and almost devalue you own work. I'm glad that I picked a theme as simplified what I could draw and gave me something to work towards.

Portfolio Surgery

Portfolios can be web based or print based. It's important to have both! Clarity is key. 

Remember - Quality, consistency and balance of content.

10-20 pieces of work in each portfolio - LESS IS MORE

Web:

- Easy to get out - Draws people in - accessible even to those on the other side of the world.

- Should be separate from personal profiles

- Shows a selected amount of your BEST work

- Should be clear what you're about

- Include bio - Short statement - can be playful and personal. Reflective of you and your work.

- Include links to other blogs or live-feeds - Maybe shop
- Can showcase multiple portfolios - different areas within your practice

Print:

- This is what you take to meetings
- Maximum A3 (you'll be carrying it around, opening it on a small table at a meeting)
- Ensure the quality of the prints are good. Clients won't trust you with their project if your work is presented badly. 

- Think about stock

- Be selective with your work - tailor to client but also add in bits you think they might like, but don't put in pieces of work that you wouldn't want to do. - They don't want to see work that is completely irrelevant

Meeting:

- After looking at your website or email, a client might ask to have a meeting with you.

- Face to face or through Skype etc

- Be confident when talking about yourself and your work

- Professionalism 

- Ask questions

- 10 images is the ideal number of images

- If you want to work with someone, track down the commissioner/person in charge.
- Email first (or letter), introduce self, link website, ask for a bit of a creative steer.

Caroline McHugh Talk

Rebecca HollingsworthAlice PattulloFollow On  



Alice Pattullo's work is so lovely. She just does one or two colour prints, yet gets so much detail and texture through. She often works just in clack and white but somehow manages to get through a lot of detail and texture. I love the subtle texture that comes through, then the white lined detail going through. They're such lovely well studied drawings. Definitely one of my new favourites!


These are some images that I've produced for my Thought Bubble zine. I didn't mean to but it has a similar tone of voice to Alice's. I think she could a be a big influence in my future work and the way I use texture.

I sent her an email: