PPP III: Position Statement

Kooky creative || Wacky Arteest || Print Gremlin || Cut and paste experimenter || Digital trickster || mixed media magician || Chronic doodler & Village Witch

At this time my practice is at a point where I have developed a distinct tone of voice / style and what media works for me; which happens to be mixed media. I thought a too distinct tone of voice would hinder me but it's actually pushed my practice forward as I've been able to experiment a lot more with print-making, papercut, photography, painting and retain my 'style'.This gives me hope that my work will at some point be recognisable as mine at a glance.

I have been very self indulgent this year when it comes to the projects I've taken on, which allowed me to make a large portfolio of work that I am actually proud to showcase. Area's and themes I have been working with are music - record sleeve designs, posters, logos etc. This is something I want to look at more in the future as I'm passionate about music. Pattern is also something I have a growing interest in, as well as the application of my work. I find it really satisfying to see my work on products, this is something I'm looking into by contacting brands, clothing companies etc. as well as having my redbubble account.

My long term goals for the future involve being able to support myself in adult life; for me this involves having my own place (not living with my parents), being able to comfortably afford food as well as an occasional 'treat yoself' item, and potentially owning a hoard of pets.

As stated previously in my blog I have a few future plans; having my work in a mystery box for witches, and doing a pet portrait for a family member, both of which are paid. I am also taking part in an exhibition honouring Burlesque Star 'Satans Angel', the exhibition is not paid but there is opportunity to sell prints at the performance events.

 In the future I want to look more at getting involved in social issues I feel strongly about such as LGBTQ+ and feminist things. I plan to continue making patterns and work that I can upload to my redbubble store and branch out into making my own merchandise when I have the funds for it.

I want to keep pushing myself, and leave my comfort zone. For example although I did not think I was interested in editorial work, I have been thinking about it a lot recently and do not want to close myself off to any opportunities that may be good for the growth of my practice.

OUIL602 PPP III: Module Evaluation

At the start of this module, I did not know what field I wanted to go into. At the end of this module, I know I don’t really want to go into ONE particular field. I want to be eclectic – as most illustrators are and would like to dabble in different areas. Area’s I am particularly interested in is book covers & publications (which I am still working on expanding with my extended practice work), music – album covers, lyric sheets, posters, merch etc – I have reached out to a few people about working with musicians. I’m also quite interested in clothing & designs to be applied to clothing (rather than… making clothes) I have enjoyed and developed my pattern making skills over the past year and really get a kick out of seeing my work applied to an object or an item of clothing. – I love using redbubble even though I don’t make many sales on it as it allows me to see what my work looks like actually on a product rather than just as a single image.

Through this module I learned not to be afraid to reach out to people, and pester people, as stuff does get lost in inboxes and your work may develop and be better suited to something in the future: The worst people can do is reject you, or not reply so giving anything a shot is better than not trying at all. I have applied to a job as a clothing designer to a company that I am a big fan of as they make a lot of gothic clothing – even though I’m kind of under qualified, I’m hoping they will at least be able to see and be aware of my work for the future.

I’m realizing that small tabled events probably aren’t going to work for the kind of stuff I’m making as it’s kind of niche, so I’m going to look into finding A. Places that have more of an audience for my niche work, and B. broadening myself into some more ‘likable’ things without losing my ethos completely. For example, Cats, cats are always popular subject matter. Maybe a project of cat based stuff could rake in some interest. I also feel like I want to branch out into making more products, as I feel material goods probably sell better than prints – to a non-art audience anyway as like a sticker, badge or scarf?? Would probably be more appealing as it’s wearable / usable.  

I think I could have done much more looking into internships etc. I am unsure if that’s a pathway I want to go down but researching it would have been good. I’ve mainly been contacting smaller companies who might require illustrators to contribute to their brand in some way shape or form. Companies have been very friendly about it and I am hopeful about contacting more companies in the future.

Surprise, surprise, my time management is still utterly terrible, and something I need to work on. Honesty moment : my mental health issues have been totally kicking my ass when it comes to waking up in the morning and having the energy to do anything – so it’s kind of thrown me completely off track. I’m trying to manage it. My time management was always bad though and I struggle to timetable things as I can’t gage how long certain things will take and when is appropriate to do them, I do try. I write to-do lists for the day, set reminders, write in diarys, try and stick to a plan but I just never seem to. I always manage to get things completed but It’s hindering me being able to do things as well as I’d like to.

