HOPES, FEARS AND OPPORTUNITIES (PART DOS)

The end is finally in sight. The last few months of university have absolutely flown by at an unreal speed and I honestly don't know where the hours have gone. The time has come to now look back at the last four months to evaluate and assess my major project.

 Having looked at what I wrote for my first Hopes, Fears and Opportunities last term, I’d say that I was pretty happy with how I’ve progressed since then and feel like I’ve ticked off most of the things I wanted to achieve. To some degree I find this worrying as though the targets I last set weren’t that challenging enough and I should be panicking that I’m not there yet. My major project has been completed and I’m pretty pleased with how it all looks. Undoubtedly there are elements I still would have liked to change, but feel like that about most of my work and its something that I need to get over.

The thought of leaving the family unit we have at the moment is something that I’m going to miss a lot. I can’t stress how much I’ve enjoyed these last three years and have made some amazing friends along the way. A small few of us are thinking about clubbing together to rent out studio space, whether it be working individually or as a collective but it’s still just at the ideas stage. I think this could play in our favour as working alongside other creative’s that have a passion for their work does nothing but drive you forward and inspire. I tend to get lost in my work at times and know that being surrounding by others would definitely make life easier and more enjoyable I’d say. I still manage to work well in a solitary environment but I’m worried that I might turn in to a complete hermit live on my own with lots of cats. Either way, I know I’ll get work done, as it’s what I love doing most.  

 Creating work outside of uni was something that I aimed to push forward with and had begun to start this last term. I am still continuing to produce more personal in my spare time, which I definitely seem to be benefitting from. In doing so, I am gradually beginning to see improvement in my work and have noticed that I am beginning to work much faster then before. Collaborating with others is something that I wanted to get involved with so have spoken with another student about perhaps teaming together to set up some sort of online clothing/print store. Its something we’ve spoken about for a while now and gets us both pretty stoked that it could all take off. It’s an opportunity to turn the work we create for fun into something that we could realistically sell that only has boundaries and limits that are set by ourselves.  Keep your eyes peeled, as pipeline ideas should start to become reality soon.

 Looking back at what I’d written last term, I wanted to try and branch out more through socialising with new people in the art industry. Since then, I have attended a few of the Draw North West meet ups (a night run by the talented Chris Madden) over the last few months. If I’m being brutally honest, I found them a little awkward at first and struggled to get stuck in and talk to people. This was purely down to nerves and I’m sure that the more I go, the more familiar faces will become. As well as this, I met a lot of exciting new designers when on my placement for Lord Whitney. This alone was an incredible opportunity to work with talented professionals for a week and I learnt some valuable lessons and gained some great advice on the first few moths after graduating. I feel that by offering to work as an intern with them, I have built up a great relationship with them both which has ultimately lead to them offering me to work with them. I couldn’t have asked for anything more really and thoroughly enjoyed the days spent with them.

The fear that strikes me most is obviously, ‘what the hell am I going to do now?’ as I’m sure is the case for most people. The contact trip down to London a few months ago really shook me up and realised I needed to pull my finger out if I wanted to push myself as an illustrator into work. I found it both difficult and daunting when trying to get in touch with agencies and art directors as I was finding a lot weren’t getting back to me. This was something that I had to overcome quickly, and follow emails up by phone calls followed by more phone calls. It made me realise that I’m not going to get anything handed on a plate to me, not that I ever expected it to be that easy, but it’s certainly made me up my game and put all I’ve got into things. I’m going to be constantly searching for illustration jobs over the next few months but I think it’s crucial that I keep pushing my own ideas and work along side this.

By including editorial work in to the last part of my project, it has helped me think about the ideas being my art more so then usual and has done nothing but push me forward. The fast deadlines are something I’m slowly getting used to and is something I’m constantly aware at the moment. As my work is nearly all hand generated, its time consuming but doesn’t always reflect the time consumed. By practicing this type of work, it has allowed me to focus on the break down of my time much more efficiently and more importantly set myself realistic, achievable outcomes.

I’m starting to come to terms with the fact that’ll I’ll no doubt have to get a part and maybe even full time job running parallel with my illustration work. This really depends on a couple of things. 1. If I can actually get any work outside of uni and 2. If I do get offered work am I going to be picky about what I choose? It depends if I’m going to compromise on jobs for the money. You might not always agree with the company you’re being commissioned by but realistically if its going to pay the bills, it might have to be one of those things you just go with. I’m talking as though I’ve got loads of work lined up to pick and choose from but have got absolutely nothing.

To some things up, I’m not really sure how the next few months are going to turn out. I feel like I’m turning into an ‘proper adult’, which is something I’ve always tried to fight against but need to deal with it. Its going to be a huge challenge that is most certainly not going to be easy, but I can’t wait to grab it by the horns and give it all that I’ve got and hopefully have the time of my life along the way. It all starts now.

FINAL ANIMATION.

So I've literally just managed to finish off my first animated short for major project, with a healthy two days room for tweakage. I'm pretty pleased with how its turned out as I've never tried to animate any illustrations before so didn't have any high expectations as to whether they'd look good. I spent a lot time drawing out as many frames as possible to make the transition look smooth and I'd like think its paid off. The shading was a pain to get the tone constant throughout each frame but it seems to have worked out quite well in the long run.

This is the first time I've really used AfterEffects and have found it a real mind bender at times. With the help of a few good friends who happen to be amazing animators, I've picked up some good tips which made things a lot easier. They've been able to solve any problems I've had (there's been quite a few) and really patient with me so I understand each bit they've taught me.

With many aspects of literature now heading down the digital path, I thought it was appropriate to show my work through a digital viewing platform. It shows how versatile my work is, and that it can lend itself to a number of different fields. I think that dropping it into the photo and seeing it how it would online, has really made me consider doing more gifs/shorts in the future. The illustrations seem to work much better then I anticipated.

With each frame being hand generated, I thought I would struggle when lining each image up and have had to re drew a lot once scanned in and looked at as a set. I managed to avoid this and didn't have to change anything in the end, which was a huge relief. I presumed I'd be at a disadvantage not working digitally, as it gives you the option to edit bits relatively easy, but I was proved wrong. I've dead enjoyed the challenge of something new and seeing it finished has really spurred me on to explore further.

CREATIVE REVIEW PODCAST.

