Bonus Portrait

We could choose to do bonus portraits for the Great Editorial Race, a choice of Charles Dance and Donna Tartt OR Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.
As a group we chose to do Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. The only art direction was that they had to be depicted as they looked in the new film Gravity.
This is my final cover template:

I used acrylic paints to create my image and used photoshop to adjust the levels, contrast and saturation to make the black deeper and the colours more vibrant. You can still see the brush strokes but i kind of like that and the contrast it gives to the black silhouette style of the image. Overall I am really pleased with this editorial, especially as i haven't used acrylics in a while!

Editorial 1 - Fly catcher

This was my first editorial illustration for The Great Editorial Race! In teams we agreed on who was doing which editorials and i landed the first one! It was good fun though and i am pleased with the result.

The feed back for my illustration was mainly positive but noted was the fact that the title of the article was in colour and therefore the publication would obviously be using a colour printer and it would be almost a shame to miss out on the opportunity of using colour when sometimes you are restricted by these sorts of things. With this in mind i created this version: 

I am really pleased with how this turned out! I am growing more confident with digital colouring and it didn't take me long. I was afraid at first that the colour would detract from the line work (as it's quite detailed) but i changed the opacity and fill levels of the colours and now i think they actually help to enhance the line work.

And as i cannot leave anything alone....

did this version with dots in the background, i quite like it! I know i have crept out of the box a bit but i think it adds to the illustration. The nature of it being a plant just lends itself to growing outside of the borders. 

Interview with an illustrator: Abigail McKenzie

During the Gold Arts Award in the summer i worked alongside Abigail McKenzie, who was the main teacher, but is also an illustrator and many other things too! I took the opportunity of asking her a few questions about her life and work...

Me: What are your current job roles, and how long have you held them?
Abi: Illustrator since 2009, FE Enabler since October 2011, HE Study Skills tutor since April 2012, Short Course tutor since September 2012, Arts Award Advisor since May 2013 and Barmaid since the age of 18!!!

Me: What qualifications do you have?
Abi: Fundation Degree, BA (Hons) Illustration, PGCE Post Compulsory Education. 

Me: How did you get into teaching?
Abi: I worked in an art gallery after finishing my degree, doing workshops etc. I had to leave due to job cuts, damn the recession, but i decided to carry on teaching so i did a PGCE. 

Me: What do you like most about your job?
Abi: Sharing knowledge. 

Me: What do you like least?
Abi: Seeing people who have been teaching for so long that they forget why they did it in the first place and are no longer passionate about teaching. 

Me: Do you think your illustration degree has helped with getting education jobs?
Abi: Yes, usually it's a requirement! It has helped with other jobs but you shouldn't be judged on your degree level, it should be about your experience. 

Me: In terms of teaching, what skills do you consider to be the most important to do the job?
Abi: Being transparent: If you are lying, the students will see right through you and you need to be able to build trust. Being well researched is also important. You should be research about contemporary artwork and artists in a broad range of subjects. 

Me: Have you found you are able to merge illustration and teaching/education or found a balance?
Abi: No! Normally there's too much of one and not enough of another. There are not many jobs around so when a chance came at earning some money comes up i will take it!

Me: Have your career aspirations changed from when you started your degree?
Abi: They change everyday! I want to do everything!

Me: What would you say has been you most successful method of self promotion?
Abi: Social media and being online for sure. The internet is great for publicity and a quick way to get people to see your work. 

Me: Thank you!

I learnt a lot from Abi both through this little interview and by working with her everyday. She was great fun to work with and gave some insightful and honest answers to my questions.

Being a Student Ambassador...

I have been working as a student ambassador at the college for almost a year now and i only just thought about mentioning in as a part of my work based learning!
From February to July 2013 I worked with the Outside The Lines Group (part of the Saturday Arts Club) every Saturday morning. This was a relatively small group of 4-8 year olds and my tasks each week were to assist the teacher in setting up, gathering materials and helping the children when needed etc. I put myself forward for the job with great enthusiasm and had a lot of fun in these sessions. I learnt many new techniques and worked with a lot of different materials which was great but i also learnt more about time keeping, punctuality, lesson planning and communication which has been very beneficial.

