Sunday 20 April 2014

Website


Website, (pretty much) done! Though I think I want to change the design of it possibly, but I'm worried everything will delete! I've tried not to bombard it with work, but I will still be adding to it.


Friday 18 April 2014

Major Project (Update 7)

Started to think about what I'm going to have as my final pieces, I want to make a collection of party favours so greetings cards, party bags, invites, party hats, bunting, wrapping paper etc. These are just examples and not exactly the designs that will be the final pieces, just some ideas!

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Hopes, Fears and Opportunities

Looking at my last post on Hopes, Fears and Opportunities, I'd say I still feel relatively the same about everything, some things have changed but not massively. I'm obviously still yet to know what grade I've come out with so I can't really comment on that. I'd say my confidence has improved quite a bit, so thats good! Though as the final major project is coming to an end I am getting a little less confident in how good its going to look, just feel like there is a lot of pressure (duh, cuz there is) and hoping I can produce something I'm proud of at the end of it all. This year in general hasn't got off to the greatest start personally and thats definitely affected my work, which is unfortunate but can't be helped I suppose, just terrible timing. One of my fears was that my work wouldn't be up to standard, which is still a worry if I'm honest. I guess I won't know until all my work is printed properly and I've decided on what I'm using as my final pieces but I feel like thats always a constant worry! I also changed my idea of doing 2 projects and stuck with one, though it did change direction half way through but I wouldn't class them as two separate projects. So all in all, I do feel better than I did before Christmas (which is when the last post was about Hopes & Fears) but of course, I still have the same worries from time to time. I don't really know what will happen after I graduate, everyone keeps asking "what are you doing after uni?" and my answer is still "I don't know!!!" or "a year long holiday". But no in all seriousness, maybe I'll look into getting a studio with some friends or something, I'm not sure yet, I really have no idea what I want to do, since doing this final project I'm definitely interested in making greetings cards etc, so that could be something?
Though I don't really know what I'd do with that. We will have to see I guess! At the moment, as long as I get to graduation, I will be happy :).

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Creative Process

I wanted to share this as its something I always struggle with. When I look at some of my favourite illustrators work I always envy how amazing it is and its easy to think thats the first version they did and it came out perfect, or that it wasn't that hard for them to get to that final piece. But obviously, its not, everyone makes mistakes and has to do rough things before getting to the final outcome. I follow Kelly Thompson on Instagram and she posted this and I thought it was very accurate and made me feel better that this is exactly how she feels because its how I do most of the time!

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Major Project (Update 6)

I started to make my own little hand drawn invites but its so hit and miss with watercolour, it could easily go so wrong so I think I'm going to carry on doing things separately and then put them together on Photoshop, because its too risky doing hand drawn ones as the first things I do usually aren't the ones I use anyway. Going to print out my final pieces on to water colour print paper so it doesn't lose the effect of the paint on normal paper.

Friday 4 April 2014

Liz Earle Post Packaging

Jo was ever so kind as to give me this Liz Earle letter that was originally posted through her door! I love the type and the cute illustrations dotted around it. It definitely inspired me, thanks Jo! (And Liz Earle) After seeing this I popped into google "Liz Earle illustrator" and clicked on the first thing that came up…though I don't think I found the person who did this, I did find this illustrator! http://www.willagebbie.com
She works with watercolour so obviously I'm automatically a fan…she paints mostly people and has worked with clients such as Kurt Geiger, Ciate, Umberto Giannini and many more.

Monday 31 March 2014

Portfolio Visit - Day Job Collective

When visiting London, we met with some of the guys from Day Job Collective. It was really good to meet them as they are also recently (ish) graduated so it was nice to see what they've been up to and what they did after uni (which was obviously, create this collective!) They collaborate on big group projects and they're work is just wonderful.
http://day-job.org

They were all so lovely and I really liked the space they worked in! I think its a really great idea to get together with other people after uni and work as a team, have a studio space etc. This is something they said was definitely a positive thing, getting a studio together. Its good because you can have people with different skills and all come together as one and also help motivate each other.
A few of the girls had a look at our portfolios and their comments/advice on mine were to carry on this "greeting card/party favours" thing I'm doing at the moment, but maybe include different occasions as all the work in there is mostly birthday stuff, they suggested throwing some other things in there so it shows I do other things! I agree with this and shall be exploring things such as wedding invites next! They also said it looks slightly graphicy because of the typography. One question asked was how they stayed motivated after graduating? They mentioned about entering competitions which of course, gives you something to work towards and also possibly gets your work noticed and out there! And again, getting a studio together with a few of you motivates you as well.