Throughout the past few weeks, our tutors have recommended that we listen to a number of different pod casts on the Big Illustration Party site to broaden our knowledge of whats going on in the world of commissioned artists.  Hand on heart, I've enjoyed some much more then others and especially the most recent one focusing on the importance of self promotion with Kevin Cross and Joshua Kemble. They came across as being very down to earth and I could relate to a lot of what they were speaking about.

This pod cast in particular was a relaxed conversion between two free lance illustrators, discussing the do's and don'ts when approaching potential clients. This is something that is fresh with myself at the moment as I'm at a point where I need to be doing this myself. I find it quite daunting when it comes to phoning and even emailing art directors but it is an essential aspect that leads to commissioned work. Both Kevin and Joshua are freelancers themselves so have had much experience over the years about  successful ways of communicating with clients.

A big point that they emphasised greatly was that cold calling is not a beneficial way of getting in touch with someone. It can come across intrusive and puts the person on the spot, like a door to door salesman would, sometimes leading to a peer pressured environment. This is clearly not going to play in your favour. Instead, they suggested emailing as a first port of call and creating a mailing list of the companies and clients that interest you and think would give you the opportunity to work for. It's no good contacting a client that specialises in a completely different field of work to yourself and you'll be wasting both your own time and more importantly theirs. The problem that you face with emailing is that it they're incredibly easy to ignore or forgotten about. If attachments are sent, this seems to trigger off a spam filter that classes it as junk so the person might not even receive you work. Another thing they mentioned about attaching work was that its more effort for the director or whoever to go through in order to see your work. I thought this was a bit lazy as how are they expecting to find new work if they can't be bothered to click a link to open a new window. It seemed a little ridiculous but they seemed to know what they were talking about. A safer way of ensuring that they'll see your work is by embedding files to the email itself so there's no leg work necessary.

Sending updates of your work were talked about and how doing it too frequently can come across desperate. They suggested a bi annual update of your recent pieces, that shows a good amount of new work. If people aren't responding to your updates, remove them from your contact list as you're just wasting time. Holiday cards were also suggested but only if you're 100% sure you can spare the time to make them look amazing. It's easy to for rushed work to not play in your favour, especially cliche, predictable cards that don't stand out from the rest.

Social networking sites like Flickr and Twitter were discussed as a great means of communication platforms and not just for fun. I personally use Flickr for referencing images and didn't know you could sign up for updates and follow other peoples work that could lead to an ever growing fan base.

I found the discussion both interesting and enjoyable due to the kind nature of the illustrators talking. It was much more relative to myself as they were both practicing artists rather then the opinions of a hiring art director/client. It refreshed my concept of how important social networking can be as an outlet of job prospects, as well as keeping in touch with friends which can be important for support after uni. Its given me lots to consider for after finishing my degree, with confidence about how to approach future clients without the nerves and fear of rejection.

SPIN TEST.

Hopefully this is a little better then the last gif I posted that consisted of a mash up of my many faces ha. It's been a real pain trying to get everything proportionally correct but I think I'm pretty surprised with how its looking considering the lack of sleep but I have spent many an hour on it but it looks to have paid off. Just need to drop some tone on it later today so that the rotation looks smoother then comes the huge task of getting my head around AfterEffects. Fun times.

SRS PACKAGING.

With my final hand in looming closer, I'm trying to utilise all the hours going to get the finishing touches done on my work. I completed the SingRamonaSing branding project about a month and half ago but realised I hadn't really done any work on the product placement side of things. I hadn't printed it out either so needed to do this asap really.

As the band were pretty happy with the work I'd produced, there wasn't much else left to do other then mount the print outs up to make sure everything fitted smoothly. I wanted to use a really good quality paper/card for the printing as I think it can have a huge effect on the buying. You can always tell if things have been printed cheaply and for me personally, less likely to keep good care of it. I've got a few vinyls that are a bit bashed about on the corners but I'm not overly bothered as they've been printed on a glossy material that doesn't do the artwork any justice whatsoever.

With this in mind, I decided to use 280gsm cartridge paper for the first test run of the cd sleeve. I got it printed at the local art shop, using their huge laser printer as it seemed to be the better option. The printer at uni can apparently take weights up to 280gsm but anything heavier then about 100 seems to play hell with it and causes more trouble then its worth. The print out seemed a little darker then the digital file but I expected it to differ slightly. The line quality wasn't how I expected it too look though and had a fuzzy almost glowy thing going on. I wanted it all much crisper and cleaner looking but that's what tests are for I suppose. I've put that down to that in order to get the worked printed where I did, I had to reduce the file size so that it would fit in an email. Another technical blip that occurred was that the ink didn't seem to take to the paper very well. It was almost like it had missed the heat sealing process out and rubbed off too easily from general handling. The lack of ink made it look worn and ancient, which to some extent looked quite good, but on the whole it wasn't what I required.

Ink not sealed properly.

Non the less, I still mocked up the CD to see if the layout needed tweaking. I didn't want to use a scalpel to score lines for the fold as it was going to reveal the ice white of the paper used, so I decided to try and fold it as neat as possible using a metal ruler. The ink came off even more down the spine  and the fold looks dead messy so I think next time I'll have to opt for the scalpel. I decided to print the net of the CD as once piece that just needed to be folded vertically, so that the front and back joined, then down the middle to create the book like look. This didn't go to plan either. With the paper having a grain to it, only one of the fold worked well. As the second fold was pushing against the grain, it forced the paper to curve rather then achieving a crisp fold. I managed to glue it all together but it had a slight warping to it as I hadn't taken into account the space needed for the spine fold. This consequently effected the design of the imagery and things like the logo in the corner, wasn't lined up with the border of the card anymore. The alignment had shifted due to the front cover being bent round to create the spine.

Horrible fold.

Having seen the flaws with my first mockup, I just needed to adjust little bits with the printing and layout method to get it to look okay.  For the second test, I printed it out on 300gsm water colour paper on my inkjet printer at home. I thought the colour balance would be worse then the more expensive printer before but I was pleasantly surprised. The cheaper printing method seemed to be more accurate then the other and matched almost perfectly to the screen version. I decided to print the front and rear separately this time and fix them together using tabs. This meant that the grain of the paper would play in my favor for the fold and would make it look much neater. I lightly scored the folding joints, and because this card was much thicker, it didn't break the inked surface as much. I'm really pleased with how this version turned out and would happily use it as a finished piece. The texture of the card has an expensive feel to it and looks professional compared to the first nightmare.

