Book Project Thumbnails

Using last weeks ideas based around our 'Anything Else' topic we split of individually to thumbnail and brainstorm our own ideas for a page in the book. 

I took into consideration, the size when it came to composition, the fact that I will include one colour and the ideas our group came up with. From the thumbnails I designed I chose 4 to enlarge more so I could analyse compositions and ideas further.

I think I will choose 2 of these designs which I can draw up in a more refined manor and see which works best. I can then test out what colour is going to work and how contrasted I was the black and white element to be. 

I've found that thumbnailing and planning out my ideas to be a successful process to use and one which I can apply to other work I will do.

Group Book Project

Working in small groups, this week we began a 5 week project to produce a book. Splitting off into small groups within the class we were assigned different subjects to focus on to do with being an illustrator for example, finance, social, legal. My group got 'Anything Else'. 

The brief was as follows;

- 1 page each, 200mm x 200mm and a 5mm bleed

- Black and white or a greyscale

- 1 colour to be used alongside

-Spot/ hand colour the small coloured section

- Riso print the final illustrations

- Hand stick and trim the final books

- 15th January hand in final illustrations

Our schedule was as follows;

-4th December, group work on initial ideas for subject

-11th December, present thumbnails of your own idea based on initial ideas

-8th December, present refined thumbnail idea with clearer sketches and colour indication

-15th January, Hand in final illustrations

-29th January, Hand colour you own pages with chosen colour

4th February, Fold, sew, trim and pack all final books

After the group brain stormed ideas for our 'anything else' subject we decided to keep it light hearted and fun as all the other subjects that other groups has were perhaps more serious. We decided to a typical day of an illlustrator following along the lines of things that 'true' illustrators do all the time.

Initial ideas were things like keeping themselves cooped away in their studios, making lots of cups of tea, doodles on every available surface (your arm, a wall, tables), getting their best ideas from the doodles and a general procrastination. Within our group we will be splitting off individually to create thumbnails based around our ideas.

Working in a group wasn't something I am used to doing so it was interesting see everyones different ideas based on this quite broad subject we had. 

Finance

This weeks lecture was all about the financial side to selling a book. After having this lecture it has been brought to my attention that it is more complicated than I had initially anticipated. I was able to gather some information around the subject from Fumio Obata but I want to further my research in the future.

When a publisher is interested in selling your book then an advance is given to be able to make the book. For example, and advance of £3000 could be given. I could then receive 10% royalty on each book sold. Therefore if each book was £10 then 3000 books would need to be sold before I would receive any of the 10% royalty. A profit needs to be made for me to be able to earn money from the book. If the book is not a good seller then I would not receive and royalty cheques and the publishing company would have a loss. 

Having a agent make make the financial process easier as they would be able to deal with this kind of thing in a more knowledgeable way. I will however, be doing further research as I will still need to know about this topic and about getting an agent. 

Publishers give you a tim from for completing the work you've presented. It can be quite along process with 9 months between receiving work and publishing. Agents would be able to negotiate time frames for you to help the process however it would more than likely be best to stick to what has already been given. 

Even though a book proposal and acceptance may be in place there is still no guarantee that this book will make a profit for you. It would therefore be wise to be still keeping mind that exposing my work is a key part to becoming more successful. Alongside the book work, exposure of other things will be done too. This could interfere with the book time scale which could be why negotiations will be made.

Once again I will be furthering my knowledge on the subject with some more research. I think it's an important topic to know about as producing books is something I am interested in pursuing. 

Module Proposal

As an illustrator I am very interested in the idea of doing freelance work and being more independent and proactive with my organization of presenting my work. I would like to develop my skills when it comes to my use of pattern alongside a narrative; however, I still wish to be constantly experimenting with techniques and styles so as not to limit my practice and myself. For example, I want to develop my colour use to quite an extent and my figure drawings so they are not a disadvantage to me in the future.

Entering into competitions would be great practice for getting my work seen by a wider audience so I am going to be taking pro-active steps to find ones I can enter. It’s important for me to be constantly making my work more accessible and seen by others and some great experience as I can network with the people involved in these competitions. This will be my main target when it comes to my work experience. I have identified a select few print processes that I enjoy doing so I want to further my skills when it comes to these and integrate them more into my work so I can have as much experience and knowledge as I can. I would therefore find it useful to do some work experience involving printing to see how it works in a more professional environment.

Doing research or having first hand experience in the world of publishing or agents is something I wish to have more knowledge on for future reference. I wish to know more about the process of getting publishing or having an agent and how it could benefit my practice and commissions. I will be doing my own research into these matters to further my knowledge.