A thing I’m really pleased with is my updated personal branding. It’s similar enough to my original design that it doesn’t look out of place but reflects my personality and the style of my work better as I think that I’ve progressed a lot this year!

PPP III: FINAL PRESENTATION

 My final presentation is not an ISSUU document because it's a video, Enjoy.

PPP III : PRESENTATION BOARDS

PPP III: Portfolio

I have selected some of the more successful pieces of work I have done, as my professional portfolio should reflect my strengths (obviously).

I wanted to show a variety if things to show that I can be diverse, but I realised I do not have that much applied work - something I will aim to develop before the summer with my current extended practice projects. I added some images from my redbubble store to show that I am capable of adapting my work to objects / material goods rather than just images.

I feel like I don't showcase my pattern-making as much as I'd like to do I added a whole page of patterns in my portfolio - showing a variety of processes and things that I make.

Although I have an obvious and distinct tone of voice (yay) I wanted to show that I can be versatile and that I don't just make dark, spooky, gothic stuff (although I do enjoy doing that). I wanted to show a good range of work and I believe that I have succeeded and I'm proud of myself looking through my portfolio!

I had been sending out a different portfolio to potential clients, which was a less nicely presented selection (mostly the same images but just connected in a PDF, shown in an earlier post), I think this one is definitely more professional looking and with my little bit of branding on it it's identifiable and all connected more harmoniously.

Making my presentation

Because I started making those videos to go alongside the 'secret 7' stuff I thought it would be fun to make a video as my presentation. Was I wrong? PERHAPS. I figure it's no worse than a regular powerpoint presentation and gives more of a concept of my personality alongside my professional practice,

THINGS COMING UP : SOME VAGUE FUTURE PLANS

I have some projects to work on after this degree ends

• First is one I've mentioned before making a piece of a company that makes a mystery box type product for witches / pagans etc. 
• My friend is starting a zine/ publication/ project called WHOARE which is a feminist thing to do with the church and womens bodies. I have expressed interest to my friend about getting involved in this and she's said she'd love for me to contribute
• I have been invited to create some work for an exhibition in honour of the burlesque performer 'Satan's Angel', burlesque is something I'm very interested in so I jumped at the chance to involve myself with this!! There is an opportunity to sell prints of the pieces at the performances. 
• I will be helping out another friend by putting my video 'skills' to use and helping film and edit a promo video for his Jewellery business!
• A family member has commissioned me to do a pet portrait of her cat

These projects are mostly small projects working with friends - collaborating & such, I hope that some of these will open opportunities to more projects and help build up my portfolio of work. I'm excited to do more work about feminist issues and such as I feel like I haven't made myself do that a lot even though it's something I'm passionate about and thats... not cool. 

Have I been contacting people? Oh boy have I!

I have been contacting brands that I'm interested in working with as well as illustrators I have found or am a fan of already. 

I also have a couple of projects I'm trying to get involved with which are run by friends or family. 

The companies have been really great replying with what they look for and how they hire illustrators, which has been a great help and a confidence boost which has made me more confident sending my work out to more people and express my interest in working for or with certain people and companies!! I've tried not to be afraid of sending out multiple emails as I know people do miss things or forget about stuff and sometimes sending that follow up email does get a reply. 

I have also contacted people on social media (this is just my emails) 

A thing I'm unsure about doing is contacting bands, smaller bands it's fine to send facebook messages but larger bands are harder to contact personally and I'm still afraid of sending an email to their agent or something hahaha, maybe I'll get over it eventually. 

One illustrator who replied really quickly was Drew Millward, who gave me some tips on getting into doing art-work for bands / musicians which I totally appreciated!!

A P P L Y I N G

A clothing brand I really love and wear a lot of on a regular basis are hiring clothing designers at the moment. Although I may be a bit underqualified I applied anyway as I was going to enquire about how they hire people to make image designs for their clothing. I sent them my art cv and a portfolio of work, I'm not getting my hopes up about actually getting a job but I am hoping they will at least be able to take a look at my work for future reference.

(E M A I L  evidenced on USB)

Branded Stuff!! & Promo stuff

SO FIRST - Business card mockups : Both sides.

I wanted to keep the layout similar to my old style but since I was going with more of a witchy theme I decorated the backs of the cards with crystals instead of spines. 

