Tom Wells

Well gang this concludes my module blog, it certainly has been an eventful semester ad I’ve learned a lot especially about myself and my own journey. This module has been a bit of a rollercoaster, it’s not the kind of thing I’d normally enjoy, but it’s surprised me and allowed me to gain a lot of introspection on where I stand as an illustrator and where my future will lead to. I decided that I want to start off broadening my audience for my career and documenting my studies and my art on youtube. Here’s a link to it! I’ve also decided not to take my online presence too seriously, as much as yes it needs to come across professionally, do I want to present myself as boring, or old fashioned? Not at all. I want to have fun with it because I’ve found if I have fun with my illustration then it will be more successful. Moving forward with my career I’m going to start a collective with my peers: The Bad Baby Klub. This summer we’re going to work as hard as we can to push forward independence and badass illustrations, together we want to create t-shirt designs and prints with a subliminal feminist message, sounds SOOOO original but trust me, there’s nothing normal about me and Ellie’s illustrations! We want to promote the power that small independent illustrators can have, and to all you new illustrators starting out or young students finding a place in this world; there is a place for you! I know it feels overcrowded online and it feels like shouting at a brick wall trying to get heard and seen, but if you struggle to find your space as a new illustrator, MAKE YOUR OWN SPACE! In your own space you can be as loud as you want and create as you please, just go for it. The only thing holding you back is your own inner saboteur.

We all got set a brief by the wonderful Gareth Hughes, he resembled Jonathan Van Ness by an eerie amount, but nevertheless he imparted invaluble information upon us about well being, and staying mentally healthy as a creative, which he admitted is easier said than done. He gave us many tips such as walking around outside with our sleeves rolled up, as sunlight on our forearms is meant to increase our moods apparently. 

After he gave us a presentation on what joy actually is we got split into groups, initially we were all anxious about it, as we got assigned our groups at random, but alas I was worrying for no reason! One of my closest friends on the course, Ellie (@elliegratrick) was assigned to my group, this I was excited for as we have collaborated on illustrations in the past to what I would say are pretty great successes (see the two illustrations below!)

As we gathered in our groups for the first time we had to make a huge 1 metre by 1 metre visual illustrated mindmap and include a group photo. Initially it was hard for us to gather as a group as half were from a different city, and one of the girls didn’t even bother showing up. Once we were able to eventually plan a meeting we got underway with the mindmap below! As you can see we took a humorous approach to it, given my full name is Thomas we went with an edit of a Thomas the tank engine poster.. also this brief is about train station platforms! We had to band together and discuss what ways we can bring joy to train station platforms, I’ll include some screenshots of what would have been our presentation to the class on our findings below as well! 

After this, the corona virus decided to sweep the world, so we ended up having to work more solo on our project’s thankfully I had already made a template and sent it to everyone (see below) so everyone could work on the concept. After some more thought tho I decided to go a different route and use my love for character design to cover photos of train stations in little decal illustrations! I just thought if I’m working solo revamping a whole train carriage seems tough and unrealistic, so I made these two little imp characters called Amp and Imp! Imp represents feeling doubt and sad sometimes, and Amp represents amplifying positivity, and giving people tips on how to brighten someones day!

Loads of people doubt how likely a job in the arts is. They often call out the ‘starving artist’ cliche and comment on instability in the arts. But Debbie Longridge gave us a talk and reminded us, that's not always the case. The creative industries in the UK alone is worth £84.1 billion per year according to a 2016 document published by Gov.UK and has since increased even further. Such a staple to the economy, and something which is often overlooked. Everything has to be designed, logos, ad campaigns, book covers even the clothes we wear, and we can see how important illustration and graphic design is to the arts. There are so many different resources we can use as illustrators and designers to find work, multiple different websites hold lots of hidden gems that otherwise it’d be impossible to find!

infographic from https://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/resources/infographics

We also found out about the importance of internships, the way we could get unlimited knowledge of our fields just by shadowing a designer for a day. But the university also offers a load of paid internships, meaning we could get a taste of work as a designer even before we graduate. But that's not all, we also got told that it's totally valid to want to work as a freelancer. 

All of these decisions really got me thinking about my practice, will I follow the likes of Frannerd and Bobbi Rae and live my dream of being a freelancer, or will I job hop with different studios similar to how Jisoup started out. My work is very loud, it doesn’t sit very well with graphic designers, I’ve found I am easier to motivate myself when I have more choice rather than a set schedule. To find out more I decided to take a Myers-Briggs test! We were all asked to take this test as part of our uni module, and I’ve taken the test in the past a few years back, so I was interested to see if the results differed at all. 

