Paul Farrell

In one lecture we had Paul Farrell visit to talk to us about his work and how we could get our work out there and what we could do to help us in the business. He made some really good point about the illustration business and how we can survive in it. One of the points I really liked was when we was talking about starting a project and to get a good inspiration and idea for the project you mainly have to focus on what was on the brief and was our own style could help us for this idea. I really liked this part because it was very nice to hear that you should not break out of your on style for a particular project but instead use your style and try your best with the brief to make a piece that resembles your art instead of someone else's.

Another point I really liked of his was when he talked about money and how to spend it wisely in the business by saying you have to make sure you can spend only what you can afford because you do not know what the public will like that if you spend a large amount of money on a project that doesn't become popular it could cause a major problem for money situations. I know this feeling as bit too well from the Comic book festival since I spent a large amount of money and was unfortunately unable to get any back. What he has described here by saying to get minimum orders and have trial runs could help me much more in future so if that same thing would happen again I would have not made as much of a loss as I did in the last convention.

Finally another point I really agree with was when he gave us some tips for this business by saying to keep creating because if we do it would make sure we are busy and it would interest businesses and customers because it will show we will have a variety of work. I really needed that advice because at the time I was more focusing on the same form of story-telling and art, however thank to that it has given me a much larger idea of what to do by making me think of what I can do differently than I normally do in my art. 

Overall I really enjoyed this lecture because it gave me multiple ideas of what I can do in the future to sell myself more to the industry of illustration and gave me much needed advice of what I had been doing wrong for this time and how I could fix my mistakes. 

School poems cover designs

One Monday in our lecture for our Final Major Project we were given three different topics and were shown examples that could help us for each theme, these were: Childhood Memories, Identity and Inside our heads. We were then given till the Thursday of the same we to make plans and a final cover design to present in front of three different schools who were making poems based on these themes at the time. These schools are Gloucester Academy, All Saint's Academy and Barnwood. Unfortunately I did not manage to create a final cover design for the theme childhood memories yet I was able to create drafts and ideas for it as you can see below.

Ideas page for Childhood memories

For Identity I thought of multiple ideas mostly conveying around emotions, some of these were focused on splitting different parts of the heads and to show different emotions in each part of the head, other ideas were based around superheroes and using stereotypes of them to show the image, an example of this was having the figure have loads of stress and argument attacking him while he uses a shield, similar to the comic book character Captain America to defend himself and keep himself sane. However for my final cover design of this theme I kept with the Superhero theme but changed it to show a superhero standing on top of a building ready to go into action and save the world, however cowering behind him was another form of the hero that was scared of going into the action, through this image I was planning to show that everyone has fear within them but they will try and hide it and act brave to not show how scared they are. When I showed this to the school, the students seem to really like the my design and the idea behind it and some even related themselves to the idea, they also gave me some good feedback and how I could change the design for the school would like it such as since it was an all girls school they asked if I could change my design to have a female hero instead of a male if they chose mine for the final picks which I agreed that I could. Unfortunately I was not chosen for the final designs which was disappointing but after the feedback and seeing the other illustrators' work I understood and agreed with.

Ideas page for Identity

Final design for Identity

For Inside Our Heads, I though of a few ideas which I could use as my cover design. As a reference for this design I looked at an old children's comic from within the Beano comics that I used to read called The Numbskulls which was about little creatures that lived within the persons body and had different jobs around the body to control it safely. For this I made some drafts of drawing showing the head of the person and all the people inside that were doing their jobs, however this was too similar to Numbskulls so I didn't use it. A design I made that wasn't reference to the comic was showing a computer that held a large amount of data of the person's mind that someone could access through different folders depending which part of the head they wanted to look at. However for my final design I went back to my reference of The Numbskulls and created a design that showed a large office hallway with multiple doors that had a sign on each one showing the different area the people inside the head will work in and I showed it extend out so then it seemed like it would lead to other doors that would lead to other parts of the body. When I showed this to the school a few of the students liked the idea, however I wasn't given much feedback which was disappointing since I wanted to know how I could've improved. Unfortunately this design also was not chosen for the final picks for the poem's cover.

Ideas (left) and final design (right) for Inside our Heads.

Risograph

One week the group was split into different groups are were given individuals topics around the same theme which was what it takes to become an illustrator. We were then asked to create an illustration ready to be made into a Risograph print. The topic my group was given was the law side of illustration. Unfortunately I had missed the session but asked around and talked to some members of the group and decided to do my illustration around copyright.

For this I instantly thought of an idea where it would show a person thinking of an idea and checking to see if its copyrighted only to find out it is. I then made a few thumbnails of how this could work and the design that worked best for me was one where the idea was symbolised by a lightbulb and after he checked for copyright the light bulb was covered by a copyright symbol to show that the idea has already been done.

For the final idea I decided to sketch it out in pencil first and then go over it with a fine liner pen. This work out really well because it allowed me to get the dark and thick tones that I needed for my design. We then had to hand in our design to be printed as risograph prints and then once they were all sorted and dry we had to use spot colouring in our design. For me I decided to use yellow as my colour and added the colour on the light bulb.

