Portfolio Meeting: The Opinion of Practitioners

In a previous post I mentioned how I was able to have my portfolio reviewed by the illustrator Natalie Wood. Recently when I was in London I got the chance to meet the Day Job Collective. A band of Illustrators who make a cohesive team, juggling projects and contacting clients as a group, which in essence allows steady jobs and productivity, basically they got a better chance of keeping the illustrator life as a day job through their collective (which isn't just specifically illustration but as a whole they have a multitude of skills). They have their own tumblr page and it's beautiful!

The Opinions I gathered from them was very similar to what agents mentioned but because they know what its like to be on the creative end they were very much interested in the development process. I learned from them that practical and traditional printmaking is still valued but also that it is very standard to use digital procedures to clean up and tweak the work. Their advice to me was to just keep being computer savvy, understand printing and file formats. And be considerate of colour modes and file compression. They also told me that a good website is just as good and all that is needed instead of using a PDF portfolio (although the PDF is there since not everyone has a net connection).

Portfolio Meeting: Opinions in retrospect

Because of the bad luck of not finding any potential clients to speak to within the past month. It got me thinking about any time where there was a potential client I spoke to in the past. So this post is a retrospective of the time I visited the Futureworks in Manchester,, at that time I was interested in a career in video game design (and still am considering what being an illustrator can get you involved in). I spoke to the people at SmashMouth Games, which in itself is a studio that acts as neighbour to their videogame design course at Futureworks, a practice most studios could do with.

My portfolio was very different from the one I had now (it had still life pieces which I wouldn't be caught dead with having in my portfolio now). The opinions I took from that meeting, especially from speaking to a man named Zuby Ahmed, was that for a career in video game design clients want to see characters in many different angles and poses because of the fact that they need to be animated and may involve being in full 3D, what's more better for them is to see characters interacting with others and their own environment. Another thing to note is on environment, the fact is that games as an interactive experiences need concept art that creates a specific mood and sense of place. This is something that I want to involve in my final major project.

Tackling Folk Tales (My Final Major Project)

Red riding hood was chosen since it was already has a familiar story that would save me from having to work on an original plot and instead give entire focus on just the imagery. Also the familiarity adds to the experience. Anticipation is there and it’s as if a gauntlet has been set.  The real challenge that people expect to be delivered is to witness my own personal vision and take on the characters. You see my designs and they are supposed to be distinctive enough to make you wonder how they would look like in the next page. If Red looks cute now will she look cute when she is eaten by the wolf? And will the wolf eat her? How does the wolf eat her? These questions are all about verisimilitude. There will be logic to my take on the story.

Bettelheim’s psychological analysis of the folktale showed me an interpretation where Red subconsciously wants the wolf to kill off her Grandmother. It gives my Red a dark motive to why she reveals the Grandmother’s location to the wolf. It’s a crucial moment in the story since how she behaves towards it directly gives consequence to the plot. The moral comes from how Red reacts to the wolf.

Catherine Orenstein explores the permutations of Red within pop culture and much more.  Reading her book helped me contextualise the folktale itself. It gave me an awareness of who tackled telling this story. I need that sort of road map because you can’t expect to play with characters that have been in better told stories and yet not even know about them.

In the early days of the project I went to visit a nature reserve, this was done for basic primary research but it was also effective in understanding the mind of the characters as they travel through a forest setting. Specific feelings and keywords were listed. This helps me develop a mood and sense of place for my illustrations.

Portfolio Meetings: The Opinion of Agents

During the past months I’ve been trying to get my portfolio reviewed and it proved far more difficult then I imagined. I discovered the hard way that agencies don’t like to meet you face to face unless they know enough about you in interest of hiring you.  I also discovered that undeniably the capitol was the best place for business contacts and job opportunities, that’s not to say there isn’t elsewhere but it is difficult. A successful illustrator may have to get use to travelling to unknown cities for clients if they want a secure and steady income, having said that this is an industry that deserves a “whatever works” mentality.

