END OF MODULE EVALUATION

Throughout this module I have picked up some very valuable skills and learnt a lot about life as an illustrator; for me this has probably been my most successful PP module as i've taken full advantage of the advice and opportunities I have been given. Through visiting lecturers and professional talks I've gained an insight to the creative industry, and I've learnt how diverse the meaning of being an illustrator can be.

Something I found personally to be a huge success was Print Stuff, the print fair I took part in in York as part of a collective, OK Sure. OK Sure is a collective made up of me and four other illustrators from the course, and it has been an extremely positive experience to be part of this; I feel our individual practices differ massively but also compliment each others, and I felt lucky to be surrounded and supported by such amazing practitioners. I found that especially during the print fair it felt a lot less daunting having the support of the collective. The print fair itself was also a really positive experience not just for us as a collective but for me personally; I found it really inspiring seeing other illustrators work and it was a good opportunity for me to talk to them about what life is like as an illustrator after university. The conversation I had with Marcroy Smith at Print Stuff was one I found particularly useful, and he gave me a lot of advice about my practise and the creative industry in general.

Pushing myself to get my work out there has also been something which has effected me positively. In the past I have lacked a lot of confidence in my work and in all honestly I think my practise has only just fallen into place; feeling happy with the work you are creating makes it much easier to put it out there for everyone to see. Something which was slightly out of my comfort zone was the Instagram takeover I did for a manchester based publication; I posted 6 pieces of my work on their account alongside captions about me and my practise. This was a really good opportunity for me to promote my instagram account and reach some other creatives I wouldn't have done otherwise. Instagram in general this year has been a really useful tool for me as an illustrator. I have made sure to post more frequently and think about the content I'm posting a lot more. I love how it works as a mini portfolio of work, and you have the ability to reach a huge creative audience. Beach London posting some of my work on their account has been another helpful aid in gaining reach on my account, and it also gave me a lot of confidence within my work.

Taking part in some exhibitions and showcasing my work to the public has also given me a good opportunity to get my work out there. This is something I said I wanted to concentrate on at the start of the year, and showcasing my work at The Old Red Bus Station in Leeds and the Fossgate Social in York has lead up to some potential commissions and sales, which shows they have been worthwhile and important for me and my practise.
Dealing with clients this year has been helpful as well as slightly disheartening; I've learnt that it's not always an easy road and there are going to be some set backs along the way. For example, the fact that many people often expect you to work for free/a small fee has been quite difficult; but it's made me realise how difficult being an illustrator can be, but also more determined.

This year I've also tried to further my professional practise by creating a website, which looking back is something I do feel like I should have done sooner. After researching other practitioners websites I decided I wanted to create a simple yet interesting looking website, with clear links to different parts and making sure I included all relevant contact information. I think my online presence is a strong visual representation of my practise as I've tried to stick with colours which can be seen frequently within my work. I'm pleased with my website and I think i'll feel a lot more confident when I'm applying to internships/jobs being able to show it. I do need to remember it's a work in progress though and to make sure I don't put anything work up i'm unhappy with for the sake of it.

My practical work progressing over the past year, and finding out ways of working I love, for example screen printing, has massively effected me as an artist and consequently had a positive effect on my professional practise, giving me confidence in myself as an illustrator. I never thought I'd feel ready to leave university, but this course and this module in particular has shaped me into a confident practitioner who is excited about what the future could hold.

DESIGN BOARDS

Digital portfolio

Presentation

Presentation notes

SLIDE 1:

• intro slide

SLIDE 2:

• started the year on a slightly rocky note. at one point I wasn't even sure whether I was going to be continuing the course, but after that blip and realising it's what I really wanted to do I made sure I got completely stuck into the course and my practise
• Feel like I had a turning point last year within my practise, but I really feel like this year I have found my 'thing' as it were
• This year is probably the year I have most enjoyed as I feel like i'm finally starting to realise what it's like to be an illustrator

SLIDE 3:

