Illustration For Learning Brief

A few months back there was an opportunity to provide some teachers with arts workshops that could assist their pupils in class with literacy skills but it unfortunately fell through due to lack of numbers. But thankfully the opportunity has come about again! So myself, Tyler, Alice and Sophie have signed up for this opportunity.

We met with Gareth, who I know from working for the progression team, to discuss some ideas. It was a little difficult to get our creative brains in gear from the heavy mass of COP, but we came up with a few pretty good ideas.

• Making letters from pictures to help strengthen relationship between images and words
• Make a self-portrait collage, perhaps as a warm up activity
• Verb and noun bingo: pick one verb and one noun at random and then create a drawing to summarise it
• Make maps to do with identity?
• Make flash cards with words and pictures

We have a fair bit of time until the actual event which is on January 25th, so we are going to brainstorm some more ideas over Christmas and meet up in the new year to finalise things.

Unpack Your Practice

Confidence Boost: Today's session was a re-cap of what is expected from us in PPP, which simultaneously covered some of the grey areas with our group worries about graduating.

Tips from John:

• Think about what makes me, me!
• PPP is your business toolkit
• "You all wear different shoes, which shows you all have different tastes and interests. This is similar to your practice. You should be excited about this!"
• The future is full of opportunity, stop worrying about it
• Think about how I make work not what I want to be.
• Don't turn away from briefs, have your own take on things.
• YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!

Task: Unpack your practice

What do you do best?

• Think and observe
• Interact with people
• Empathise with others and think about things in a broad context
• Try new things and rise to challenges
• Work in layers
• Communicate
• Explore
• Give advice
• Talk about food...
• Watercolour
• Mixed media
• Line work

How do I work best?

• When writing academically-silence
• In a studio environment around creative people to bounce ideas off from
• NOT in my bedroom at home in Grantham
• When I'm not stressed

Where do you see your practice now?

• Just coming out of a creative dip
• Worried about COP massively
• Excited about future briefs

Where do you want your practice to be? (how do you broaden your ambitions)

• At a place where I feel confident and have a sense of stability (and income)
• Where clients can see that I am adaptable
• If a client asks for a selection of my work, I can put a selection forward that I have confidence in and am proud of
• I would like to see my work in the wider economy, perhaps within the NHS or the health/caring industry, yet I am also interested in advertising and publications. Basically I want to do everything!!

How am I going to get there?

• Start believing in myself!
• Take as many opportunities as possible
• Make sure that I enjoy what I'm doing without worrying too much about the outcome
• Connect with people that work in similar ways to me

How is illustration consumed in the wider economy?

Exploring the discipline of ADVERTISING:

Where is it found?

• TV commercials
• Social media
• Website side-bards
• Youtube
• Online shopping 
• Billboards
• Bus shelters
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Bus tickets
• Clothing/fashion
• Fast food
• Posters
• Leaflets
• Direct mail
• Games
• Events
• Freebies/promotional items
• Merchandise
• Shop windows
• Cinema
• Radio
• Music
• Podcasts

Roles within advertising

• Marketing
• Research
• Creative Director
• Director
• Art director
• Storyboard artist
• Actors
• Animators
• Film crew
• Musicians
• Concept artists
• Location manager
• Screen writer
• Script writer
• Copywriter
• CGI artists
• Costume designer
• Stylist
• Producer
• Sound director
• Editor

The point of this exercise? Identify different creative roles that illustration could contribute to. How can our skills be used in a wider context?

