Unpack Your Practice

I found this ‘Unpack Your Practice’ sheet in my notebook which I had filled in a a while ago, I had obviously been feeling pretty lost with what I was doing because the answers are really vague and unhelpful. I decided to re-do it about where I am now as I feel this will be more useful to me. 

What do you do best?

Drawing, working with ink, adapting briefs to suit me, working with analogue media, conducting myself professionally, organising my time, staying motivated, being disciplined.

How do you work best?

I work best by myself. This doesn’t mean I never want to work on collaborative projects with other creative practitioners, I just think I would find it hard to collaborate with another illustrator. I often work at odd times of the day (and night) and I am my most productive when under pressure. Depending on the task, I sometimes work better when I am ‘dressed for work’ and have a change of scenery like going to a coffee shop or working outside. 

Where do you see your practice now?

It sounds weird to say it but I feel my practice has narrowed down and broadened at the same time. I feel like I am adopting more distinctive styles that I can comfortably work in but the potential functions and applications of my work are widening. I think this is a good way for this to be going, honing in on what I am good a practically and then expanding the potential of it will mean that my work will appear more versatile. The fields I can imagine my work in at the moment include product, packaging, pattern design, greetings, book illustration, and editorial. 

Where do you want your practice to be?

In the future I would like my practice to be split into two parts. I would like to be commissioned for editorial work, book illustrations, greetings ranges, packaging and maybe products. I would also like to have personally driven projects which would involve my own products, pattern designs and making prints of my work which could be sold in an online shop. I also hope to explore potential educational and/or scientific use of my illustrations, maybe working on projects for factual books or museums. 

How are you going to get there?

Send my work out to newspaper and magazines, publishers, submit work to greetings companies, research where I can get my own products made, keep my Etsy shop up to date, continue to promote myself on social media. Look at applying for jobs to financially support me through the times when I am trying to get work. 

Charlotte Hicks

Charlotte Hick's portfolio contains so much nature-inspired subject matter, I can see a lot of similarities between our inspirations as I also love drawing natural forms. All of the work on her website is black and white apart from a few images that seem to have been digitally edited to add a spot colour or coloured background. 

Looking through her work made me consider where this kind of work could exist. I think her drawings could work in editorial illustration, book illustration, packaging, product, I also think some of it could be used for educational or scientific proposes, especially her anatomy and botanical drawings. Thinking this about someone else's work made me realise that there is no reason why I can't make my illustrations work in these fields as well. As a follow on from my conversation with Ben Cox, I feel that I need to work towards building a portfolio that makes it clear that my work would function well in these areas. 

Somang Lee

Somang Lee uses paper cutouts and lightbox to create her illuminated illustrations. Her work extends into performance art as well where she uses shadow puppetry and technology to create live projections. At a first glance, the aesthetics of her work is quite different to my own, but I am inspired by her subject matter and formation of collections. I really like the idea of grouping together similar artefacts so you can see how they share shapes and textures yet are all individual. Her work is predominantly based around nature and I can imagine these images working as spot images in an editorial setting, as a poster, in a book, in a museum, as prints, or even in advertising. 

Another factor that drew me to her work is colour. The colours are realistic and all work together really well. I don't use much colour but these are the kind of images that I would withdraw a colour scheme from to use minimally within my illustrations. They are quite subtle if used that way but you could also extract the more striking colours and have a much bolder colour scheme still with natural roots. 

Central Illustration Agency - Ben Cox Visit

What do the CIA do? 

Present a diverse range of artists to potential commissioners. Promote artists. 

Get work for illustrators, and they can still work under their own name too. 

They take 30% of the work they get for the artists and don’t charge any other fees.

Advice to illustrators. 

Don’t put yourself in a particular box. 

Show agencies something different to what they already represent.

Being an illustrator doesn’t have to be a lonely pursuit, many people work in collectives as well as being represented by an agency individually. 

Practice needs to be viable when working to short deadlines and producing high quality outcomes. 

Working with an agency for a client is a conversational process. 

There;s no room for divas - be a nice person and be easy to get on with. 

