Presentation Slides and Script

Presentation Boards

Portfolio

Evaluation

The importance of the PP module has become much more apparent over the course of this year. I have always been reluctant to showcase my work through a website or online social media as I felt my practice was still developing and that it wasn’t ready. I was looking at the end of the course as a point where my practice would be a finished product but after the Hanbury Symposium and talks from visiting lecturers it became clear that this was not the best approach. The professionals we heard from talked about their practice constantly progressing since they left education, informed by their experiences in the industry and personal projects. My online presence and identity should then develop alongside my practice. My website, social media and portfolio should be reflected upon and curated regularly to make sure they present an appealing and accurate representation of my practice at that time. 

When I was designing my website I looked at a range of professional illustrators’ sites to get an idea of what was necessary, what worked well and what not to do. I decided to keep the site simple, made up of three pages: a gallery, a ‘contact’ page and an ‘about me’ page. My first attempt at writing a description of myself and my practice was too formal and after talking to tutors I decided to change it. I wanted to communicate that I liked telling stories through my work, but rather than just say that, I decided to demonstrate storytelling through the ‘about me’ section, expressing my passion for my work. I created some GIFs of my character designs to use on my website to bring my characters to life and make the website more interactive and appealing. 

I printed out a first draft of illustrations for my portfolio which gave me the chance to get feedback from tutors and visiting professionals towards the end of the module. That feedback combined with the advice we received at the Hanbury symposium has helped me to understand what it is that publishers and agents look for. My portfolio needs to develop alongside my practice in the same way as my online presence. I also need to keep printed A3 copies of a wide range of my work so that I can tailor my portfolio to the specific agent or publisher it is being presented to.  From the talk by Chloe Morgan from Plum Pudding I got a good understanding of what children’s book publishers and agents specifically look for in a portfolio. I need to create character study prints that show my ability to maintain a character consistently through a range of emotions, actions and scenarios. I need to have the confidence to include development work. My portfolio should include character designs that are common to children’s books such as animals and children, and a variety of scenes from vignettes to full bleed page layouts. A key piece of advice I was given when arranging a portfolio is to start and end strong to create a positive initial impact and to leave a lasting impression. It is important to make sure the portfolio is varied and balanced throughout. Views on how to do this will vary from person to person but it is an important consideration when deciding where to place work within the portfolio. 

As part of my professional practice it is important to understand the legal, financial and ethical responsibilities of a freelance illustrator. There are a number of government organisations that can provide information related to self employment. Illustration specific advice and support is available for members of The Association of Illustrators who provide information on all aspects of professional practice including pricing, contacts and finance. Maintaining a professional network of illustrators can also provide help and information on these issues as well as support and encouragement. 

Over the course of the module I have developed a plan for approaching publishers and agents and have already started sending portfolios and manuscripts out by email. I have just had some manuscripts printed to send to publishers that only accept physical submissions. I have contact information for some of the visiting professionals that I have met this year and plan to contact them over the summer once I feel I have fully implemented what I have learned throughout the year. We have the Hanbury Exhibition in July that I am using as a target to finish two publications I am working on as personal projects. I plan to have them printed so that I can give them out at the event. I also plan to attend the Bologna Book Fair next April to expand my network and introduce myself to publishers. Throughout this process it will be important to maintain my online presence as it will be used to maintain and build upon my professional network. My online presence through my website and through social media will act as a representation of my practice, persona and brand. It needs to be an appealing, well-crafted and accurate representation of what my practice is, how it can be applied and why I do it.

Presentation Draft

Portfolio Feedback

I got these illustrations printed off on Tuesday for my portfolio. I experimented with different orders trying to keep individual projects together, making appealing double page spreads and making sure the illustrations didn’t constantly switch between portrait and landscape. On Friday I had my final one to one tutorial and was able to get feedback on my portfolio as well as improvements that could be made. It was pointed out to me the importance of having a strong opening image and an equally strong closer. There are a lot a varying opinions on how to order the rest but the general aim is to keep it well paced with no weak points. I need to give more thought to my first and last images and ask why they should be there. Could possibly make the final page a ‘thank you’ with some characters. Needs to be something to remember. If someone looks through you portfolio then you have a conversation this could well be the page that is open while you talk. Would be good to pick a more complex image or collection of characters demonstrating character design, narrative and humour.

As well as making changes to the order we discussed what I should add to my portfolio. More storyboards and roughs would be a good way to demonstrate my practice and how I got about. Creating illustrations. I should add a wider variety of characters, such as pirates, vikings and astronauts etc. It would be fun to try and come up with concepts to make these pages more interesting so that they demonstrate my personality as well rather than just being typical children’s book characters. In-depth character studies would be a good way to show I can consistently draw a character in a range of movements, scenarios and emotions.

We also talked about widening my scope of who to approach with my work to include stationary/card companies such as UK greetings and hall mark.

