this and that...

Glimpses of work from various projects/personal pieces...

BTLC: Jack's Truck

A late Happy New Year to you!

I recently did a Big Trouble in Little China themed stencil of Jack Burton's truck for a box containing a BTLC themed present...

Such a cool film, and I'm planning some other illustrations to do with the film so watch this space.

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Foursight: VS Launch Night

So last Wednesday saw the launch night for the first publication, entitled 'VS', by our illustration collective Foursight. 

The book is a set of 20 illustrations, printed back to back, of pairs of opposite words, each illustrated by a different artist. The aim of the book was to get illustrators to compete with each other, to provide a book solely promoting great illustrators and there work, and with the competitors being kept secret, to ultimately put on an event/exhibition where they could meet their opponent.

Unbelievably its been about 6 months since we started the project back in May with the help of the guys at OWTCreative, so it was great to finally reveal the book for everyone to see!

I've posted some photos below of the book and the launch night, which had a great turnout and there was a lot of buzz about the book and the fantastic work submitted. 

The launch and book had a boxing/fighter theme, so we had some fun taking polaroid style photos of everyone posing as boxers, and then coming up with their own boxing names to win a competition; as well as setting up a live draw-off, again to win some classy prizes. Who doesn't want a can of hotdogs?

Finally I'm now allowed to reveal my submission for the book, which was for the word 'War'. I thought it would be fun to mix together ideas of both modern and medieval warfare, and put in more detail than usual to make it look a bit like an old portrait.

A huge thanks to everyone who has supported us as Foursight as we've worked on the VS book, and to everyone who came down to the launch night! 

The book is now available to buy from the online shop for only £10 so go check it out at this link   

VS book for sale in the Foursight shop

Big thanks to Emma Reynolds, Jennifer Byron and OWTCreative for taking these photos!

Grow: Degree Show Preview Night

On Friday we had the preview night of our degree show at Stockport College, showing the work of all the design pathways; Illustration, Graphic Design, Moving Image, Surface Design, Photography etc., and it was a great success! It was incredibly busy and really exciting to have everyone together and showcase the culmination of 3 years work. 


For the show I put up 6 A2 size prints of some of my images from my FMP on space and underwater exploration. Here are the images:

In a surprising turn of events, I'm very proud to have won 'Best in Show' for my illustration work! With so much incredible work on show (seriously...the show looked amazing..) I'm really proud and happy to have my name chiselled onto the shield this year to represent our illustration group.


I've posted some pics below of the goings on, and will blog again soon as the show will be going into Manchester next Friday for a one-day exhibition spectacular in the northern quarter.

For now, the show is still on at college, Mon-Thurs  10am - 7.30pm, so come check it out!
See the degree show website for more details/directions - Grow Degree Show

Podcast: Charles Hively of 3x3

Recently, an interview with Charles Hively (from 3x3) was recommended to us in the form of a podcast on Escape From Illustration Island.

On the podcast, Charles goes through his background and experiences as a designer and illustrator, and goes on to talk about issues such as self promotion for illustrators, and how competitions can be a good way to get your work shown. 

Hively runs 3x3 magazine which is dedicated to contemporary illustration, and has an extensive design career spanning 40 years. On the podcast, he spoke about his background in design and all the different jobs he'd done, leaving us in no doubt he knew what he was talking about. As he is and rt director at the moment, a lot of his advice came from that perspective.

He went on to talk about self promotion for illustrators. What I thought was really interesting about this was that he compared the sort of self promo illustrators do to self promo photographers do. He mentioned that for every 10 emails he gets from photographers, he only gets 1 from an illustrator. I had never really thought about the fact that illustrators aren't the only freelancers sending their work to art directors, and you're almost in competition for their time in that case. Throughout the podcast he recommended that illustrators look at the sort of things that photographers to to promote their work, get work, an how they handle the business/money side of the work as they tend to be a bit more business orientated in his opinion.