• COP!
• feel like I always say the same thing about this module
• I found juggling my cop module with extended practise and felt as though I fell behind a bit in my practical work while I was completing this module 
• I explored the idea of open work in my extended essay which I found really interesting, but I did find it quite difficult to produce a practical outcome which had a strong link 
• i've kind of accepted after three essays essay writing will never be one of my strong suits
• feel like I can speak for everyone when I say there was a huge sigh of relief after it was handed in and I could get stuck back into practical work

SLIDE 4:

• At the beginning of this year I mentioned in my manifesto I wanted to explore shape, colour and composition further as I feel like these are probably the three key aspects of my practise
• I've made sure to think about these three thing carefully while i've been creating images, and i think they were especially successful in these screen prints i did for Batsford Prize
• for me this is probably my favourite piece of work i've created this year

SLIDE 5:

• screen printing
• another part of my manifesto was to try and explore a range of different image making process; I especially wanted to get into screen printing as I love the aesthetic but after a few bad attempts I got put off
• I forced myself to give it another go and loved it which is something i never thought i'd say
• It's definitely become a very important part of my practise and some of my favourite outcomes this year have been screen printed
• its something i want to carry on with in the future 

SLIDE 6:

• something else I never thought i'd really enjoy that much is collaborating, after last years collaboration which felt very forced and didn't go too well I was a bit put off by the idea
• But I got approached by Beth off of graphic design and decided to give it another go and it turned out to be a success
• the brief was to re-brand a small coffee shop in leeds called Pump N Grind. The deliverables were to create a mural, a new menu design, and a new window display as well as re-designing the logo for the coffee bags and also re-doing the chalk boards sings in the shop. We decided to make some stickers as well for a little extra
• we worked efficiently together to meet tight deadlines communicated well throughout the whole project and worked really well as a team. I'm happy with the finished re-brand and definitely couldn't have done it without Beth
• This has made me a lot more open to collaborations in the future as I can now see how beneficial it can be

SLIDE 7:

• and here are the finished images 

SLIDE 8:

• something I have loved taking part in this year was a stall me and my friends ran as a collective at Print Stuff in York
• Our collective was made up of 5 of us and it was really nice to experience this alongside them. 
• For the fair I concentrated on producing some screen prints to try and sell; thought on reflection it was evident that the things that sold the most were the smaller items such as ceramics and pin badges
• I did sell a few prints though which was exciting and it's given me a lot of confidence in my work and enough confidence to potentially take part in more print fairs in the future
• It was also great to be in a room full of such amazing practitioners and to be able to go and speak to them about their practitioners and life as an illustrator 
• I worked on a small piece of branding for my prints which links directly to the branding on my website

SLIDE 9:

• which is something i've finally made this year!
• I feel like I put it off for so long as I thought it was going to be a mammoth task, but after hearing over and over the importance of a website while applying for jobs and internships I finally made one
• I wanted to keep it fairly simple but contemporary. I kept a simple theme and colour scheme and made sure it wasn't too busy with clear links to different parts of the website
• It does feel slightly empty at the moment but I need to keep telling myself its a work in progess

SLIDE 10:

• another part of my online presence i've worked on a lot more this year is my instagram account
• I've made sure to post a lot more regularly and I've been thinking about what I've been posting more and when to post
• I feel like instagram is very important as an illustrator and can be vital for commissions and getting your work out there. it almost works as a mini portfolio but it's nice that you can make it a bit more personal
• I want to keep my feed bright and colourful to best reflect my practise as a whole. 