Better print.

The whole appearance seemed a lot better, mainly down to the fact that I could use the full quality file rather then the low resolution one. The matte card seemed to work completely fine with the printer ink so I'm not entirely sure what happened before. I thought that I was going to have to resort to using a glossy finish paper but am really glad I've managed to avoid it.

When the project was first set, I spoke to the band about perhaps producing a limited run of vinyl versions, budget dependent. The verdict is still unsure, but to try and persuade them, I've made a couple of different formats so they can see how it looks and have something tactile, appose to just a file on an email. I created an insert to feature in the CD pocket but then the design of the packaging changed so that this was no longer needed. Printing a vinyl version gave the chance to re-visit this and play around with some typography a bit more and make a feature piece of one of the illustrations. The 7 inch vinyl sleeve has a different format to the CD, consisting of a just a pocket. This meant that only the front and rear imagery is needed so I've incorporated this into the insert piece. Having looked at other 7 inch ep designs, I've always preferred the ones that had an extra piece inside to keep, sometimes folding out to make a poster. I tried to do this with the piece that I made.

Much happier with the bigger printing.

 I prefer the larger format as I think that my work looks better. Some of the elements of the illustrations are quite detailed and seemed to get slightly lost on the smaller version of the CD. With the vinyl being quite a substantial amount bigger, I think it looks tons better and you can pick out more of the hand drawn elements that are seen through the digital files. Using the vinyl gave me slightly more work to make as I had to consider what was going to feature on the discs. The ones made previously for the CD discs didn't fit the format and would have looked a bit weird. Traditionally, vinyl discs contain the tacks that feature on each side of the disc, sometimes having a logo or image to accompany.

I didn't want to over crowd the relatively small space so decided to just include title of each track name alongside the bands logo. The white on black seems to work well and compliment the colour illustration as I didn't want to draw too much attention away from the pack illustrations. The simple design seems to do the job required so I'm happy with how it all looks.

The final step was to think about packaging and how it would be displayed when sold. To do this I visited a couple of record shops and came to a conclusion that majority were wrapped in a clear plastic cellophane. I managed to get hold of a roll and cut it down to size scoring the edges to get a neat fold. Once the product was wrapped neatly, I made a sticker using the bands logo to seal it all together. Ideally, it could do with being a little tighter but works well. When design the imagery I purposely left a blank space at the bottom of the rear side. This was to make room for a bar code so I added one to make sure it looked decent enough.

Attempt at packaging.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it all looks once printed out and in its correct format. Things can look much different on screen compared to printed pieces but I'm happy with the results. Even though I'm a little sick of seeing it, having worked on it for the last few weeks, its great to see it all tied up and finished, hopefully being put in to production soon. I've enjoyed working on my first live brief as its kept me on my toes but think its definitely played in my favor and led me to produce some of my favorite pieces of work to date. Apologies for the massive ramble and cheers if you managed to finish it without falling off your chair.

EXHIBITION PROGRESSION.

Last week got me really excited about my degree show and the possibilities of how I can display my work in a weird way. Having made a start by making the rubber silicon hand, I wanted to delve a little deeper into modifying the cast to fit its purpose for the show.

I'm hopefully aiming to make four rubber models of my arms, cast from the elbow, down to the hands. I am then going to somehow attach them to the wall panel so that hey look like they're breaking out. If I can position them as I wanting to, they are going to holding either pieces of my work or business cards and promo pieces. By creating something a little out of the ordinary that people can touch and interact with, I'm hoping I'll draw the viewers in. I've ordered some temporary tattoo paper to test if its possible to transfer some of my illustrations onto them.  The problem I've faced so far is that the rubber silicon has an almost sweaty feel to it. With this in mind, I think it could prevent the images applying correctly unless I can somehow change the feel/texture. So far I've tried washing them in warm water and soap but that seemed to have a completely reverse effect. I've literally no idea how or why but it left the hand feeling even clammier and gross. The only thing that seems to work okay for the moment is to coat it all in a very thin coat of plain flour. It seems to soak up any moisture but does look a bit crap and literally like I've just put flour on a rubber hand. Weird.

Back to the proposal bit. As I'm wanting the hands and arms to be used to grip and hold various bits and bobs, I need to find a way of securing the two elements together. I considered using different strengths of glue, but ideally I would like to have the option of being able to reposition the arms and use them again. In a previous post I spoke about coming up with a solution to fixing them to the wall. Having looked about online, I think the best thing to do is to insert a metal rod into the cask before it sets. I'll then just need to drill a hole in the exhibition board and screw something on the back to keep it steady. Rather then using glue, I wanted to create a skeletal like frame inside the joints so I could move them about but not fixing them permanently to anything. As I'd already made a hand test its a little late to do this now, but I wanted to find a way around to see if it worked okay.

Having got hold of some strong wire and a pair of decent pliers I had a play with inserting cut pieces into the cut off wrist. The wire seemed to hold its shape when being forced in to the silicon, and wasn't too difficult to push through. It was a little tricky to make sure the ends didn't break through the side of the fingers but even when it did, the hole seemed to close up and disappear. I think that inserting the wire like this is a much easier approach compared to laying it into the setting plastic. There's too much of a risk of the wire not being central and poking out of the sides.

The wire seemed to work dead good and was easily moved about. It was pretty disturbing turning the wire ends with the pliers as they moved 360 degrees like something out of the Exorcist. I had too much fun creeping the majority of the studio out playing about with it but all in all, it worked great. The wire was also strong enough to hold items as well so there was no need to glue anything.  

I was impressed with the strength of the grip that the fingers have got now and don't think I'll need to do much more with them. However, the sweaty texture of the silicon seemed to prevent the book from sliding out so that might be an issue I have to deal with later if I have to coat it in some sort of chalk/powder. I'm dead pleased it worked as I thought it might end up being a nice idea for the show but nothing coming of it. Next step is to try dying the melted solution to get a realistic skin tone and applying the transfer tattoos.

ANIMATION TEST.

 

Over the last week or so, I've been trying to get my head around how I'm going to tackle making my animation. It's based on an editorial I am in the process of doing from an article in NewScientist based on technology. The summary of the text, is about how web browsers and personal item of technology (i.e smart phones/tablets) are taking over the decision making process for many people. It expresses how a lot of people are reliant on comparison apps and review websites to choose their path for them basing it on other people's choices.