Saturday 29 March 2014

LDN

We got a chance to go to London for 2 days to meet with clients and it was a fun/busy 2 days! We hopped on the (6 HOUR) coach to Victoria Station and made our way to London to firstly visit Daniel Moorey, head of print at Adam and Eve DDB.
He talked us through websites and what he prefers to see. He had the biggest list of Illustrators I'd ever seen! And a folder for each different style, was amazing! He mentioned to keep it simple, not have too many things to look through to actually get to your work, agents/clients are not interested in anything else but that and they want to be able to access it quickly and simply, as no one has the time to click through 3 title pages before actually getting to your home screen. And of course making sure your contact details are clear.

On the second day, a few of us got to meet with the daughter of Abram Games, Naomi Games. With him being one of the most influential graphic designers of the twentieth century, I felt rather special to be in the presence of all his original work. The vast amount of it was literally insane! It was so amazing to see it actually right in front of you, see his work process, how he was thinking/what he was thinking. And the skill of it, wow, I can't even begin to go into it. So incredibly talented. As I said, I felt rather lucky to be able to look through all his original work, if it were to be in a gallery it would have been such a different experience, so a super big thank you to Naomi Games for letting us come and see everything and for also being the best host, we even got to have a coffee in the cona coffee maker, it was very cool (see below).










 




Wednesday 12 March 2014

Major Project (Update 5)

From my sketchbook I've been scanning in images and making things like patterns that I imagine could be used as wrapping paper patterns. I'm really enjoying doing that! I'm soon going to be thinking about what I could put on greetings cards but I want to try different ways of creating type first. I also bought some large roles of paper that I'm going to be trying hand paint on, though we'll see how well that turns out!


Wednesday 5 March 2014

Fees and Invoicing Workshop

We had a workshop on fees and invoices, what to expect about being paid as an illustrator and how prices vary depending on what you do. So there are to ways fees are agreed at, one being the client tells you what the budget is or the client asks you want you will charge. There are a few questions that you should ask if you are faced with the second option. The length of time it will take to complete, how will it be used, the clients profile and of course, whether or not you want to do the job.

We then talked about the going industry rates:

Editorial;

  • Front cover - £350-£500+
  • DPS (inside) - £350-£400+
  • Half page- £200-£300+
  • 1/4 page- £150-£250+
Publishing


  • Front cover- £450-£800
  • Reprint/new territory usage- 50% original fee
Design


  • Brochure cover- £600-£800
  • Insides £150-£300
  • Spots- £50-£100
  • In house poster for PLC- £600-£800
Children's Books (usually based on pay/image rate)


  • just illustrating- £2500-£3000
  • educational = less v story = more
Advertising


  • Fees vary dramatically based on the client
  • They want you for your style not your ideas
  • Press ads local/in house- £500-£700
  • Press ads national- £1500+
  • 48 sheet poster (billboard)- £6000+
We also talked about invoices and what to include on them (logo to make it personalised, invoice number, customer ref number, bill to name and address, your account details to be paid into, address/tel number etc). You should make sure to keep a copy of all your invoices and a record of all payments or outstanding balances. This was a helpful workshop and I now feel better about what to expect and how to handle money when doing a job.


Tuesday 4 March 2014

Major Project (Update 4)

Since getting on with my work, I started to draw a lot of birthday things, mainly birthday cake. I really liked doing this and started to do some other type, "birthday quotes" if you will. I feel like this is something I could do a lot with and make actual things like party favours and its something I'm really interested in. So, I think from now on thats where my project will be headed! Im looking forward to it. 

Monday 17 February 2014

Fig Taylor Portfolio Review

After hearing Fig talk, we got the opportunity to show her our portfolios. When looking through mine, she noticed that my work is quite feminine and lifestyle-esque, she said to carry on with the hand painted type as there is quite a big market for that at the moment and she said she's not really seen much like mine, so that was good to hear! Also, to look at creating some illustrated maps as they are also popular at the moment. I'm definitely going to take her advice on the type and create more as its something I really enjoy. Another point she said was to get better print outs as some of them were slightly pixilated, so I will be fixing that soon. 

Sunday 16 February 2014

Fig Taylor Talk

Fig Taylor, the author of "How to Create a Portfolio and Get Hired" came in to talk to us about portfolios and how to create a good one. She talked a lot about making sure you research the commissioners, make sure you know who you're sending your work to, same goes if you're calling up anywhere, make sure you ask for the right person to speak to. As far as the look of it goes, Fig said no heavy mounting boards (which I completely agree with), put only your best work in, don't show them anything you hate, anything that makes you wince, have a running order, have no blank spaces in your portfolio, so back to back work. You have to be your own critique, more objective about your work and make sure you have a recognisable style, something that makes it distinctive. Also, commissioners want no mistakes, leave your rough work and development for your tutors, thats what they want to see, they want to see mistakes and ideas. Though an optional extra is to bring a sketchbook just in case and bringing a tablet or iPad over a laptop. Overall her talk was very informative and I feel more confident that I can create a better portfolio now.

