Ghost Narratives

My response to the song " Song to Siren"  Ghostly marks appeared on the bottom of the page when I scanned it D:

Christmas card design!

                                        Here's a preview of a Christmas card design I'm making.

EDIT:

and hereeesss the final thing!

I edited the pen drawing digitally giving it some colour and text etc etc. This design is what I would create and print to either sell at a Christmas market (which there are plenty of in my local area during the holidays) or to leave as a calling card to potential clients that could employ/commission me, while at the different local Christmas events, as this shows the direction of illustration I prefer and am capable of. Perhaps that's a way of networking.

Christmas events and opportunities

I'm lucky to live close to the small town of Totnes which is well known to feature mostly Arts and Crafts. I wouldn't say that I see the style that I'm interested in there, but its a good opportunity to get my work out into the public as they have Arts and Craft fairs yearly, especially the Christmas fair they have running, where I believe you can book your own stall to manage.

Most opportunities I've come across during Christmas time are craft fairs selling Christmas gifts where you can set up your own stall at a fee. Anyhow- by chance I met a lovely woman that has a stall at the Plymouth Christmas market- selling animal portraits that she has painted herself etc. I've met her a few times whilst on the train and chatted about her work and how she makes a living through different crafts and opportunities, such as the Plymouth Christmas market, a store on the internet and having a stall at the Crufts show to sell a different type of craft. 

Another thing I'd like to note- When I have visited conventions such as Comic con etc. I've noticed that they have an artists corner where they have table stalls that have been booked by artists online. I think events like this could be more suitable for my style of work interests, although its not local (Closest being Bristol) and an event that isn't specific for Christmas.

Ghost Portraits

These are my ghost portraits of Sirkka Sari who fell to her instant death down a chimney that she mistook as a viewing balcony. oh dear..

(ps. I have a bit of a bad habit of over editing my work, which I need to stop doing)

S.W.O.T

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

I thought long and hard about what working qualities I have and what ones I badly need to work on to be able to pursue a career in Illustration. So here is a list of my Strengths and Weaknesses in order.

Strength 
Listening
Numeracy
Self Aware
Negotiating
 and Team work(?) (not too sure on these last two as it mostly depends on the people I'm dealing with)

Weakness
Time management (leaving everything until last chance)
Organization (At the moment I feel like I can't be organized atall because of the lack of space and a workspace at home)
Public Speaking
People confidence
Enthusiasm

I also thought about the opportunities in Illustration that could help my career in illustration, Gallerys, competitions, PCAD Careers office, websites, blogging, shows, conventions, newspapers, magazines, collaboratives.

Its normally easy to forget about the risks of having a career in Illustration, but some of the things to think about that could happen are, Repetitive Strain Injurys', Unemployment, Peoples grades being more desirable, Financial problems, Mental illnesses, Social difficulties, Eye strain, Migraines, Poor health from lack of exercise, and blood clots from sitting down too long.

Looking at this my action plan would be that I need to practice on my public speaking (if I have too much trouble I should take a speaking class) but we should be covering that with the presentations I have over the next 3 years. Overall I plan to become a organised and enthusiastic person that can create, discover and be able to share it with other people in a convincing way that will in some way help me make a living from Illustration. To over come my organization problems I'll try to make myself a suitable work space that I'm happy with (this is also linked to time management, I get so worked up about work space I don't get things done)

Wreck this Journal

A few days ago I received a book from a dear friend of mine for my birthday. Titled "Wreck this Journal-by Keri Smith" the website for it can be found here http://www.wreckthisjournal.com/ along with the illustrator/authors site http://www.kerismith.com/

Basically it gives you different activities to do to the journal and its pages- in my opinion its designed to break away the perfectionism and attachment people build up with their art, and helps discover a more contemporary and modernism way of creating art. Hopefully I'll learn a lot from my experience with this book. (will write more later)

Flock and Foil

Here's the image I made for the design for my flock and foil prints 

A Modernism Situation

My sketches in remembrance of  Surreal Dada Expressionism Boy
Wow he really does love that floor doesn't he.

My 50 word response

“Painter in the studio” by Maaike Schoorel in my opinion is a Minimalists representation of a self-portrait that uses the reaction from the audience to get across that “To know someone you have to look closer” just as you have to with the painting, which appears blank at first glance.