More tips for creatives:

• Love what you do, be happy and have fun. If you have work that you're happy with you can talk for hours
• Be aware of what is going on in the outside world!
• Think differently, but don't over-complicate things
• What is my USP? Why will employers hire ME?
• Have a RANGE of ideas, not just one
• Don't be distracted. Switch phone off!
• Visualise ideas as many ways as possible
• Try to EXPERIENCE briefs first hand. Talk to your audience
• Don't settle for second-hand information
• Make sure research is relevant
• Be the author. Write/draw the story that the audience wants to read
• BE A CHILD! Forget restrictions. How do kids think about things?
• Tell people about your ideas. Show your peers. Be excited
• Be confident, not arrogant
• Get mentors NOW in the industry, SPEAK TO PEOPLE
• Don't have time to be SHY
• Join organisations and groups such as the AOI, and those overseas too!
• Every other creative started the same way
• Be the best you can be, not mediocre
• "If you want to be interesting, be interested"

Reflection

This session was a great refresher for PPP, as it is currently sitting not just on mine, but everyone's back burner. It's really easy to forget what our ambitions are, and who we should be making contacts with when we are so swamped with work for COP! I was also reassured that my illustration degree can open up so many creative job opportunities. Illustration is everywhere, and I shouldn't get so put off by people mocking me for choosing a career path that just involves 'drawing pretty pictures'. 

When John asked the class who wasn't feeling confident, I put my hand up and shared my most recent struggle with not knowing what my 'thing' is. To which he and Patrick reassured the fact that we are 'not all caterpillars waiting to turn into butterflies, tomorrow, you might be a fish', which acted as a metaphor that I don't have to pigeon hole myself into doing one thing. I have a lot of interests and I am adaptable, and need to start emphasising my creative ability to come up with innovative solutions to creative problems and believing that I can do anything!

Inkwell/Arts and Minds

This afternoon I arranged to meet with Tom Bailey, who was one of the organisers at the Lovearts festival that I attended a few weeks ago to talk about some voluntary work opportunities.

Inkwell Arts is a creative space for positive mental health that is funded by the charity, Mind, and is based in Chapel Allerton, just outside of Leeds city centre. The space is an old converted pub, which runs so many different arts activities with the aim of providing a safe space and support for the community. In the office above is the Arts and Minds office, which is run by the Leeds and York NHS Partnership. They focus on running activities on a wider scale, for example they organised the Lovearts festival in the city centre last month and also run creative afternoon sessions every month.

My Responsibilities 

• Myself and another volunteer (Katie) are in charge of organising materials required for each session
• Keeping the money safe and organised 
• Collecting any donations
• Taking minutes at meetings,and suggesting new ideas

Why am I doing this?

I haven't had a voluntary position of work before, and I feel like it would really benefit my communication and organisational skills for a good cause. I think it is important to give back to the community, especially in areas that have helped you before to give back, show appreciation and help others in similar situations. 

I'm also really keen about becoming more involved with community arts, especially with my interest in potentially teaching workshops when I graduate, and this would be a really great experience.

Thinking About Websites

Whenever I think about making my own website I always feel a slight sense of dread coming over me. I have no clue why because I suppose it is no different than having a Linkedin or Instagram, but I just see a website as sitting on a higher level on its own not being surrounded by friends, if you like. It's completely unique to how I design it, i.e. doesn't have a regular format like other social media sites, so maybe that is the thing that I'm apprehensive about.

However, I do plan on setting up a site hopefully before Christmas so I need to get cracking. It's definitely an all-Sunday job where I can just sit down and plough away for the whole day. There have been countless times where I have signed up for websites like 'wix' and then left it for a week and forgotten all of my sign in details, as well as lost interest. THIS CAN'T HAPPEN AGAIN!

Template sites:

Squarespace

I've only recently come across squarespace when speaking to Jenna Alldread over summer, as her website built using squarespace. It looks really clean and professional! I had a look at their website:

Mmmmm so clean and crisp!

The website was so easy to navigate, and all of the templates looked so professional. However...you have to pay, and I am a poor illustrator (who isn't) and I have realised that I need to look for as many cheap/free alternatives as possible whilst I am still establishing myself in the industry. As this is my first ever website, I'm more likely to start basic and then simultaneously build on my web presence as my practice grows.

