Updating my visual identity

 I'm probably jumping the gun on this a little, but I thought I ought to start considering my visual identity. Because of all the things I've been trying in my sketchbook over summer, I just feel like the stuff I produced in level 5 (here) is a bit old and doesn't really reflect my practice at the moment (even though it's only been around 3 months?!) As I've been playing with brush lettering recently I thought it would be fitting to try out my name.

Getting the letters to look right took a few practices - for some reason I couldn't figure out how to make the 'S' look good and ended up trying a couple of different brushes to get the right stroke. I added the colour afterwards in Photoshop because I'm indecisive and I'll probably change it at some point. 

I couldn't resist mocking up a business card with it on. At the end of year show, I saw a couple of people's business cards that had coloured edges and I thought they looked pretty cool. I'll have to find out where I can get this done for myself. In retrospect, I don't think my old business cards looked very professional - they were pretty I guess, but I think I've moved on from that.

'What Next?'

So following the talk we had on Friday, I've decided this year that I really want to go to the Start Up Wednesdays programme. The sessions are based around the idea of being your own boss and will help you formulate some sort of plan, so that when you leave university, you aren't at a total loss for what to do next. I'd love to work for myself after uni, but the idea is terrifying because I have no idea how to go about getting work.

After having another flick through the leaflet, I'm thinking it might also be useful to go to the Career Track Tuesdays sessions too.. Initially I was put off because the first session is based around teaching and the application process. However, the programme also covers networking, post-graduate qualifications, presentation skills and selling work. These all sound like areas I could do with learning a bit more about.

I've filled out the booking form and so far it looks like every session will be relevant to the stuff I want to find out! Exciting stuff.

Illustration Studios

To help give myself a bit of direction for this year, I've been looking at illustration agencies/studios. I've been trying to imagine how my practice might be similar to what they do but as a result, I just feel out of my depth and like I have a long way to go.

I think because my practice is at such an 'inbetween stage' (I feel like I've moved on from level 5 but I have no idea how my work will turn out this year), I've struggled to find design studios that I can really identify with. I found two that I really do like however!

Kindred Studio
Andrew Fairclough's work kind of reminds me of 60s horror movie/graphic novel aesthetic and the Crap Hound books.

Lollilu
Textile/pattern based design studio. It's been a while since I thought much about pattern design so it was good to remind myself that this is something I want to do.

Both studios are based in Sydney, so I doubt I'll be able to pay them a visit! I do want to contact them both however - I'll just have to email them. I want to come up with some good questions to ask but I can't think of anything right now! Super annoying. I find the thought of contacting professionals really intimidating - I know it sounds ridiculous and I really don't want to let my anxiousness get in my way this year.
Thinking back to the Big Heads talks we've had in the past, I can remember a few of the questions that were asked:

• What inspires your work?
• Can you describe your process when creating work, whether its personal or a set brief?
• What advice would you give a young illustrator about to embark on their third and final year of university?
• What do you think is important to do to keep your practice progressing?

I'm not really sure how many questions would be a good amount to send to someone?? I'd also kick myself if I forgot to ask about something, so I'm going to come back to this and make revisions before I send anything. 

Tori Anne

So I've been following Tori Anne's work throughout the summer (her tumblr here) and it's what inspired me to pick up my markers again. She posts YouTube videos of her process, which I found really useful because it gave me an idea of what I can do to make my own work with markers look better. For example, she often uses coloured pencils to add depth and texture - which oddly enough, I never thought of. 

I'm dying to get my hands on her book, Juicy Ink. I think it's just a compilation of her drawings but it would be a good thing to have for inspiration. 

Now as far as I can tell, she isn't part of an agency, and has just built her practice around her shop, selling prints, products and commissions - the dream, right? 

My reason for posting this was ultimately because I like her image creating process - and I love to play around with this as I feel restricted if I do something one way for too long. I also see her practice as something to aspire to - being able to draw pretty characters all the time must be fun, plus getting paid for it?? There are so many things I want to explore within my practice this year and character is definitely one of them. I feel like I say this every year and I do explore it to some extent, but because I haven't really figured out what I want to do with it, it's difficult. As long as I keep exploring character through my sketchbooks, hopefully I'll be able to figure out how it fits into my practice. 

The Illusionist

Whilst looking for something to watch, I stumbled upon this beautifully animated film. My practice doesn't particularly revolve around character and sequential images (even though my current sketchbook is full of characters..?) but I just love the way the characters tell the story in this. There isn't very much dialogue so you get the jist of what the characters are feeling by their body language and expressions. I'm not saying that this is specific to this film, I just noticed it more because of the lack of dialogue. The way the characters are drawn gives them a real sense of personality, which I feel a lot of my character based work lacks. I think it's the detail and the exaggeration in the movement of the characters that make it feel so real. The scenes/environments are also beautifully drawn and gives a real sense of space.
It's been a while since I watched something really beautiful, so I had to share. I'm no animator (in fact I really hate doing it), but I can appreciate how much study of the human body/it's movement has been put into this - which is also needed for illustration, to be able to capture movement in a single frame.
Over summer I've been doing a lot of anatomy studies and I'm keen to go to life drawing classes once term starts again. Hopefully this will help me improve on my character work!

