Side project: Projections

I was experimenting with a few photographs and layering my illustrations on top of them to create an image of a person (in the case myself) with textures of pencil layered on top. I have thought about colours and extracting those colours so that I'm left with a black and white image. The textures of the pencil works best on a greyscale background, this makes it look like the markings are part of the skin and that they outline the human body.

I would like to make this into a side project, maybe ask some of my photography friends to help me with taking photos of people that don't mind showing a bit of skin. And then i'd layer on top some hand drawn textures to give the human body another purpose. 

This would be a nice side project to focus on, but i really don't have time to be doing this at the moment as i have so much university work with deadlines approaching and i haven't done a thing. (Essay wise). 

Britain's Child Migrants: Exhibition project

Our second year illustration exhibition topic is about secrets and lies, so for my individual project i decided to base it around the historical event that is: Britain's Child Migrants. I recently saw an exhibition on this subject at the Museum of Childhood in London and i thought it is a great subject topic for our illustration exhibition. 

I plan to make an educational piece of work in the form of a newspaper that is aimed for the older audience of teenagers and adults. This topic isn't really suitable for children, because the things that happened to the British Child Migrants were really brutal, traumatic and really sad. I don't think young children would understand let alone would want to know about these traumatic events. 

I think...

And..

Professional Practice

Interview Report 

I have learnt that it is okay not knowing what to do after you graduate. Louise’s illustration career started off with her designing items to sell, other than that she would get random emails asking her to design little bits and pieces for example beer bottle labels and wedding posters/ invites. She didn’t find any work as being an illustrator anywhere when she first graduated, which she felt was frustrating. This is a little scary as I’m due to graduate next year, and I have no clue what I want to do, or how I will make a living out of it.

But with designing bits and pieces for random commissions and also making products to sell for her shop, she gradually built up a portfolio of work that had a strong identity to which she then made a website to promote herself on the internet as an illustrator.

I am unsure whether I should make a website for myself right now, as I have a blog, a Tumblr, a Facebook page and also post a few things on my Instagram. I feel like right now, I’m comfortable with my blog because I can post anything on there that I’m experimenting with or interested in. Its personal to me, but I feel like right now, I don’t have enough work to post on a website that shows who I am as an illustrator. In think for me, I might wait until 3^rd year or even after I graduate to start thinking about a website, then I’ll know for sure where I am with my illustrations and I’ll have enough to put on a website that I’m proud enough to show.

We asked Louise how her work developed since university, and one thing that stuck with me was that she said that her work develops every time she creates a design and that she didn’t mind getting unpaid work at the beginning of her illustration career because it was good practice. And now she has spent more time on working on her illustrations last year than ever before, completing her first book Up My Street.

That’s really refreshing to hear that she thinks her work develops every time she creates a design, because that’s how I feel with my work. I never look at my own work and think ‘That’s the same thing I’ve done before’, my work is different because its for different topics and its created in different stages of the year, so I do agree with her that when illustrating it does develop every time you work at it, and it’s a normal thing that happens.

One thing that surprised me about Louise is that she made a screen-printing workshop in her bathroom, while she was living in Vancouver for a year. She worked in a little shop that sold illustrative cards and prints and she decided that she wanted to make the same kinds of products, and so she made little photocopied cards to sell in the shop. She has the kind of attitude that I want to have, to just go out and do something, make something and sell it. But its hard while studying I feel because I don’t feel like I have enough time for myself, when I want to create something for me and not part of the course.

Time management is a massive role in being an illustrator because you have to juggle lots of different things at once, just like university. Once you have your own business like Louise, then you have to learn about the business side of things as well as the creative side, and I think that relates to my situation at the moment, having to juggle my theory side of the course with my creative side and also the personal work I want to make outside the course and also have time for everyday house hold things and socialising. Sounds like so much to handle.

Which is why it was interesting to ask about Louise’s day in the life of being an illustrator. She’ll start working around 9 or 10 am, then will go to the post office to send out outers in the afternoon and then continue working till 8 or 9pm. Which is a full day of working, but she says she likes to juggle lots of thing at once, but sometimes its hard to get your brain to flit between projects, which I can understand!

Overall it was a good experience to learn a bit more about being an illustrator from Louise Lockhart, and I really enjoyed reading her answers to the questions we asked!