I wanted to do an illustration based around the perpetual face in order to show the similarity between people. From this I wanted to create a continously spinning head that will eventually split down the middle, and open to reveal an empty space where the brain should be. I've been making little gifs in photoshop to try and get my head around how I'm going to execute the illustrations but finding it quite challenging. To get my head around the spinning motion, I stuck bluetac on to a wooden ball to make a small stop motion piece. I did this in order to understand the positions of the nose, and when each one is visible after every turn. This also helped with my understanding of the shadow casting as this is going to be the most important element of each illustration in order to make sure that face looks likes it is rotating. As I want to create a smooth 360degree turn, I need to have as many drawings as possible to ensure a slick rotation. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to add some blur and tweak any problems in photoshop/aftereffects afterwards but would rather keep this to a minimum. 

To make sure that I achieve this, I think I need around 5 different frames for this part of the animation to look okay. To get the proportions and scale looking right, I took some photos of my face whilst turning on the spot. I then layered them up, dead rough; to make a quick gif to make sure they number of frames I predicted would work efficiently. It seems to look okay at the moment but I'd rather get a few more frames thrown in if possible. I've found that making these small animations as reference, it has definitely helped me to understand the process. Even though they're incredibley rough, I've found them very beneficial and helpful. The next step is to start making the final illustrations.    

ARTEMIS 2.

Last week I had my second site visit to the Artemis collection in Leeds to finalise ideas for the 'Get Stuffed' project. It was a chance to explore the storage rooms in much more detail, as last time as we were a bit pushed for time and christ is that place big. There were so many things I'd completely missed on the first site visit so given then opportunity to come back was a real treat.

The first task of the day was to unload all the photography gear from the van and set up in a small room behind the workshop in prep for the shoot. During my placement, myself and Lord Whitney had made a rough list of the 10 animals that we believed would work best to bring real charm and life (or not as the case may be) to the photographs with chosen families. Having had a second look round the stunning collection, we came to a decision that 10 definitely wasn't enough as there was so much choice on offer. As a result of this, we extended the animal gang by another 5 pieces. Choosing the final cut wasn't easy though. Pushing a trolley round, grabbing the critters we liked most, was a sort of surreal super market sweep moment that I can honestly say I never thought I'd be doing. I couldn't have asked for anything more though as I was loving it.

Next was the makeover. Some of the poor creatures needed a little sprucing up, so out came the glass polish and dusters along side a good helping of elbow grease and within no time at all everyone was looking suave. This was later a bit of a pain, as they glass was so clean, the light was bouncing of every possible angle creating loads of glare.    

Whilst Amy and Bek starting taking some shots of the animals, I tried to get some quick sketches done, taking full advantage of the different positions I could place things. The photo shoot was for a set of promotional postcards that are going to be made in order to inform families around the Leeds area of the project.  In response to these, families interested in taking part can then get in touch and apply. Once animals have been chosen and allocated to people, an information pack will be given alongside their specific creature, full of facts, illustrations and other little bits about their rented pet. I am going to be using the references that I made, with the photos taken by LW to produce the illustrations that are going to feature in the packs. A decision hasn't been made yet as home the final pack is going to look but I'm stoked to get started on it and it should be finished towards the end of May I think.

It was dead interesting being behind the scenes and helping out at photo shoot, as it was all completely alien to me. What made the day slightly easier compared to photographing live models, was that the animals were very cooperative and didn't move around much. It was quite a peculiar site if I'm being honest but a most enjoyable one. As I mentioned earlier, the only challenge was avoiding the glare and reflection that the glass was creating. The only way of really avoiding the problem was to shoot the images slightly off centre, so that the lens wasn't directly parallel with the cases. It seemed to solve the problem pretty well and didn't obstruct the shots that were wanted at all.

Time seemed to absolutely fly and I didn't actually get chance to make reference sheets for every animal but made a healthy attempt at it. The process of taking photos seem to be much faster then my hand with pencil but I knew that I'd have to do some extra afterwards anyway. The photos turned out brilliantly and I have no doubt that they'll look even better once printed. I found myself laughing back at most of the close up shots, as it genuinely looks like some of them are smiling or have just been caught doing something. I'm a fool though.  The group photo at the end of the afternoon was definitely the highlight of my day. Organising all the various sized boxes was a challenge on its own and took quite a bit of time getting it spot on. We weren't sure if all 15 would even fit on the backdrop so some had to bunk up on top of each other. There was a real sense of narrative seeing them all together that is going to lend itself amazingly to the project as a whole. Again, it was a bit of a pain trying to arrange everything so that the light wasn't reflecting straight back at the camera, but you're bound to get some glare with that much glass. Non the less, the final shots worked a treat.

I got a real buzz working for a live project knowing that the imagery was actually going towards something real. I didn't go to Artemis expecting anything less than great things to come out of it and it looks like I was right. I can't wait to get cracking on with work for the illustrations and seeing the project develop. Keep your eyes peeled for updates.

EXHIBITION PREP.

With the degree some looming, I thought it's be a good idea to start to think about how I'm going to present my work in a way that represents my work best and more importantly that looks awesome.

Having been down to PickMeUp last month, I got a huge amount of inspiration from the vast array of work on show and the various ways to exhibit. I was especially intrigued by the layout of PeepShow's room, consisting of lots of wooden structures and shelving that contained little models, sculptures, illustrations and textiles. With the variation of both work on the wall, as well as taking advantage of the floorspace available, it really stood out to me as being one of the most interesting exhibits on show.

The Peepshow Collective at PickMeUp 2012

The wooden frames made you interact with the pieces and gave you the opportunity to up close and personal with the work. It made a pleasant change indeed from the usual glass cabinets that we're more familiar with.

Baring this is mind, I've been thinking about how I can combine both three dimensional and flat pieces together that will grab peoples attention. A while ago I'd read an article about an exhibition in Paris, where tattooer (appropriately named) Guy Le Tatooer, framed body parts formed out of latex that displayed his artwork. It gave him the chance to exhibit his tattoos as a form of art behind frames and create absolute striking and eery pieces of artwork on their own. It think they look amazing and would love to incorporate this into my work. 