Tuesday 11 February 2014

Holly Wales

Holly Wales came in to talk to us about her work and process, what she does and who she has worked for. I'm glad that I was introduced to her work as it is wonderfully playful and colourful. She uses hand-drawn felt tip markers and creates illustrated maps and hand-drawn type. When talking about portfolios, she said to show exactly what you can do, commissioners won't ask you to do stuff they can't see. So equally, if you don't like for example making things out of clay, don't put a photograph of something you've made out of clay just to show range, because if they ask you to do that you won't want to. She talked about making mistakes and how it is okay to make them, she actually likes some of the mistakes she makes sometimes, something that I need to get into my head! 



Monday 10 February 2014

Major Project (Update 3)

Heres some examples of how I tried to make my paintings stand out more and what worked and what didn't. So this first picture is an example of what didn't work! Painting and then drawing over in pen…it just doesn't look good and I really didn't like the look of this at all!


Here is an example of using stencils and doing the layers separately. It works so much better and there is no other outline needed. Waiting for the paint to dry before starting to paint over is really important too, that sounds really obvious and simple but I kept just doing it all in one go and the paints would all run but I just went with it, I didn't realise how much better it could look, just takes patience! 

      

      

I also did separate layers so I can put them together digitally on photoshop and see if that works even better…this was the digital outcome…

      

The one on the left is the separate squares I painted and then put together on photoshop, I didn't really like this and prefer the hand rendered one much better (the one on the right, though I edited the colours a little)

Again, just another example…the first is using no stencils and not waiting for the paint to dry...

                                   

And here, I've used stencils and waited for the paint to dry before adding more to it, this still needs a little more colour I think but just the top looks a lot better than the previous I think!

                                     

Friday 7 February 2014

Website Workshop

Today we had a workshop on how to set up a website/buy a domain etc. I got mine on godaddy.com and chose the name corinafay to have as my website. I also chose cargocollective.com as the place I'd like to have my website on. Still got to get the hang of re-sizing my images and working out how to edit my website but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon!

Wednesday 29 January 2014

Lucile Prache

Whilst (again) searching through Pinterest for inspiration, I came across some illustrations that I really liked. The artists name is Lucile Prache and she creates these beautiful illustrated recipes made with watercolour, which of course is what attracted me in the first place. Also, because I'm starting now to look at drawing/painting the recipes of cakes/biscuits etc, her work really inspired me. I went on her website and she also does these amazing fashion illustrations?! It just gets better. I like her combination of fine lines and watercolour and how her way of painting is not super neat or strictly staying in the lines (kind of the look I try and go for!)

I feel like seeing her work has given me more confidence somehow and I actually can't wait to go and do some more painting now!

Ps; I want everything on her Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/lucileskitchen

Friday 24 January 2014

Major Project (Update 2)

This is some of the work I've produced since changing my project. I'm quite happy with the outcome so far and enjoying working with this subject. I've also started getting into type and I'm really liking the effect that is left when done with letter stencils and watercolour. One thing I need to work on though is some of the watercolour paintings are very light, some just look like a first wash of colour has been applied when they are intended to be the finished painting. I need to figure out a way of making them stand out more without losing the watercolour effect, I don't want to just draw over them as they will look to heavy, I need to find something in between that works, because at the moment they just seem to disappear. And also invest in some watercolour paper, it makes all the difference. Gary and Ian suggested I make my own stencils so I'm going to have a go at doing that and see what happens!


                                      

                                      

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Major Project (Update 1)

Since choosing to do the Cath Kidston brief that I was initially really looking forward to starting, I seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall with it. I feel a little confused as to what the brief is actually asking for and its stopping me from getting on and I just don't feel its the right thing to carry on with anymore. So after a talk with one of my tutors I've decided to base my project around sweet treats, so anything from cakes to pastries to biscuits and anything in between. Looking at things like packaging also, cake stands, recipes etc. I think this is something my style of working is suited to and I feel a lot more positive about what I'm doing and confident that I can go and get on with things now! (Also, my research involves buying said sweet treats to draw from which I'm definitely not complaining about)
I took to Pinterest to have a look at some existing illustrations to inspire me;






Wednesday 8 January 2014

Major Project Time!

Somehow the time has come to start my final major project, pretty sure someone has sped the time up because I can't believe this is happening already! I've chosen to do two different projects as I think I would lose interest with one. The first one I'll be starting is the Cath Kidston competition brief for YCN. The brief is to design one new conversational print taking into account their brand values and print style. It states that their target customer is female, 29, she likes festivals, vintage shopping, the idea of country life and making stuff. I thought one of them themes I could start exploring could be summer festivals? Country kitchen? Something like that. Heres some of my first rough sketches…