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I’d love, love, love to work at All Fired Up during the year I spend in Bournemouth building my practice and savings. Working in the heart of Bournemouth, surrounded in a creative environment tailored towards creating 3D products would be the dream. The benefits seem endless; seeing new works of art created daily, getting hands on experience with producing (glazing, firing, delivering) art products, working with children and adult parties, and maintaining a safe and clean workshop environment. Of course, working in a team with like minded people who share mutual interests and have experience within pottery production would be a huge benefitting factor as well. The issue is whether or not there will be any upcoming vacancy’s starting from this summer.  

Hato Press is based in London and through out 2017 - 2018 I can attend workshops and develop my portfolio towards riso printing. Each session costs £45 and from their online timetable, I can gauge that they run fairly frequently through out each month.

Due to costs and the fact I have a strong understanding of two-colour riso printing already, I may not attend these beginners workshops, however, I know from their instagram that they have various pop up workshops, and when those come about I’ll definitely be interested in attending. I won’t completely knock the two-colour workshops though -- after all, there is always room to learn more and experiment, and spending time with a riso printing studio  would be highly beneficial. Also, from the physical prints I’d get from printing in their studio, I could easily make the £45 back selling them on my website. Riso printing is an investment; to make money, you have to spend it. 

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Rope Press are an artist led printing press, publish and distributor of all things to do with artist books and printed matter (Rope Press, n.b). They are based in Birmingham, and like Hato Press, they offer workshops on their riso machine at half the price. This would be a cheaper alternative and put me into contact with another printing studio, however, commuting prices would be an issue depending on where I am based next year. From Bournemouth, trains cost £65 with a railcard discount and booking in advance. From Cardiff, it’d be £38. Neither option is ideal, but I’ve still signed up for their newsletter and there’s no reason I couldn’t make a weekend get away out of it. 

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Footprint are based in Leeds and are currently recruiting a new member for their team. The deadline is the 8th of May and pay would be £8.50 an hour. They’ve shown a particular interest in receiving female applications, and I think I’d be an ideal candidate. As much as I’d like to apply, relocating my practice to a new city and living expenses would simply be unrealistic within this year. I’d like to keep the thought open, and potentially get into contact with them in the future. I really appreciate their ecological ethos, something which is much needed in the printing industry. They use a 100% renewable electricity supplier for their laser prints and produce shorter colour runs (using less power), and the majority of their printing is carried out on the Risograph which is soy based and doesn’t require ‘nasty’ chemicals (Footprint, n.d). They also financially support and volunteer for Treesponsibilty, and with this in mind, it’s very difficult not to fall in love with this company despite the financial limitations. 

BCP moves away from riso printing and more of a creative field, but it’s the only vacancy in the Bournemouth area that has anything to do with print. Applying here for the year I stay in Bournemouth would be a good way to get hands on experience with printing, update my CV, and could boost my applications to future print studios. My concern would be applying to a job so cut off from the creative industry; I have no delusions that the majority of printing BCP specializes in is for business, and rarely -- if ever -- for artists.

“over the last three years of my degree i've come to realise that i've truly discovered what it is i want to do in life, and i'm very content with this realisation. although i know illustration is extremely competitive and it will not be easy to make a career of it, i know that if i were to succeed (i.e be able to sustain and finance myself through illustration) it would all be worth it.” “unlike many of my peers, i don't feel that i've always had a set style or approach to illustrating. this has always been something that in the past has been a great cause of stress to me, as i feel that in order to be successful as illustrator you must have a fairly consistent and recognisable style; something that draws clients to you, that makes you stand out and memorable. however, i think that the freedoom to choose my own projects and work on mini briefs over the last year at univeristy has really helped me to discover just how it is to illustrate, and find a unique style within my practice that i'm happy with.”

“although the dream would be to graduate and immediately start supporting myself through illustration, i know that is something that is very unlikely to happen.”

Miaia Weatherly, Professional Practice.

“the future is slightly intimidating but also very exciting. my immediate plans after graduating from university will be to move back home and find a job in the creative industry whilst still taking commissions and making work in order to enable me to continue working on and furthering my portfolio.”

Tom Good, Professional Practice.

“i believe both outstanding initiated illustrations and successful commercials project rely on the creator’s exciting life.” “most image creators create artwork with their own rules, my rule is to create something different.” “besides, i’m am eager to draw lessons from successful illustrators.”

