123 (The Sequel)

As expected of me I get to look back on this past year as an illustrator and pick 3 things that have been important and worth remembering to me in terms of my career prospects and my wellbeing as a creative individual.

1.) "Illustration as an adjunct" 

A conversation with my lecturer Gary Spicer at Stockport College has enlightened towards something that I find easy to forget. And that is it's easy for me to think of the image as a superior form of expression when in reality it is just one sense, illustration should be made not to rival the other senses such as taste and sound. When you look at a movie poster or at album artwork it shouldn't have to be a translation of the other senses that the object already expresses, the Illustration should enrich the experience when there is one already there, in other words it becomes an adjunctive part of the object that the end-user ultimately experiences.

2.) "Art is the ultimate goal" - Young Ha Kim

You can learn a lot from children as they build their sand castles not caring how the sea is going to wash it away. Kim describes within his TED talk that work needs a purpose for it isn't something you can enjoy, hence it being work, not play. It's easy to forget how fun art can be when you want to get payed for it and be professional. To a child art is the goal, they get to make something and that is their reward. Half way through a project when things seem not so fun I'll remember how lucky it is to be rewarded just for what I'm doing, the goal of art is just to make it, getting payed for it, that's the bonus.


3.) "Respect the arts and protect your career" - Steven Silver

Going completely against the last one and making sure no one misinterprets the last advice, I have chosen to paraphrase the title of two youtube videos from Steven Silver, Although being creative can be fun it is something that does take our time and as an adult we do need a goal to our actions and we do have bills to pay. Silver uses the allegory of mowing a lawn. A brilliant way to describe what creative professionals do because being creative is just as relaxing as mowing someone's lawn but no one in their right mind would expect someone to cut their grass without paying them for their time. Time is money after all and Steven Silver gives me confidence towards pursuing illustration as a career.