Latex arms by Guy le Tatooer

As my work, over the last year in particular, has been heavily influenced by the art of tattooing, I intend on trying to incorporate my work onto similar casts made by myself. Rather then using an electrical tattoo gun, I'll probably opt for the less complicated transfer paper, like the ones you used to get in cheap packs of bubble gum. I've no idea if its going to work so by starting early I can afford to make mistakes ( I'd rather not) and work out how to fix them with plenty of time to spare.

With the help of the ingenious John Hind, who is by means no stranger to this at all, I spent today working on making a cast of my hand using dental alginate and rubber silicon. The process was dead easy to do and didn't take too long either but I wouldn't have had a clue where to start without John. We recycled some old silicon that had been previously used by just melting it down again to it's liquid form on a hob, making it completely reusable again and again.

Before all the melting took place we had to make a cast of my hand for the liquid to be poured into. For this we used a mixture of powdered alginate and water that we made a mess with using a kitchen mixer and placed into a container just about big enough for my hand to fit into. I then dunked my hand in and waited for the peculiar substance to set, which only took a couple of minutes.  It's crazy  how much detail the cast managed to pick up from my skin and you could see every wrinkle, hair and crease going. When the silicon was runny enough (technical term), I poured it into the whole where my hand had come out of and waited for it to solidify as it cooled. With me being inpatient, I cut open the mould whilst the cast was still quite warm but all was good and it stayed intact.

Alginate hand cast

I'm massively impressed with how it turned out but there's still a few technical tweaks that need seeing to before anything final is made. The silicon rubber, once completely cooled and dried was still quite soft and flopped about, so before I make a complete model of my arm I need to put some sort of support inside before it sets giving it a skeletal like structure. I'm wanting to fix the arms to the wall of my exhibition space so that they can hold pieces of my work or maybe a sign of some sort. If I use some sort of support inside the arms I think it'll make life much easier when trying to attach them to the board. I'm also going to see if I can add dye to the liquid silicon to get a paler, flesh colour that looks more realistic then the zombie green I used for the prototype. I'm pretty excited to try and apply some illustrations to it later on this week and hopefully make more in the next few weeks.

PORTFOLIO VISIT No3.

On the final day of my placement with LordWhitey, they organised a small gathering of Leeds based designers to visit their newly decorated studio. It was a great way of meeting a group of industry related people that I wouldn't of had the chance to other wise.

The line up consisted of: James & Laura (DukeStudios) It was a great chance to meet the people behind the making of my promotional packs, Seb & Vic (Rising Digital) A business that supports emerging and discovered artist/musicians/athletes by working with industry professionals to help set up a link between the two, mainly through social media (I think), Tim & Mark (RabbitHole) A branding and digital communication studio that combines typography/illustration/photography together that specialise in design for web, packaging, literature, exhibitions and branding. There were quite a few more people there but I didn't get chance to speak to everyone.

I managed to give out the remaining promo packs that I had left, which seemed to go down a storm. I was dead pleased with people's reactions and everyone seemed to favor the hand made approach to my printing and business cards. It was interesting to hear what different pathways i.e graphic designers, animators and furniture designers, thought about my work as I'm usually showing it to other illustrators or clients.

Vic and Seb (Rising Digital) spent some time talking to me about the EP work for SingRamonaSing, as they seemed to like it. We spoke about what direction of work I intend on take once graduated and if CD design and packaging was a choice. They've worked with some huge artists and more recently DeadMau5 and Calvin Harris so it was a real privilege to show them my stuff . They mentioned that like particularly liked the hand drawn element of my illustrations, as most of the imagery they use tends to be either photography or more 'graphicy' pieces. They thought it was my strongest piece and recommended that I progressed in this field of illustration as well as the "style" of working. Vic then spoke to me about how she loved the fact that I included a pack of my process drawings in the back of my portfolio. She suggested that I hand bind them into some sort of hardback book and make them a main feature during a portfolio showing. We spoke about possibly using window mounts so that many images are visible on top of each other but I'm not sure if they might just clash. Since we had a tutorial on book binding, I'm tempted to try and make my own book for my final exhibition that I can also take with me on visits. Seb, on the other hand, wasn't keen on these pieces as there were too many images of birds and he was scared of birds. He liked them, but struggled to look at them as the dear was overpowering. Sorry Seb.

Laura from Duke, had nothing but kind words to say about my pieces. She again particularly liked the tracing paper process work as she said they were full of character and show the delicate nature of each illustration. She agreed with making them a predominant feature along side the finished piece. We discussed how I could present them for my degree show and spoke about somehow mounting light boxes onto walls in order to layer up my illustrations.

I left my work on the table for people to look at in their leisure afterwards, as when I spoke to everyone as a group about each piece, it was hard to make sure everyone had seen it all. I was also dead nervous as LordWhitney threw me in at the deep end and gathered everyone around me and asked me to show my stuff. Over all, I got some really positive feedback and a big confidence boost with my work which was absolutely great. All my packs got taken, so I'm taking that as a big positive and you never know, I might even get some work out of it. I can always hope anyway. I was invited over to each teams studios, so I intend on taking them up on the offers at some point after graduation once I've finished some new pieces. It was a daunting time, but definitely worth the nerves.

PORTFOLIO VISIT No2.

During my placement last week in Leeds, I was given the chance to show Lord Whitney my newly updated portfolio. The last time they saw my work was in December last year, shortly after their lecture at uni.

Looking back, there has been a great deal of changes since then as well as a big reduction in the number of pieces on show. One of the more noticeable differences was the layout of each page. I have completely changed the typeface and positioning of the text to try and help make the text and illustration compliment one another. Previously, I felt like they were fighting against each other that subsequently made the page look almost awkward. In my new logo, I have tried to reflect the use of symbols that often appear in my work, and therefore it seems to fit much more comfortably amongst the illustrations. 

Both Amy and Bek thought that these changes to the presentation of my work looked better and made my imagery stronger. The usage of negative space was another thing that mentioned and complimented me on as beforehand; each illustration was quite flush to the page. They spoke to me about how sometimes the space around the illustration is just as important as the art itself. If the work is too big on a page, it can look cluttered and not do the artwork any justice. You focus on the layout being wrong rather than the image being right. This is exactly what I had intended on doing so was really happy to hear this. Another thing that they mentioned was the evident progression over the last 4/5months. They really liked the work I had created for my major project, especially the Raven pattern. They suggested that I play around with the combination of shapes more and further this way of working as they thought it was a visually strong piece. Using patterns in my work seemed to come really natural to me when I made this and have every intention to do more pieces based on geometry. I enjoyed creating it and it was something new to me as well, which is always good.