Manuscript

I have just reviewed some professionally bound copies of one of the books I have been working on this year. The book is unfinished and consists of finished illustrations and roughs. I have had these printed to send them out to publishers that accept unsolicited manuscripts. I much prefer sending a physical copy rather than a pdf version as I think the tactile nature of a printed book much more appealing. When sending digital copies it is necessary to lower fila sizes to meet specifications and this can mean lowering the resolution of illustrations. I font want to have to compromise the work I have created. I have been compiling list of publishers that accept manuscripts, both digital and physical copies. Now that the competitions I entered this year have finished I am able to send copies of my books out to a range of publishers. I have chosen to have the manuscripts printed as staple bound brochures to keep costs down but have opted for good quality recycled paper to make sure they are a high quality and appealing item. As I have been printing quite a few of them and realistically most if not all that I send out will not lead to any feedback from publishers it was important to balance cost and quality to make the manuscripts suitable for their purpose.

Website problems

I have been having trouble adding GIFs to my website. I really liked how they looked as part of my gallery but the page kept crashing slowing down and pixelating the GIFs and at times forcing the site to glitch and then have to reload. Reading up about it I found that the site is trying to load all of them simultaneously and struggling. It was very discouraging as I had spend several days creating animations for that purpose. I then realised that if I spread them out over the pages of the site and only used one on each page they loaded almost instantly. I would have liked to include more on the gallery page but the gifs I have placed on the 'about me' page and 'contact' page have a strong impact standing out by themselves on a white background. I have been getting SLIGHTLY better at using after effects and have now want to create more GIFs specifically for the specific pages.

I have also been trimming down the number of illustrations in the gallery. At first when I was trying to populate the site I added some older illustration I was not all together happy with. I think by showing less the illustrations That remain have more impact.

IMG_1265.TRIM from Joe Boon on Vimeo.

Gifs

I have been working on some GIF's for my website and social media. Adding moving parts to illustrations even something as small as eyes blinking or looking left to right draws the eye, especially when part of a gallery surrounded by stationary images. I think that straight away the gallery section of my website looks much more appealing and engaging. Using movement also gives me more options for demonstrating character, emotion and narrative, bringing my characters to life could make them more appealing to clients, publishers and agents. Developing new skills can also benefit my practice massively, I am only starting out learning animation but when I become proficient at it I can complete a wider range of jobs. I am seeing animated illustrations used for advertising and marketing more and more so if I am able to do both I will make myself a more appealing option for clients rather than having to pay an illustrator and an animator to complete a project. I am going to continue working on animating more of my illustrations. I already have ideas for some more complex animations that I am not skilled enough to make yet but I want to use those ideas as a target to push me forward.

Scott Bakal Talk

These are my notes from the Scott Bakal talk. It was a really interesting, honest and open talk from a very successful illustrator. It was very reassuring to hear about where his practice was when he left education and how much it has changed to present day. Its good the have it reinforced that you don't have to feel like a finished product when you finish the course and that you constantly evolve and push your practice. One thing that stood out to me the most and I think is a mistake I have made this year is that you shouldn't be producing work purely on what you think people want to see. If you need approval from someone else to give your work value how can you ever be truly confident in it?

He spoke about putting yourself into your work and allowing your experiences, surroundings and personality to inform your practice. Taking time out to find inspiration is also important, go and see new things, gain new perspectives, notice small everyday things that you never looked at in detail before. If everyone is getting inspiration from google images then everyone's work will be the same. 

he also gave us an example of how personal projects can have a huge beneficial impact on your practice both in terms of development and creating exposure to your work exactly as you want it to be seen. Personal project give you the opportunity to showcase your personality through your work with no outside influences and control. The talk was inspiring and also well timed for us to take the ideas and apply them over the summer into our professional lives. 

Scott Bakal

 Can’t be complacent.
Need to challenge yourself constantly

Get your work seen
if you don’t like it doesn’t mean other people won’t

Be healthy
Engage with artistic community
Start sketch booking more

Skulls of ultimate death website

Base work on life experiences
Find inspiration
Roughing

Key words
What symbols would work
Illustration helps explore humanity

New York Times
Swatting

Shows how powerful work can be

Am I free to go
Book cover

When you have an idea that works make it
Look back at roughs from previous jobs

Look at process films on YouTube

Missing out unnecessary lines
Blocks of colour, texture contrasted with line work
Rough edges on sold shapes
Big shape small details


Dream clients can turn out to nightmares

End up being much happier with ‘boring’ clients

Never feel like a finished product
Constant experimentation
Through ideas and materials
Look back and find things you didn’t fully explore

Robert Johnson series
Changed everything
Won lots of awards
Changed direction of career
Ended up in a museum

Keep digital files of previous work
Maybe also annotated
Organised

Three by three
Society of illustrators
Social media

Time management
Understand you practice
Set self deadline before actual deadline in case something goes wrong
Got process sorted, so try to spend as much time as possible on ideas

Believe in your work

Put yourself into work not what you think people want
Show people your work
Allow your experiences to help you find the right direction
Be an artist first then figure out how it fits into the market

James Jean sketch pads

Business Card - Revised Version

Postcard Ideas

I have edited some of my illustrations to use as postcards to take to events like the Hanbury Exhibition and the Bologna Book Fair. I could also send them out with manuscripts to publishers and agents. I tried to pick strong illustrations that represent my practice and that work well in the format and dimensions of a postcard. My older business cards look a bit dull in black and white and I think these illustrations better represent my practice as a whole. I have added my contact info on the back of the postcards including my website address, phone number, email and Instagram account. I thought about adding more colour to the back of the postcard but I think it is important for the contact info to be as clear and easy to read as possible. I think that a nice addition to the back of the card would be a small character ad the side of the contact info to keep a consistent identity throughout my marketing materials.