CargoCollective 

Quite a few illustrators that I have come across use cargo as a platform to sell their products, although I have never sussed it out for myself. From the site I gathered that they have an excellent reputation, and I respect their mission statement as it is heavily focused on doing good for their clients. BUT, the words 'apply for an account' switched the lightbulb off in my head unfortunately. I just want something simple and easy, and I'm not prepared to sign on or commit to anything just yet as I am not sure how successful this will be. 

Wix

One of my friends from home who is also a creative recommended Wix
to me when we met up over the summer, her website looked brilliant and had the added bonus of being compatible to different smartphone/tablet/computer screens. I did start setting up an account but it fizzled out because I had my lazy hat on over summer. But Wix looks promising, and its FREE! 

Other things to include/think about:

• Blog!: Blogging is something that I want to do more of, as I  enjoy writing and want to do it more regularly, particularly when I graduate. I also think that my personality comes through quite clearly in my writing as I write in a way that is similar to the way I speak, more like conversational tone as opposed to academical writing.
• Shop link: I love looking at illustrators websites who I have just discovered and seeing if they are selling anything on their shop, also to get inspiration for my own.
• Third Person?: It always seems strange to me when professionals write in the third person on their 'about' page. Maybe it is personal preference, but I would prefer to read something that sounds like it has come directly from the website owner. It just feels more welcoming to me as a viewer.
• Work in Progress: Another contributing factor to my slight fear of websites is the vast amount of finished work displayed by professionals. I'm not saying that it is a bad thing, because it's great to see what they have been doing and who they have been working for! Although I sometimes feel that there isn't enough work in progress displayed on websites. Sometimes I get the impression that websites are competitions that invite a format along the lines of 'here are my best five pieces of work, lets display them on my homepage', which is totally fine, but its what everyone seems to do. I might try and think of something a little more outside of the box if I can, but again this is my first website so I'm not setting my sights too high.

Conclusion

I feel like I've done enough talking about websites for the day. I know what kind of thing I'm aiming for, and have already taken a few steps in deciding on setting up a personal blog and already having my etsy shop going on slowly in the background. A website for me will just be a way of pulling everything together in a professional/semi professional format. An easier way of looking at it, so I find it less daunting, would to see it as me but an internet version. Me, when I'm not available to see or talk to in person. I've become a lot more confident when talking to other creatives, and just meeting people and introducing myself and what I do in general is something that has become more of an every day thing now. So the aim is for this to come across in the best possible way through the screen. I've said to myself that I hope to be set up before Christmas, so watch this space I guess! 

Thought Bubble and Leeds Print Fair

Yesterday I had a busy day having a nosey around Thought Bubble and print fair at the Corn Exchange, both were great for inspiration and meeting new people! 

Thought Bubble

After my shift on the LCA table I was able to have a wander around for free (yay for job perks). It was lovely to see some familiar faces including Kristyna Baczinski, Olivia and Naomi from our class, some of last years level 6 and also people that I met last year. It was so nice because Mike Medaglia recognised me from ELCAF in June, as well as Naomi a bit later; he said to her, 'Hey! I've just seen your small friend'(meaning me)haha!

Purchases

Unfortunately I could't buy as many things as I was hoping to because I'm so bloody poor at the minute, but I picked up some great zines and postcards. From the photo it is probably really obvious that I'm not a true comic-book nerd, although I do appreciate comic arts and think it's such an interesting culture, I was more drawn to more of the contemporary sort of genres. For example I love drawing plants, knitted things and animals, so I was able to get some inspiration from those kinds of stalls.

I was so happy that I got to meet Lize Meddings,creator of The Sad Ghost Club who is one of my biggest illustrative inspirations!!! So naturally I super fan-girled and told her how much I loved her work and how much I admire her strive to raise awareness of mental health and spread positivity. YAY! I also bought her zine, Two weeks in May which is absolutely stunning.

A new discovery that I made was illustrator, Peony Gent who makes beautiful hand crafted pieces from zines to ceramics. Peony also wins the award for best business card (in my opinion). The paper she has used was the one that feels like velvet, getting a 'ooh' reaction whenever anyone picked it up. Great marketing! The design was stunning too, love the line work!