As I took the test I found it was a great moment to self reflect and really think about how I answered these things, the introspection I experienced was really something. As an INFP-T I found it scarily accurate; Mediator by name mediator by nature. More often than not If there is a conflict, I try to settle it. It's said that INFP-T are some of the most imaginative people, and often work in creative fields. It was also interesting to find one of my closest friends on my course also had the exact same trait as me!

After taking this test, it made me realize, I can work independently, maybe I should give freelance a go, after all, I already Livestream my work and send prints of my work out on Patreon monthly, I’m halfway there! I’m sure if I network more and take heed of Debbies insightful tips, I’ll become one step closer to living my dream of being a freelance illustrator

  Over the course of this semester us visual communication students (Illustration, graphic design, animation) have been fortunate enough to have met a series of accomplished speakers. Each one full of wisdom about their journey as a creative and what its like to find a place in the industry. Sadly due to lockdown most of the speakers were unable to attend, BUT within this post I will describe the wondrous words and tidbits I gathered during this time!

Here’s a list of the stunning speakers I was able to meet!

Simon Spilsbury (@studiospilsbury) Graphic Artist

Al Murphy (@al_murphagram) Commercial Illustrator

Kirk Brown Design Director at SQN 

Lyndon Hayes Freelance Illustrator and guest lecturer @Universityofderby

Neil Sheakey graphic designer at Uniform

Alongside some specifics from each this post will mostly be a summation of what I learned over the course of all the speakers! Well lets get into it!

Most of my notes look like this:

So I will do my best to translate for you, minus the odd doodle dotted about the page! (Thank goodness for digital note taking) 

Simon Spilsbury showed us a wide range of works, mainly his political satire, but also told us how different our career will be from his. Back in the day he said, he didn’t have social media. He gave us one of the best pieces of advice and that is “If you want to draw someone doing something then you need to do the something first.” This stood out as a reminder of who we are as illustrators, more often than not it is our position to look at life and reflect it back in a manner which allows people to understand it more, and relate to it more. His comment was a harsh but true reminder that how can we accurately depict life if we don’t get out there and experience it?

Al Murphy was possibly my favourite guest speaker, he has this charismatic humour about him and his work. It was the closest to my own personal practice out of the bunch so I immediately was in awe of his portfolio. What stood out was that Al didn’t originally want to go to art school, it happened by chance as he was following a girlfriend wherever she went, but it turned out for the best. His message of how important personal work was resounded with me, as I struggle in my own practice to balance university work, commission work and my own personal projects, he emphasised that personal projects are just as important, as they allow you to break up the mundaneness of work.

Kirk Brown and Neil Sheakey’s stories didn’t hit home with me as much. As graphic designers and people who worked in marketing it didn’t really resonate with my own personal professional journey. It was important to listen to these other paths in life though, as it really does broaden your horizons of what a creative career can lead to. It really did show how you can collaborate with others on large scale ad campaigns, and really use creativity in ways you don’t really expect.

Lyndon Hayes was also my guest lecturer for my other uni module, his illustrated sketchbook that he shares on social media is full of experiments and exploration of his surroundings, with a keen eye for reportage like illustrations of his journeys around London. The way he gave me hope was incredible going through his unique process of working on reclaimed materials, and how even in London he still found a platform and a space to host an exhibition as an illustrator. 

As part of this process we were meant to visit a working illustrator, you know buy them a coffee, watch their working processes, have a chat. Sadly due to a certain pandemic we were unable to go visit Saskia in her studio at Banks Mill. BUT she was kind enough to answer some questions that Ellie Gratrick and I had, so get ready for another Q and A blog!

(below image owned by @saskianatolka and all rights belong to respective owners)

How did you get into illustration?

I studied illustration at Edinburgh College of Art - I had done a foundation before that and honestly I don't think I really got the opportunity to try enough stuff there, I wish it had been a bit less narrow! I knew I liked drawing and I was good at it, and I was too impatient to do animation at the time, so I picked illustration! But I think overall it was a good choice - what I really love about illustration is how good it is at transcending boundaries, and now I dabble in textiles, graphic design, all sorts.

Top 3 illustrators that inspire you?

Oh man this is a hard question.

I love

Sophy Hollington's

work - I work a lot in woodcut and lino myself and it's great seeing that someone else is out there doing that too. It's a weird medium to work in nowadays as it can really restrict how you work to a deadline, but usually if a client wants it they're willing to put up with those restrictions.