Laura Carlin Talk

These are my notes from the Laura Carlin talk today. It was the best talk I have been too so far. It was really good to get an open and honest insight into the work and thought process of an imaginative and expressive illustrator. It really interested me the way she thinks about how to communicate subjects. A good example was how you should think outside of the obvious and how that can benefit your work. If you are asked to illustrate a woman you could just draw her, but that would not necessarily tell you anything about her however if you draw the outcome of some of her actions that could demonstrate aspects of her personality. It makes the viewer of the work feel a closer connection to the character. That's not to say that you shouldn't draw the character but that it is a good idea to think well beyond the text or idea you are illustrating. What does the character feel about what they are doing? What are they thinking about?How can this be communicated through their facial expressions or posture. Following on from this is the importance of looking up from your phone more often, noticing the small day to day things that people can relate to. Relying on stock images from google can make your work stagnant and generic. look around and get away from your desk to get inspiration. think about postures and actions you encounter day to day that will not be found in posed photographs. Use your own loves and hates to stimulate your inspiration, this will help make your work individual to you. I feel like this is something I have lost this year. by completing so many briefs i think at times i have reverted back to 'safe' techniques and made literal and quite simple illustrations to communicate narratives. This is something i want to explore more over summer when I have more time. I have printed my current portfolio but would like it to look very different by the end of summer. I want it to demonstrate humour, emotions and character as well as my as well as my skills at character design and landscapes. A lot of people on the course have been worried, feeling they're not ready to jump straight into the world of professional illustration, including myself. It was very reassuring to hear a successful illustrator talk about working in a non illustration based job after university and illustrating on evenings, especially in such as positive light. I have found each year of the course that I learn throughout the year but am only able to properly apply that new knowledge over summer when I have more free time and space. I plan to go to the bologna book fair next year and can use that as a target for me to aim toward so that I don't lose focus over the summer.

Over all the talk today made me want to start experimenting more, both with my practice and with book ideas. It made me realise some things I had been trying to achieve through my illustrations but that I hadn't been able to sum up or even pin down to a specific way of working.







Laura Carlin

The importance of being yourself

If you follow trends your career lifespan will be short
What do you like
What do you hate
What annoys you


Follow up ideas

Don’t be afraid to ask

Start emitting things that aren’t necessary from scenes
Exaggerate things
Change scale

Make books , more books
Teach you to edit your work
Keep folders of things that inspire you


Children’s books
Play- images should be playful
Observe all the time
Don’t miss small details
Look up from your phone
Don’t illustrate everything
Pose questions
Spark the imagination
Don’t repeat the text
Draw just before or just after the action

The woman
Does a picture of her tell you who she is
Could a picture of something else do it better


Don’t need to go straight into full time illustration after uni

The iron man - ted Hughes
Not patronising
doesn't change tone of voice for children

sympathetic to the iron man

Collaboration works for you
They like doing what you hate
And are good at it

Children’s books is tough
End up producing tons of work boiled down to a book
Even people like Jon Klassen struggle
Publishers don’t give children much credit


Try and get into the world you are illustrating
Create the landscape
Storyboard the book, bock in colour and white space
Work starts to look static the more you are familiar with it
Find devices in design to switch up compositions
Devices that fit the narrative
City- close in borders- claustrophobic
Think about body language
Posture
Movement
Can look right without being ‘right’

Ceramics started selling during recession
Started as a hobby on evenings
History is prejudice so I just add a bit more
Learn skills along the way
Could end up being profession, could inform other work

Andre Francois

Create back stories to everything and everyone
What are they doing, where are they going, where have they been, how do they feel about it

Read a text
Watch films with a similar feeling or from a similar time
Then put the book away to gain some distance
Helps to separate from the text

Find people who are honest about your work to get feedback from

Get away from your desk to think
Walk away between stages
Draw through struggles
Don’t panic

Website update screenshots

Portrait, key piece, portfolio front page

Website about me page

In my tutorial last week it was suggested that I change the ‘about me’ Paton my website. The writing was too academic. I have now changed the page, the idea is to demonstrate my storytelling skills and show my enthusiasm. I have tried to show why I enjoy what I do and what I aim to communicate through my work. It is strange trying to change my style of writing after the cop module this year but is something I have already been practicing while writing children’s books. The tone is completely different and so is sentence structure. Repetition can be a useful tool with this style of writing, especially within narratives when trying to create a rhythm to the story. Writing in a more expressive way about my work is something I need to get more comfortable with, it is easy to make things sound cheesy or pompous if not thought out properly and it is harder to judge what is appropriate when their is more leeway to be creative. I am going to show my reworked about me page at the crit on Friday and get some feedback.