Some more great discoveries include Mister Hope, Raid 71 and Emma Evans. I also met Maria Stoian, who's work I discovered at the Comix Creatrix exhibition back in March. Her book 'take it as a compliment' was one of the illustrative pieces that sparked my interest for creating awareness of social issues. Having spotted her work and instantly recognising it I became like an excited little puppy and probably scared her a bit...but she was really nice!

This is probably identical to my Thought Bubble post from last year, but it would be so great to potentially have a stall in the future, especially to maintain and make new contacts when I leave college. So although it didn't happen this year, there is always next year! And all of the years after that, too.

Leeds Print Fair

I also checked out the print fair at the Corn Exchange; it was a bit more of my thing than TB. There were some absolutely stunning prints for sale, but I had spent my budget earlier sadly so I just took a load of business cards for inspiration. There were so many beautiful lino-cut prints on display which made me wish that I was good at lino printing (I am terrible at it) so I might be brave and have another shot at it this year? 

Again, I met some great artists, as well as seeing some friends from Surface Pattern at their stalls. I just always seem to miss the memo for these kinds of things which is so disappointing. I even asked a few people at their stalls how they get to know about print fairs, and most of them said that once you do one you're sort of in the loop, so I'm guessing its a word of mouth thing? Anyway, I had a great time looking around and I'm glad that I went along. This is definitely something that I want to do possibly next year or in the future. Eyes are peeled!

Symposium: Contacting Eleanor

I decided to send Elly an email last week saying how interesting I thought that her speech was, and if she wanted to have a read of my Linkedin article, and she wrote me a really lovely reply! 

This has made me realise that I can use blog posts and mini-essays to make contacts too, which is super helpful. Setting up a blog on my (yet to be created) website is something that I believe will be a great dimension for future followers to gain an insight in what I am interested in and care about, rather than just posting illustrative work.

I think I am going to continue to write on my Linkedin page regularly, perhaps once every two weeks just to get into the swing of the whole process. I also think it will be wise to research creatives that have a blog link on their websites, too. 

What Am I DOING?!

Speaking with Matt today made me seriously re-evaluate my practice and what I actually want to get out of this degree. I've written a more detailed version of what we talked about on my SP page, but I've come to a conclusion of where I am now and where I think that I am heading.

Areas for improvement

• Do more of what I love and enjoy, stop doing work that I THINK that I SHOULD be doing
• Stop leaving projects unfinished, always see them through until the end. I already have so much 'unfinished business' that could have potentially been really great pieces of illustration
• What do I CARE about? Make this the driving force behind my practice
• Be confident!!!!! (that comes up every time)

Reflection

Being aware of my experimental nature and broad range of interests, it is important that I let go of my worries and really delve into the process of making. Although still being keen to play with materials and processes in my final year is somewhat daunting, as I still feel that I haven't properly found my tone of voice. At this stage in my practice I have realised that I need to focus on two things; what I care about and what I enjoy. 

I enjoy drawing and making things when I know that there is no necessary pressure on what they mean/what they look like because I actually have fun with the process. For example, I love to draw buildings but just don't do enough of it. I love drawing plants, and people watching, and playing with craft such as sewing and painting little plant pots and selling them on my shop, which is great because I am earning a small income from something that I love doing! 

Having a small shop isn't something that I want to do full time, because I feel like I have a lot to say about other things too. Challenging myself to create illustration to inform and create awareness about issues in society is something I think I could be successful at. It's just a thought as of now, but for the first time in my degree, this is something that I can really see myself doing in the future. It's amazing how quickly I have come to this conclusion due to all three modules being so closely linked, and I have really noticed how much they all inform and bounce off each other.

