UEA collaboration exhibition and reflection

Today we had an exhibition of the work we have done for our collaborations and some of the work was really fantastic and it was interesting to see how varied and unique our work can be as a course. I was really nervous to meet my collaborator but she was lovely and seemed really pleased with the final outcome. We split into groups and discussed the projects with the UEA tutors and then mingled as the tutors assessed the UEA students individually on the experience.

Work on the walls from exhibiton

I am really happy with my final outcome, I really feel it has completely changed my outlook on my illustration practice. Having to work so fast and respond to text so spontaneously and quickly was so unlike the way I normally work which is slowly and too preciously and has caused me a lot of problems in the past. I also had to keep my imagery simplistic but bold and effective which resulted in me using digital collage which is something I have never done before. I feel like I have stumbled across a working method that instinctively suits me and working digitally allows me to bring my illustrations in, make new ones and not worry about making mistakes as I can undo things and save different versions. I also really enjoyed working with the book layout and how the different pages work together to reveal the imagery and so I am even more excited and involved in my other projects. This collaboration has been a really positive and enlightening experience and I have enjoyed working with written matter I wouldn't normally approach as the themes were out of my comfort zone. 

My final illustrations

After this experience I think it is important for me to apply the skills and methods I have developed form this project to my other projects as I feel that will really push my practice forward. I hope to keep in contact with my collaborator to possible develop future collaborations.

Artist statement workshop

Today I had a workshop on writing personal statements which is something I haven't really considered until this point as I haven't had to write one. It was interesting to see a selection of statements written by others as it forces an artist to concisely portray the motives, ideas and ambition behind their work in a short paragraph. I think this is a great exercise even if the statement is not to be used as it forced me to pinpoint the aspects of illustration and motivation behind my work that drives me to be an illustrator, which essentially helps me to know clearly what I am about and what I want to portray to my audience. A personal statement is usually 100-200 words and therefore has to be succinct and clear to pass the relevant information across to the reader.

'Blowlion', Andrea D'Aquino

I had a look at some examples of professional illustrator statements on their websites and they generally take the format of how they came to be, what they have achieved and what they currently do. An example of this is Andrea Daquino's website statement that roughly follows this format:

'Andrea D'Aquino has always resisted labels like "art director", "illustrator", "graphic designer", or "writer", and finds herself happiest straddling the line between all those things. For several centuries she was a senior art director for major advertising agencies.

As an illustrator and designer, clients include Anthropologie, The New York Times, Elle Magazine, Vegetarian Times, PlanSponsor Magazine, Family Fun, Chronicle Books, Uppercase, Flow magazine, and many others.

Her work has been recognised by Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Art Director's Club, Communication Arts, 3x3 Magazine, The One Club, and The Type Director's Club.'

Her statement is concise and promotes her well as a highly recognised illustrator and skilled artist and designer who has achieved a lot in her career. I would say it lack a bit of personality and should have a short sentence about what she is currently doing or aiming for, such as future goals. Other illustrators such as Gemma Correll have listed any blogs or columns that they currently contribute to or publications they are working on.

'Untitled', Gemma Correll

I found it quite hard at first to define my practice in so few words and it took quite a few rewritings. It was advised that the statement should conclude with ideas for the future and our goals which was quite satisfying to see written down in a statement about me, as if it is a plan to come and not just a dream. This is my final statement for now:

'My illustrations are inspired and sourced through found texture and mixed media materials that are blended and layered together to depict a sense of atmosphere, place and character. My work currently responds to space and surface, place and character. My work currently responds to space and surface, aiming to push the boundaries of the paper medium through cutting, folding and layering my materials both within and outside he constraints of the physical book format. 

My work responds to narrative both through fictional storytelling and character experience. I produce work that targets the publishing and commercial market as a freelance illustrator, aiming to capture and depict a sense of beauty, intrigue and escapism. I enjoy applying these techniques through an extension of fashion illustration and surface pattern design.

My passion for narrative and commercial illustration will drive me as a freelance illustrator as I intend to gain more experience through commissioned projects and internships. My ultimate goal is to launch my own gift and home ware brand.'