However due to altercations where I was ill for a period of time during the deadline for this project I was not able to complete my design to hand in for the risograph unfortunately.

Design before the spot colouring

Design after spot colouring

Facebook Page

I started my Facebook page in 2014 after talking about it with other people on the course and seeing artists I like sharing their work through this page. From then till now I have been posting artwork I have done onto the page whether it is work for the university, work experience or just personal work.

I have now invested in an etching tool, some acrylic plastic for etching and a Intuous Pro tablet to help me improve my skills and focus on my own personal style.

Georgina's and Fumio's background

In our lecture Georgina told us about her life and how she became the illustrator she is today. She told us about her business Pirrip press that she made with her friend Alexandra Higlett and that within the business they create a large range of work. She also told us about how she worked for charities by selling her work and the money she got she gave to the charity, not only was this a really good deed but it was also a great way to promote herself at the same time.

Georgina also showed us her notebook which she used for a project she was doing called "The Cold Press" which she was making for Norfolk gallery. The notebook was mostly visual drawings with notes on the side which I found a really good way to layout a visual notebook and it has made me think of how I could layout my own notebook.

Fumio was born in Tokyo and he has mentioned on a few occasions that he grew up with mangas and animes mostly through the 70s and 80s and that those forms of art helped create his love for drawing. Fumio moved to England in 1991 where he went to study a BA illustration at the Glasgow school and art and then went to get a masters at the Royal College of Art for Communications Design. He then mentioned how he was passionate for character design and how his tutors helped him pursue his career in sequential design. He also said he had a slight idea of what he wanted to do at the time he was at uni which is also true for me since I want to go into a career of sequential illustration as well. 

In 2008 Fumio decided to go work at La Cite Internationale de la Bande Dessinee et de l'image which was an artist residency set in Angouleme, France and through that he was able to have a good relationship with the French comic book scene. Fumio told us about his love for this industry and how they cared deeply about the genre. I really enjoyed his lecture because a lot of the stuff he has gotten into I would like to go into myself in the future and would love to go work in different countries because this lectures had really opened me up to all the potential illustrators can do.

Papio Press and Pirrip Press

We had Harry and Zanna from the third year come in to talk to us about their business on Etsy called Papio Press. They told us about the importance of organisation, since they had to make sure how to handle their business and how to sort out the pricing of their products. They also told us that to get a profit in the business you will have to invest a good sum of money. Their initial promotion fee was £200 but it has turned out really well with this investment considering they made a profit. They sell a variety of different items from phone cases to clocks, this intrigues me and has slightly inspired me to try and do the same type of stuff with my single prints, however considering I prefer sequential work I wasn't overly inspired by it.

In a lecture with Georgina she told us about a business she works in called Pirrip Press which she runs with her friend Alexandra Higlett where they create screenprinting products with high quality paper. What really interested me with this was when she talked about how they were both still independent artists yet have their own business which, after also hearing about papio press got me to think if I wanted to do anything similar to that in the future with a small business or with other independant artists that I am close to. 

Cheltenham Comic Book Festival

Back in early 2014 I was told about a Kickstarter project to help create a comic book festival to be hosted at the Cheltenham Race course and if I helped with the Kickstarter by giving enough money I would have a table on the day so me and another student paid half of the table price each so then we could share a table on the day. Fortunately for us the Kickstarter was a success and we were given our table.

The event itself was held on the 7th February so that gave us plenty of time to create some artwork ready for the event. For this I created five different pieces of artwork to sell on the day, two of which was fan art which I wrote on them that I did not own the rights to the character and the name of the companies who do own them. I planned for each print to make an A4 print and an A5 print so people could place them on their walls without having to consume too much space on the wall and paid the company AJ Green Printing to print 10 copies of each size print because I was told by Andrew that I should focus on between 10 - 15 prints each so then I wouldn't spend as much money and still have a nice variety to sell on the day. The printing company sold me the prints at a good price of only £25 which was very reasonable since I needed to prints done quite quickly so I could get them ready for the event.

Below is the list of what I spent for the convention:

Table: £20
Prints: £25 from AJ Green Printing
Money box: £15
Plastic sleeves: £10
CardBoard for back of prints: £3
£50 change for the day

Total Cost: £113

When it came to selling my work I asked for Andrew's advice of what I would sell each print for and he told me that for the A4 prints that I should sell them for £15 each and for the A5 to be sold for £10 each. I had also decided by then to sell the originals to try and make back my money for the costs which Andrew told me to sell for £30 for each original.

I also decided to advertise work for a fellow illustrator that I know from back home in return for her advertising my work on her page.

On the day I had to get there for 8:30 to start setting up. With my layout, which you an see below, I believe that it was a mistake not buying a stand or something similar because it made the table look too busy and messy. Unfortunately at the end of the day I was unable to sell any work which was very disappointing but I was not phased and decided to take this as experience and focus at what I did wrong so then I can improve ready for next years convention.

Table Layout

Mine and Dan's work on the table

Setting Up

Print One

Print Two

Print Three

Print Four

Print Five