Conclusion

I've mentioned before that having a balance is probably one of the most important things that I need in my creative career; I need a good amount of time to work on projects where I might be best to work alone (for example if I get any freelance work), as well as regularly being involved with people whether this is just working part time in a coffee shop or doing voluntary teaching work.

So from this point forward I think it would be a good idea to have two halves to my practice. Illustration for areas I care about, and Illustration for enjoyment. I will need to reconsider a few of the briefs that I am planning on doing for extended practice to coincide with what I am aiming to apply to my practice, so I'll see how it goes!

LinkedIn: Written Post and Joining Groups

I have made my first ever post as a linkedin user! I decided to write about the perception of self and reason for being in terms of what we strive to achieve in life, which was inspired by a talk given by Eleanor Snare about the Japanese 'ikigai' theory at the sustainability symposium I went to last week. 
Surprisingly I really enjoyed writing and publishing this post. It felt like writing a really academic and relevant version of a Facebook status...sort of? Anyway, this has made me think a little more about starting my own blog, talking about current issues and how they relate to illustration. Just food for thought, but if I get a good response this might give me a push to actually start writing on a regular basis. You can read it here if you are interested!

In relation to joining groups, I have only been accepted by one so far which is 'scientific illustration and animation for the research scientist', not just because this was the example group that John showed us, but because I have a genuine interest in medical illustration. I have also requested to join the following groups:

Love Arts Conversation

I'd seen the 'LoveArts' festival being advertised with fliers around college and thought it would be a great thing for me to go along to. I had a few problems booking a ticket because they had sold out online which I was gutted about, but I was able to get a last minute pass through emailing and asking very nicely! 

When emailing Tom, one of the organisers, I told him a bit more about what I do and what I'm interested in and requested if there were any voluntary opportunities that I could get involved with. This was kind of scary because I'm normally too afraid of sounding rude, but if you don't ask you don't get or know. Luckily Tom was really pleased about my enthusiasm and agreed to meet me and talk about potential opportunities.

Festival Itinerary:

• Explore what 'I AM' means to you in a fun and creative way
• Learn about the best practice in arts and mental health work
• Explore current issues in arts and mental health work
• Discover the benefits of creativity on our mental health and well being
• Be inspired! 

There was a choice between 3 different talks to attend, and it was really difficult to choose. I decided on 'I am one of many', and 'I am the walrus'.

I AM ONE OF MANY

Exploring the potential of social change through the arts.

What kind of things affect out mental health and need to change in our society? Who needs to be involved to make changes happen? What do you think are the big challenges? What can arts and culture do? How can we support eachother? 

What needs to change? (work in threes and write ideas down on a post it note)

• There needs to be more access to third sector organisations
• People need to be more informed about understanding mental health
• Wider sense of community to encourage people to talk

Speakers: 

Leanne Buchan-Principle officer for culture and sport

"Culture is not for me": activity testing us on what we perceive as being 'cultured'. E.g. 'Raise your hand if you've been to the ballet in the last 7 days', 'raise your hand if you've bought clothes in the last 7 days', the point being is that we are all cultured.

Culture doesn't exist in isolation.

Paul Barker- Space 2 Project Manager

http://www.space2.org.uk/

Space2's mission statement is 'creating healthy communities and thriving young people through arts and creativity'.

Paul spoke super quickly so I didn't get a change to write everything down that he spoke about. He did speak about Socially transformative uses of art and creativity including recent research projects. One example includes 'Mural Arts Philadelphia'- A public arts programme dedicated to the belief that art ignites change. Through the collaboration of artists and communities, large scale artworks are 'created to transform public spaces and individual lives'. https://www.muralarts.org/about/

Solutions: How do we bring about change?