Original about page text

"I am a 33 year old freelance illustrator currently working in Leeds. I specialise in narrative based illustrations, in particular children's literature and comics. I like to write and illustrate children's books that are both stimulating and fun. I enjoy communicating humour, character, atmosphere and emotion through my work. Most of all I love telling stories.

Feel free to contact me by email or telephone with any questions."

updated 

"I love to tell stories...

from epic adventures of monsters and new worlds to the magic of everyday events we take for granted. Stories full of weird and wonderful characters that are more like us than would first appear. characters that laugh, cry and grow just like us. The most far fetched fantastical story can teach us about our real lives and the simplest and most mundane situation can be the most magical."

Plum Pudding

plum pudding talk 

Applying for work experience at agencies etc

Working on the other side, working with illustrators 

Kept asking for more work until got a per men’s title job

People send in work

Find artists through Instagram 

Find illustrators work through Instagram 

Attend book fairs 

Work closely with illustrators 

Look for animal characters 

Full colour spreads and spot illustrations 

Don’t want illustrators style to crossover within agency 

Maintain own online presence even if you have agent 

The do weekly mail out of illustrators work 

Send art to specific clients that work would suit 

About a third of their illustrators also write

Work with them to develop ideas 

Publisher usually act as middleman between author and illustrator 

If they see potential for animation they will include a clause in the contract saying the artist maintains animation rights 

They help with contracts 

Publishers often want to keep the rights 

Digital is not a huge market with children’s books 

Usually put illustrators work straight in front of publishers

If they feel development is needed, or portfolio needs certain things they will help

If the need to fill out certain aspects, character, covers, full spreads 

Would be beneficial to do an internship at an agency or publisher 

Animals 

Children characters 

Vignettes 

Full spreads 

Development sketches 

Character studies happy,sad, running, eating 

Show variety sketches and finished pieces 

Portfolio

This is the first draft of my portfolio, I have not decided on the order of the illustrations yet and there are a couple of extra pages that may be removed. After this mornings talk I would also like to create more character sheets exploring a range of emotions and actions as that is something potential agents and publishers will want to see. I also want to produce some more work with text, up until this point I have worked using black fonts of a white background to make the text easily readable but I think my work would benefit from text that suites the aesthetic of the illustrations. I have a print slot booked for tomorrow to print off 20 A3 sheets fro my portfolio so that I can put them together and start to test out different orders and see which works best. I want to wherever possible put landscape sheets together and the same for portraits but would also like to keep individual projects together. I am going to try out a range of orders to see what the best balance of the two is.

Michael Driver Talk Notes

Michael Driver Talk

Submit to zine fairs 

Help out at art events 

Get involved 

Engaging with real work issues 

Pop culture 

Relevant topics 

Instagram is useful 

Look who other illustrators work with, follow them 

Up to date topics help illustrations spreading 

Gaining exposure

Not really a good idea to message directly

Just a good way to get work seen by them 

A5 mail outs saves money 

A3 becomes very expensive 

See what works for own practice

Could send zines or small prints 

Important not to break the bank 

Could offset print runs by selling some of them 

Do mailouts when your busy instead of waiting to be quiet 

Mail outs 3 times a year 

When quiet

Check in with old clients 

Ask friends for contacts, more mailouts 

Website callec Ello

Make the most of the internet 

Make interesting things  

Email saying I like the work you commission, my work is similar 

This is they way I work and why it could be good for you 

Have to grab attention quickly 

Posting work out is better 

Keep a broad scope 

Creative industry is much more than just illustration

Don’t have to rush into jobs 

The graduates list 

Creative review 

Don’t work for free 

Keep links with other disciplines, animators etc

Can be very useful if you are asked if you can complete a project 

More attractive to employers if you can arrange it all yourself 

Make sure you look after everybody you know in the creative industry 

Pictolene-news outlet

Often gain jobs on the back of personal work

Rather than rubbish jobs making flyers etc

Can be very cliquey 

Leeds is a good way to avoid all that 

Can work from anywhere 

Just need to be good with communication and timekeeping 

Keep pushing 

Just do it 

Have confidence 

You’ll get used to what works and doesn’t emailing people 

Need to be own hype man 

Professional 

1/2 day to 1 day a week on admin

Reply quickly to job emails 

Can cost you jobs if you don’t 

Advertising is where the money is 

Bright colourful images 

Agents want illustrators who work on advertising

Advice

Human characters need some work

A bit static

More colourful 

More full scenes 

Make dummy books 

Work on character design 

PP tutorial

I had a one to one tutorial today that helped me to get a clearer idea of the direction my practice is going in and what I need to do. We discussed:

