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

What Makes a Good Website for an illustrator?

Okay as part of my PDP assessment for my BA Hons I'm going to review a selection of illustrator's websites, to analyse the weak points and strengths so that when I make one or others decide to make one then they will know how to go about it. I haven't seen any terrible ones in all honesty.

Sam Denmark:

Starts out bad since the home page is just a title, you have to click the title to access the gallery but there's no indication that's what you can do. I even recognise the font of the title, I don't know if it shows character or if it's unoriginal but its a strange choice. So right from the start I'm looking at a bad and mundane looking page. What's worse is that this page gives me a pop up of mini menus, such as gallery and contact. Although his gallery is eclectic it with a splash of thumbnails for his work it's bad that when I blow up the images they are all of various sizes, so I had to keep zooming in and out with the browser to get a better look of individual sizes that would be better if they were kept consistent. (Sam, if you're reading this I want you to know that I love you and I think your work deserves better, but it's not all bad!)

The good thing is that he has the essentials and more, such as a news/awards section (good for showing experience or your history of work as you would a CV). He's also got links to his other sites and a "contact" and "about" page with a photo of himself, as do all the people I will mention on this post.


Lois Van Baarle:

Unlike Sam's there's a good illustration used as a wallpaper with a menu on the side listing all the things I can look at, including links, which are shown as coloured icons that automatically creates a mood and accentuates the wallpaper illustration. I really like how she has listed her original, commissioned and rough doodles as separate galleries. Having mentioned that, something doesn't feel right. Intuitively I prefer to see a list of thumbnails or mini image previews of the art. The art is amazing but it's just not intuitive to browse through. On another note I love the simplicity of the name she uses ("Loish") and her URL name. It's easy to remember and that helps with good business.

Jennifer Healy:

She combines the best of Sam and Lois, an attractive home page with the essential pages listed on a menu at the top of the page, consistent at all times even with links listed at the bottom. The page doesn't evoke a mood like Lois' does but when I click any of the listed galleries it takes me to an Artist's statement with a selected image alongside a neat order of previews for the rest of the work.

Unlike Sam's when I click the cropped previews to see the full images the sizes remain consistent with only the width stretching for landscape paintings. Emma Reynolds  has a very similar style as well and is clever to include her homepage as the portfolio. I do think Healy bests it since it's intuitive to browse the art work up close with hers.

Woo Hoo, Got Business Cards from Moo!

My business cards have arrived, I'm not sure I will end up using them or not but the only way for me to understand these things is to just design one and get it printed. There is a site called Vista Print that specialises in print however I used Moo since the quality of their card appealed to me. http://uk.moo.com/  I went for the mini cards and emulated it after the way Kev Crossley has his, in retrospect that may have been a bad idea. However the humble and distinct size connected to me more, it felt fun to hold and I want those feelings to translate to my contacts.

Now it's time to review.

 

Pros:

1.) Good quality card

2.) Visually appealing

3.) Representative of myself

 

Cons:

1.) Too small (for reading and as a canvas)

2.) No space to write notes on

3.) No phone number as a contact

4.) Image is cropped for design compatibility