Roman Muradov

is a really great illustrator in the truest sense of the word - his work is clever and clearly communicates concepts visually.

Jesus Cisneros

is brilliant, his work always pushes me to loosen up and open my horizons about what drawing and narrative can be.

Honestly although I do look at a lot of illustration, I think the most important thing is to have people who AREN'T illustrators to inspire you, don't get stuck in an echo chamber of your own discipline. Other creative people who really inspire me are:

Jon Zabawa 

(graphic designer, illustrator, art director, allsorts man)

Braulio Amado

(graphic designer artist type - he's prolific and so creative)

Palefroi (this is arguably illustration, but they're a collective of two, and focus on print, art, installations, small press and animation)

Ako Castuera

(artist and ceramicist)

Ali Smith

(writer)

And that's just contemporary people - I like to look at a lot of stuff from the past as well, and if you asked me next week I'd probably have a different list of people!

When you create a new illustration, what is your process?

Research > rough exploratory sketches > thumbnailing > work up a couple ideas > pick one and refine it into the final thing.

What's your favourite thing to draw right now?

I'm really into drawing people's gardens at the moment, especially those ones that are really overly 'done' you know, with sculpted hedges and garden gnomes and stuff. I just think they're really weird.

Is illustration your sole income or is it managed around another job?

Nope! My illustration work has always always been wrapped around at least one other job. This has varied from cafe/bar jobs, to admin jobs, to teaching. At the moment, I teach part time on the

graphic design course at Nottingham Trent.

Most illustrators I know work other jobs most of the time - it's pretty standard, especially at the start of your career. Personally I like this, I think I'd go a bit crazy if I was working alone on my own work all the time. I try and stay open to what my working week looks like, because at the end of the day I need an income, and freelance work can come and go. For me, I don't plan to ever go full-time freelance - I don't like the pressure it puts on my work, it can suck the joy out of it when you need it to provide all your food and shelter.

Honestly I still consider myself fairly early career, I'm only 26 and it can take a really long time to carve out a creative career, particularly if you don't come from a wealthy background that can offer you a safety net. I worked full time my first year out of uni as a studio assistant, then went from that to working 3 jobs, then did a masters at Glasgow School of Art and now I've moved back home to Derby and until recently I've been working 3 jobs again! Wrapping an illustration career around that has been tough going, so for me it's only now that I feel I have the time and space to start making this all work properly.

If illustration is an income, is the work you produce mainly through commissions/selling prints/etc?

Mostly commissioned work! I need to develop more of a passive income, and I'd like to get into selling work more. So far it's mostly practicality that's been stopping me, as I've moved every year for the past 4 years. I'm hoping to be a bit more settled soon!

Do you find putting your work out there on Instagram helps? And what’s your attitude towards social media?

There's no good answer to this.

Yes, it helps. I've had a fair bit of work come through Instagram - and most art directors/clients out there look at it even if its not their main way of finding illustrators.

But it's not the be all and end all, the work I've had through it is just a product of having my work out there in the world for people to see - that's the important part. So exhibitions, physical and digital mailouts, networking in person, all of those things are just as likely to find you work.

Social media is good for getting seen, but it can be a bit of a sinkhole. My attitude is to use it but not get too reliant on it - really I should be a lot better at updating mine, but I find real life gets in the way a lot! Thanks for reminding me to actually get organised with that.

Do you find it more productive having a separate studio space vs working from home?

Oh my god yes. But as a caveat - I have never had the luxury of a dedicated space at home. I think if I lived somewhere with a spare room I could convert to a studio it would have a pretty similar effect.

Studios vary a lot too - I'm on my own in this one, but usually they're shared spaces. I think my dream scenario is to find shared studio space so I have other creative people around me to bounce ideas off and keep me motivated!

I think however you work, it is important to get out now and then. Either for a walk or for your second job, whatever it is.

If you can say What are your ambitions or future projects?

My current plans are a bit up in the air at the moment with the corona virus!

As I was saying above - I'm finally getting into a position to push my illustration career a bit, so I'm working on getting some new, self-directed work together. I'd like that work to be a bit multi-discliplinary, and to involve making work to sell so my income is a bit more diverse.

I have a lot of big ambitious plans, but for this week I'm just focusing on keeping alive the commission that came in last week - I know it could be a difficult few months ahead and it could be my last in a while. After that, at least I'll have a lot of time to work on personal projects, so hopefully at least my portfolio will benefit! I have a collection of illustrations that I'm working on putting into a book of some kind, and I'm starting to work on getting a collection of prints, textiles and objects together over the next 6 months to start an online shop!

