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!