I have found a selection of competitions that I will consider taking part in to go towards my work experience.

·      Penguin Design Award 2015

·      V&A Illustration Awards 2015

·      The Book Illustration Competition 2015

·      Posterheroes Social Communication Contest

·      Embracing Our Differences 2015 Call For Artists

A few illustrators/ artists I could interview or research previous interviews of are;

·      Sarah McMenemy

·      Will Morris

·      Nick White

·      Dawn Cooper

·      Nigel Peake

Pirrip Press | Georgina Hounsome

Screen printer, freelance illustrator, lecturer and Pirrip Press owner Georgina Hounsome furthered my insight and has given me more ideas of things I could be doing/ do after my university life.
Georgina put forward the point that most freelance illustrators are not solely freelance and that they are doing things alongside their illustrations to maintain their earnings. When first starting out as freelance I can definitely see this being something I would do too. It may be the case of having a part time job that doesn't involve my illustration skills at all. I would need to get a balance between my two types of work so that I would be earning enough money but still having enough time to be putting my work in the public eye and entering competitions. 
Georgina said that she gets some of her inspirations from looking at her old childhood art work she made and old science text books. These ideas have non narrative elements to them so can be adapted to become narrative in many ways. I too, like looking at singular images and interpreting them in my own way but I've never thought to look at my own past work and then develop from what I see. Whether I go as far back as first school art work or something I did last month it would be interesting to take elements from these pieces to see what I can make with them. 
She sent her work out to over 200 different agencies and companies and heard back from only 3. She is now part of Eye Candy Illustration Agency. I've learnt that I will need to be broad with my choices if I eventually decide to apply to be part of an agency. Being consistent with all of my choices such as maintaining a blog, applying to competitions and generally making my work more widely seen may help the process of an agency application as I would have more work to choose from and show. 

www.pirrippress.co.uk

Papio Press

Having insight into the world of Etsy was very useful and something I'd never considered before. The owners of the PapioPress shop on Etsy gave me more information on the matter. 

The basics come back down to networking. Liking other peoples stores and their products will be a way to get yourself noticed by others. 

A collaboration between artists to set up this store would be something I would consider doing as I would need further advice or research on financial sides to the situation. For example, the price you would have to charge per product for there to be enough of a profit to continue the business. 

The PapioPress owners have their products selling on more than one platform. Again this will help get the name out there and their products seen by a wider audience. If I were to do this then I could possibly take advantage of followers I already had on social media platforms to help along with getting my products heard about and then build from there by advertising as much and effectively as possible. If something like this was to be a success then branching out from this to gain commission work may be slightly easier as you have a wider range of possible customers and a well established platform to advertise further.

 I found that it was the work they created when there wasn't a specific brief and was more for their personal use that made its way into the PapioPress store. It has made me want to produce more work just for my own pleasure as it may be useful in the future and could integrate into other projects or possibly develop into something like products on Etsy. Upon previous research I have found that illustrators have used rough sketches and personal work more and develop these further to produce successful products. This inspires me to be producing more work on a regular basis for reference and future inspirations such as an Etsy store.

Whether or not an Etsy store or something along these lines is something I decide could be for me or not, I still wish to learn and research more the financial side of these kinds of situations as it will be useful information for the future. I will also do more in depth research on the Etsy world too see if it could be something I am interested in starting. 

www.papiopress.co.uk

Going Freelance | Extra

I am interested in doing freelance work for some of my illustration so took upon myself to do some more research to see what it could involve and what I could expect from it. Some information I have already collected from my seminars are already things I have to keep in mind for example constantly putting my work in the public eye by taking part in competitions otherwise no one will know what kind of illustrations I am doing. Using social media and blogs to promote myself and allowing networking will definitely work in my favour as long as I keep them active and up to date so I can once again make my work more known and seen by a wider audience. My next step will now be to more pro active when looking for and entering competitions. 

The time and work I produce will be completely in my own hands so a dedication to time management and organisation to keep all my work, networking and production constantly up to date will be needed. 

Initially, going freelance may be inconsistent when it comes to workload and income so a part time job may be necessary so if I start putting my work out as soon as possible may help this situation along. However, in the long run, if this becomes a success for me then a long term goal could be to look at getting an agent. This will be something I will have to research more when an opportunity arises. 

A mentor could be a decision that could be advantageous for me if they were already an established freelancer or are with a successful business. They would be able to offer me critical advice and I can learn as I go. It would also increase my networking. 

The main skills I will need are time management, organisation of my work and constantly exposing my work to a wider audience be that just a small bit everyday or a whole project I am working on.