Kim Searle

Another find from the Leeds Zine Fair! Kim Searle was selling a bunch of cute screen printed patches, which you can see more of here, and I knew it was something I wanted to try this year. Her patches are definitely inspired by feminism, so another good reference for my CoP project! I think what I like is the contrast of the almost aggressive statements with the cute, typically feminine fabrics. 

After finding such interesting things at the Zine Fair, I'm really looking forward to Thought Bubble this year. I don't think I really looked at much of the content last year, I just kind of looked at stuff at face value. I've discovered a real interest in feminist diy culture and I think it's really going to help me find my tone of voice this year - and give my work purpose. 

Mad Maxine Zine

At the Leeds Zine Fair a few weeks ago, I picked up this little zine full of drawings of bad-ass ladies. My favourite piece of artwork from it is definitely the cover, which is what caught my eye in the first place - plus it was free!  

Tons of artists have contributed to this, so there's a pretty wide breadth of work. I think the skill level kind of varies throughout but I think it's a really nice product of collaboration and it celebrates tough grrlz! - good research into third wave feminism for CoP?

I'm wanting to make some zines myself this year (see this post on my studio practice blog), but I was struggling for ideas for what to put inside. Is it okay to just have artwork?? I really like the idea of the colouring page and it reminded me of this post I made about wanting to explore adult colouring books in level 6. I could potentially make a colouring book-zine? The idea of trying to put together a 40 page colouring book sometime this year is scary, so perhaps little zines would be a better idea..? It would be cheap to produce them and I suppose not all the pages would have to be colouring pages - I could give a bit of info on my chosen topic too?

Excited about the possibilities already. Definitely starting to see some synthesis between all my ideas for this year!

RedBubble - success?

In my level 5 end of year presentation, I mentioned that I had created a RedBubble account. Initially it was just so I could see what my work looked like on various products - because I was too lazy to photoshop it all myself. Over the summer however, I've actually had some success from it! As of now I've had 54 sales, which to me is crazy considering I never thought I'd get anywhere with it.

At the moment however, I don't really feel like the work I've got on there is much good. Whenever I open up the front page I always feel like everybody else's work is so much better than mine - especially the t-shirt specific designs.

From now, I'm going to focus on making my designs better, so I don't feel so inadequate when I log on and see all the new uploads. What makes a t-shirt design a good one? How do I stop my designs looking like they've just been slapped on a shirt? Am I being TOO critical of myself? There are so many things I want to improve upon this year, I hope I don't drive myself insane. 

'Spooks' Book cover

For this brief, the client already had a good idea of what they wanted for the book cover. They definitely wanted a depiction of a cat painting in the story. With the title being 'Spooks' there was the concern that it would look like a book about ghosts or something else spooky. However, it's a pretty funny book and definitely not about ghosts. The target audience for the book is primarily women aged 35 to 50. After having a good look at covers for women's fiction, the first cover I came up with was this:

One thing I like about this cover is the simplicity of it. However I also feel as though it is simultaneously it's downfall. The client was really happy with the title text but I felt like something was missing from the cover. I felt like the painting needed more context and the overall composition felt a bit cold.

I decided to depict the painting in a gallery space (which is relevant to the story), using two characters to show this. I think this image looks more complete, however I am still unsure about whether or not it is a good book cover. Part of me feels like the characters at the front are too distracting and perhaps the dark hair makes the whole piece slightly unbalanced? 

Even though this will only initially be an e-book, when the designs are mocked up, I actually think I prefer the first design. The final decision isn't mine however and really I'd be happy with either of them. 

Throughout level 6 I would definitely like to do some more work on book covers. Maybe as part of my studio practice I could produce covers for some books of my choice? I think it's a skill that lots of illustrators should refine because publishing is where a lot of illustrators get their work. This project was turned around in about a day and if I had more time, I think I could have produced something a little better. If I were to set my own brief so that I could explore book covers/maybe book promotion a little more, I would be able to spend more time refining the work. 

Illustration Collective?

I've been thinking a lot about what I am going to do once I finish level 6 and since I've decided I can't see myself going onto do an MA just yet, I think an illustration agency or collective might be the way forward.

I came across this article about a few illustration/design collectives and I really like the sound of it. There are collectives such as Girls Who Draw or 13Souls which are comprised of quite a lot of different skillsets. I think the idea behind a collective is to work together on projects that need it, but it also allows you to have your individual practice.
Organizing events such as exhibitions might be easier as a collective as there are more people to do the necessary jobs. I think it would also be less intimidating to approach galleries and if agreed, costs could be split.

Being part of a collective sounds really appealing and I definitely think my practice would benefit from working alongside other practitioners but having the opportunity to work individually. I have already spoken to a couple of people about sharing a studio space somewhere in Leeds when we finish level 6, but we need to research the practicality of it all.

What do I need to research thoroughly this year?