Other then that, the only other thing that was mentioned was the promo packs that I made. Having something tactile seemed to go down well as they were inspecting it for a good few minutes. The whole intention of me making the packs was so that whoever I gave them too would take a bit of time looking at them rather then just throwing a business card to one side or deleting an email. I hoped that because it was evident that they were hand made, people would be less likely to cast them to one side/the bin. They said it was a fantastic thing to be able to send them out to clients/studios that I was interested in as it’s something they can keep.

I’m glad I showed them my portfolio for a second time, as I wasn’t sure whether to or not.  It confirmed that I’m heading down the right direction and was clarification that the little attention to detail really pays off.

TOM GILMOUR.

With the pressure of tying up loose ends and the last minute rush upon us, I've begun to actually sit down and think what the hell am I going to do when I finish uni? I've put a considerable amount of time pondering this wormhole of a question and seem to end back where I started if not slightly more confused and out of breath.

I've been meaning to blog about Tom Gilmour for a while now as I've been following his blog for an age and we seem to be influenced by similar interests. Not forgetting the fact that his work is sickingly good.As well as finished pieces, he regularly posts process shots of current projects which I particularly like. It's nice to see artists that aren't afraid to show their method of working as many sites seem to just show the polished final pieces which is all well and good but I enjoy seeing a project develop. I could do with taking a leaf out his book and update my blog more as I forget to post about my work.

He specialises in hand drawn artwork but dabbles in digital rendering. He work is fueled by black tattoo art and early 80's skateboard graphics and heavily influenced from the five years spent studying graphic design and art history. His work seems to have exploded in the hardcore music scene with his work everywhere ranging from tshirt designs to promo posters. Amongst all of this he is the founder of King Noir clothing company, a member of the Black Line Collective with three other amazing artists, as well as being one half of Wood & Cloud, a art/music/publishing company producing limited edition runs of prints. books and Cds. Not bad to say he's only 26.

After finding out about all the different things Gilmour is part of, I thought I'd drop him a quick email asking him how he got to be involved in so many diverse fields of the art industry and the steps he took getting there. He was polite enough to reply with a dead helpful and motivating email explaining all that I had asked. It went as follows.

 

Visiting London a few weeks ago opened my eyes to realise that work isn't going to be handed on a plate as soon as I step out into the "real world". Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect anything to happen over night but it definitely made me realise that this is a career that I want bad enough to put all the hours the day has to offer into it. Reading that Tom worked full time in a shop and then fit his artwork around just shows if you're passionate enough about it, you'll find time.

 I've watched both the YouTube links and they're both worth  having a gander at. To sum up, they both talk about how BennyGold and Eric Elms have built their way into creating a self employed businessby turning art into a career they love. Dead good. And finally Beautiful Losers. If you haven't seen it already, go stream it here for free now. It's an amazing film that I bough about 3years ago now that documents the careers of low-brow and street artists grouping together to create a movement focusing on the D.I.Y aesthetics in their work from things like graffiti, skateboarding and underground music. It features artists like Barry McGee, Ed Templeton, Shepard Fairy, Thomas Campbell and tons more. I'd highly recommend it and think that you should go watch it.

Waking it to this email, and re watching Beautiful Losers as I work, seems to have put the fright of getting a job at rest for the time being. I'm getting exciting about the prospects of what the future has to offer and the work I'll be making whatever career I take to pay the bills etc. Just got to give it once last push for 4 weeks then its the start of something new. Exciting times.

PLACEMENT.

With this being my final term at uni, I thought that it would be good to get some sort of work experience under my belt before graduating. I'd kept in touch with Lord Whitney quite a bit since their lecture last year so thought it would be worth a shot asking if they'd have me for a week over my Easter holiday. I got in touch and thankfully, they were happy to  have me as an intern. Having contacted them about this, they approached me with an offer of working with them on a project with Leeds council call 'Get Stuffed' as I've mentioned in a previous post. It just shows that risks can definitely pay off as I'm dead chuffed and flattered that they'd consider working with me. They said that because they knew I had a slight obsession with taxidermy, that they thought I'd enjoy working with them. They were right!

So during the second week of Easter, I spent my time helping Lord Whitney out in their Leeds studio. With the week starting on a bank holiday, I only managed to get 4 days there but made up for it by going back to Artemis with them the following week. I honestly didn't know what I was expecting the week to entail, but I was up for getting my hands stuck in with whatever they threw my way.


FATUM

Lord Whitney have been asked to do visual curate a short film, entitled Fatum by WeAreBoxhead. As far as I'm aware, WeAreBoxhead are a design studio based in Leeds and good friends of LW. Consisting of  David Sorely and Giles Smith, they aim to work with other businesses and individuals that want to better their communication as a brand, I think. The film Fatum, is to be shot on Sunday 22nd so ideas for props needed to be sorted asap. The film focuses on a couples relationship and is shot in single perspective (like the diner scene in Pulp Fiction). However, the view from the males point of view is their first date, and the female is viewing their break up meal. To suggest the passing of time we were thinking about what items we could use that would relate to this. These would change in each sort i.e fresh flowers in one, wilted in the other. There was also some weird cut away shots to think about that had really weird and random things going on. One possible shot was to consist of wool coming out of the woman's ears I think but I didn't really understand it too well. There was to be an underlying theme of red so things like lipstick, candles, necklaces, wine and roses were required as well as clothing. We looked through LW's collection of fancy dress and sorted through some red items that could be appropriate. I enjoyed helping with this, as its much different from the process of generating ideas for an illustration as they need to communicate differently. We sorted props,clothing and our ideas and put them to one side as David and Giles were popping over in the next couple of days.

THE PRINCES TRUST

Having spoken to Bek and Amy about my path after uni, they suggested if I was to freelance, it might be a good idea to go on the Enterprise Program through the Princes Trust. The five day free course covers aspects of how to set up your own business, taxes, money issues and promotion. It sounds like I've covered a lot of the bits during my last few months at uni but sounds like a worth while opportunity as you get a bursary to help you on your way on completion. They also offer reasonable loans if machinery or any other items are needed to set you up. Its definitely something I shall look into I think!


