Really loose image today, was fun though, need to work on my poses i think!
Sunday 30 June 2013
Daily doodle - hedgehog mechanic??
Tuesday 25 June 2013
Daily doodle with a brush pen - little skeleton dude!
I have been loving Skottie Young's work for a long time now and his style is starting to rub off a little. Looking cool though!
Monday 24 June 2013
Friday 7 June 2013
Wednesday 5 June 2013
Transferable skills poster !
My transferable skills poster!
The idea was inspired by the front cover of a Dr Seuss book named The cat in the hat.
Monday 3 June 2013
SWOT analysis - student - comic book artist - children's book artist
Being a student is where i am currently, the two below are job which i could see myself doing, i have projected myself into the roll and filled out the sheet accordingly
Sunday 2 June 2013
Pro's and con's of two job roles
Children's book illustrator
In the future i would love to illustrate children's books, being quite childish myself and having quite a loose style make my images appropriate for story telling. I love drawing little creatures and leaving some of their story blank to allow the viewer to decide what happens next. I like the idea of working with writers to make a story which would then be published world wide, i want to see my work on the shelves. The overall experience that i would gain from getting a job as a children's book illustrator would make me stronger as an artist and also give me the ability to tell stories and communicate ideas which could open up the doors for future jobs. Pro's
- Potential chance to work with kids - Could lead to book signings at schools and even mini workshops which i would run.
- Loose style works well in the genre of kids books - My style has always contained a hint of humor and since i have started uni i have developed a few different styles, some more appropriate for this job than others.
- Collaboration opportunities - I could meet other book illustrators which could lead to a collaboration product in where we would all contribute an image, it's always good to throw ideas around with new faces.
- Good pay - a successful children's book could bring in a lot of money.
- Potential full time job - Could get signed on by a publisher for future projects.
- Will get to meet new people within the industry- This will give me the chance to build up my list of contacts which could help me further down the line with future job aspects.
- Free lance work - When starting off i may get commissioned to illustrate a couple of pages in a book, this is a one time payment and probably wouldn't be enough to support me.
- Self motivated - I have to motivate myself to find the work, i have to push myself to make all of the images the best that they can be, it is up to me to get my work out there.
- Competition - There are thousands of children's books getting published every year, there are a lot of jobs going but there are also a lot of artists who are willing to take your place should you not meet a deadline. You have to stand out from the crowd, your style has to be unique and likable.
- Will need another job to start myself off - Like the first point, most of my first jobs will be free lance and they will not be enough to support me, i will need another job to secure a roof over my head, putting time into another job will take away time that i can work on my images which could potentially hinder the quality of my work.
Blue Banana
This is my current job, i work at an alternative clothing and body piercing store called Blue Banana, i have been there for nearly two years and this was my first paid job. The store is literally a couple of minutes away from the college so i can easily finish work and head to a lecture or vice versa, it's also not that far from home so it is even more convenient. I live at home but i still need to buy my own food and various other items, the store offers me a weekly income which helps me support myself. I have also manged to get the right amount of hours so that i can keep on top of my work as that is a lot more important than a part time job, though it is nice to manage both.
Pro's
- Time management - Arriving on time is good etiquette and it also allows me to plan my day fully, i can plan when i need to put in some extra time for any lectures that i may have missed. It also allows me to prioritize things and make a list of what is the most important.
- weekly income - Reward for me to work towards each week.
- Till skills - Learning how to use the tills interface can prepare me for any future jobs in retail should i need one.
- Work as a team - Great team building skills, working together to get the sale.
- Meet some interesting people - I meet new people every day, you get talking to some interesting people, i have had people bring up illustration and then had them interested in my work through conversation.
- some artistic opportunities - I got the opportunity to draw some images for some potential tee shirts which would have been sold in the shop if they were good enough. Was pretty cool and i got to work with illustrator a bit more. Below are some of the ideas i came out with.
Con's
- Takes up college time - Work is fine but sometimes they call me in when i am busy and it gets in the way of my work, so far i have not let it effect my grades but the second and third year will require me to focus more and i'm hoping that work doesn't get in the way too much, if it does then it will have to go.
- same old thing - Being there for nearly two years has taken it's toll on me, i do the same old thing day in and day out, all of the days sort of merge into one.
- Pay isn't great - even if this job was full time i don't think it would be able to support me if i lived by myself, i have to wait till i am 21 to get a pay rise and even then it isn't great.