Fay Huo, Professional Practice.

PORTFOLIO.

The quality and personality of a portfolio is a clear sign to any potential client what they can expect to recieve from you. Everything from layout, balance, curation and quality of print all portray what standards you will offer any future work. Digital - A PDF format that can easily be sent or downloaded. Contact details on each page and artist CV on the first page introducing myself. A digital portfolio should not overshadow the importance of a good print based portfolio. Nothing beats the the tactile quality of a well printed illustration.

More formal than my blog, my online portfolio will have a more refined selection of my best images which summarise my work.

I need to mention having an A3 portfolio, cardboard mini portfolios, a digital pdf and website. 

“In the digital age it has never been so important for an illustrator to have an online presence that showcases, markets and interacts on a variety of different platforms. The internet is a powerful tool and understanding how it can be effectively used is important.” 

“My website will function like an online portfolio. A place to showcase strong pieces of my work in a clean and simple format. [ .. ] I have also included links to other platforms including my twitter page and blog.”

When talking about making a presence and ‘getting out there’, I should mention my role in the fundraising. Not only did I help to curate the fair and organise, I hosted a live drawing booth which brought in a lot of profit. People showed an interest in my style especially, picking me specifically to do their portraits.  

“My love of flat line feeds my love of colour.”

I need to include how important colour is to me!!! That numerous visiting illustrators always comment on it!!! I have a great understand of colour and composition ok.

“In an attempt to free up my drawing and invigorate my work, I like to be a bit messy in the initial stages. Happy accidents are the things that push my images [ ... ] The control the computer offers, allows me to....” 

I need to talk about how large my work starts, from a large pool of ink drawings, to selected images and developed digitally. 

In terms of publishing I’m still figuring myself out -- I want to spend the next summer building contacts, connecting with less ‘mainstream’ companies, speaking with independent creators. Not that there’s anything wrong with mainstream, I just don’t feel as though my motivations as an illustrator and the narratives I’m wanting to explore and tell are suitable for a large, universal appeal. I wouldn’t say it’s a niche market -- my work is just not something The New Yorker, etc, are going to want to publish. 

My work circulates around a theme of vulnerability. I draw parallels between when we’re in our most vulnerable positions, which, for me, I’ve identified as the moments between states of undress and when we’re speaking honestly. Where we’re at as a society -- or at least, for my generation -- sometimes it can be easier to send nude photos to strangers on the other side of a phone screen than it is to tell our parents that we’re been struggling, that last year was hard.  Who I am.

I am an illustrator who takes inspiration from snippets of life and exploring the theme of vulnerability.  Contemporary based with social commentary on today’s technologies and it’s influences/interaction with our emotional well being. 

Inspiration. 

A lot revolves around women who draw; I take inspiration from artists and poets.

Evaluation of practice.

Third year’s main transition has been finding my voice and applying my images to the themes and narratives I want to communicate -- I have figured out what I want to say. I have taken mass amounts of work and condensed it down into a single image with an ‘anchor’. 

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In my practice i’ve been identifying reoccurring themes from my personal life -- the way i choose to present myself. the recorruing layouts i like -- long, landscape, contained rectangles -- and the colours i always come back to -- light pinks, dusty pinks, used on blogs and social media.

working more eco-friendly -- this year i’ve gone from countless paper experiments, ink drawings on a light box everywhere -- and have kept it more refined. i still start out with initial ink drawings -- this is where i, as an illustratrot and my core, begin -- and then develop them digitally; 1,000 jpeg colour tests seems far better for the planet than dead trees.

There are some unfortunate truths we have to acknowledge as illustrators, especially those who are starting up. These truths must also be acknowledged, and more so, taken into consideration at the heart of your practice; we have to be prepare. So, this is the truth of it, cover to cover, all the ugly, anxiety triggers included. 1. Money. 2. Uncertainty. 3. Competition. 4. Isolating work. 5. It will be hard. But for this, there is one more truth. 6. It will be terrifying, and it will be worth it.

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I am inspired by the ways in which illustration can be presented -- which is to say, how an illustration can change within a format, how cropping, stretching, shrinking. Perhaps what is most exciting is how limitless formatting can be ----- the process can be never ending, transforming the same image into something completely different from when you started ---- the only rules are the rules you create and apply to yourself. 

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I am inspired by the bruises we don’t like to press on, the thoughts were are nervous to say out loud, the things that hurt us, but do not define us.