ARTEMIS

As I'm helping out with the 'Get Stuffed' project, it was a great chance for us to discuss what needed to be done over the next few months. I was going to be involved with illustrating the packs handed out to each family that contained info on their specific animal. Before anything could be started on, we needed to clarify the final list of animals that were going to feature in the project. After a long debate, we decided on the following: 1. Water vole 2. Marsh Tit 3. Stoat 4. Rabbit 5. Jackdaw 6. Fox 7. Squirrel 8. Puffs Fish 9. Pangolin 10. Hedgehog 11. Barn Owl 12. Chameleon13. Teal (Duck) 14. Tortoise 15. Hare. I then spent my time researching into species habitats, Latin names, characteristics, anatomy and other interesting things that could feature in the info packs.This took up the majority of my placement and I was searching through nature books and the web but making sure I had everything noted correctly. I had to double check a lot of the information as some pieces (on the web) were complete crap and had just been made up on the spot. As these were being handed out to the public, they had to be 100% accurate.

I helped out with work on two other projects, but, I can't mention them as they're still under lock and key at the moment. As well as the above, we visited charity/junk shops to find items for the un-namable projects, met up with WEAREBOXHEAD to discuss FATUM and had a small gathering on the friday night with Leeds based designers and studios.

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement with Lord Whitney and can't thanks them enough for giving me an insight into their work. I've learned a lot over the last week and its given me a real insight in how things work for freelance artists. By experiencing this through watching others, its given me a sneak preview of what I can expect in the future that has swayed me towards the idea of getting a studio and working with others. All in all, a fantastic week that I've gained a lot from. Thanks again Bek & Amy.

EDITORIALS.

Where to go next? A question that I've been pondering over for some time now as I'm not sure what line of illustration I intend to go down once completing uni. I dabbled in working on a couple of editorials last year when the majority of my work was digital based but haven't touched on it since. I seemed to struggle to complete the briefs on time as I tend to work quite slowly but this is something that I need to over come.

Having spoken to tutors about it all, they suggested that for my final part of the major project I give it another shot. As the last part of my project has about 7 weeks in total, I aim to produce about 4 editorial pieces, with one consisting of a short animation if possible. The previous editorial pieces I worked on were given to us by tutors as part of a project so this was a chance to work on pieces that I could later benefit from. I intend to visiting the Guardian and New Scientist during our London New Blood visit in June, so I thought it would make sense to choose articles from their issues rather then publications that aren't really relevant to myself. To prevent the finished work looking like a collection of random scribbles, I have chosen the theme of health and science to work around. This body of work is something that interests me and would like to further working on such topics in the future if possible. I've always been inspired by scientific etchings and illustrations from various places including Dover publications so working similarly excites me.

I'm currently working on three editorials with still having the intention of completing another one before my hand in date. I've enjoyed the faster pace of working but still could do with upping my game a little. Working in this manner has made me avoiding working too literal as my work sometimes seems to turn out. In doing this, I've tried to give the pieces more depth and think more conceptually. I've found this way of working more challenging but definitely a rewarding process at the end. I tend to slip into the trap of making illustrations that have little meaning or depth too them and feel I could push myself to do more. By think more about the concept being the illustration, I've found myself generating many ideas at the start of a brief, where sometimes I'd be a little stumped. It seems to have set the ball rolling and I'm finding it harder to settle on one idea rather then just settling with the few I've got.

Creating work to fit in to awkward dimensions has been a difficult challenge that I'm not familiar with doing. I usually play safe and work to standard paper sizes or the odd square if I'm feeling adventurous, so having to adjust an idea around boundaries has been hard. You can have a really clever idea but sometimes it feels impossible to make it fit comfortably in the given size. This has subsequently changed my work to look different as intending and I've found it massively frustrating at times. I think it has been beneficial to try my hand at this way of working because in 'the real world' if I'm being realistic, I'm not going to have a say behind the format of work. If I do choose to try and work as an editorial illustrator, this is something I'll have to get used to. My time management seems to have got slightly better due to this body of work but I feel like I still need to work quicker. I can sometimes find myself being a bit of a perfectionist and this seems to drag me down at times. Rather then getting on with the work, I tend to redraw bits that don't necessarily need editing but I won't be content until I've done it. I suppose it could be seen as a good quality to have but recently I've found it a hindrance. I'm confident that in time it will hopefully become a much smoother process and come naturally to me driven by the adrenaline and fear of client.

I'm finding this way of working very challenging and wouldn't rule out the option of a career in it but I still prefer more freedom in my work. I think it all depends on how the final illustrations turn out and if I'm happy with them but when it comes to it, I don't think I'd turn down work if it pays the bills.

HANDS.

Over the past few days I've been trying tackling the reoccurring obstacle that keeps cropping up: drawing hands. I've always found hands pretty hard to draw and remember spending a lot of my foundation year attempting to over come this problem. Needless to say, I didn't. To get a hand to look spot on, you need to have basic drawing skills and sometimes more importantly, in my opinion, a general knowledge of the human skeleton and muscle anatomy. This of course depends on the overall look you're after. I came across a helpful little GIF on Matthew Woodson's blog explaining his work process when that I thought was pretty cool.

With me having to produce a short animation it was good inspiration that got my cogs turning.With this in mind, I've been looking through books and trawling the web for anatomical drawings and studies of the human figure, as well as drawing my left hand many lots. Fun times.

ARTEMIS.

Taxidermy, dinosaurs, noodles and sunshine. This pretty much sums up how I spent yesterday over in Leeds and I was truly in my element.

In run up to my placement with Lord Whitney in two weeks time, they kindly invited me over for a day visit with them to Artemis in prep for their next project. If I remember correctly, Artemis is an organisation that stores pretty much every thing that surrounding museums don't have enough room for any more. From this, they provide a loan service to schools where over  10,000 artifacts and original artwork can be used for teaching and learning in a way where the children can get up and close to the items. It's an amazing scheme that could be used so much more. I'd of gone mad for something like this when I was growing up and still would now. The collection keeps growing as they get more pieces donate quite regularly by the sounds of things. The staff we spoke to were incredibly kind and let us explore and take as many photos as much as we wanted, followed by a tour of the workshops and storage rooms.  Having had time to potter around the many different rooms that built up the huge warehouse, I was blown away by 1. The vast variety of everything that they stored and 2. How it was referenced and labeled in such an organised manner. When I say vast array, that's probably a huge understatement. They had pieces from natural history, ethnography, geology, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, crafts and paintings. I've probably left loads out as well. Apologies if I have.