- changing the ‘about me’ page on my website to better appeal to my target audience. The text should be less formal, treat it as if the character next to it is saying it. In the text I say I’m a story teller so I should demonstrate that.
- add some simple animations to the site, even something as simple as some of the characters blinking would be good. Makes the page more interesting. Will stand out in a page full of still images. Feels interactive.
- broaden my scope of people to get in touch with. Look beyond publishing to animation, television, advertising etc. possible collaborators.
- I should look at the presentation as an advert for my work. Sell my practice. Think about the tone and language. Does it suit my practice and the image I’m trying to put forward.
- can show development work in portfolio, would be nice to see various stages not just polished finished products. Think about page layouts, full page images or a number of them on each A3 sheet.
- don’t treat deadlines as a end point, continue to develop work and experiment.
- speak to more agents. Send out portfolios and links to site.
- keep working on character designs demonstrating narrative, humour, character, emotion etc
- keep sending work to publishers at regular intervals as your work progresses, keep looking at the website, evaluate if you need to remove older images. As practice changes older work may no longer be relevant.
- make presentation boards/issuu documents for each completed project evaluating its success.

Portrait development

Contacting Publishers

Yesterday I updated my website with recent work, I have found two publishers that accept portfolios and want to make sure my site is showcasing my work as well as possible. My website now contains a range of work from character designs, development work and finished spreads from picture books. I have contacted two publishers, the first was Barrington Stoke that just ask for a link to an online portfolio or website and the second is The Bright Agency that that ask for a PDF of at least 10 illustrations. I put together a PDF including some recent character designs as well as pages from the books I've been working on recently. The publishers say that it can take them 2 months to look at portfolios and that they don't reply with feedback unless they are interested in your work. The odds of hearing back I would think are slim but this is an opportunity to get my work seen by publishers an I shouldn't let a lack of response put me off trying again. In my one to one tutorial yesterday it was suggested to me to send portfolios at regular intervals, maybe every 6 moths to demonstrate the progression of my work, work rate and enthusiasm. I found a number of publishers that accept unsolicited manuscripts but the books I have made at the moment are entered into competition briefs. once the competitions are over I can send the manuscripts to a range of publishers so I need to keep a list of publisher that I think my work would appeal to. So far the list is

- Anderson Press
- Templar Publishing
- Mogzilla
- Flying Eye
- Imagine That

Walker books don't accept submission but they do advertise jobs on their website. They are currently looking for a design assistant. It would be worth keeping an eye on their site to see if any positions come up that i would be interested in.

Contacting illustrators

Over that last few weeks a have been trying to contact children’s book illustrators, mostly illustrators that are also authors as that has been the focus of my practice this year. I have mainly been sending emails so have made an illustration saying hello to try and make them a bit more personal and to stand out and hopefully encourage them to respond. I have also included a link to my website. So far I have only had one response but it contains some useful information and advice. A lot of the advice is the same as we cover on the course but it is nice to have it reinforced by other practitioners. This does highlight why I should be aiming more at publishers and agents to try and promote my work at this stage rather than just asking for advice from fellow illustrators. This is the advice I got back from
Emma Levey:

"Hi Joe,

Thanks for getting in touch with me and good luck with your final year this term.

I am pretty busy at the mo so can't take too long on this but hope the little I can offer is worthwhile.

1. Be prepared for a long old slog! It's a hard industry to get in to and not the best pay. Don't work for free and only do spec work if you get paid for it.

2. Get an agent but do your homework. My advice is to look for agents that look like they would represent your 'style' and see if there's room for you (and that you'd stand out) on their books.Know that it's easy to get a rubbish agent and difficult to get a good one. Do not go with my old agent. They were TERRIBLE. But they did help get me my first book deal.

If you're specifically going down the picture book route then try looking for a literary agent.

3. Make sure you have a strong portfolio of about x20 images showing range. Character development, b/w illustrations, observational drawings and final pieces based on narrative projects.

4. Buy this book, it will pretty much tell you everything you need to know
https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/store

5. Attend book fairs. They're great for networking and for seeing what's going on in the market. 

You don't have to go to all of these but Bologna is the best one

Bologna Book Fair

London Book Fair

Frankfurt Book Fair

6. Draw, draw and draw!

Enjoy your last couple of months at Uni and make sure to try and stay in touch with other students on your course. The freelance life can be a little isolating at times.

I work in a shared studio space which definitely staves off the lonely vibes and is a very supportive environment. “

It was really nice to get this reply and it covers some very important and useful information. I had been thinking about attending the Bologna book fair, ideally getting a table at it to display my work. Every illustrator I have talked to mentions the importance of building and then maintaining a network that helps to provide job opportunities and also acts as a support network. Networking isn't something that necessarily comes naturally to me so I need to make sure I attend these events to get used to it.
The advice about what a portfolio should contain follows on from our portfolio workshops and tutorials and highlights the importance of demonstrating a range of work/skills. Including work that demonstrates your abilities in a range or formats and stages of development.
The advice about agents is really good, it is difficult starting out to know what a good agent is and also easy to feel like they are doing you a favour by giving you your first break. I need to start researching literary agents, looking at who they have on their books and thinking about how my work would fit.

