Today we had an Author visit our college. Fig Taylor is an author that writes books to help construct a decent portfolio when going into business. For the next 2 days (Wednesday and Friday) she will be giving us lectures and presentations through out these days.
She showed us presentations on how we should present ourselves as an Illustrator. She told us to be more proactive as an Illustrator, for example, to do at LEAST 30 minutes of research every week. I already spend about an hour or so doing research. She also included we should email Illustrators about our work and if we're going along the right tracks (email them our work and ask for advice on improvement or what they like about it.)
She told us about comic book commissions and how clients these days are looking for artists to 'breathe new life into old characters.'
She also told use to check the simple things, especially in professional practise, she said to make sure to spell check, especially on blogs, as people will look the other way. She also mentioned that an easy to access blog is better for viewers.
Fig also mentioned that not only should we be serious while presenting our work but we should also keep on at people, (keep constantly pushing until your happy) and we should post work on multiple sites and to always keep up-to-date exhibition things, I feel I have achieved this. As a have numerous Illustration accounts presenting my work like, blogger (of course) Instagram and a Facebook page.
We were told that our blogs are professional and that it can't be a 'teenage diary' because people will see it, a lot of us thought that not many people will look at our blogs but surprisingly Fig told us more than one person will be looking at our blogs, and it is vital to keep them up to date.
She also recommended being out wood facing, to shine a light in our creativity as we'll get more public notices.
She also mentioned that having a friend/relative that doesn't really know about you as an Illustrator and what work you do, to keep an eye on your blog and tell you about the negatives and positives of it (if any changes need to be made,) as well as looking seeing a progress in creativity, she also told us to think about where commissioners can see your work.
Tutors want to see you out of your comfort zone because they have more illustrators, they'll judge you on your work.
Clients will take you on face value. They'll ask you to do what you do really well, whilst having a weird perspective on it.
She mentioned a designer who brought in a portfolio and 2/3 of his portfolio was his own style and the rest was technical drawings of furniture, her point was that bring in a portfolio that represents you. Not what other people want to see. She said with certain portfolios you have to have a clear, stylistic and have a good body of work. Comissioners WILL loose interest if it is hard for the eye. She also said you have to be at least 87% confident with your portfolio, you will never been 100% with your portfolio.
Make sure you're always a happy illustrator and don't feel like you're not good, be a critic but don't be too negative on yourself.
Things to take out of a portfolio;
-weak
-stylistically misleading
-un-deliverable
-unenjoyable
-irrelevant
Just take out things that don't represent you.
They want the portfolio to represent you, to put it in Fig's words, she simplified it by saying 'This is what I do, this is how I do it, and this is how I show it.'
A style can be anything. Style doesn't have to mean;
-overly stylised
-selling out
-corporate prostitution
-youthful or youth oriented
-trendy flavour-of-the-mouth band wagon jumping
-only applied to one kind of subject matter
The most important thing when being an Illustrator is that you have to become your own constructive critic. You have to be critically honest with yourself and your work.
She told us about comic book commissions and how clients these days are looking for artists to 'breathe new life into old characters.'
She also told use to check the simple things, especially in professional practise, she said to make sure to spell check, especially on blogs, as people will look the other way. She also mentioned that an easy to access blog is better for viewers.
Fig also mentioned that not only should we be serious while presenting our work but we should also keep on at people, (keep constantly pushing until your happy) and we should post work on multiple sites and to always keep up-to-date exhibition things, I feel I have achieved this. As a have numerous Illustration accounts presenting my work like, blogger (of course) Instagram and a Facebook page.
We were told that our blogs are professional and that it can't be a 'teenage diary' because people will see it, a lot of us thought that not many people will look at our blogs but surprisingly Fig told us more than one person will be looking at our blogs, and it is vital to keep them up to date.
She also recommended being out wood facing, to shine a light in our creativity as we'll get more public notices.
She also mentioned that having a friend/relative that doesn't really know about you as an Illustrator and what work you do, to keep an eye on your blog and tell you about the negatives and positives of it (if any changes need to be made,) as well as looking seeing a progress in creativity, she also told us to think about where commissioners can see your work.
Tutors want to see you out of your comfort zone because they have more illustrators, they'll judge you on your work.
Clients will take you on face value. They'll ask you to do what you do really well, whilst having a weird perspective on it.
She mentioned a designer who brought in a portfolio and 2/3 of his portfolio was his own style and the rest was technical drawings of furniture, her point was that bring in a portfolio that represents you. Not what other people want to see. She said with certain portfolios you have to have a clear, stylistic and have a good body of work. Comissioners WILL loose interest if it is hard for the eye. She also said you have to be at least 87% confident with your portfolio, you will never been 100% with your portfolio.
Make sure you're always a happy illustrator and don't feel like you're not good, be a critic but don't be too negative on yourself.
Things to take out of a portfolio;
-weak
-stylistically misleading
-un-deliverable
-unenjoyable
-irrelevant
Just take out things that don't represent you.
They want the portfolio to represent you, to put it in Fig's words, she simplified it by saying 'This is what I do, this is how I do it, and this is how I show it.'
A style can be anything. Style doesn't have to mean;
-overly stylised
-selling out
-corporate prostitution
-youthful or youth oriented
-trendy flavour-of-the-mouth band wagon jumping
-only applied to one kind of subject matter
The most important thing when being an Illustrator is that you have to become your own constructive critic. You have to be critically honest with yourself and your work.
No comments:
Post a Comment