(Group discussions and reflections)

The Chronosystem Diagram

• Raise awareness on a local level - get people to share experiences - policy change - raise awareness on a bigger level
• Evidence service users and how their contributions influence a healthy culture
• Collect more evidence - good mental health is something that concerns EVERYONE - more real stories in the media - wear our labels more openly - teach children about online and offline behaviour
• Generosity should be a core ethos. Bureaucracy puts us off doing things, lowers any values and hazes opportunities to get involved.
• Self worth - outside the influence - how the world sees you - how you see yourself
• Teaching of creative arts: emphasise finding a voice rather than a correct answer
• Funding - information sourcing - getting the word out - catalogue of places - paths you could undertake

Summary of I AM ONE OF MANY:

• Continue conversations about culture
• Identify problems, be part of the solution
• Create, collaborate and take up shared responsibility

I AM THE WALRUS

Survival strategies for being an artist

We wouldn't do it if we didn't love it, but like most jobs, being an artist can be difficult. It can involve rejection, long hours, no or little money, precarity and a lack of infrastructure. Even the 'good guys' can end up taking the piss without realising. You might have plenty of time to sit, ponder and panic, or you might have no time for yourself at all. All of this can take a toll on our mental health. But there are things that help and people that help. This session is about identifying some of the challenges we face as artists and just as human beings, actually, and coming up with some strategies to overcome them. We aim to end the day just a little more resilient.

Speaker Ellie Harrison's top tips as an artist:

• Put your underwear on
• Behaving like Courtney Love isn't sustainable
• Be generous
• Politely ask 'how you'd like it to be' with clients, i.e. 'it would be really helpful if you could help with this'
• You aren't a superhero, work out what to say no to.

Speaker Sarah Francis: Aire Place Studios:

Artist, Sarah Francis spoke about how has set up an eco-friendly artists studio and gallery space as a place for creativity where you can get support and a sense of community. She conducted the project over two years on very little funding, and is becoming very successful. This is somewhere I could see myself working!

Group Discussion: How do we look after ourselves as artists?

• Accept where you are, keep continuing to move forward
• Time/selfishness in the frame that you are trying to achieve, so it's not necessarily a bad thing saying no
• Subconscious/mundane allows you to develop ideas. Breaks are good. Therapeutic things help your thought process. Inspiration has to come from somewhere.
• Find a good balance between work and leisure
• Schedule at least one hour per week for 'golden time', i.e. doing whatever you want to do

Summarised Group Discussions

• Use eachother
• Support networks both inside and outside of the art world
• Encouraging mentoring
• Having other interests
• Planning time to create work thoughtfully and carefully
• Feeling strong about something, go for it and put all of your energy into it
• Freelance club for admin days

SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE DAY

Today's conference was one of those events where you come out of it feeling absolutely exhausted because you have learnt so much and met so many interesting people. It was great to share ideas with like minded individuals on creative approaches to combating mental health stigmas through the arts and developing communities. This is an area that I am really interested in exploring further within my practice, and will be sure to keep actively engaged in now from the brilliant experience I have had today.

I definitely feel a lot more confident going to events like these completely on my own and just going up to people and asking them what they do. This has already opened up opportunities and insights into things I could get involved with that would really benefit my creative career. For example I spoke to a lady called Gerri Moritary who is an independent arts consultant in Manchester, who gave me some brilliant advice on freelancing and how to manage yourself and finances and 'to say yes to everything!'. Gerri was just one of many people that I spoke to, but I came away with a page full of email addresses and websites of organisations and freelancers specialising in community arts and mental wellbeing, which could create plenty of opportunities to get involved with!

• http://www.space2.org.uk/
• http://www.inkwellarts.org.uk/contact/
• http://www.artsandmindsnetwork.org.uk/
• http://leedsculturestrategy.org/2016/01/26/a-new-approach-to-a-new-leeds-culture-strategy/

Symposium: Expanding Communities of Sustainable Practice

Today I had the chance to attend a symposium held at college about sustainable practice. The whole day was extremely interesting and informative about the steps I want to take in my creative career, and how myself and thousands of other creatives can contribute to developing a sustainable future on a global scale. Admittedly, I wasn't really aware of sustainability before today, and had no idea how quickly our planet is deteriorating, which is so worrying and upsetting.