I want to revise this for the degree show as hopefully it will be a bit more relevant but it has been good to practice writing it so I know what I am aiming for.

Lighthouse studio

On Tuesday we had the opportunity to visit the Lighthouse Studios in London and see the environment and space that illustrators are working in professionally. I don't know what i expected to see but it was both smaller than I expected and also far more relaxed and inviting. The studio we saw consisted of 8 illustrators working on huge desks with the walls covered in all things arty, bright and inspiring. The back wall had a inboard grid to stick up work, tools and anything they might need which is something I defiantly want for when I set up a studio corner in my home. The atmosphere was friendly but dedicated as they all were working hard with music playing in the background, and we were lucky enough to have the chance to talk to the artists about their working process and what they were currently working on.

Jack Hudsons work is a colourful blend of modern vintage illustration, with soft crayon-like textures and geeky characters on their adventures. I was surprised to find out that his work is digital as it has such a hand-made feel to it. He mocks up ideas in pencil in his sketchbook and scans in his drawings to fill in and colour on Photoshop and Illustrator. He is currently working on some personal work called 'If I were small' with little characters jumping on huge jellies etc for Pick Me Up fair 2014- I will definitely be booking my ticket for that!

Jack Hudson at his desk

Personal work, Jack Hudson

We also had the opportunity to talk to talk to Ciara Phelan, a freelance illustrator and paper craft artist. Ciara works a lot with collage and photo montage and I found it really interesting to hear about her creative process; there is little sketching involved as she mainly works from found imagery and plays around with composition. Her collection of educational and source material books are her go-to for inspiration and she recommended we check out Dover books for copyright free source books, although sadly they are quite expensive. Ciara studied graphic design at Brighton university and moved to London short after to work as a junior designer where she began getting commissions for her collage work which led her to focus on that as a full time freelance illustrator. She has a wide range of clients including Computer Arts magazine and Glamour and her style is bright, fun and lively.

Godesses, Ciara Phelan

I really enjoyed the visit to the studios as it has reawakened some drive and excitement in me to move to London and hopefully become a freelance illustrator in a studio like this eventually. It has been a really great insight as to how illustrators work and where.

Hannah Höch exhibition at Whitechapel

I went on a trip to London today to the Whitechapel gallery to see the Hannah Höch exhibition. Before the exhibition I didn't really know much about Hannah Höch's work which surprised me as she has been such an influential figure and her aesthetic photo montage style really appeals to me. 

The exhibition contained over 100 works from various different collections, following her career from the 1910s to the 1970s. One of the main factors I noticed about the exhibition was the cyclical journey of her work; as her career developed Höch's style became that of cleverly constructed photo montages such as her work 'from an Ethnographic Museum' but then her work goes through a period of experimental abstractism before suddenly returning to how it was before. I like this idea of finding a style that works well and exploring away from it but returning again to what originally inspired her near the end of her career.

"My style had become increasingly abstract, thought I occasionally reverted, especially in photomontages… to themes and forms of the same kind as those of my Dada period of 1920. I suppose every imaginative artist has some recurring obsessions."

Balanced: 'Ohne Titel', 1930

In the 1920s Hannah Höch was significantly influenced by Dadaism, a movement that was born out of a negative reaction to the destruction and horror of WW1, using a form of anti-art. Höch in particular became part of the photo montage movement, using scissors and glue to reuse images presented by the media in a response to their views on modern life. Her work aimed to capture the style of 1920s avant-garde theatre and explore her ideas on the evolution of the new woman in Germany after the war. She found working with found imagery and photography to be refreshing new territory that opened up new avenues for her work, both visually and ideologically:

"The peculiar characteristics of photography and its approaches have opened up new and immensely fantastic field for a creative human being: a new, magical territory, for the discovery of which freedom is the first prerequisite…whenever we want to force this "photo matter" to yield new forms, we must be prepared for a journey of discovery…we must be open to the beauties if fruity…these beauties, wandering and extravagant, obligingly enrich our fantasy."