My first portfolio review was by Fig Taylor, a genuine authority since she is an illustration agent and a. Her opinion was that my digital painting style seemed to be my strongest work which is very time consuming for me to do. Such work from me is rare and would deserve a client and subject that I would have to be in love with. Her advice was “to take out work that others can do better”, which is another way of saying be true to yourself; the main problem with my portfolio was that it was having an identity crisis and I think the reason behind this is that in my past projects I was obsessed with what the client would want that I actually forgot about my own taste, and that really confuses clients.

 

 

My second review was by the guys at Illustration Ltd. and they were very kind and gracious. Again they took a liking to my digital work but they did however explain that in today’s age it is important to use a combination of traditional and digital for best results. The main advice was that I should always have work within context, clients love to see work in its final phase, be it a printed or screen captured so it’s not just the original concept and sketch that people will see. It shows a level of professionalism but an exception to this rule is not to have photographed work framed and on display. A footnote of the exhibition is more than enough for your portfolio.  Alice Ball gave me encouraging advice in respect to what Fig Taylor said. A portfolio can still have a variety of styles and experimentation, the key towards it being any good is to have a high and consistent ratio of one particular style.

Hopes and Fears (Part 3) Printing a book and the Convention Scene

I would love to publish fiction some day, especially comics. I see a lot of people who probably wanted to go into film making go into other forms of media, making a comic, graphic novel, Picture book is just one way for getting an idea towards a broad audience; one of many. I see this most in terms of independent publishing. There is a whole indie scene that devotes themselves towards web comics and indie publishing, making a web comic is considered a cheap way of gaining recognition since it avoid making a print run and thus having that being sold. It can be seen as a stepping stone towards self-publishing.

 I  went to the Huddersfield Manga con so to get in contact with some indie comic artist. The environment was very much dedicated towards a generation of kids into the Japanese moe culture. There were some artists there who were fans of such a culture and relatively new to setting up a stall but experienced with the convention scene. It’s a niche market in all honesty, because there are so many great Japanese and American artists it makes me wonder if the moe aesthetic  is having a negative effect on the comic world. To me the aesthetic was good for teenagers because you could evoke sensitive and dark narratives whilst drawing things in a very cute manner, big bug eyed characters are made to appeal to your sympathy. The problem is when that visual language becomes an entire genre. My main complaint and fear that I’m on about is that when I go to a manga convention I expect comics but instead I found it to be saturated with artists and illustrators who do not even make comics but instead create prints that were in a “manga” style. Is this really saying something important as good art does or is this really just cutesy commodity fetishism?  I think in spite of such a case there are still some amazingly talented people found in these places who get the opportunity to meet fans face to face.

 

 

So I digress; the truth is there were some comic artists at the convention. Lou Ho, better known as Naniiebim gave me some insight into printing her comic books, the Mephistos series. Since she uses a lot of services from the internet she told me that the international sizes of a5 and a4 are the cheapest, so anything straying from those international measurements would take more effort to set up.  There are also two types of printing that are known as digital and lithographic. With a print run below 500 books Lou recommends just digital printing. There are plenty of articles on the net that describe the differences (such as this one in this link: https://www.print4london.com/digital-vs-litho-print-production) some good printers involve the guys at Printbar, which Naniiebim (Lou) really recommends along with Inky Little Fingers and Caric Press. A fellow classmate has gone to Lithaprint for her children’s book, which is a bit closer to home for me but I’m going to have to talk to her later in order to review that printers. I found out from Lou that she herself would have never been able to make comics if it were not for the internet, she completely believes that her independence in this industry is down to the freedom of communication that the internet grants us. 

Huzzah! A Website is Birthed!

I was finally able to create a website for myself, solely dedicated to my illustration work. So far it's a bit of a Frankenstein's monster of illustrator's sites that I kind of like. I used Wix due to my inexperience of using HTML and coding. So this is really the beta prototype of my site. Apparently Wix demand you subscribe to their premium service in order to have no advertisements on your custom made site, on top of this your private DNS needs to be 60 days active before you can use a pointing or transferring procedure (If you bought your domain name from another service then this would be relevant to you). Some day the whole website will end up looking far more streamlined, cleaner and cohesive for users but for now, it's a start.