Some of the his tips for promotion were:

• to not email out 1000's of the same email, just focus on people you really want to work with
• Hand write or personalise your mail to art directors; send them something unique and memorable
• In your portfolio, don't just pick your favourite piece of work; pick ones that solve a problem or answer the brief the best
• credit art directors you've worked with as it's a 3rd party endorsement
• constantly promote yourself, once a month or at least three times a year
• be prepared to spend some money doing this
• think with a business mind e.g. take someone to lunch and see it as an investment
• don't use a Christmas card as self promo

He said that a survey found that illustrators on average spent only $500 (~£315) a year on promo, and that it should be a lot more than that, which is really something I need to think about for the future.

He then went on to talk about websites, and again brought up the standard of photographers sites, and suggested illustrators take some pointers from them. The main points he made were: 

• that sites should be very easy to access and navigate, without things that take a while to load as art directors generally just don't have the time 
• don't be shy, list your clients and any awards you have won
• AD's will look for the weakest piece to know what's the least they can expect from you, and if there's even one really bad piece of work in there, they won't take the risk, so get rid of it

And finally, he spoke a little bit about money, and how illustrators shouldn't be afraid to negotiate for more money. He brought up the amount of money photographer can command, and made the point that as an illustrator you have to do the work of a whole team on a photo shoot. You have to decide the setting, what someones going to look like, the colours etc. and are creating something totally unique, so you shouldn't be afraid to ask a fair price for that.

 He also brought up the point that if we all demanded higher pay, it would raise standards for the industry. This is something I've hard a lot about in the recent months and is really something to think about.

Overall, I thought the podcast was really helpful and informative, and he gave a frank opinion on various matters which has given me a lot to think about, especially in the area of self promotion.

The Teenage Market

Recently a group of us uni students went down to 'The Teenage Market' in Stockport to sell prints, cards, jewellery, crafts, etc. that we'd made, to raise money to go to D&AD New Blood in June.

The market seemed pretty successful overall, with lots of people turning up and all sorts of stalls and performances happening. I wouldn't say we made that much money, but it was definitely worth going and seeing what we could sell. We sold more of the craft/handmade items than we did of the cards and prints, but i think with a bit more prep time we could have done better on that front, with maybe a wider range and less specific images. My own at least was probably too specific and not the sort of thing people would put on their wall perhaps. And the cards were mother's day cards. The market was on the 1st of April. Enough said.

Overall, the market was a good experience and definitely worth a shot to make some money for D&AD, which we did. It was also good research for if we ever go to any fairs or markets etc. to try and sell work in the future, as to what sort of things sell and which don't.

Book Binding with Lucy Wilson

Last Tuesday, we were all treated to a book binding session with illustrator and book binder Lucy Wilson. It was a really interesting session and fun to learn how to make a book of our own. I'd never really thought much about making my own books or sketchbooks before, but it could definitely be an option for the future. Lucy told us about the advantages of an illustrator being to bind their own books, where to get book binding supplies from, and she had also used her book binding skills to make her own portfolio, which was really cool.

I've posted a couple of pics of the A5 book I made below. I think I probably need a little bit more practice at it as it seems I struggled to even fold my paper properly! But it came out better than I thought and after it was all sewn and glued it actually holds together pretty solidly. Thanks Lucy!

 
 

Fish Tank: The Grinch

Just before Christmas, I was given the opportunity to create an illustration to apply to the glass office - fish tank- of Manchester design agency Music. Music are running a fish tank project, getting different illustrators in to do temporary designs on the glass windows. Each design is based on a song, and I chose to do The Grinch Song, as it's Christmas based but also has a slightly sinister tone to it which I liked.

Using posca pens it took about 4 full days in all, spread over a couple of weeks, and was a bit of a learning curve as I'd never used the pens before, and I haven't done much free hand drawing as my work is often quite geometric and grid based. But it was fun, and thanks go to Matt, Kris, Tom and Stu for helping me out, and Ed and Craig for the opportunity. Cheers! 

Below is a coloured up version of the main window design, and some photos of sections up on the glass....

'Christmas in Uganda' Childrens Book

So last November, there was a small book launch for the childrens book I illustrated called 'Christmas in Uganda'. I've been really busy (and forgetful), so this is a veryyyy late post with some photos of the book in print and some pics from the launch. It was a good eve and a good few books were sold to raise money for the charity. Cool.

This is the book, and a few of the spreads...

 

And here are a few photos from the launch.....