Thought Bubble

My haul from thought bubble. I've been going for 5 years now but I felt that this trip was the most valuable for me as an illustrator.

It was the first time I went to panels and found that the Bee & Puppycat one, which was a quick glimpse into the production and art direction of creating an animated series was very insightful in showing how integrated and integral illustrators are for animation.

The second panel looked more at illustrators drawing process which helped me understand how different illustrators use different techniques, from sketches to ink line, straight pencil or straight ink line. It was also very comforting to learn about other professional illustrators personal struggles becoming an illustrators and coping with work loads. 

I felt a lot more confident talking to illustrators at there stalls this time around and I was able to talk more freely with people like Donya Todd. What this also taught me was that I need to get a business card and website/online portfolio sorted because while talking to other illustrators I found that most would ask for a website or business card to see my work and it feel very unprofessional having to tell them that I had none of these things.

I have admired Elliot Alfredius's series called Three Blades for over a year now and talking to him about the work as well as finding out that the characters where non-binary instead of how I thought they where female was something that proved a really crucial point to me. Understanding an artist intentions is just as crucial to forming an opinion of the work as having your own interoperation of those intentions are. 

I bought Brogan Carols zine of selected pages from her sketchbook because I feel knowing the different way illustrators do their drawing process is important to know as a way of maybe experimenting or pushing the way you use your sketch book. 

I loved the collaborative drawings in stroke where Dilraj Mann sent a single character to another artist and asked them to fill it in with another character. It allowed people to create senses no matter how amusing or dramatic and showcased how a 'generic' collaborative piece like this can go in so many different directions

The concept for this one amused me and works really well as a way of taking a hard topic like feminism and turning it into an amusing comic.

Overall my experience of Thought Bubble was very insightful and had made me think more about the way I network with other illustrators, and how important it is to not only prepare yourself verbally when speaking to illustrators but how having this such as business card with a website on them makes you seem more professioanl and a viable candidate for collabaorations.

Task 3

What Is Illustration For Me?

1. Illustration is away of communicating a message with someone or an audience.
2. Illustration has thought behind it, there is a meaning or opinion that is being expressed through the medium of image making.
3. Illustration with a narrative to it that feels like there is something within that image that tells a story either sequentially or not is something I personally use to identify illustration.
4. There is an obvious knowledge of craft and composition with in the piece which shows not only that planing has gone into it but that the illustration itself has been thought out to fit a purpose.
5. Illustration is translating the thing that are around you and that interests you into your own interpretation of that thing.

Pinterest- Examples Of Work

(My Pinterest)

Character 

Jillian Tamaki

Jillian Tamaki’s work shows not only a character but a narrative of this woman’s youth and old age. There feels like theres a deeper meaning within Jillian's work and the craftsmanship and sensitivity of this pieces  is beautiful. I want my character work to have the ability to reflect the depth and meaning and have the same sensitivity within the image. 

Sketching

Tom Gauld
The reason I chose an extract from Tom Gauld's sketchbook is because they way Tom uses his sketch book to document his work as well as planing future work. Which is something that I want to look at more within my own practice of illustration. I want to use my sketchbook more as a problem solving device and a starting point for new ideas rather than just a place to doodle. 

Print

Matt Brown

With this piece I was immediately drawn to the craftsmanship of the piece. The high quality of this print and the obviously high technical skills used within this wood print is something that I personally am very interested in a an want to be able to look filter into the craftsmanship of printmaking. The awareness of Matt brown when he is thinking of how to use light, detail and colour within this piece is superb and you can tell a lot of planning and thought went into this.

Line

Jean Jullien

I love the playfulness of the line work within this piece it’s flows within itself and although there is some imperfections within the consistency of the line quality itself there is still a high level of craft to this piece. This relates to my own practice because I want to have more fluidity and expressiveness within my own line work. 

Lettering

Jonny Hannah

I chose to look at Jonny Hannah's work because he shows a lot of versatility within his lettering and uses it as a part of the illustration rather  than something added on top. His work always looks well thought out and crafted and as lettering is a weak point for me looking and learning from people like Jonny Hannah will help in developing my lettering skills.

OUIL403 Final Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL403 Visual Skills	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	Naomi Crompton

1.  Which practical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice?

With the first brief Initially, I focused mainly on brush pen trying to create block colours and controlled line work within that piece. You could say that block colours and controlled line work have become a consistent focus though out this whole module for me with varying degrees of success. I found that block colours tend to catch the eye more. However creating block colours can be difficult. I found the most successful way to do this was with paper craft in my Play Play Play brief because it allowed for the overlay of blocks of colour and after time it felt like I was using the scalpel as a drawing tool rather than a cutting tool, which is something I found the most successful. But the least successful attempt at creating block colours was A Day In The Life where I was working in gouache; it was difficult to get the paint to the right consistency and I believe the paper I used may not have helped the process. I have struggled with my control over line quality with all these briefs, from using gouache to brush pens to fine liners parts of my work become to overthought and as a result have the quality of line affected because of this. However I have begun to be more expressive and less precious with my lining; thinking about it more than doing it. Which is a method that seems a lot more fruitful in better line quality than before.

2. Which principles/ theories of image making have you found most valuable during this module and how effectively do you think you are employing these within your own practice?

I found having both scamps and restricted dimensions to be incredibly helpful as it is an easy way to create a full idea of what the image is without having to draw it all out. Also drawing in set dimensions beforehand allows you to not have to fuss about re composing your image. Scamps are also great ways of showing a client or art director the general plan of an image without having to have a fully illustrated piece on you.

3. What strengths can you identify within your submission and how have you capitalised on these?

I have a strong sense of narrative and character, which is something I began to play more strongly on with the final brief. Going through with a narrative of character-based route make my idea generations not only quicker but more abstract than usual. I have also been complemented on my idea generations so I have been using more scamps as a way of quickly visualising these ideas.

4. What areas for further development can you identify within your submission and how will you address these in the future?

A major issue for development is Time management, due to my poor time management the craft and finished result of my work has suffered. So becoming strict with myself on how much time to spent on ideas, development and crafting is something I will be focusing on intently. The sketchiness of my final piece of work also has to stop, I will do this by focusing more on using one line instead of several when drawing the outlines of an image but also looking and drawing more images so that I become more confident in my line work so that the sketching doesn’t happen on my final pieces. I have also had numerous notes to chose subtler colour, so I feel that developing a pintrest of different ways to approach colour as well as creating my own colour experimentation sketch book will hopefully lead to me becoming stronger and more well versed in colour within illustrative work.

5. In what way has this module introduced you to the Ba (Hons) Illustration programme? By blogging as away of reflection it’s forced me to be more critical of the work I am doing and more aware of the things that need improvement. I also find that by this module only having 2 weeks per brief I have become less precious over work and began to head peoples advice more as well as develop more ideas for a project within a short amount of time. And by having the large crits at the end I have noticed patterns of both success and things that need to be improved in my work.