Be respectful of someone else’s brief and motivations. 

Promote yourself. 

Self publishing is a viable option now, get your work out there.

Master the technical process - once you have done this you can speak through the process like your own language. 

Don’t always answer a brief with one picture, have multiple ideas that work together to answer the brief. 

Editorial work is a good starting point, there is lots of it being commissioned as quick turnaround briefs. 

You own your work even though it is someone else’s brief. All you are doing is giving permission for someone to use work for a limited time and usage specification. 

Challenge yourself. 

Engage with new audiences. 

Try to make it on your own before getting an agent. It will help you to understand the process of finding work, receiving feedback and rejection and handling the business side. 

Costing 

Production/origination fee - what they pay you for your time, skill, talent and effort of making the image. 

Usage fee - what they pay you for using your image, cost depends on scale, time period, location and format. 

Make sure the agreement is specific. 

It is good for an illustrator to have a standard set of terms which can be sent out to commissioners including a cancellation/failing policy. 

Purchase orders. 

Portfolio Advice

Recommend 30 sides in a portfolio. 

Consistent style and visual language. 

Make it as original as possible, don’t try to be anyone else.

Include mockups of where the work could exist. 

Spoon feed people potential applications of your work. 

Make your work adaptable. 

Maps?

Individual talk with Ben 

I had a few questions to ask Ben after listening to his talk this morning. I started to think about the two sides to my practice and that if all my work was part of the same portfolio then it may be confusing and off-putting to potential commissioners. I also wanted to ask whether my more detailed ink pen way or working would be commissionable commercially as the only interest I have received so far for this style has been private commissions for work to be framed and displayed as artwork. 

- It’s ok to have more than one style but it is best to separate them to have two separate portfolios which show off each style really well. 

- The more detailed style is definitely commissionable, I should be taking advantage of the fact that I can actually draw like this and not feel like I need to dumb my work down to make it ‘commercially viable’ because it already is. 

- Broaden my subject matter. Make it obvious that the styles can be applied to various subject matter. Think about food, plants and packaging. 

Ben also mentioned maybe using an alias to separate my two styles. I personally don't think this is a good idea right now as I don't think I have enough work to produce two strong separate portfolios. I also think it would be a lot of work to be running two entire practices including websites and social media, etc. This has made me think about dividing my portfolio into two sections though. 

Van Gogh Museum - Amsterdam

The Van Gogh Museum is somewhere I’ve wanted to go for a very long time. I feel like Van Gogh’s work has been a constant theme running throughout my art education. I have always been inspired by how he captures his subject matter through his unique style of painting.

Revisiting some of Van Gogh’s work that I hadn't looked at in a while made me realise how expressive and freeing his use of line is within his paintings. I no longer paint with oils and acrylics like I used to but I feel like his brushwork has actually influenced the way I draw, especially in my work where I am building up images from short lines and dots but in a much more precise way. 

Van Gogh chose to draw a lot of flowers in vases which sparks a conversation about how humans restrict and control nature. I feel like this is also a comment on his own mindset at the time and painting flowers in flat interior spaces rather than in the natural world could be a metaphor for the restrictions and imprisonment he was feeling within himself. I find it really interesting to see the fluctuation of the themes and moods of his work in relation to his mental state. This probably sounds quite irrelevant to my PPP blog but I feel like focussing on looking at contemporary illustration for the last few years has made me forget how much I love looking at traditional art and discussing it. 

I really felt inspired by the letters that Van Gogh wrote to his family and friends, the museum had some on display and you were able to listen to some of them being read out loud. It got me thinking about how I record my experiences and creative process at the moment. My college blog is the main place where I record my thoughts and I see it as my go-to place where I can let out my frustrations and rationalise my thinking processes. I think when I graduate I will need to create another space for me to do this and I would prefer if this wasn't public. I always feel a little bit of pressure to filter my thoughts when I know that other people will be reading it so I think somewhere private and personal would be the best place for me to be truly honest with myself. I find the process of writing by hand quite therapeutic and it allows my thoughts to flow, maybe I should start keeping a creative journal or something similar.