SLIDE 11:

• working on some live briefs and commissions this year has meant i've been able to see my work in the real world
• this was a set of commissions I worked on for Banger Magazine which is a music listings magazine. I have especially enjoyed working on these briefs because of the outcomes of the magazine. I love the graphic design and feel like the pages compliment my illustrations quite well! It's also been nice to see my work alongside graphic design and other illustrators work 
• I'm hoping I can continue making work for this magazine 

SLIDE 12:

• another part of my manifesto was to push myself to get my work out there. This has meant i've been submitting work to more exhibitions and trying to give myself opportunity's to showcase my work
• the first image is of my work at the fossgate social in york which was part of the run up to Print Stuff; I got a commission off the back of this after someone had seen my print in there which shows it was successful
• the second image is of my work at Anything Goes, an exhibition set up by a couple of people off of visual communication
• the last image is of my work in Further North, which came after me and some fiends exhibited some work in North Bar in Leeds last year

SLIDE 13:

• where my practise is now is completely different to where I started in first year. I can't believe how far my practise has come and I feel so happy to be truly enjoying making work. 
• I have recently been exploring wood cutting and making 3D objects of my figures which I am finding really enjoyable 
• it's so nice to be able to create physical objects which I can hold in my hands, and I feel like this is a direction I'd like to take my work in 

SLIDE 14:

• what next?
• Over the summer I really want to try and find a creative internship or some work experience so I can start building up a creative CV to start applying for jobs
• I really want to be living in London so this is a goal for me and where i'll be looking for internships etc 
• My short terms goals are to just continue making work, and to make sure I don't stop now that uni is over. I need to keep the momentum going and carry on exploring my practise. I'm really happy with the way things are going recently so for me the future feels quite exciting (but also very daunting of course)

SLIDE 15:

• thanks! any questions?

Beach London 5 A Day

Recently on instagram I noticed that Beach London were posting 5 images of different artists work for something they call #BeachFiveADay! They post these 5 examples of the artists work and underneath caption it:

'We want your submission for #BeachFiveADay! Send us 5 images, MP4's, anything - could be a look at an exhibition, promo for an event, a panorama, a book...anything! Please send submissions to info@beachlondon.co.uk'

Here are some examples of their posts featuring artists James Christopher & Raul Soria:

I thought I might as well submit some images to them to be in with a chance, it would be a pretty good opportunity to gain some exposure as they have over 21,000 instagram followers! Here are the five images I submitted to them alongside a short email:

I thought these 5 images demonstrated a few different parts of my practise, and I wanted to keep them all in the square format as I feel like this best suits instagram. I made sure to mention to them that there were different methods of image making involved, which were digital, 3D and screen prints. I send the image of my wood cut 3D figure first as this would probably be the image i'd want them to post as the first one. 

I didn't think anything would come from it as i'm sure they get a lot of submissions daily, but a couple days later I got an instagram notification that they had posted my images!! I felt really excited as soon as I saw it as a lot of illustrators I really admire follow their account so there would be a possibility they would see my work! I'm sure they also have a lot of creatives following them so it was exciting that my work would be seen by this kind of audience.

Here is my post:

They tagged my instagram in their caption and also in each of the images they posted, which meant I actually gained quite a lot of followers from their post which is great. I think little instagram submissions like this are really good for illustrators trying to build up their instagram, as I'm sure a lot of the people who saw the post and followed me probably wouldn't have come across my account otherwise! Beach London also followed me which i'm super happy about. 

MY INSTAGRAM

• throughout this year I have used my instagram as the main way to showcase my work. I think it's a really good way to get your work out there as it's so universal and most people do have an account 
• I've learnt that hash tagging posts can increase the reach a lot, so I've been using relative hashtags on my posts, for example if I post a screen print I'll hashtag things such as #screenprinting & #traditionalprint and make sure to tag all my posts with relevant illustration tags such as #illustratorsoninstagram & #illustrationgram
• I've also learnt the best sort of times to post an image because of the algorithm it can be difficult to reach a large audience. I usually post around 5pm on weekdays or early in the morning around 8am
• I've been trying to post a lot more frequently than I used to and it's definitely reflected on my followers, which have gone up to nearly 500 this year which is exciting! I try to post a range of finished images and process shots but I do think I should post a couple personal pictures for example my desk spaces or maybe a photo which i'm in 
• I try to keep my instagram feed as colourful as possible to reflect my practise as best as I can. Also this is usually what people first look at when they look on your instagram instead of scrolling down the individual images