Talenthouse - Capture the Spirit of Halloween

I submitted a work to a Talenthouse contest a couple of years ago for a This is England project. I found out about this a couple of days ago but didn't really look at the brief, I've now realised that submissions must be in by the 29th September so If I want to enter this I'm gonna have to be able to crack something out quickly. Luckily I love halloween and when I'm in my element I can get really absorbed into making something so I think I would like to do this, as I have been thinking lately about making halloween related work anyway, and it will give me good practice working quickly. Since the deadline is the 29th, I'm guessing I can't include this in my extended practice work but I can/will document this process on my PPP blog. 

Girls That Gig - Network and Chill

On the 19th I went to a networking event held by 'Girls that Gig' which was specifically for women in creative industries. I think originally it was mainly aimed at musicians but all creatives were welcome to find possible people to collaborate with. 

It was a pretty fun evening, though I wasn't really sure what to do or say to anyone. I brought along a few business cards, a sketchbook, and a few old zines incase anyone was really interested in seeing any work. There was a real sense of community there and it was quite comfortable, since I think everyone was in the same kind of boat. 

I exchanged business cards with a few other creatives and added a bunch of people on social media.

The experience made me realise how difficult illustration is to talk about, people ask what kind of work you make and I just didn't know what to say. I think that's definitely something that needs some attention as if I can't explain myself to random people how will I be able to an employer? I always struggle with selling myself, but as I'm developing a style more and more I hope it will become easier to define my practice. 

Harnaam Kaur

I saw this on Instagram and was excited by the prospect of this. I sent an email showing interest in being part of the team (even if I'm not wholly qualified for it). Body confidence and representation is something that I am interested in and have done projects on before - my COP project last year being on how classical nude paintings have influenced modern beauty standards, and a project on foundation where I created designs for body confident monsters with fun slogans and stuff. I mentioned this and attached links in my email to my work and various social media platforms.

I'm intrigued by what being part of this creative team would involve as there wasn't too much detail in the post, but as I said I'm interested in the cause as there's aspects of identity and gender politics that go with body confidence and anti bullying campaigns, which is stuff I do feel strongly about and maybe should focus some work around to show that I can make work with a serious meaning behind it.

I look forward to hearing back and seeing whether I can be part of this team.

Whoops

I definitely have not made the best use of my time this summer - in regards to my professional practice. I spent a lot of time trying to work on self-care and trying to find a job, spending time with my family etc - regular 'holiday' stuff. However that means I am now in that place where I've realised I should have done more for my practice here and there and I suppose I have done a couple of things. In the next year I really want to focus on being more balanced in my life, as I tend to go between doing nothing and doing everything at once, and I need to focus on getting my time management skills up so I can manage to do things in a non-stressful manner.

Things I WILL/CAN/SHOULD do

• GO TO STUDENT SUPPORT & GET HELP WITH TIME MANAGEMENT. 
• Make plans for days - including whatever down time I need 
• STICK TO MY PLANS (get those priorities in order) 

I've found a thing called 'bullet journalling' where you make bullet point to do lists per day and use symbols to know when you've done things, what's a priority, whether you've moved a task forward in the week etc. I think this would be a useful thing to help with my time management failings if I can stick to that at all!

Beatrix Potter Re-imagined

 

I, in true me fashion, left this until two days before the deadline to make something and thus I think my idea and execution are absolutely not the best. 

(insert images of working here)

I wasn't really sure what to do for this, I was never really all that into Beatrix Potter as a child and so going through her stories again was less fun than initially imagined.

I ended up settling on this idea of having the two bad mice as Sid and Nancy - esque characters. I'm still not sure if it's in bad taste but it was at a point where I just had to roll with the idea. I looked at posters for the film with Gary Oldman in it for some reference on layout and colours. I did have a more intricate design in mind, (which I will insert a picture of when I scan it) but found when I was making the papercut mouse faces that I liked the way they looked alone, and adding more might just have ruined it (and been a waste of time). So I made the decision to simplify the design

Beatrix Potter Re-imagined

 

I, in true me fashion, left this until two days before the deadline to make something and thus I think my idea and execution are absolutely not the best. 

(insert images of working here)

I wasn't really sure what to do for this, I was never really all that into Beatrix Potter as a child and so going through her stories again was less fun than initially imagined.

I ended up settling on this idea of having the two bad mice as Sid and Nancy - esque characters. I'm still not sure if it's in bad taste but it was at a point where I just had to roll with the idea. I looked at posters for the film with Gary Oldman in it for some reference on layout and colours. I did have a more intricate design in mind, (which I will insert a picture of when I scan it) but found when I was making the papercut mouse faces that I liked the way they looked alone, and adding more might just have ruined it (and been a waste of time). So I made the decision to simplify the design

AyyKaplan // RedBubble

I decided to make a redbubble account. This is because I liked the idea of putting my artwork onto products but I simply do not have the funds to push into making my own merch at the moment, so at this time it's a cost effective way of getting my work onto products. So far I have been enjoying it, the site allows you to customise different products with your design and create collections of stuff. At first I just put up an old pattern that I had made for the crispin orthotics brief in responsive, to see how it worked and how things look. I ended up really loving seeing my stuff on products so I decided to put up more designs, and will also continue seeing how I can adapt designs for products (as not everything is as straightforward as slapping it on a product, you have to make the background transparent and crop the image etc.)

Anyway, I'm having fun with it and enjoying the experience. The site allows you to add tags to your work so people can find it while browsing or searching for something general. In a way this could aid exposure of my work, I'm unsure how likely that is but we'll see.

Tattoo Expo 2016

I got a last minute opportunity to sell my wares at Leeds Tattoo Expo 2016. I was pretty happy about the opportunity as I am very interested in tattoos (as you may be able to tell by looking at me). It was really last minute so I wasn't able to make any new stock but I had lots of pieces left over from previous arts markets at the Belgrave I had done during the year.

All the stalls were in the foyer of the building, as obviously the main event was the tattooing. I was happy to be there but the placement of all the stalls meant they did not get as much traction as hoped. Even the bigger stalls such as the Barbers and the male grooming products didn't manage to sell much.

I had some makeshift business cards printed with my details printed on using the designs I made for PPP this year. They were not top quality but were good enough for a first go. I handed these out and scattered a few across tables in the main hall in the hopes that people would pick them up while looking around and even if I didn't get any more browsers over the weekend maybe a few people would look up my instagram or facebook page.

Looking back on all this I realise I need to put more effort and pride into the presentation of my work when selling at places like this - although I didn't get a lot of people looking / buying anyway - at future places it would definitely better to have proper solid packaging for my prints. I also think that I will look into having products made as work tends to be more sellable on an object rather than just on a print. I will look into Awesome Merchandise and other such companies as well as sites like Society 6 and Red Bubble for selling art.