‘When one is busy in the city no one really understands anything.’ 

This was a line from one of Van Gogh’s letters that really caught my attention. It made me think about my own future and where I see myself living. I have grown up in a house which was walking distance into the town centre but an even shorter distance to farmers fields and woodland. Moving to Leeds for university has made me realise how much I love living in a city, but I don’t ever want to lost that closeness to the countryside as I think it’s what keeps me sane and provides me with a lot of inspiration. 

I am SO glad I have been to see Van Gogh’s work in person and I can honestly say its one of the best places I have been to. I think the main thing I love about Van Gogh’s work is his ability to make you feel something. He can make you read into his paintings and knowing about his disorderly and interesting life only makes the messages even stronger. 

Experience at TBWA Manchester Advertising Agency

I submitted a double page spread for the Papyrus colouring book competition a while ago and on Thursday, a junior art director from TBWA Manchester contacted me about designing the cover of the colouring book and two more double page spreads. They wanted me to come into their offices in Manchester on Monday and complete the work. I felt like this was a lot of work to complete from scratch in one working day so I asked for them to send me the brief so I could begin working on it over the weekend. 

I actually already had a busy weekend planned but I really didn’t want to miss this opportunity. It did stress me out a bit that I wasn't going to have time to get everything done though. I was travelling to Cardiff on the Friday and used my five hour train journey to plan some ideas. Unfortunately I hadn't got much information to go on by this point because the brief was only sent to me on Friday evening. Anyway, I managed to sketch out and write down some ideas that could be adapted to fit the brief when I did receive it. I was trying to make the most of the time I had available!

THE BRIEF

The brief was specific in layout and the spaces I needed to fill, it also gave some examples of the kind of thing they wanted for the cover. They pointed out a project they had seen on my Bechance page that they liked and they wanted me to do a similar thing. Other than this, the subject matter was pretty open so I used other ‘calming’ themes that I had brainstormed to get going with it. 

I cut my weekend in Cardiff short and left early on Sunday morning so I could be back at my flat in Leeds with enough time to draw out some refined ideas. I hadn't got the equipment I needed or my laptop with me and I knew that the train was not a good place to attempt to draw final artwork. I used the train journey home to plan my layouts and write down a list of the individual things I needed to draw so that I would be able to get straight into it when I got home. I drew out each element that afternoon and evening and started to arrange them on Photoshop to match the layouts I had sketched. 

I caught the train at 7am from Leeds and used this train journey to continue working on Photoshop. I wanted to have a PSD file for the cover and each double page spread to show them when I arrived and I managed to get these complete by the time I arrived at the offices. I arrived a little bit early (better than being late!) and was set up with a desk for the day. I showed the junior art director, who I had already been in contact with, my work so far and she was happy with the majority of it. She gave me a few pointers about what to do differently and I got on with making these changes. This happened a couple of times before we reached something she was happy with. She then introduced me to a senior art director who came over to approve my work. He didn’t suggest any more changes so I was really happy that he was pleased with my work. I finished the design mid-afternoon and just had to wait for final approval before I could leave.

I was asked to join three of the junior art directors for lunch at a nearby café which was really nice. I learnt a few more things about the company, how it is structured, what kinds of briefs they work on, what kind of practitioners they hire full time and who they bring in as freelancers. We had some common ground as they had all coincidentally done placements in Leeds before. 

I personally think the day went really well and I got the impression that I finished the work sooner than they had expected me to, most likely because I had arrived prepared. I felt I was well suited to the brief anyway as my work is predominantly monochrome and line based which is exactly what is needed for a colouring book. I found it was a really good experience to work in the same space as an art director and being continually told what needs changing. It is a lot more time efficient than communicating via email because you could be wasting time doing something that is not what they had in mind at all. I was pretty chuffed that I managed to complete what they had asked at such short notice and with a limited amount of actual working hours. 