I'm looking to get into a more permanent work/home/life set up soon, but who knows -

(above artwork by myself of Tracy Queen! @shaydensdoodle)

 On March 18th I had the pleasure of talking to some talented creatives over at Oneshi Press, a small business that write, illustrate, and distribute small comics and graphic novels. Their work is full of sox positivity (censored for those nasty algorithms!) and feminist messages. It’s got all kinds of titles from Children of Gaia, to the more current being kickstarted Tracy Queen series under its belt. The independent press also promote a lot of smaller artists and writers, even work by myself! The co-founders Jayel Draco and Lynsey G are a dynamic duo of writing, illustrating and generally promoting strong ideals that really do promote all-round progressiveness. My work has been featured in Oneshi press’ releases multiple times, once in their Oneshi Press Quarterly Anthology #5 and for promotional material in articles and cover illustrations for a chapter in their new volume of Tracy Queen! 

 In a livestream with JayelDraco, LynseyLags and PeteTheHeat I was fortunate enough to ask some questions on their process, and their new up and coming comic which is a mashup of sexual empowerment, sci-fi and a talking racoon sidekick... And here is how it went! (All answers aren’t quotes! I took notes and summarised the answers for ease of reading)

Q:Do you think about the composition of the whole page when sketching the comic, or do you focus on each individual frame?

Jayel responded that his way of working tends to focus more on what frames need to be within the page and then negotiate how the images work within these frames.

Q: How much focus do you put on world building and setting, compared to the characters... or do you find them too integrated with one another to see them as separate aspects of Tracy Queen?

“It starts off with the little things.” He continues saying how it’ll be for example a fictional store in the background of one frame which goes on to be repeated through a series. his work in Mr. Guy and PACK also show many of the same small details between them. He says about how it’s these subtle things that build the world.

Q: How important is colour to your character designs and comics? 

In Tracy queen he mentions how there are two distinct colour palettes of Tracy. One of which is softer purples and textures which is very much the protagonist in her own comfortable environment, which contrasts with the greens and yellows of her battle armour she uses to fight the forces of evil! As a consumer of Jayel’s work I have noticed this use of earth tones which really is unique, and makes his illustrations stand out. When asked about this he just replied with “I just test colours out, and then just make what feels right and intellectualise it afterward.” which is something I needed to hear. So often we are taught to overthink and overly intellectualise our visual choices.. but sometimes we need to just go for it!

Q: When Lynsey writes Tracy queen.. does she provide you with a script format or a book format?

Lynsey immediately replied with saying its done in a script format, but there’s “no set rules to it”, Pete as an author also gave some insight into this adding how its important to give the artist some bases to work off of. “Go into it as if you’re going to micro-manage the artist.. then take a step back. It’s important that you don’t over direct.” It’s clear that its a fine line working as an author alongside an illustrator in terms of allowing for room for creativity equally on both sides, this is something I feel Lynsey and Jayel have balanced perfectly. Both of their personal voices shine brightly through this new upcoming comic and I really can’t wait to see it get funded and put out into the world!

As conversation naturally flowed here are a few more things I picked up on! Jayel spoke about how Tracy is sexy, theres no doubt about it , but he’s proud of how he can show her being gross and slob like at times and not be afraid of it. It’s Tracy’s SELF-EMPOWERMENT and CONFIDENCE that makes her sexy. And I feel like this message of self empowerment is something I really hope to also take forward in my own work as an illustrator. This message of self-empowerment is something we NEED in this political climate in the western world right now, and we need to do this from the ground up starting with small aspects of visual culture eventually leading to it being promoted on a larger scale in pop-culture. 

As whacky and weird as this sex positive sci-fi about a Love Warrior and a talking racoon sidekick is. It’s beautiful. If you get the chance PLEASE go check out their current kickstarter campaign and if you can’t do that then at least help them by spreading the word! Let’s get this comic funded, and let’s help promote these small indie creatives as much as we can. 

Oneshi press     | Tracy Queen Kickstarter | My Socials 

Lynsey G is an award winning author, publisher, journalist and all around badass creative. Her works are always very forward thinking, sox positive and full of eye opening content surrounding the P*rn industry, sox workers and the role of women in writing and the sox industry. A co-founder of Oneshi Press.