During the summer holidays i had a fantastic opportunity of working with a group of students doing their Gold Arts Award at the college. This was a group of 14-18 year olds who worked intensively for three weeks, completing a number of creative tasks/projects and earn some UCAS points.
My job was to work alongside the Arts Award Assessor and provide help/guidance to the students when needed as well as my usual duties for the Saturday Arts Club (sourcing materials etc).
This experience was great and i got to work with a group of dedicated and very talented young people. They were brilliant fun to work with which really surprised me in some ways as i have been used to working with really young children (2 years working in a pre-school!) but this group of teenagers had a fabulous work ethic and it was a privilege to work with them.

Working with this age group for the first time was an eye-opener so when term time came around again i requested to work with an older age group for the Saturday Arts Club (now called the Young Arts Club). It is a completely different experience working with this age group compared to before. I am really liking being able to have conversations with the students and they seem to like asking my advice about their work which is quite cool!
Working with the Young Arts Club had made me reevaluate my previous ideas about teaching as a possible career, though i would go so far as to say i would probable prefer to work within further or higher education- something i will research further in work based learning i think.

Christmas Crafts...

In preparation for the illustration crowd taking over the new shop space in Drake Circus, we got hands on in illustration cafe today creating christmas decorations (predominantly out of paper) as well as making illustrated instructions to go with them. Hopefully i will have enough time to print a few of these and package them up nice enough to sell!

Woody @ PCA

Notes from our talk/lecture by Zara Wood (aka Woody).

Personality: Keen eye for detail, loves all things vintage. Moved around a bit, from 2007 she has had a studio space in Brighton, before that she was in Melbourne and other places.
Nature has a big influence on her work and she also has a keen interest in photography and catalogues anything interesting/inspiring that she sees.
Difficult to put a label on what she does/who she is  :
Illustrator, potter, graphic designer, art director...
...CREATIVE! Used both as a noun and an adjective

She describes her illustrations as not being perfect, in particular her digital drawings as she likes to keep the hand drawn quality of her work.
She would be lost without her sketchbook! :-)
Her sketches are important as they could develop into artwork (personal and professional) and maybe into products.

She uses alot of traditional methods and print processes within her practice, not just pencil and paper etc.  --it is important to document illustrations throughout these processes especially if it is for a client.
TIP: If you draw traditionally, scan images at really high resolution and colour digitally thereby allowing you to adapt your image really quickly (if you need to).
Also know which file format the client wants/needs.
Printing: know about CMYK, gradients etc (ask tutors, technicians, printers etc) Use the people and facilities at college whilst we have them!!!

As a commercial illustrator:
the task is to communicate visually and problem solve creatively. She also creates products, does some of her own personal work as well as work for clients (also With clients- collaborative work in exhibitions etc) -- Mirror Mime.

Fashion:
in 2008 Zara was approached by Topshop to create a range of fashion designs under her own name (!)
She designed several illustrations under one theme and also went so far as to create the swing tags, this gave much more to include in the way of press (editorial pieces in magazines and online etc)

TIP: Be aware of your audience--Demographic
Zara was commissioned to decorate the walls in a childrens ward in a hospital- had to be aware that the audience would both be children and adults. Also it would have to be deep cleaned regularly so she created her designs in vinyl.

Miniature artwork: vintage necklaces, take your art with you! (fab idea!!!) each character has a small story, is it art or a product? or both!?  --Quality control an issue as they were in such high demand and making too many might mean the quality slips. (although i think not as they looked ace)

Enquiry Desk: Set up by Zara and her friend/illustrator/agent.
Live portfolio advice- Pick Me Up (summerset house)
Online- WOW (Words Of Wisdom) - graduates and creative professionals giving advice and tips

TIP: Draw on your interests, not on what everyone else is doing. This will bring enthusiasm and energy into your work and it will be more unique. Will have a real meaning to it. More enjoyable too!
Experiement!
Understand the different processes
Use different media
Play with scale
Don't limit yourself

Q&A:
How do you find commissions? Is is through an agent?
-No agent, be creative in finding clients (bikini lists-lists of editors etc)
Does it matter where you live?
-No!! Live where you want to live. Be inspired by your environment. You can use email, skype etc as effective modes of communication.
Is it important to keep your work separate in your portfolio?
-From an agents point of view, yes- Its good to have a coherant voice and a consistent body of work.

