What is illustration?
- Communication
- creating visual solutions between client and audience
- ideas first, that keeps it exciting
- eye-catching to draw people in
- recognisable
Editorial
- Business sections more literal
- sometimes have to be sensitive - spoke about how she drew cancer cute to show that it is sealable and something you can overcome ( thinking about audience )
Stories & Books
- You're given the outline so you can't just make it up
- concept is already dictated within a story so you have to pick the right moment from it
- good composition is key
Posters
- Not actually a scene from the movie, but she's chose to create her own interpretation of that
Advertisement
- How fun it is depends not he client
- more money means less freedom, lots of people involved
- have something small on the side to fulfil that side
- if you're drawing the product, you need to draw it right
- sends lots of sketches for them to say do this again, do that again
- then send finished sketch
- then coloured version
- the characters have to attract the right audience. Had to chance ethnicity of them often.
- Business side - in editorial they get the first print right and pay you if you use it again, in advertisement they sign a period of time so e.g 3 months and they can do what ever they want within that time. So they put it everywhere, billboards, packaging etc, to make the most of it
- Advertisement on the internet the production cost is much lower so you have more freedom
Making client work personal
- 'Death is melancholy but also beautiful as it makes room for life'
- Seeing shows and exhibitions, getting inspired
- makes up a story from something. got told to draw a frog but she made up a story about the frog and illustrated that
- if it fulfils the commission and is still something someone would want to hang on the wall then that is the most successful she feels
Style
- It is important to be recognised but she struggled with having one style
- she likes a lot of different styles and confused between what she likes to see and what she likes to produce herself. Ended up imitating them
- Line is the skeleton other work and then builds it up with colour. Does colours and textures in a separate layer and puts linework on top.
- She's a mixture of traditional and digital
- Makes textures for backgrounds
- struggled with colour initially
- doesn't have to be realistic drawing, photos capture realism, illustration is another world interpretation
- its not how good you are its how good you want to be
- good artists borrow great artists steal
- if you can't be wise pretend to be someone who is wise and behave like they would - blag it. Be confident and like yeah I can do that, then panic inside.
The class asked questions and this is how she responded :
- make a calendar
- email in the morning
- break down your day
- working for yourself can make you slack off
- if you get stuck then go out and chill and come back to it
- first few years need a part time job alongside it. If you work part time in a creative job then you won't want to come home and draw so do a job you hate so that drawing is your escapism and something you enjoy
- steal colours from pieces you like if you aren't good at colour to better understand it.
- be thick skinned
- go out of your way
- moved to new york for work cause the big publishers were there
- go in and let them see your face, see you as a human rather than online
- send out promos and emails
- go to social events keep showing up and you start to belong
- having an agent - she got one in the year she graduated cause of visa reasons, but says put it off as long as possible. Better to get one later, more bargaining power when you negotiate terms. Wait a couple of years, promote your own work in the meantime
- Never miss a deadline. Ask for an extension. Be on time and do a good job so that you build up a good reputation or they won't hire you again