Presentation Task- Planning

Presentation plan

Start with brief description of what I’m going to talk about
Give a background to myself, what I did before college
What it was like coming back to education
Breaking my practice in the first year
Feeling lost and not knowing what my practice was
Getting into a cycle of experimenting
Enjoying communicating through my work
Moving towards children’s books
Completely changed how I see my work
Lack of confidence
Building slowly

Questions
1 - I see my self as a children’s book illustrator who works primarily digitally. I write and illustrate children’s books and enjoy using humour and emotion in my work. I think I am at a stage where I need to step more into the professional world.

2- not really

4- online social media, through my website, entering competitions

5- I have been using social media to direct people toward my website, Instagram has been most effective so far bit I think other platforms will overtake it once I have more substantial completed projects.

6- I have had some but need to be more proactive in getting in touch with industry professionals, hopefully get some from the competitions I have entered as well

7- when I started my work did not have any meaning behind it, I wanted to make images that looked ‘good’ or impressive, this may be because I came from a background of graffiti art. I feel that the way I think about my work has changed massively over the three years as well as the aesthetic of it. I have learned how to apply my work within the industry.

8- useful, I value getting the degree but it isn’t the reason I came here, I wanted to learn new skills. I feel that the thought process that guides my practice is the most useful change and has had the most impact on my practice. On top of that gaining confidence in my work, understanding the industry and learning new processes have been the biggest changes through the course

9- where I was before coming here.


How I have changed over the 3 years. (Talk about struggles)
Where I see my practice now.
What I plan to do next.
Where I aim to be in the future.


10- to showcase my practice and be able to articulate what I do and who I am.
As part of the jobs I want to work on I will need to be able to explain my actions and choices, describe how and why I work as I do and promote myself .

11- yes, sections of it could be used on my website, could be taken forward into meetings with publishers etc. Build confidence is articulating my work. It will be useful to look back at in the future and measure if I have achieved what I wanted, have my goals changed and what progress I have made.

Drinks water side
Gif
Stop motion
Jump off point, the future
Pause early on to slow pace
Humour to break tension

Contrasting - why it’s better
Branding, clothes

Presentation Seminar

Pp presentation seminar

What is the purpose of the presentation?

Sections could be used as a pitch
Could use a video, maybe around 3 minutes
Where do you fit in the professional world
Why do you do what you do
How do you present yourself, can transfer to website and beyond


Dress appropriately- who is your audience- what is the tone of your presentation
Say hello, smile
Look at the forehead, or just over their head if your nervous, helps avoid eye contact
Speak clearly, confident
Use silence, slow the pace, adds emphasis, helps manage time
Start with description of what your going to say
Summary to start
Preamble

Preparation builds confidence
Cuts out waffle
Plan it, structure the presentation
Don’t try and cram too much in
Use arm and hand gestures
Good posture
Move around
Gives confidence
Be human
Not robotic
Use slides to prompt rather than notes

Breathing to calm nerves
Take drink, can use it to regroup
Slows the pace
Looks confident

Break up into sections
Referring back to summary
Appropriate language, what’s appropriate?
Try not too be too rigid
Avoid playing it safe
If you’re selling yourself it should be interesting and appealing

Starting off too fast
Could use props to slow down the pace
Usually levels out as time goes on
Pause, take a breath
PLAN THESE BREAKS IN BEFORE HAND!

Keeps slides simple
We are illustrators, slides should reflect that
Don’t avoid vulnerability
Everyone in the room can empathise

Tailor presentation to personality
What suits you
What suits your practice
Don’t take yourself too seriously

Use 3’s when listing things
Look more at use of language
Structuring sentences
Imagery, alliteration

Could have quote on a slide then talk around it
What have you chosen it
What does it mean to you
Make it personal to you
Why do you do what you do!


Give a black ground to what makes you want to do this

College Network

We were talking in the seminar before Easter about the importance of maintaining the network of illustrators from the course. The network could act as a support network to offer advice and feedback. Keeping contact with everyone would be mutually beneficial helping to inform each other of possible jobs, recommend each other to potential employers and clients help each other with larger collaborative projects. We have had three years of offering feedback through crits and my work has definitely benefited from them, it would be very helpful to continue some form of platform to extend this process beyond the end of the course. With some members of the course most likely moving away from Leeds this could take the form of an online discussion page. As well as supportbwith work  the network could help support and advise each other through what is a fairly daunting transition into the professional world.
In a more positive way we could all work together to promote our individual practices to as a group to reach a wider audience. This could be through exhibitions or publications both online and printed. Doing this would help to combine the reach of all members of the network and produce an appealing publication without one person having to put in a huge amount of work. Publications could even become a regular practice showcasing everyone’s latest work.
We have talked before about being proactive and creating projects for ourselves instead of waiting around doing nothing. This would be good practice at working collaboratively on self promotion and would be less daunting than trying to do it alone.