• Costs of a studio space plus kitting it out with equipment we'll need
• Who is definitely up for it?
• In terms of a business, how would it work? No hierarchy but with project leaders?
• Identify our strongest skillsets - is there anything vital we're missing between us? 
• How would we make money? Prints/products? Publications?

Leeds College of Art art market

I had completely forgotten that I participated in this at the end of last term! The art market was new to this years' degree show. It was free to submit work, we got to keep all the money we made from sales and all we had to do was take a turn working a shift during the week it was open. 

As always, it was really gratifying having people buy my work. Not only that, but it was nice to be involved in something with other creatives and having a look at their work. 

As with the Hepworth Print Fair I really enjoyed the whole thing and I definitely want to do it again. Selling prints on the side of whatever else I am doing in life, might be a good way to earn some extra income. For now, I have great printing facilities at uni so I can do this pretty cheaply and keep my profit margins up. However, once I leave university this might be harder and is something I will have to look into. 

In terms of exposure for my work, this wasn't too bad. I had a request for one of my print designs to be put onto a t-shirt. Later when I posted the customer photo on my Instagram, I got a couple more requests for it. When there aren't any art markets for me to attend, I can always try and sell work over on Etsy.

Things in Mind (Leeds Beckett MA Art & Design exhibition)

In order to get a better understanding of life after my degree, I've been looking at a couple of MA courses and even considered a PGCE (although I really don't think teaching is for me!). I wanted to see the kind of work that could be produced on a course like this so I went along to the Leeds Beckett MA Art & Design exhibition.

Initial thoughts

• Very broad range of work - ranging from photography to fashion garments and installations
• I'm not sure how some of it would fit into industry? I think this is relatively important to me right now, as I am trying to find my feet as a young professional. 
• Presentation. If I am brutally honest, I expected a little more from an MA exhibition. This must be because I am coming from a relatively different discipline?
• Would I enjoy such a broad course? I really enjoy being surrounded by other illustrators at this point.

All in all, I don't think I am interested in doing a course like this. I would like to do an MA in the future but right now, I'm too eager to learn about professionalism and working in the industry. I think in a few years I might be ready to further my education, but right now I want to get out there and put everything I've learned to the test!

Annie Wu (Illustrator)

Annie Wu is one of the illustrators behind the new Black Canary comic. It was the vibrant cover art that made me buy the comic in the first place but I also really love the quality of lines she creates. I think a lot of it is created by using brushes/inks & pens, rather than purely digitally. The line quality gives a lot of her work movement and a kind of rough/edginess that I've been loving recently. This is something I want to try and refine within my own work. I tend to have a lot of trouble creating movement with lines and they end up looking too flat/stationary. 
Another thing that I think has attracted me to her work is her use of strong female characters. The line work helps give the characters an attitude and it reminds me of Babs Tarr's work.
One thing I have noted recently is that I am really interested in how female illustrators draw female characters in comics. Female anatomy in comics has been a point of discussion for quite some time now and has resulted in things such as the hawk eye initiative. I think that having more female illustrators in this industry who want to desexualise the female characters and banish their ridiculous poses/skin tight outfits is a good thing. I think it will encourage more people (such as myself) to show more of an interest in comics. 

Although I'm not sure how this really fits in with my practice, it is important to form opinions on the how things change within illustration and this could potentially inform my CoP & Extended practice work as I see it as a result of feminism. I would like to explore sequential images at some point during level 6. I never really enjoyed it before because I didn't know much about it nor was I interested in looking at it (specifically comics), but as I am finding more things that spike my interest, I am more inclined to explore further. 

Adult Colouring Books & Level 6 Thoughts

On one of my regular trip to Waterstones to have a look at all the pretty book covers, I came across quite a few adult colouring books. I had never really considered that adults might like colouring too, so once at home, I did a bit of research and found they were quite popular. 

I think it would be really interesting to see how this type of publication would fit into my practice. I noticed that the majority of these colouring books were animal/nature related - which isn't all that interesting to me. 

However, I think it would be interesting to try and work this into my Extended Practice & Context of Practice work. As a lot of my work is inspired by feminism, I could try and make a somewhat feminist colouring book?  This would mean that I could explore issues relating to my CoP essay, work towards creating a publication with a target audience and play with things like layout, type and line. 

Progress in Summer

So far, I'm not really sure what I've been doing with my time throughout summer. I have been drawing and exploring various different media but I don't feel as though my practice has really been furthered by any of this. However, looking back on the end of year presentation we did (here), I feel as though my goals for level six might have changed slightly. 
I am still very much interested in product/packaging, however I am now at a point where I would like to explore publishing/books/zines a bit further. My experience with book illustrations last year wasn't as fun as I had hoped it would be, however I have stumbled upon adult colouring books, zines and comics that I'm really interested in. In a way, this is helping me to identify the kind of illustrator I'd like to be and who the audience would be - something I talked about in my end of module evaluation. 
Currently I am feeling a little bit lost with my practice and how I will be developing it through level 6. I think this is mostly due to change of routine and loss of momentum. It feels good to blog again and think about what I'm doing.