My thoughts on the different aspects of the day… 

TRAVEL 

This was okay for a one off but I can’t see myself doing this every day for a full working week, it would be really tiring. I don’t see myself working in a 9-5 job to be honest, I would do it if I had to obviously but I would much prefer to work more flexible hours. I am often most productive after 5pm when I am working late into the evening and into the early hours if necessary which doesn’t fit in at all with a standard working day. While I do want to take advantage of this productive time, I do also need to teach myself to be more productive in allotted time slots to make the most of the day and fit around other things going on. 

PAYMENT

TBWA paid me for my time that day which was more than I expected after they explained to me that this was a charity project that they had taken on for free. Obviously I am glad I was paid something but I really took up this opportunity for the experience of working in a new environment and also working under continual art direction. It is a different and new way of working for me and I am glad I got to experience it. It also made me think about how maybe working freelance doesn’t have to be as ‘lonely’ as people make it out to be. 

Ironically while I was working here on the Monday I missed a PPP session about getting paid. I understand that the proper way to have handled this brief would have been a payment for my time plus payments for the licensing of the individual illustrations/pages. I felt a bit under pressure to agree to what I was presented with due to the short timescale and because it was for a charity I thought the process might be a bit different. I will know for the next time anything like this happens to discuss the terms of a contract like this rather than just agree to the first contract that is presented to me. 

EXPOSURE

While I was working there they got someone to film me drawing. I remember in the initial brief for the colouring book they asked for a time-lapse video if possible so all of these film clips are going to be put together into a short promotional film about the making of the book. I am also expecting a credit for the cover illustrations seeing as the whole book is built up from the work of various illustrators and artists. 

CONNECTIONS

I got chatting to two guys working in the same space as me and they were really friendly and interested in what I was doing and my studies. One of them mentioned that his partner works at UK Greetings and he showed me her website and online portfolio. I took a mental note of her name and web address and thought this would be a great opportunity to make a new contact. I am going to get in touch with her via email and hopefully start a conversation with her about working in the greetings industry.

I connected with a couple of people I worked with on LinkedIn and then one followed me on Instagram which reassured me that all my online accounts are connected well enough for someone to navigate through my online presence on multiple platforms. I hope I am now on their radar for any future work I might be suitable for. 

Inspiration - 'Abstract'

Sometimes binge watching Netflix series can be a good thing. I watched all of these Abstract documentaries in two days and totally loved them. I found them really inspiring, not only learning about other creative practices but also individual journeys people have gone on to get where they are today. Obviously the illustration episode was very relevant to me but I also thought the photography episode and stage design ones were really fascinating. I will most likely watch all of these again when I'm feeling stuck for inspiration or just need a bit of motivation.

Out of Order Exhibition

The opening night of the exhibition went really well I thought. The crowds seemed to come in waves so there were some quieter times and some times where the space was really full, which is obviously a good thing! I thought the space looked really professional and it was full of great work, its so nice to see everyone's work in the same place when we all have such different ways of working. 

I had invited Ruth Overy to the exhibition and told her to feel free to extend the invite to anyone else, she came with a few other members of the Ash Road Area Residents Association so it was nice to chat to them too. They were impressed with all the work on display and asked me to let them know when our final exhibition is on because they would love to come. 

Tonight made me think that I should be attending more events like this to see what other people in my position are doing. I really enjoy them and you often find like-minded people to talk to through friends of friends, etc. Its a a good way of making new contacts but in a less-intimidating and daunting way than mingling with a group of total strangers. 

On the opening night of the exhibition.

A totally un-staged photo of someone taking an interest in one of my prints... (thanks Emily)

The exhibition space a few days later. 

The Dots

I joined The Dots. I have made a basic profile but need to add images and make more connections etc... I am going to do this while I am setting up my website as a lot of the content will cross over. 

Completed Comission

The client had got back to me with which kind of composition he wanted. At this point I had a lot of other projects on so it was about three weeks before I started this drawing. I did meet the 4 week time period I had given him though - he stated he was in no rush but I feel a lot better about it when I give them a completion date and I can use this as my deadline to stick to. 