Jayel Draco is a visual artist who’s career spans from visual effects, graphic design, web design, photography all the way to illustration and narrative design. His work is reminiscent of Golden Age comics, without being too directly referential and always shows an empathic view of the world and our experiences on planet earth. A co-founder of Oneshi Press.

On Feb. 28th me and my course mates set sail, AKA piled into two coaches in the bucketing rain to go on a group trip to Oxford. We were meant to gather materials that represent joy from the museums and galleries but honestly, I found more stuff related to my other module. But what I did find is the people I spent the trip with and the shared experience is what allowed me to gather the most “Joy” out fo the trip. Rather than go around as our set teams for our group project ( more on this is another blog ) we decided to split up and go around with other course mates, so we could each gain a unique perspective of joy and experience separate parts of Oxford.

I personally have been to oxford quite a few times but one of the things I love the most is the buildings and architectures, surrounded by all this stone these pops of colour (included in the photos below with some of my team members). Sadly we didn’t get a chance to go to the covered market which is one of my favourite parts of Oxford! But what we did get to see was the Pitt Rivers museum, which was full of amazing articles of historical objects and religious iconography. It really was a visual buffet (or as my lecturer would call sushi platter) of inspiration.

As an illustrator I am most fond of character design and I found these GORGEOUS masks, they reminded me of Deku Scrubs from Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series. The proportions colour and shape was just mesmerising to me, and it’s this kind of stuff that allows for impactful unique concepts that not a lot of people would pick up on. The art style also reminds me of a few other illustrators such as Kasey Golden who I know is influenced by tribal style patterns and forms in her character designs.

They also had a collection of bones in the museum, which actually was perfect for my current work. I’m currently exploring how we can use 3D in illustration and push the boundaries of what an illustration is. I was planning on making some 3D models of fish bones/ skeletons. Lo and behold they had some examples there! I’ll also input some images of my model below, it’s still a work in progress! (As well as a photo of Mia being eaten by a dinosaur!)

Guess this is the convenient place to put my “TELL US ABOUT YOU” *insert-generic-introductory-paragraph-here* section goes so uh. Yeah.

My name (if you didn’t read the name on my blog already) is Tom, but for years I’ve gone on social media and across business platforms under the name ShaydensDoodle. It was formally ShaydensSketches but.. I got bored. I’m an illustrator who has been posting and selling work online for about 2-3 years now, its fluctuated in success so instead of saying ‘ShaydensDoodle’ is a ‘Brand’ I just say its a comforter blanket I use online (wow edgy). I’m originally from the middle of no where right next to ‘I don’t want strangers stalking my home address’ avenue and down ‘I really don’t want to meet you criminals and cyber stalkers and I’ll decline the unsolicited genital photos’ street... also known as somewhere near Cambridge in the U.K. 

    I really love coastal towns, which is ironic given now I live and practice as far from any coast as most places in England which for an Island is impressive. Sadly. But thankfully there are a bunch of cool artists on this island I look up to, go check out Beck Carlton (Bear_Patrol), Jessica Sharville and Hiffy Ulrich just as some examples of British illustrators. But one of my all time illustration heroes is Frannerd, the way she tackles her anxieties in her daily life and her path of being a freelance illustrator is amazing, her colour palette really stands out to me too from an aesthetic POV.

    Oh yeah did I say I’m an illustration student with crappy humour I really can’t remember and reading what I already wrote feels like more pain than its worth, but lately my work has been developing in all kinds of directions. I mainly take inspiration from old video game designs and concept artists, but my work leans towards children’s book illustration naturally, I’ll dump some doodles on here at some stage I’m sure!  I love animation and working with 3D which is weird since most people think illustration is 2D drawings, but I’m here to change your minds, or not depending on how passionate or ‘Anti-anything-but-2D-being-classed-as-illustration’ you are

  In my own practice I am mostly known (’known’ as if I’m the next David Shrigley or Gemma Correll) for live-streaming while I’m working, and also sharing my work in various depths of the internet such as instagram. I also have a monthly thing called Patreon where I share out my art as prints like a subscription service. I really don’t want to force more antagonistic promotion down your throats so I’ll hold back on that for now. But follow my instagram @shaydensdoodle​ for a basic intro to my work! *Badum Tssss*

   Also my work tends to be pretty surreal/exploratory/left wing AKA Racists, TERFS, Misogynists and LGBTQIA+phobes please stay away the door is out the window and 3 stories down. Thanks.

-Tom

PS below is an example of my work I did recently, just as a ‘taster’ I’m hoping as this half of the year goes on at uni, my work improves with it and who knows, maybe I’ll discover what I want to do with my career.