Promotional Material

My website has been live for a while now and I have been trying to expand my social media presence on Instagram and linked In. I have gradually been populating these sites with my work but still struggle as most of my up to date work has been completed for competition briefs and I don't want to put them online until the competitions have finished. Instagram has been working well, making gradual progress expand my connections. I think I could make more use of Instagram by messaging Illustrators who have been published and asking them for advice about how they got started.

I also would like to start making some promotional material to hand out at events and sent to publishers. Something to make me and my work stand out when sending manuscripts. I was thinking of making post card sized prints, possibly personalised fro each individual scenario if possible or if not something nice and simple but that has a simple narrative to it. I want the illustrations for these to catch both the eye and the imagination of the person receiving it, whether its a simple joke or something more emotional stimulating I would like them to have an impact and be memorable.
I could also make other products but need to make sure they are tailored for the purpose. primarily they are something to advertise me and my work so need to be able to showcase my work as well as possible. The items need to be something fairly small so that they are not an inconvenience for the person receiving them. Business cards are the easiest and simplest option but I would like to find something that is more interesting/unique to stand out and something that is more likely to be kept/used to remind the person receiving it of my work.

Ideas
- Pin badges
- Personalised note pad with my work as the cover
- Signed a5 print (single image or comic layout)
- Small story book
- A set of character stickers (maybe components to make your own character/scene)

Time to get to work on the illustrations!!!

Extended briefs

I have now finished all the competition briefs for my extended module. I chose briefs that would help me develop my practice and possibly help me gain some exposure and contact publishers as well. The main focus of my extended module has been illustrating children’s books, I have completed:

- the Carmelite prize- illustrating a children’s book based on a story that they supplied
- the Templar prize- to illustrate an original children’s book that I wrote myself, I only found out about this competition with 10 days left until the deadline. This provided a good exercise in working towards a strict deadline. I enjoyed the process but found I wasn’t able to test out idea as well as I would have liked.
- the Penguin book cover brief- I entered this competition this last year and didn’t really enjoy it but decided to try again this year. Although book cover design is not the focus of my practice it was a good excercise in combining image and text effectively and working to a strict layout. There is less freedom that designing book pages and a large amount of text that needs to be included, the cover also has a very specific purpose that needs to be considered throughout the design process. I think it is beneficial for my practice going forward to be familiar with book cover design and also the be able to apply my practice a range of formats.
- I have completed two submissions for the Macmillan prize, one of the books was taken from my COP module earlier in the year and the other is an updated version of a book idea I had last year. I have submitted both to the competition and ideally I’d hope they do well and I receive some feedback about my work but I also plan to keep working on one of them so that I can have a finished book ready to showcase at the Hanbury exhibition. The polar bear book I have entered for this competition is a project I have really enjoyed and something I would like to continue with and send to publishers that accept manuscripts. It would be helpful for me to get as much feedback about both my illustrations and writing as possible at this stage.

Tintin annual launch night

I made a Tintin cover annual for a brief set by North Bar, the aim is to raise money for St Gemma’s hospice by selling books of the cover as other merchandise. The cover I made and covers by 23 other artists will be displayed in North Bars venues in and around Leeds starting with their first venue In Leeds city centre. The is a launch night this Friday and all the artists involved have been invited to attend. This could act as a networking event, I don’t know who the other artists are but presume most are Leeds based. North Bar also works with a number of independent breweries that could be possible clients for my illustrations. This is another avenue I would like to explore and meeting the management of North Bar while showcasing my work could act as a good introduction. I need to make sure to make the most of the experience!

Publishers etc

I have been looking at more publishers to contact and possibly invite to Hanbury, I am still finding that a large number, especially the larger publishers do no accept unsolicited manuscripts but I have found some that I am able to contact and try to ask for advice or a chance to show my portfolio.
I found a publisher called Halliday books that seems quite interesting, the company is a design agency as well as a publisher, they design corporate identity, branding, character development and animation as well as publishing children’s books. The site is not the same format as other publishers and they don’t have many books showcased on it but the ones they do have received critical acclaim.
The site doesn’t say if they accept manuscripts but does have a contact form. It would be worth getting in touch to ask them for advice and inquire about pitching a book or showing my portfolio to them.

The next publisher I looked at is Lonely Planet Kids which is a large company with bases all over the world including the UK. I wasn’t sure about looking into contacting them as they are such a large company but I did notice on the site they have a list of their illustrators and authors, it could be useful to contact them to ask advice, especially ones based in the UK. Could possibly lead to inviting them or a representative of the publisher to Hanbury.

Graffeg

Graffeg is a publisher based in male that accepts ideas for children’s picture books, the format for submitting seems a lot more open that the other publishers I have looked at and suggests more of a collaborative effort between the author, illustrator and publisher. This could be useful for first time authors/illustrators to work alongside someone with industry experience. The specification is to submit a document that includes:

- a brief description of the idea for the book
- an outline of the story
- the target audience incliding age range
- the purpose of the book
- what will the reader learn/gain from reading it
- illustrations outlining the story
- a word/page count
- a preferred format, small, medium or large, softback it hardback

They also accept submissions for gift and stationary ideas such as calendars and cards related to their core subjects

Looking through the range of children’s books published by Graffeg the core themes appear to be nature/animals, the only have a fairly small selection of children’s books. Looking at the books they publish many of them deal with quite serious or dark subject matter, the loss of a loved one, mans relationship with nature and cautionary tales of love. This could be a good publishervto approach about my books that deal with more than just simple fun narratives.

