Kristyna Baczynski Lecture

Notes from the talk

• The first year after leaving university will be hard. 
• She was doing comic fairs, working for clients and working for herself. 
• She had a 'stock' of work so she could sell direct to her audience. 
• Set the bar with the work that is in your portfolio, then the work you like doing will merge with the work that people commission you for. 
• Her work starts in sketchbooks. This then goes on to self-publishing projects or as resources for future briefs. 
• Send out ripples and something might come back! Get your work out there, get it seen. Give things to people to make them remember you. 
• Be nice, do a good job and people will come back to you and recommend you. 
• She is a printmaker and prints her products on her riso printer. She thinks in printmaking terms when it comes to colour, shape and layers. 
• She works by hand and then scans so her work is usually pixel based (Photoshop).
• She has a Ukrainian heritage and is influenced by folklore.
• Straight out of uni, she became a greetings card designer for Hallmark while sustaining her own personal practice too. You can't do exactly what you want to do but it allows you to learn about the industry.
• In the end she left to pursue her career as a freelance illustrator. 
• Being multidisciplinary helps, if you can work in more than one format and use multiple programs you are more adaptable. 
• One job leads to another, if the right people see it then the chain of work can continue. 
• Making work for yourself can lead to professional briefs. 
• SAY YES TO THINGS. 
• Set personal deadlines. Having a fair booked in could be seen ad a deadline for a new project to be released on that date. 
• Connect with other creative people. 
• Collectives (look at girls who draw). 
• Be imaginative - don't always play safe. 
• Make friends, support other artists. 
• Build an audience and a following but don't get caught up in the black hole of social media promotion. 

My Response

After having Kristyna as a tutor in first year it was really interesting to find out exactly what she does as a practitioner. I was familiar with her personal work that she sells online and at fairs but had little knowledge of her work for clients. I can see a strong link between Kristyna's practice and how I would lie  my practice to function. I do want there to be two sides to my work, the projects I do for clients and the personal work which I can sell directly to an audience. It was great to hear her speak about how the two connect and how clients will often employ you on the back of some personal work you have done. Her talk made it feel more viable and realistic to me to have a practice that works in this way. 

It was interesting to hear that she had worked for Hallmark straight after graduating. Realistically, I need to be looking at what I am going to do for money straight after graduating and I can imagine myself working for a company like this to learn more about the industry and gain some experience while also trying to make it as a freelancer at the same time. I need to get a better idea of what kind of jobs are available locally and where I might want to be looking for potential employment.