I was fascinated by the talk from Steve Connor who is the head of ethical advertising company Creative Concern, who were 'born out of the belief that communications can change the world. I really admired what their values and what they care about; things that actually matter as opposed to feeding consumer culture.

I have written a more lengthy and detailed post about today on my COP blog, but in conclusion I have reconsidered my purpose and responsibility as a creative in terms of being mindfully sustainable within my own practice and how I can contribute my ideas and collaborate with others to make the planet a better place to live. Maybe this is my calling, illustrate and be a creative thinker for ethical causes? Who knows, but it something to think about! 

Volunteer Work

Looking through my skills and experience, the voluntary section is a bit of a grey area. The only voluntary experience I have is being a campfire assistant at Leeds Festival 3 years ago...so I figured that this needs updating!

I came across a website called Doing Good Leeds where you are able to search for voluntary opportunities that may come up, and I registered my details. I'd be really interested in any voluntary vacancies within creative arts, for example art workshops in local community centres/hospitals/galleries etc. This would enable me to develop my teaching skills in potentially a more challenging and rewarding role. I also created a profile with Volunteer Centre Leeds via Volunteer Connect, so organisations will be able to get a concentrated summary of my interests and experiences.

Here are some screen shots of the application process:

What next?

I have applied for a voluntary opportunity at the Hepworth in Wakefield, which sounds great! The training day is next Saturday, so if I am successful I will hopefully hear back within the next week.

I might look at other voluntary organisations in Leeds, or enquire directly to different centres.

LinkedIn

I have just set up my LinkedIn page, yay!

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/ellie-chappell-a2ab0512b

I'm not so sure how appropriate my profile picture is of me and my birthday caterpillar cake is,but it will do for now as no other decent pictures exist of me on the internet. And I guess it's more exciting than a bog standard selfie?

Summary: I decided to keep the same summary that I devised towards the end of second year; 'An outgoing,versatile illustrator with a passion for creating visual solutions to practical problems', because I believe that sums up my interests as a creative in a broad sense. This may change as my practice develops, or becomes more specialised in time.

Skills: I listed the following as my skills which are appropriate to my creative practice and involvement with my skills that aren't directly related to my illustrative practice which include being a 'Welcome@' mentor (like a buddy to new students) and teaching in my ambassador role.

So I suppose I'll get cracking and try and make some contacts that could help me progress in my creative career. I will also try and post the current projects that I am working on, on a regular basis to increase my following.

Career Track Tuesday: Routes Into Teaching

Yesterday I went along to the routes into teaching talk, just to gain a bit more knowledge on teaching as a potential career.

Why become a teacher?

• Every child can succeed in something
• Get the point across in many ways as possible
• Share passion with a generation

Attributes of a good teacher

• Confidence
• Approachable
• Respectable
• Honest
• Good organisation
• Knowledge of how to communicate
• Clear boundaries

Six steps to teaching

• GCSE English and Maths (Science for primary)
• Honours degree at 2:2
• Passing the skills tests and gaining a place on the Initial Teacher Training course
• Passing the ITT course and gaining qualified teacher status
• Starting a teaching job
• A successful induction period

Teach First

Jenny Scanall came to talk to us about her teacher training experience with teach first, which is a sort of intensive 2 year programme that is full speed ahead. It is two years long giving you the opportunity to gain PGCE, QTS as well as the chance to complete a masters in education. The first year is the leadership development programme, where you are thrown in at the deep end with your name on the door with a class full of pupils, and the second year is the NQT year to prove that you can teach efficiently.

Pros:

• It's free
• Prestigious
• Qualifications are recognised internationally
• Creates so many career opportunities

Cons:

• It is totally full on and exhausting
• You don't get to choose your own placements

Summary

We talked over other aspects of teaching such as the starting salaries, funding, impact on emotional and physical wellbeing and the overall job satisfaction. It made me realise that I'm not currently in a position where I feel ready to go into teaching on a sort of full time basis. I wasn't planning on being a full time teacher anyway, but going through all the training procedures isn't something that I'm ready for as of now. It is definitely something that I will come back to in the future though, and in the mean time I will continue to assist with teaching workshops between studies.