I sketched out the design using elements form numerous reference photographs, I then traced over this sketch this to create a detailed final sketch which I then went over in 0.2mm fineliner. The process is quite straightforward and I am becoming used to doing it. I quite enjoy these little side projects as they are different to the work I do for my main practice. I find this quite relaxing so its something I work on in the evenings, its also a good way of earning some extra money. 

I have spoken to the client about delivery and have arranged to hand over the artwork in person when I next go back to Loughborough. I have packaged it up with cardboard and two business cards so they could potentially pass on my details to someone new. 

Scientific and Educational Diagrams

I came across the work of Tomislav Tomic while browsing the AOI portfolios and these images caught my eye. He has produced these intricate drawings and made them into some form of diagram. I can imagine these as posters, a book illustration, a museum display or even on screen as interactive educational material. It got me thinking about how my love of drawing natural forms could be used for more scientific and educational purposes. Also, just because the original purpose for an illustration is informative does not mean it can't also be appreciated as a stand alone image on products or as prints. 

On a side note, my dad collects Observers books and other old non-fictions so we have always had quite a collection of these kind of books at home. I remember drawing from the diagrams in these books as a child and I think this might be where I got this interest from. The books span so many different topic beyond nature but the standard, black line work is appropriate for all of them. I think a personal project for me in the future would be to produce a collection of drawings inspired by these books. 

Stuart Patience

I came across the work of Stuart Patience on the Heart Agency website. His practice gives me confidence that working predominantly black and white imagery can form a successful illustration practice. A lot of his work contains animals which is similar to what I enjoy drawing. His work is very concept driven and has elements of surrealism and I feel this is something I am lacking at the moment in my own practice. I often tend to stick to images of things that actually exist and I feel this limits the messages my images can give. I think I can take inspiration from his work to use the style I am developing technically and try to develop it conceptually too. 

Jill Tytherleigh

Jill Tytherleigh works a lot with ink pen in quite a similar way to how I draw when I am making detailed images. Looking through her online portfolio I realised that the projects she has done are exactly the kind of projects I think I could really get stuck into. Her subject matter covers food, animals, objects, buildings, and more, so her style works across a wide range of projects. I would like to develop my practice into something like Jill's, something with a recognisable and commissionable style which can suit a range of briefs, and also still manage her online shop where she sells her personal work.

Blog Peer Review

Research

• I need to send a selection of my work to Gerry Brakus for some feedback - sooner rather than later!
• Get a selection of work ready to show Ben Cox (CIA). 
• Research people doing what I want to do, (Sophie Allport?)
• Small business research - how can I get my work stocked?

Engage

• Join The Dots
• SPLIT - I see my future practice having two sides, one part taking commissioned work and the other doing work for myself and selling in some form of shop. Find out how this can function, what is the balance like? Could this be something to ask Ben Cox about?
• My research for my FMP is a personal interest of mine and some of it might suit my PPP blog too. 

Position

• I NEED TO DECIDE ON A DOMAIN NAME. This is the only thing holding me back from setting up my website. Explore the options, decide on something and stick with it. Get my website going by the end of this week!
• I have done business cards. Maybe get some postcards printed to send out with orders or commissions, or just for general promotion. 

Extra Notes

• Look at studios, printers, etc. Where will I work when I leave university? Where will I get my products made? 
• Blog things I am watching and reading that I find interesting. 
• What do I realistically need for my promo pack? Business cards, postcards, website, social media. Anything else?

Feeling Stressy

This weekend I had a bit of a wobble when it came to my workload. I think I might have taken on too many briefs for extended practice and as a result I have been neglecting PPP which is stressing me out. I hate the feeling of constantly playing catch up and I just want to feel like I am on top of things for once. I think another issue is that I am neglecting my social life in order to get more work done which IS NOT HEALTHY. I think at the moment I am expecting too much of myself and I need to take a step back and evaluate what is realistic. 

I am also aware that I haven't contacted many people. I sent a letter to Oh Deer and never got a response and although I shouldn't be knocked back by that, I think I need to pluck up the courage to contact other people now. One of the main things holding me back is that I don't have a live website - I need to do this ASAP. 