CV | Seminar

Creating a CV catered towards my illustration skills will be a professional step to take with my practice and I now have a better understanding of what established companies/ industries will be looking for. Sometimes it may be a risk to be more creative with the presentation however, when it comes to freelancing, producing a CV that targets a clients brief may be more of an advantage. Analysing and researching a brief, client or company will be an important step to take so I have a better understanding of what they already offer and previous work they have produced. 

Some definite things I will have to include when writing a CV are; academic and additional skills, industry related professional experience, links to a blog or website that should be up to date and active, additional work I have done (e.g. awards, published work, prizes) and some interests of mine to show another side to me. These things are things I could write further in depth about and relate back to my practice but still keeping in my mind that every word counts and a lasting impression needs to be made. 

I think if I want successful CV then I will need more than one. One that is catered towards a freelance style (brief targeted) and another that is more generic about my work but still honed in on my specific skills as an illustrator. 

Alongside my CV I will begin to consider a logo I could design or a branding name that I could possibly include in future work to make myself more recognisable.  I could then include the logo as the only image on my CV so that potential employer can relate it back to me.

Whilst keeping the main content of my CV specific I think adding little touches like the logo and my extra interests could be something to make myself more memorable however, I don't want these things to take attention away from the main body of my CV as this is more important. 

I will take all of my observations into account and try and combine them to produce one or more successful CV's. 

Work Experience | Lecture

After a lecture all about gaining work experience and how to develop and use my skills when approaching placement opportunities I gained helpful information which I can put into practise in the right situations. I need to be looking in the right places when wanting to invest my time in some work experience. Places such as galleries, exibition centres, visual producers (i.e card/ posters), larger institutions or companies. Looking for the experience on a wider base will give me a much more varied skill set when dealing with new people and companies whilst allowing me to learn and perhaps still get my work out there and more accessible. 

Not only was I able to gain insight into place I could look for experience but I found out the kind of jobs I could be doing after as well. For example, an In-House Designer, Advertising, Picture Researcher, Web Designer etc. I will be doing more research into these job titles and see what they could involve and if they are something I may be interested in so I could therefore cater my work experience towards something along the lines of what I've researched.

Being professional when dealing with another established, professional figure was already something I was considering but I was informed of making a better/ memorable first impression which I definitely want to be doing so that I will not be forgotten. I will be taking into account things such as knowing a little about whomever I am contacting to prove I have an interest in what they are doing and that I want to involved in some way. I want to telling them why I would be a useful short term member of their team so this leads me to consider catering my CV in a creative yet professional manner. 

When my work experience is taking place I will now have a log/ diary to write down any useful information, things I am learning, contacts or how I can relate this experience to my own practice. 

Alongside of looking for work experience and trying to put my work out there and more accessible I will now be taking into account that if nobody knows what I want to do then it will be much harder to gain contacts and network. I will therefore be making sure to be more open about discussing my work  and what I may be looking for so that anyone looking at or talking about my work could be a possible contact of a contact. Networking will be an extremely important part of my professional practice as with no contacts there will be no work. An active, positive approach to networking will go in my favour the more I do it. 

Illustration Symposium with Will Morris, Nick White and Ben Newman

The opportunity to have a in depth lecture from 3 established illustrators Will Morris, Nick White and Ben Newman, was an extremely useful insight into the working world of illustration. Three varying styles from the illustrators but all gave very useful information. I gained some new information from the symposium.

From the illustrators Will Morris, Nick White and Ben Newman I learnt these few thing; there are 4 key ares to making your work readily available for publishers, other illustrators, agencies or the general public, those being events, competitions, networking and storing ideas. I will therefore be more active when it comes to entering my own work into competitions so I can gain experience and allow my work to be seen by a wider audience. I will be considering competitions as part of my work experience. In doing so I will be more in contact with other people in the industry and see what other work is out there too therefore my networking skills would improve. 

When it comes to storing my ideas then having a small notebook or sketchbook handy at all times so I can visually record inspiring things I see, hear, read or watch daily.

I will begin to actively track my progress and developments using a blog format. Seeing my work development and making this process accessible to an outside audience will again make my work seen more by others which may brings opportunities forward.

In the long run having a pro-active portfolio thats updated with my best work will be beneficial if I ever decide to take my work to agents. The idea of an agent will be something I need to research more in depth in the future when I decide it is the right step for me.

Will Morris (source)

Nick White (source)

Ben Newman (source)

http://whmorris.com
http://www.bennewman.co.uk
http://www.thisisnickwhite.com