Commissions and clients:
Co-operation - very important, need to work well with other people and communicate well.
-what do they need? Whats expected of you? Whats your role in a project? All good questions to ask.
Outsourcing:
-when there is not really an inhouse design team and the art director must look elsewhere for creatives.

Advertising:
usually consists of a creative team- copywriter and art director
Art buying department-who would probably contact you? vice versa.

AOI: Commissioning illustration---READ!

Illustrators Survival Tactics:
-Creative Talent on demand
-Technical Knowledge and Skills
-Licence Agreements

Copyright: is instant and automatic. As soon as you put pen to paper you own that image.
Protecting it is a different matter...

Licence Agreement: find out as much information as you can from the client, via email is good as you can keep a sort of paper trail just incase. Good communication and good practice.
-Who is it for? Duration? Exclusivity? How many units?

(Case Study) Email from an art director for a commission...what do you need to know?..
-Who's the client?
-Where is it going?
-How many ways will it be used? (collateral assets- flyers etc)

Don't set a quote until you have all of the information. Find out everything!

Setting a fee:
-Try not to set a daily fee/hourly rate
-it's about usage
-AN-Artists Newsletter- Online budget calculator, helps to work it out
-Break it down (materials, time etc)

Making and Selling:
Make sure to distinguish between making for a customer (the public) and making for a client (private/art director etc)
If its for self promo be aware of costings.
Create an online presence.

Zara Wood's talk was really interesting and really really helpful!
She had a real enthusiasm for what she was talking about and it reassuring to hear her talk about things like how where you live doesn't really matter and not to limit yourself to one area etc.

Stage 2- Five full page illustrative sequence

For stage 2 I chose to illustrate an instructional sequence using 5 full page illustrations. I chose children as my main audience because it best suited the style of illustration i could see for this project.

I am really happy with the result and i am really glad i made myself use photoshop to colour the images (even though i don't consider myself very good) because the more i used it, the more i understood how it worked and how i could get the best out of my artwork. It was strange at first using digital means of colouring etc. because i am used to using traditional media for my work but i do not think i would have got such a good effect if i hand-rendered these illustrations.

22 Panels Comic Art Show

As part of the 22 Panels Comic Art Show in Falmouth this year we (just a few of us) took part in an interactive comics installation and workshop : Town. 
First we did some warm up comic exercises, creating characters and 'filling in the blanks' on some comic layout sheets provided by Jack Teagle!

This was a really fun exercise and having some panels filled in already made it quite easy to create a narrative (a task i usually find quite difficult). It was also really handy having a comic illustrator there for advice!

This is a character i created from three two adjectives and a noun chosen by other people! This was a challenge but a fun activity to get the creative juices flowing!

This is the summative comic i created from my character and based within the town we created in the afternoon.

To establish back stories and influence our comics we made a small (and rather odd) cardboard town!

I had a really good time in Falmouth and the work we did was really helpful in my understanding the structure of comics and different ways of generating ideas for creating sequential images and narratives. We got to meet some interesting people and because our group was quite small we were able to talk informally and get some valuable advice for our artwork and practise.

Quick Comics...

To get used to the structure of comics and begin the sequential image making module we created these quick 6 panel comics based on the word 'lunch'!

I had a bit of extra time so i thought i would see what my comic would look like with colour. I really like the overall affect, in particular the colour palette, and it was really good to see it looking more finished. It feels like a proper piece of artwork now, not just a quick drawing. 

Drake Circus Project

Illustration students in general were asked if they were interested in helping out the people at Drake Circus by creating and implementing a large chalk illustration on the floor outside the shopping mall.
Of course, me and Micah said we would do it!
The people at Drake Circus saw the lovely chalk artwork that was done at college for the summer show so luckily for us the main person behind this was able and willing to help us out and we definitely would not have been able to do this without Cass Horsley! (And her amazing A level students who helped out on the day too).

There were alot of time restrictions and other external factors we had to consider for this project which was quite a challenge as usually we work with pencils and paper but this time we had to think about ordering chalk, making sure out design was suitable for the materials/space, what days we were all free as it would take a good few hours, what days were going to be dry as this project could only go ahead if the weather permitted us!!