I was instantly drawn to the fantastic array of taxidermy they had on display and quickly found myself captivated by the little critters. I've seen a lot of average and quite disturbing taxidermy (some of which can be seen here) which is a well and good, but this collection was pretty much perfect and there was a real sense of care them all. Some of them had recently been made new little boxes and looked very happy with the results but it was kind of like a retirement home for dead animals. As much as I loved admiring everything I was almost frustrated by how these amazing pieces weren't being taken advantage off enough. I would have kindly taken some (all) of them off there hands but it would sort of defeat the objective of the program. 

After Jane had very kindly showed us round and dates were set, we went back to the Lord Whitney HQ to discuss the brief itself and eat noodles. I went for mild curry.  It's got me really excited to be working with them on such an inspiring project and has given me a real boost I needed with my work.

I hoping to get the chance to go back to Artemis as I would have killed to sit and draw for a couple of hours. I'm not sure I can leak any info about the brief they're working on just yet but I can assure its going to be impressive. Thanks again LW.

Penguins are pretty small.

Sly fox and house Sparrow skeleton.

Monkey skull, massive Gannet and amazing moving biology illustration.

NOBROW PORTFOLIO VIEWING.

 Last week we spent a few days down in London, primarily to see the PickMeUp exhibition at Somerset House but it was also a great opportunity to showcase our work to southern based companies. Four of us teamed up together as we thought people might be more wiling to see a group rather then individual students. It seemed to play in our favor quite well in the end.

Shoreditch housed publishers, NoBrow, very kindly agreed to see us which we were really excited about. NoBrow are best known for their incredible self printed publications that feature an array of illustrators both old and newly established. Their work seems to be getting increasingly popular and has exploded over the last few months in particular. With us all being big fans of their work, we were quite nervous but eager about meeting Sam Arther & Alex Spiro.

When looking through my work, I explained to Sam how my work had taken quite a drastic change in appearance over the last few months, resulting in a short portfolio. From this, he spoke about how sometimes it's better to have a select few images that really sell yourself for who you are, rather then be overwhelmed by work that can be somewhat dated or not true to yourself. I found this reassuring and completely understood what he was saying. My portfolio a year ago was much more crammed with a variety of different outcomes that could have been quite confusing for a client to look at. The importance of consistency in our work was something he stressed to all of us and is starting to become apparent with me. The person looking at your work wants to know exactly what they're getting if they commission you, so sometimes its a good thing to make your portfolio specific for the viewer. I hadn't particularly thought of this before but it makes sense not to show work to someone who's not necessarily going to like it or feel the need to hire you based on it.

All in all, Sam was great to talk to and gave some good advice concerning our future as artists. The feedback on my work was all pretty good and preferred some work over others. Thankfully my more recent pieces. The bit that stayed with me most was when Sam talked about, even though we're finishing uni and have been through x-amount of years of education, we're still coming out at the bottom and need to work our way up. Its not going to be handed to us on a plate but if we really want it, we'll be determined enough to get there. Overall it was a worthwhile and valuable visit.

SELF PROMOTION PANIC.

As usual, I seem to have left it last minute to get myself booked into the print room and blast out some work in time for London. But that's all part of the fun of it yeah? My packs have all been cut absolutely amazingly, thanks to the kind Laura & James over at Duke Studios and delivered just in time to get printed early this morning. I had a ton of the 2mm kraftboard left over so I made use of it by making some business cards. Slightly chunky, but worked nicely.

Yesterday was the final prepping of all the imagery that was going to be printed today, and man was that a rush job. Everything seemed to be going to swimmingly, when a couple of the screens I was using didn't expose correctly (seemed to be a problem with the emulsion) so needed to be stripped down to start again. Then, just I about to finish, I noticed there was a typo on some text so I was cutting it fine to re coat the screens/expose them/wash them before the doors were locked at 4pm, but I managed.

Today was a slightly more relaxed, but still fast paced day of printing. I was a bit skeptical as to whether the typeface would be too small and print eligible. It was considerably smaller on the cards then the packs but both were pretty small. After doing a few test runs, the acrylic didn't see to flood the lettering too much and worked surprisingly well. it was just one of those jobs where I had to keep my eye on things and wash the screens out a few times so the lines stayed crisp.
The printing onto the pack itself went better then expected which was a nice relief. The registration was a bit of a pain to start off with as the packs had a tendency of moving when the screened was pulled over. I managed to fix it by mounting up some of the spare card around the template and taping it together (photo below) Once its was then fixed down to the print bed, it stayed put and it was just a case of re registering the screen again.  

It was nice to be back working in the print room and I wish I'd taken advantage of the facilities more so in the last few years. My work doesn't really lend itself to screen printing amazingly, as there's not enough block tone so it was cool to be working on something that did. To keep complications down to a minimum, I decided to use only two colours, but think this worked well with the natural brown of the card. Once each layer had been printed, I attempted to speed up the drying time by using a hair dryer. As the kraft board is quite light and made using a corrugated inner body, the intense heat (even when on low) from the dryer started to warp the boards towards the corners. It wasn't an obvious bend, but I wanted them as perfect as possible so just had to wait it out for ink to dry. The rest of the printing seemed to go well and lined up as best as I could get it to.

I bought some nice water colour paper that had a decent texture and weight to it for the prints to go inside the pack but the printer didn't seem to agree with me. In theory, the printer should have been able to handle the paper dead easy but instead it chewed it up and spat it out half eaten. I had to resort to using some thinner paper, which worked well, just didn't have the quality I wanted. It was then just a case of cutting the illustrations/business cards up, folding the packs together nice and neatly filling them up. I ended up using a couple of pritstick adhesive tabs to hold the cards in place as well as the lid shut that worked a treat.

The past few days have kept me busy and I'd almost forgotten about the London trip tomorrow. I'm pleased that I went ahead and made some additional promotion work to take down with me other then my portfolio. I think they look pretty good so it's now just a case of handing them out and hoping they think the same.