Also another little silly worry is about my self-branding. I know being a Smith is never favourable when trying to brand yourself as something memorable but it is stressing me out that my name is going to get lost within the other millions of us. This is something I want to discuss on Monday in PPP. 

I need to...

• Take time out to do fun things. 
• Don't worry about things that aren't worth worrying about. 
• Be realistic with my workload. 

I feel a little bit better now.

Out of Order Contribution

I put my name down to be on the hang team for the exhibition but due to the hanging date being brought forward by a few days I'm not able to be there on the day because I have already agreed to work a full day on illustration interviews. I still really want to do my bit so I've been trying to help out where I can with little jobs so that I'm still contributing to the whole thing. 

This week I spent some time helping Georgie out with the huge amount of work she's been doing to get our exhibition sorted! I helped out with getting everyone's work printed in the print dungeon and then with mounting of the exhibition name labels on foam board. Aside from a couple of labels that needed to be re-printed, we got all of the mounting and cutting done pretty quickly and also managed to make legs/stands for the labels that needed to stand up on the table for people who had made publications. 

Out of Order - Artwork

I chose to develop a piece from my context of practice work for the Out of Order exhibition as I felt the image already fit the theme. The original image was painted in gouache but I really wanted to take the image into print, most likely screen print. 

To start, I used tracing paper to separate the layers of colour and add extra details to make the image a little more complex. I scanned in these layers and turned them into solid shapes on Photoshop. I played around with colours and liked that the overlapping of the shapes made new colours, this was why I was initially led to blue, yellow and red. 

I realised I didn’t want my print to be too bright so I explored some other colour schemes and decided to go ahead using different tones and shades blue. Then even more blue colours would be created from the overlaps. 

NO SCREENS. 

I had printed out my positives and went to the print room to coat a new screen but there were no screens available for another couple of days! I knew I needed to get these printed asap so I changed my plan to working with lino. 

Testing
I tried to make some mothers day cards as a kind of test for how I could do a multiple colour linoprint like this. I soon realised that the method of working I had initially thought would be fine didn't work with multiple layers of colour. The lines left from the cut away areas just built up from the layers of printing and the areas that were meant to be white were left looking messy. I abandoned this test and decided that for my exhibition print I would have to cut each shape out individually so there was no excess lino that could transfer unwanted ink onto my paper. 

For future reference - tests should ONLY be tests! Intending for these prints to be mothers day cards meant that I felt some pressure for them to go right, when really the testing process should be about finding things out and not expecting things to work perfectly first time. 

I bought some more lino and spent the evening cutting out each individual shape from each layer of my screen print positives - there were 35 pieces in total. 

DAY ONE PRINTING

I took this to print and things went pretty well. I used a reverse print of my original positives as registration sheets to line up all my lino pieces. 

Improvements

• I don’t like how many extra lines are visible on the prints where ink has transferred from cut-away pieces of lino. I am going to spend some time this evening cutting away even more to make sure they dont print. 
• I want to use a different colour, I like the blue but it doesn’t make much impact. I am going to print again tomorrow and use red instead. 

DAY TWO PRINTING

The outcomes from today were so much better. They looked a lot cleaner and more professional and I think the colour made a big impact on the overall image. I much prefer the black outline as oppose to a dark shade of the colour used for the rest of the print. 

I selected my best prints, I has three good red ones and I chose my best three blue ones too. I framed one red one and packaged up the other five to be sold at the exhibition. I am really pleased with the red outcomes but am less confident in the blue ones, 

PROMOTION

I have been posting on social media the process of making these prints and am posting a few pieces of promotional material in the lead up to the exhibition. 

I took leaflets to the Headingley communication box exhibition and spread the word there too. I have also sent an email to Ruth who I worked closely with on this project to send a direct invitation. 

Business Cards

I made some business cards to take to the communication box exhibition and also to go alongside my print in the out of order exhibition. I used four of my designs and kept the information simple on the back of the card. I made these by hand and each one it two layers of Snowden cartridge paper so they are nice and thick so they feel high quality even though they were made cheaply. Once I get my website up and running I will change the cards and print some more, at the moment I have included my bechance URL as a link to my work.