My 1st Illustration Friday submission…
Introducing: pattern!
Found *another* cool podcast – Big Illustration Party Time – I’ve been listening to the first few episodes about useful things like process, portfolios, etc., and there’s definitely some good advice floating around in there, in addition to some good, nerdy stuff about the benefits of different pencils/printers/inks!
Vinni Pukh – the Russian Winnie the Pooh by Soyuzmultfilm. Hand drawn/animated from little paper cut-outs, and somehow much more sweet and appealing than Disney’s version. If I recall correctly, it’s almost exactly the same as the original A A Milne story, except that Vinni is a “real” bear, not a toy. Therefore there is no Christopher Robin. Apparently the animators thought that (to paraphrase) the ”is this bear real? If so, and Christopher Robin is controlling him, who is controlling Christopher Robin?! Who really exists in this world? Are WE real?!?” side of things was too complicated for children. Well, I never thought of it that way.
Research shows that they also made The Hedgehog in the Fog – I remember seeing that on TV years ago and thinking how beautiful it was then. Looking back, I wasn’t wrong:
I wanted to do apiece with a little more movement in it than my work usually has, following on from last week’s nature-y sketch.
I was listening to a cheery radio play about people trapped on a burning oil-rig, it seems to have fed into this slightly, although maybe I’m the only one who will think that… hm.
0.2 pen, colouring pencil and acrylic ink.
Don’t often use PhotoShop but wanted to do this is colour quickly and painlessly (about 40 mins).
“A human can become a fish; a fish can become a god.”
He is sad because he can't hold the knitting needles.
I’ve never really drawn bears before… I kind of like this one. Someone suggested that I should try my hand at more natural history illustration, but I’m not sure this is what they meant..?
For an editorial on why wild animals don’t make good pets.
Royal Jelly: Royal jelly is the food of queens — queen bees. It’s actually a substance secreted from the glands in the heads of worker bees that’s fed to bee larvae. After a few days, the larvae that have potential to develop into queens continue to be fed this nectar. Since queen bees are much bigger, live longer, and are more fertile than all the other bees, this potion is believed by some to impart mystical qualities…
Sometimes I wonder about what to write in this blog; and, for that matter, what not to put. It’s personal – it’s entirely mine – but it’s also not. I would like to appear professional (employable?) to some extent, and yet there’s no hiding my student status. I would love to be able to get work as an illustrator/designer, and don’t remember wanting to do anything else much, which is clearly foolish in the extreme. It’s not an easy or lucrative area to get into, and competition is fierce.
So I suppose this blog is a chart of … my attempt? Also for the sketches I make without thinking and work I love making, even if I don’t get paid! Actually, I’d love and adore to hear from other newly-grads in my position, or who started off in my position who have had some level of success since joining the real world!
As a result of D&AD and P3, I have a few potential possibilities of commissions/sales/work opportunities to pursue, which is no bad thing.
Also, I got my degree results! module by module, it’s essentially 2 firsts, a high 2:1, and, infuriatingly, a low 2:1 on my Final Major Project, pulling my ‘first’ average down to a high 2:1 … which is still a 2:1, no matter how close it may be to a first! Urgh. I know that I didn’t achieve everything I wanted on the FMP, largely because I spent 3 of the final 5 weeks on crutches, in-and-out of hospital after spilling boiling water in my lap (not recommended!). Sadly the FMP is the one module whose marks cannot be exchanged or dropped, so I’m going to try to get it re-marked.
Interesting to note, I have one friend, now a full-time designer, who got a 2:2 and tells me that no-one ever asked after her grade, but conversely, another friend got a 1st with honours and some award or another in a less impressive-sounding subject (it has ‘media’ in the title! Horrors!), also fully employed, who makes known his various accolades , but not what subject they are in. Either way, it could be win-win! And a 2:1 is perfectly fine, really.
My next step: chase up those potential employers, and more!
Plus another event:Art in Action. I’m going to be an artist’s assistant to Shuhua Jin. I’ve done it for 3 years now, and always have a great time. I get paid in tea and biscuits, but I get to meet many other artists and crafts-people – last year I met illustrators Cliff Wright, Hannah Firmin and John Bendall-Brunello, all of whom are delightful and friendly. AiA’s view of illustration is far from envelope-pushing, but it shows off a good variety of styles and applications and it’s great to see work being created in front of you, or to go on a drawing/painting/sculpture workshop run by someone with crazy skills. 50% of profits go to charity, and the other 50% to help artists to feed their family. Aaaah.
This post is now quite long enough, and distressingly picture-free, so I’ll leave it there! Hopefully the next post will be more exciting for the artistically-minded out there 