Barrington Stoke

http://www.barringtonstoke.co.uk/blog/2014/04/02/dont-slush-pile/

I was just about to give up on my research into Barrington Stoke as they do not accept manuscripts but their contact us page pointed me to an article on their blog explains why they have always taken a proactive approach to publishing. The article was very honest and made some good points about why their business model was not suited to accepting unsolicited manuscripts as well as the problems it presents for the industry as a whole. Just as I was about to start looking at other publishers I noticed a comment at the bottom of the article asking about how they find illustrators. It turns out that they do accept emails linked to portfolios or websites from illustrators. I plan to send links to my website and try to see if I can arrange an opportunity do take my portfolio to show them in person. That’s definitely the first time reading the comments section of anything turned out to be a good idea!

Anderson Press

https://www.andersenpress.co.uk/about-us/submitting-a-manuscript/

Anderson press is based in London and publishes children’s book for a variety of age groups. Their website states that for picture books the required amount of text is approximately 500 words. It is worth bearing in mind these kind of specifications when working, I would also like to compare this with other publishers to see if there is a fairly standard word ,count throughout. It would be a good idea to create books that could be submitted to the largest number of publishers possible. It would also be interesting to see if the books by my favourite authors and illustrators fit the criteria.
Anderson press only accept manuscripts posted to them. I would think this is a good way to cut down the number of submissions and filter out the people who are not willing to spend the time and money to print and post their manuscript. Personally I feel that sending a high quality print of my work to a publisher is much better for me than sending a low res pdf. I work mostly digitally and use a lot of textures in my work that can become lost in a low res image, I also think that digital looks much more appealing once printed out, especially on nice textured paper.
I would like to find out who works at the picture submissions department at Anderson press and invite them to our Hanbury exhibition in July.
I had a look through the recent releases in the 0-5 age range and there is a broad mix of books. There are remakes of well known classics, bold fun and colourful books for very small children, books to appeal to both parent and child, books based around humour, books that deal with difficult emotions, and debut books from new authors/illustrators. I read an article that gave advice about submitting to publishers and it mentioned the importance of researching the publisher to make sure your work fits with their current releases, I definitely feel that I could  approach Anderson press with my books.

Characters for portfolio

In my one to one tutorial for the extended practice module we talked about the trend of character based children’s books and it was suggested to me to create some character sheets to add to my portfolio. Publishers at the moment are looking through portfolios and picking out characters to use as the basis of books so it seems that in some cases it is better to have a range of characters than developed books, I have mentioned before that publishers want to be involved in the development of books from the early stages and by working this way they can be involved from the very start. I have been working on one off characters, mostly animal characters as that’s is something I feel suits my work. I have been creating a range of characters some by themselves and some as part of more detailed compositions. At this stage I feel it would be a good idea to look at the current trends in children’s publishing, specifically based around anthropomorphised characters, human characters and subject matter. Through these character sheets I want to be able to demonstrate my ability to communicate through my illustrations, especially simple narratives, actions and movement and emotion. I think creating a portfolio in this way will allow me to showcase a broad range of work demonstrating my skills, rather than just showing a finished book that is all completed in the same format, media and aesthetic. The characters need to have exactly that, CHARACTER! I don’t want to create generic animal characters, I want to develop them further putting them into appealing and interesting scenarios to inspire ideas and possibilities in anyone viewing them. The character sheets are effectively a menu for publishers and the illustrations should stimulate the imagination but not be so specific that they limit their possible uses. I want to play with interesting situations, humour and emotions through these characters.

Can you do everything

I have been concentrating on children’s books this year, the ones I have enjoyed most are the ones I have written myself but I think as much as this could be a strength of my practice I should also be looking for opportunities to work with authors. I found an article by an author and illustrator talking about the pro’s and cons of writing as well as illustrating. By doing both you can be more appealing to a publisher as you are effectively fulfilling two roles, the problem is if you are significantly better at one of those roles than the other. Your illustrations could be let down by you writing or vice versa. As a writer and illustrator you are hoping agents and publishers will want to take on your artwork and writing. I think I should be working on preexisting texts and trying to find authors to work with as well as writing my own stories. When illustrating your own story you can alter elements of either the story or the illustrations to make a more cohesive and immersive book but it is likely that professionally I will not have that luxury. It is important to be able to work to someone else’s story as a collaborative effort responding to feedback. This is another avenue of children’s book illustration I need to look into, it would be good to talk to authors about their experiences of collaborating with illustrators. I could ask;

- how they are usually introduced?
- what appeals to them about an illustrators work?
- what are the common problems encountered in collaboration?
- what makes collaborations run smoothly?