Also, we had only a few days to get the design created, approved by the marketing bods at college and then forwarded to the marketing people at Drake Circus (as they wanted the chalking finished by the weekend). Me and Micah spent alot of time in the canteen sketching out ideas together, luckily we both approached the task in different ways; Micah started creating characters and icons etc. whereas i began by drawing out some background images and playing with typography which meant we could easily merge our ideas into one cohesive design.

It was a challenge to come up with a design (one that would be very public!) in such a short amount of time but we tackled it head on and through email were able to get the designs approved by everyone and ready to draw up!

We settled on the only dry day of the week, started drawing at 10 am and were finished by just gone 2 pm (just as it started to rain!). It was really good to work with other students from the college and amazing to see our design so large and in so public a space.

Here is the press release from the marketing department at college:

Let us draw your attention…

To celebrate the launch of a new free Wi-Fi service at Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth, students from nearby Plymouth College of Art will be using their creative talents to produce some eye-catching street art on Thursday 31st October 2013.

The new Wi-Fi service, in partnership with BT, will enable shoppers to surf the net while they shop.  Second year students Charmaine McDonough and Micah Shaw, both studying BA (Hons) Illustration at the college, were set the task of working together to develop a design which they will transfer onto the pavement in coloured chalk.  Assisting them in the impressive chalking project will be a group of Plymouth College of Art A-Level students, Eleanor Tucker, Emma Nichols, Liam Jenner, Claire Downing and Summer Varley.  Lecturer Cass Horsley, who is also a photographer and printmaker, will be coordinating the team “A project like this one gives students an idea of what they can do professionally. Integrating HE and FE students is also very important, it gives them a great sense of progression.”

The project has been planned, designed and created by the students in less than two weeks and the students were lucky to have an open creative brief from Drake Circus.

Charmaine McDonough one of the two illustrators commented “We jumped at the chance to work together on something that would be high impact and visible to lots of local people. Its been great to have a brief that is open to us to interpret’

Proposed design by BA(Hons) Illustration students Charmaine McDonough and Micah Shaw.

A-Level student, Claire Downing said “It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to work together with other students on a big project out of the College.”

Cass has previously worked on a similar project for the Plymouth College of Art end of year Summer Show in June, the artwork, designed by student Jess Driver provided a colourful welcome to visitors of the show.

Cass in action and the completed Summer Show chalking

Why not pop along to see the artwork come to life outside Drake Circus Shopping Centre by the corner glass door entrance at the top of the stairs near Marks and Spencer on Thursday 31st October.

To get online at Drake Circus, search for ‘BTWifi - Drake Circus Shopping Centre’ on your smartphone or tablet.

End

Drake Circus Press Office

Ashley Chapman - ashleychapman@weareonshore.com

Simon Whittam - simonwhittam@weareonshore.com

http://www.drakecircus.com/news-events/free-bt-wi-fi-launched

To arrange pictures or interviews please contact Leanne Daw, PR and Communications Officer for Plymouth College of Art on 01752 203434 ext 789 or email press@pca.ac.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

Plymouth College of Art’s origins date back to 1856 and we are a specialist and independent art college in the heart of Plymouth city centre. We offer a distinctive variety of programmes in art, design, crafts and media from part-time and short courses through to Foundation Degrees and BA (Hons) Degrees, and Postgraduate degrees, Creative Professional Development and Business courses serving the needs of the creative industries sector. Currently some 2,500 students are enrolled at the College.

Continuing investment in the College’s estate and technical resources, coupled with highly qualified staff, ensures that all students have access to a high quality practice-based experience, enabling them to achieve their full potential. The College is recognised for its effective partnership and collaboration, for example in widening participation into learning and exceptional quality employer engagement, while also being a member of the National Arts Learning Network.

Design work: 

final design!!! We had to simplify it quite a bit because of how we were going to render it but still looks good i think!

In the flesh...

Even though it rained just as we finished there was a great sense of accomplishment and the people at Drake Circus loved it as well as the lovely members of the public who came so see what we were up to! 

It was a great opportunity to work on a live brief for a real client, especially such an open brief and even better i got to work with Micah on the designs which we don't get to do very often :-) .