Portfolio Ideas

These images are what I regard as some of my best work to date.
They aren't necessarily what I'd put into my portfolio, they are kind of thrown together. I need to work on the presentation of my work, and get more images that stand out and show off my skills. 

Feedback from Patrick (PPP & Extended Practice):

Issues Discussed:

- Creative CV/ Website/ Online Presence developed
- Be more ambitious for your work
- Understand where and who your end user is 
- Manufacturer/ Stocklist/ Consumer
- Experiment with colour and texture and foils etc. 
- Revisit some older work and apply colour

- Photocopy the drawings and work over/ cut up/ go for it!

 Patrick thought that my portfolio needs more continuity, I suggested that I'd like to get experience in companies such as Hallmark, his suggestion was to add more images in a similar tone of voice to my celebrity cats. In order to improve the images, I'd have to add more textures and experiment a lot more with their compositions. 

I'd have to get rid of my pet portraits, as it confuses the work, and doesn't look like it fits in the same portfolio. 

 I need to be more ambitious!

Illustrator's Websites Research

Here are some of the Illustrator's websites I've been looking at. Most have simple layouts which make their work stand out really well. They also all tend to have hand written/ designed logos. 

Polly Horner

   Polly Horner is an example of someone who has a talent for capturing likeness with extra ordinary detail, and does something with it. I've struggled to find my place in illustration, so the commercial product side of illustration is exciting because I could see my own work within it. I like to paint in a detailed way, which can be restrictive when trying to find a context for it. Polly Horner uses her passion for painting animals and creates post cards, card sets, and even bingo out of a large number of breeds of cats or dogs. 

James Barker

   James Barker creates vibrant collections of illustration, he makes children’s picture books, ebooks, editorial and product based illustration. A lot of his work is on the subject of nature, and the fact that he can apply his work to product is a good example of why he inspires me as an artist. I think that for my 'cat breeds' brief, I shall look at grouping animals together in a print and then expand from there, rather than going to extensive lengths to make a book about only one animal. I think that if I did this, It would link my cat work with my painting for the wildlife artist of the year competition.

Career Track Tuesdays - Hallmark

   Another session of 'Career Track Tuesdays' was a talk about getting placements at hallmark. They take on a huge number of placements a year. The experience would be great, and I was told in a career coaching session with Ingrid in the summer that it is what employers look for. If I managed to get a placement, i'd know what it's like to work in a design studio and have more of an idea of what I want to do when I leave university. 

Career Track Tuesdays - Teaching

Why I am no longer interested in teaching

   Since first year I have been working as a student ambassador because I wanted to gain more confidence around people in general, and I wanted to get experience for teaching. I was interested in teaching because I have experience in childcare and public services, and I thought I could use my artistic degree to perhaps get a job teaching art in a secondary school. When I started my degree I didn't like it and didn't think I fit in or would able to go far, so teaching was my back up choice. The job stability of teaching as opposed to freelancing as an illustrator seemed appealing, as well as the fact that I knew more about how to get into it than I did illustration. 

   My ambassador work initially involved woking with children on the progression team, helping lead after school sessions at college, as well as going into schools to talk to classes about further study in art. I then moved on to being a more of a general student ambassador, working at the colleges' open days, showing people around, talking about the course etc. 

   I went to the colleges' 'Career Track Tuesdays' event for Teaching. This taught me a lot of things, such as how and when to apply for training, what types of  training courses are there, what grades are needed, what funding is available for certain areas of teaching etc. I also learned that a teacher must have lots of patience, and be very confident around people. They also have to dedicate a lot of time to it, therefore be passionate about teaching. 

   Based on my experience from being an ambassador, I realised that although it has helped me a lot when it comes to speaking to people professionally, it has also highlighted the fact that I don't enjoy it as much as I think I should. There certainly has been shifts where I worked at an open day or with schools and i've really enjoyed it, but there are other times where I don't feel as up to it. I realise for a job in teaching, I  wouldn't be able to have 'off days'. So for now I shall only be focusing on my illustration work. 

Practitioners that inspire me - People in the Greetings Card Industry

I have looked at all of these illustrators to get inspiration for my greetings card work in extended practice. Sooshichacha, Love From Lemonade, Stop the clock design, Charly Clements,
Sophie Corrigan, Gemma Correll, Jolly awesome, Sandra Diekmann, Hanna Melin, Jamie Mitchell and Laura Gee are all illustrators/ design studios that produce cards that are sold by a variety of companies such as Paperchase, Urban Outfitters, Ohh Deer, Funky Pigeon, notonthehighstreet.com, and Joy.
They each have illustrations that they put onto various products for commercial sales.

Wish List

• Mortgage/ House (never to have to live at home again)
• Be able to get a Pomeranian
• To get a job that I enjoy/ be able to draw for a living
• A solid body of work that I'm proud of
• Have well known, successful work

Jessie J

   My interest in celebrity began over 3 years ago, and it's partly why I want to focus on commercial illustration. I've always felt more driven to produce images that evoke a response from everybody - when people recognise a person I've drawn, they automatically know if the celebrity is drawn properly from their memory of the celebrity's face. I wanted to capitalise on the value that people place on accurate celebrity portraits. For my final project in my Foundation Diploma I painted 2 large celebrity faces at roughly 6x10 ft - Nicki Minaj and Jessie J. The concept behind the project was to show the human side of the highly worshipped, idealised celebrities, by showing flaws in their skin (although it is hard to tell as much in the photographs).

   We had an exhibition at our college (King Edward VI college) on 29th June 2013 and an ex student took a photograph of the Jessie J painting and uploaded it to instagram. After this, Jessie J herself re posted the image and added the caption "Who did this? I want to know! It's amazing!" Hundreds of people in the comments section began to then comment "it was me" "this is my work"- much to my family and friend's annoyance. They all began to tag my profile (where I'd uploaded pictures of my work) in the comments. As people viewed my profile, more people would tag my name in the comments, until it would have been hard for Jessie J to miss my name! She eventually 'liked' my images and commented on one saying "Yeah!!!! It's sooo amazing!! I wanna see it in real life!" she also followed me on instagram for a short while.

   My college's marketing department got in touch with the local news and managed to get the story on the front page of the town's news paper, as well as interviews for Heart FM and Free Radio.

The paintings also got nominated for WJEC Foundation Excellent Excellence Exhibition and Awards in Wales, where they

 were exhibited on the 8th November for two weeks. 

Eventually this was forgotten about as I had no idea what to do after it all happened, so now, after discussion with John, I must try and contact Jessie J.