- Not living to my full potential - Every hour i spend in work could be another hour that i use to draw or to prefect another skill which can help me in the illustration field.
Saturday 1 June 2013
Jack Teagle Lecture!
Jack mentioned that he had a lot of influences which help him to make his images, here are a few:
- Howard Finster ( Click this one!) (Or this one! )
- Ryan Heshka
- Craig Atkinson
- Gary Baseman
- Gary Panter
- Henry Darger
Jack is also influenced by a lot paraphernalia from his childhood, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Godzilla and Batman were among his favorites. Wrestling figures were his favorite and a lot of his characters mimic the limited action poses that you see on wrestling figures today. Muscles were also highly exaggerated on those figurines and Jack adds those tiny details to his own characters which has helped to build up his style.
Jack experimented a lot with screen printing at university and that process has also had it's influence on his style, his use of block colours and heavy lines give the screen printed effect, this made his work very appealing to publishers such as Nobrow and Anorak. Jack made the habit of keeping an updated blog, he would post nearly everything he drew in attempt to get a job which evidently paid off. Whilst Jack was on the dole he made an image and posted it online, to him it was just another one of his drawings, someone soon contacted him to ask if they could use his image on some coffee packaging. Jack would work fast with his images to get it all out there for the world to see, the more little jobs he got the better, it all adds up.
Soon after this, Jack got noticed by Nobrow and got asked to feature in one of their annuals, this is where Jack's career started to snowball. Soon Nobrow asked Jack to illustrate a full comic which thy would then publish, the comic was called Jeff Job Hunter and it was a story Jack wrote when he was trying to find work after university. Since then Jack has produced more work for Nobrow, here are some of the books Jack has illustrated:
Jack started to work digitally to both save time and make his images neater seeing as they were now normally being used in publications and posters. The FIGHT comics really got his work rolling and opened up more opportunities for Jack, it wasn't long before people started recognizing the characters from his comics and began to ask for pieces in the same style for various products. Jack soon nailed a job illustrating an entire taco truck. He covered it with his wrestling characters, it looked like this:
No Guts No Glory
No Guts No Glory are an association who help aspiring artists get their work noticed. Jack got the chance to work with these guys and make some low budget zines which they could sell at conventions for a small profit. Jack also got to screen print some of his designs onto shirts and jumpers, Jack also worked on a 24 hour comic called Dick Williams. (Click here to see the comic )
Anorak
Jack got noticed by publishers Anorak, this combined with his time with Nobrow gave him the experience he needed to successfully make it as an illustrator with sustainable income. Jack told us that working with Anorak made him further refine his style, he would paint a lot of characters for Anorak, it was then that Jack started to experiment more with his digital skills. After working with Anorak for a while Jack soon got employed by them, this job was the first time Jack ever got to focus on editorial illustration.
Jack didn't give up when there was little work, if anything that inspired him to make more work, he took the skills he learnt from uni and adapted them to refine his own style, he got jobs by posting his work online and hoping for the best, all it took was one job to get him noticed. Jack came out of university knowing that he liked to tell stories and he knew how to tell them, he used his childish influences to easily annotate his stories, he applies his knowledge of screen printing and painting to his image making to great effect.
We finally had a questions and answer session with Jack.
I asked him if he liked having a lot of little jobs going on or just one big one, i also asked if he limits himself to a certain number of jobs at once.
He said that he preferred the smaller jobs and he had a bad habit of accepting a load of jobs at once, he went on to say that three is about his limit. He also said that he would normally have one or two jobs that have a small short deadline and one job that has a longer deadline, this is a good way to keep money coming in throughout the month and therefore a good way to support himself.
Someone else also asked him how he got an agent.
He said that he got an agent mainly through his work with Nobrow and the fact that he won the student award help by the D&AD.
We finally had a questions and answer session with Jack.
I asked him if he liked having a lot of little jobs going on or just one big one, i also asked if he limits himself to a certain number of jobs at once.
He said that he preferred the smaller jobs and he had a bad habit of accepting a load of jobs at once, he went on to say that three is about his limit. He also said that he would normally have one or two jobs that have a small short deadline and one job that has a longer deadline, this is a good way to keep money coming in throughout the month and therefore a good way to support himself.
Someone else also asked him how he got an agent.
He said that he got an agent mainly through his work with Nobrow and the fact that he won the student award help by the D&AD.
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