I kept the spines as paragraph separators cause I think it works, it still matches my spooky

A E S T H E T I C

so here I have a CV and an example invoice type thing, all with my little logo at the top. I didn't make a letterhead cause I doubt I'll be sending many formal letters but I imagine I can easily apply the same imagery to one. Also I'm using my logo as a signature on emails.

trying to keep a running look throughout all the bits and pieces so it's obvious and identifyable.  

My promo pack stuff

Again linking to the music stuff I was doing I wanted to make something similar to the lyric sheets I had been doing for that whole project. The sheet would have perforations so each section would be able to separate into a few single square format images. 

I thought the CD could potentially have a digital portfolio on it but do people really use CD's in this economy? I mean I do, but mac's don't even have disc drives so hey. 

Branding !!

I have been using this image on my business cards and across social media for almost a year now and I wanted to keep the same layout and feel because I think it works for my tone of voice and general VIBE so I just wanted to update it so it looked more like me and to make it more fitting with my style. 

to go with my "village witch" statement I put on all my social media & business cards I went with a kind of magical theme with the sparkles and the witchy smoke. Purple & green are just my JAM tbh. It Looks kind of like space, I'm enjoying it, it's magical & reflects my work. 

I also tried to do some "custom text" of "Ayy Kaplan" to look like crystals also for the magical witchy A E S T H E T I C

Portfolio 1

This is the portfolio I have been sending out, it's kind of makeshift, just a couple of pieces thrown together in a PDF.

It'd definitely look better if the images were more even in size. It's kind of janky especially with the pattern being so small on its page??

Also using preview to string things together is awful cause it puts this massive border around everything that isn't the front page and I haven't figured out how to stop it

Social Media

Would you look at that; my website is mobile friendly. SICK. 

(damn ads tho)

I like this wacky font but some people say it's hard to read. 

I need to update my cover photo on facebook - i've done some crystal writing so that would probably fit in well. Or just an image, who knows?

Anyway I have this and a tumblr & instagram that I keep regularly updated with bits and bobs of what I'm doing art-wise. (including any events I might be at)

I've also got a YouTube where I've been uploading these progress videos to. I need to start making more really and more often.

I think there could be potential to do live-streams of illustration events etc. that might be some fun!! It's a different way of showcasing work and perhaps engaging an audience as people like those process videos like tasty etc. 

Belgrave Arts Market

Made 1 Sale.

I need to branch out and start finding places where there's more of an audience for the kind of work I am making. 

I'd like to make more material products - badges, notebooks, merch etc. but right now I don't have the money to put into that and I'm not managing to make many sales in online stores or these smaller tabled events. 

I have started researching into more tabled events that I could sell at but a lot of placed need public liability insurance - which I cant quite afford right now!!

Me? Reaching out? Doing things?

I approached a small company who make monthly 'mystery' boxes for witches, because as 'village witch' being involved with it would be something I am interested in and would allow me to distribute a small piece of work to many people who share similar interests.

The company said although their budget is tight (I will get paid, an amount I'm happy with) their promoters are able to offer exposure and they credit their artists everywhere the images are shared.

I had a piece already done they were happy to use, with some minor tweaks so I don't feel as if I'm selling myself short as I'm not having to make anything new, they do all the printing etc. and it's a small and quite local thing that as an arteest, I'm happy to be involved with.

(proof / images / etc / in a file on a memory stick, far away)

This is one of the first paid pieces of work I will have done for someone, and I'm happy about it, and I hope to be able to work further with the brand in the future.

BEN COX COMES AND SAYS THINGS

BEN COX of the CIA came and said some things.

These are the images I chose to show.

I was a bit uneasy cause I realised quite a few of the images were fan art, whoops. But they're stuff I think looks the best and shows my tone of voice. 

I realised immediately, I am still not confident - I thought I'd gotten better but nope still bad at talking to people about my work. 

Feedback from Ben: 

* I have a distinct tone of voice which is good & recognisable (he said the moon lady was very beautiful, I was honoured) 

*work so far looks like it could be very publishing based

* composition is strong

*the projects I've done are pretty self indulgent and niche. from a commercial standpoint I should try doing more applied things - editorial, adverts, etc - he suggested I try looking at adverts etc and seeing how I would do them 

I knew this was something I needed to look at in my work as I have been very self indulgent this year due to the fact that last year I messed up a lot of projects cause I just wasn't passionate about them, so I decided to purely do things I wanted in the last year of the degree. 

I am tempted to do some quickfire tests of adverts or editorial stuff just to prove to myself I can do it, and to add to my portfolio. (or incorporate something similar into my FMP?)