Who am I?

Who are you now-has anything changed your view of your practice?

Right now I'd say I'm in a good place; I'm feeling excited about the year ahead and I'm ready to embrace all the opportunities that may become available to me that could shape my future creative career. I've proved a lot to myself in the last year both personally and in terms of my practice, facing challenges that I never thought I could accomplish. 
To me, and I'm sure this applies to many others, my creative ability is heavily intertwined with how I'm feeling in myself and what is happening in my surrounding environment. In the last 12 months, the experience of recovering from the most difficult struggles I've ever had with my mental health has honestly changed my perspective on life and the way I think about literally everything. I really don't mean to throw that around like such a blasé term, but when you look back and see how much you have blossomed in confidence, how you approach every day situations, how you interact with others, how you see the world it really is astonishing. 

My new years resolution for 2016 was to "say yes to everything", and this approach pushed me outside of my comfort zone in many aspects and wasn't the easiest mantra at times, yet it bought me so many opportunities. Outside of college I've flown to America on my own, learnt and taught children how to survive in the woods and even run a half marathon, which I never thought I'd be able to do in my wildest dreams! With my practice I've partaken in really exciting briefs, collaborating with others, taken on responsible roles such as putting myself forward for student rep, had the opportunity to be part of a large-scale public art project and many other brilliant things that have made me prove to myself that my level of determination has helped me to realise that I am capable of doing anything I put my mind to. Even simple things have been valuable, like making the effort to interact with my peers in the studio more instead of feeling immediately threatened and comparing myself with their style of work which has made a huge difference in the way that I apply myself to a variety of situations.

This wasn't meant to be a huge long cheesy essay because a lot of the things I have written about above certainly aren't easy to talk about, but my recent experiences have shaped who I am now, and given me a much more positive insight and approach to my future aspirations within illustration specifically and the creative industry as a whole. 

What are your plans for the structure of your future practice-Collaboration: Individual : Full employment: Other?

The prospect of leaving the comfortable studio bubble is somewhat daunting, but also really exciting. I've figured that I work best when I'm given a brief to work on in an environment with other creative people doing similar or the same kind of thing. Working off my own back on more self-directed projects would initially make me feel pretty uneasy and confused, which wouldn't start me off in a positive direction career wise. As well, I definitely want to try and avoid working alone. I don't bode well being isolated!

After graduating, the ideal situation for me would be to work full or part time in a creative agency or design house as an illustrator. I am desperate to gain some experience within the industry as opposed to taking up my postgraduate study plans straight away as I have realised that this will be a more suitable option in a few years time.

The option as to what kind of illustration I want to specialise in is still a bit of a mystery. My practice is really quite broad and I have a lot of different interests; the prospect of narrowing down my interests feels more restrictive to me at this point in time as I am still experimenting in different areas. For example, my interest in illustration to do with health and wellbeing is a hop, skip and a jump away from my pattern work. I know that it will become more evident as my extended practice develops as to where I will end up, but for now I feel most confident having a relatively fluid approach to what kind of briefs interest me and the skill set I have to complete them to a high standard.

In relation to 'Other', teaching has always been in the back of my mind as a potential career path. I have heavily stated in previous blog posts that I don't want to teach a-level art as a fresh graduate with no life experience, because I won't have fulfilled my creative ambitions if I go down that path too early on in life. Plus I think A-level art is complete bullshit anyway. Because I have more tendencies of an extrovert it is vital that I have some sort of human interaction within my career, as I've mentioned above that I will go crazy if I have no-one to talk to! As well, I have a huge interest in people and the psychology behind different types of behaviour, personality traits, decision making etc which has made me develop an interest in becoming an Art Therapist, although I have realised that I need a sufficient amount of life experience to be able to do this effectively.