Flucht (Flight), 1931

Höch's work developed to question stereotypes and the concept of beauty and relationships, often exploring racial and gender clichés. She combined female figures with found objects, shape and pattern to create striking pieces that invite the viewer to question what it is they see. After WW2 her work took  more abstract turn as she aimed to make the origins of her cut-out material less apparent, and her work began to respond much more to the events that were happening in the world around her, such as the advancements in the 1950s in space travel.

Kleine Sonne (Little Sun), 1969

What resonated with me the most about Höch's work was her style and process; her images were calculated and well-thought out with brilliant composition, and yet her edges were rough and it had that choppy cut and paste feel about it. Her works bold and striking with a great deal of care and passion but it made me realise that art doesn't have to be delicate and perfect to portray that which has relieved me a bit of that sense of preciousness about my own practice. I feel that in 3rd year this is something that I am beginning to understand and come to terms with although it is by no means going to be easy to put in practice! It also a great opportunity to see her photographic albums and collage books which were huge portable libraries of material to work with, which is something that many artists are doing today with texture libraries and materials they can quickly access for work in future. I think that I am going to work on composing ongoing texture and found material catalogues to save myself some of the researching and hunting time in future.

Group critique with Peter

I had a group critique with Peter today after seeing him on Friday to ask for some advice for over the weekend. Peter advised that I look over the fashion films and features on Purple magazine and Show Studio and do some quick drawings in response to them to loosen my drawings and work on my observation. Life drawing sessions are defiantly helping to loosen up my approach and pace to drawing the figure but I am still struggling with faces and hands where I freeze up- I find it easy to represent the clothes and folds as clothes have such movement in them that I am just representing how they look at that one time. Everyone knows what a face should look like proportionally so I am a lot more timid in interpreting them and that shows in my work.

Sketchbook drawings from Show Studio

Peter's advice is to consistently draw, every day, all day to improve my observational drawings skills and loosen my hand and my hesitation. I think I am defiantly worrying about working towards a final piece in such a short amount of time and Peter has reminded me that this project is about improving my figure and observational drawing skills and a final piece will naturally develop from that. The key points for me to focus on over the next week are:

• Use a mixture of life drawing and online observations to draw quickly and improve skills quickly
• Mix tone, line, detail and negative space- use a variety of tools and line weights
• Fool myself- start away from the face, working boldly and fluidly and work into the face from various points- put detail where it needs to be but not everywhere, focus on shape
• Detail is only needed as part of the overall language, not everywhere- the garment is part of the bey, not separate
• Speed- draw fast, free, consistently
• Photocopy figure drawings and experiment with detail, tone, layering on top of these

Cecilia Carlstedt's fashion illustrations are a great example of focusing on line, shape and structure followed by detail.

My plan is to approach the fashion department to draw some of their outfits and draw the students making their dresses, continue life drawing and work quickly. I'm going on the London trip tomorrow, so Wednesday morning I will be buying sketchbooks and hurtling forward!

Professional development

Preparing for leaving university is something that I think terrifies most students and so it was greatly appreciated when we had a lecture on preparing for work today.

Having a creative CV is vitally important when pursuing a creative career; I have done some research in the past but found the samples scarily impressive and confusing. It was useful to break down what needs to go on a creative CV and what it should be. A CV needs to showcase the individuals skills which includes education and qualifications, relevant employment and experience, expertise, skills and knowledge and personal details.

A CV is a marketing tool and should be treated in such a way; it is a way to promote yourself and highlight what we are good at. A good CV should:

• Have visual impact
• Reflect the individuals personality
• Highlight creative and transferable skills
• Be a relevant target for the industry or organisation
• Demonstrate the key skills needed for the position

Other forms of self-promotion can include mail outs and promotional packs with stickers and postcards etc. Tea and crayons collective say the key to a successful self-promotional pack is to be unique, consistent, stay on the radar and don't overdue it:

"Imagine the amount of promotional work sent to art directors day-in, day-out. It must become tedious seeing the same sort of thing in the post everyday. If you are different you'll stand out from the crowd, which will in turn make your work more memorable."

Thereza Rowe self-promotion

Versus collective promotional playing cards

The key is to showing that you have energy, zing and be memorable! I plan to create my CV now and face the battle to stand out.