You can view my website here.

How to Make a Good Portfolio

Fig Taylor Five Top Tips - Portfolios from Careers Falmouth on Vimeo.

This month I received a visit from Fig Taylor for a consultation and lecture. All in the goal of finding out how to make a good portfolio. Ideally a virtual portfolio is not preferred as you must provide your own net connection, power outlet and so on. An exception that Fig does not mind is the iPad but that should only be used as a backup for the printed portfolio, having it backed up on a pen drive should be a last priority. A printed portfolio should be the standard size of A3/A4, if it can't pass the "read on the coffee table" test then it is too big. Alarming to myself is that through meeting her I realised that my portfolio isn't very good. Very frustrating since I'm near graduation. To rectify this problem I have decided to take to these methods. This doesn't apply to everyone:

1.)   Maybe divide the portfolio into 2 so to find a distinctive style appropriate for client and respective portfolio.
2.)   In future focus less on children's or book illustration and more on fashion and concept illustration, zone in on that area.
3.)   Don't worry and do what you love, for me I love portraiture.

What is Illusration?

Illustration as a word is derived from the Latin illustratio or illustro meaning to enlighten and illuminate. The Oxford dictionary defines this as evidence of an action that serves this purpose.

It's comparable to any art form however what makes an artwork an illustration is how effective it is to communicate specific ideas since the purpose of such work has to have a message or thought, it can be appreciated on an aesthetic level like any art but its intention is to do so in order to enlighten and inform. The reason why images are used for illustrative purposes is because they easily represent other images and are far less abstract then words and music. illustrations can be 3D designs but it still remains a 2D practice due to our current printing and visual communication technology along with our consideration for personal space and storage.

If a viewer walks away from an illustration with a new understanding of a subject it can be considered a successful illustration. Most of the time illustration is merely an image that serves as an adjunct towards something, enhancing the experience or understanding of another thing in a way that builds a brand or decorates it. If the illustration at first seems disparate towards its subject or what it brands or decorates it can still gain meaning due to its context. It is important for the illustrator to understand semiotics and metaphors, what makes a book cover look like a book cover? How can we tell what type of a genre a film is by its poster? An illustrator should possess this knowledge along with the ability and skills to represent a diversity of subjects.

“We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.”  - Picasso

My 2014 Portfolio Review from Natalie Wood

I recently got in touch with the illustrator Natalie Wood, Who was kind enough to review my portfolio. Her response was late due to the busy holiday season so due to me hoping to get her opinion earlier I rushed to make a digital PDF version of my printed portfolio thanks to the help of this video  So here's Natalie's response!


Hi James,

Thanks for sending your work over. Apologies for the delay in response - December was a very busy month!

After looking through your portfolio the main pieces that stand out to me are the ones you've done for the Wellspring, there is a clear message and nice clean graphical style in these.

The more traditional style illustrations that you have produced are some nice starting points - perhaps you could try working them up in Adobe Illustrator to give them a more vectored and polished look, I think the Huddersfield FC design would really benefit from this as it would give it a much more professional appearance if presenting to a client.

I can see that there's a variety of different syles throughout the portfolio, which is good at this point as it's important to experiment with different techniques before settling on any one style. I found that towards the end of my final year at college I really started to refine the style that I was going for. Obviously this will always continue to develop throughout your career but it is good to have a nice strong style throughout your portfolio so that a potential client understands the way you would produce any work for them.

When you're choosing colours to work with, it might be helpful to look for inspiration in colour palettes either online or in books. Adobe Kuler is a great tool where you can easily find colours that compliment each other nicely (https://kuler.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/)

One final thing I'd recommend as well, is if you're emailing samples of work over to a potential client - make sure you keep the file size to a minimum. Usually the combined file size of work samples shouldn't exceed 1mb as it can clog up their inbox, and sometimes won't even send.

I hope this has been of at least some use. Good look in the future!

Thanks,
Natalie


Natalie M Wood - Designer & Illustrator
www.nataliemwood.co.uk