The British Art show 7

I went to two different venues of the British art Show in Plymouth. I wasn't blown away by it, as it was mostly (Post)Modern work that I like but don't want anything to do with. If it was up to me I'd be going to the Artist Corner at a convention, but then again that depends on who's got  a slot there. Anyhow- the one thing that has stuck with me the most from what I did see from the show, was the dark rooms they set up for playing the films. I don't know if this was intentional as it was completely different the next time I went in there(and I hope people don't laugh at me for this) but the last room right at the end of the corridor was a large and pitch black empty room  with  a song playing at full blast. I think the song was either by Aha or the Pet shop Boys. It was most probably this

but I have a feeling it wasn't. Now I'm going to be stuck thinking about what it was for ages now, but its a song that I've always heard in unfitting situations, and again this fitted the criteria of a strange situation. A odd, but fun and slightly terrifying situation, that defiantly got that reaction out of me, so I legged it. I don't know if this was actually an intentional part of the show, but I loved it, and if I made a Art show myself I'd want something like that in it. Heres the website to the show http://www.britishartshow.co.uk/
Edit: I've thought about it and had a revelation the song was actually You were always on my mind- Pet shop boys.    

         

Photocopier tricks

Along with using the photocopier to get different coloured layers, I tried to get the same type of effect digitally  using different layer blends etc. in photoshop.  Using the photocopier isn't something I'm entirely great at and felt a bit disappointed by my results, so I also did it the way I'm used to doing. (digitally)

Blogs that inspire me.

Kate Beatons Hark! a Vagrant http://beatonna.livejournal.com/
And Zac Gormans Magical game time http://magicalgametime.com/
are two blogs that I follow personally and enjoy looking at frequently. Both have a very simplistic but different comical  drawing styles that I love. Their blog styles also mirror that, with a plain white background that at times make their illustrations look like they're merged with the blog or floating, it just completely fits and doesn't distract the audience from looking at the illustrations (something I have been trying to do in my blog.)

Something I find special about Zac Gormans game related comics is that I know what the references are, and that quite a few of his comics have a animated aspect in them. That's something I'd love to have a go at, especially for my blog, as I wouldn't really be able to put a simple animated comic like that anywhere else. He also posted information about a collab for publishing a zine (about a certain game) that I'm interesting in maybe submitting for. SO I may try making something for it to send off to him.

by Kate Beaton

Kate Beatons blog parodies so many books, but she does it in a way so that you don't have to know anything about that book to make it funny. Another thing that I noticed that she posted on her blog was that she'd sent some scans of her work without the dialogue to Japanese students that were learning English for them to fill out in English. The results were comical themselves with the grammer mistakes that took place. But an idea and side projects like that are really interesting and something that I would love to do and blog about.

---
Normally I'm more used to the fancy layouts Tumblr uses, so I've been hunting around for blogspot based blogs for some inspiration on what I could achieve with blogger instead.
So I found http://drawnanddevoured.blogspot.com/ which again like the other blogs have illustrations that merge with the blog perfectly, but also has a blog title banner that has been illustrated and been cropped as a rectangle with curved edges, which makes it look professional and sleek. Another thing I like in these blogs, that I have done with my blog as well, is linking up on the side collumn- the other websites that my portfolio can be viewed or purchased.

My top trump

This is the top trump card I made of Yoshitaka Amano. He's a massive inspiration of mine , as he does concept work and logo art for the final fantasy games and also the illustrations for Vampire hunter D. In my opinion he has a very stylized art style that is slightly oriental, dark, magical and fragile. Which is what appeals to me the most. He's not that well known among most people but most gamers would of likely heard of him.You can see more of his works here http://www.elevenland.com/amano/amano.php3

Childrens Illustration and webcomics research.

Illustration by. E.H. Shepard.

 (My research was very loose and I thought I should just write what I found interesting and now take pride in knowing.)

E.H. Shepard is an childrens book illustrator I absolutely adore. His drawings have a very lifelike and characteristic, but fragile feeling that relates to the stories he illustrated for like "Winnie the Pooh" and "wind of the willows" But his illustrations and sketches for the Winnie the pooh series will always be special to me and were the most fitting, iconic or moving in any book I have read. I would love to be able to achieve the same effect.

I also love the story of how the characters and designs came to be of "Winnie the Pooh"- as I believe E.H. Shepard designed the characters based on his children's toys. but they were named after A. A. Milne children's toys which looked much different.
E.H Shepard illustrated mostly after he served in the war, but he worked on a vary of things including comics, just like how Beatrix Potter first was recognised for her Christmas card designs. This means that if I were to pursue a career in Illustration I won't end up following the same type of illustration all the time.

Illustration by Tracy J.Butler

Tracy  J. Butler is the author of Lackadaisy which is a on going web comic now turned published series.
You can find her website for the comic here http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/ From what I can remember it would seem that making this series is only part-time, like most web comics, as it doesn't provide a great income. So I think her main job is being a assistant teacher for some type of  illustration (forgive me if I'm wrong)

Mindmap of Kadi

Here's a messy free flowing mind map of me and a more compact and cleaner version. I added both of them because I like the messy one too. It includes some of my inspirations e.g. E.H Shepard, goldfish, Studio Ghibli etc. and a bit about myself.
It also includes the skills I've arrived to my university with- the most useful being that I'm fairly confident with software such as adobe Photoshop and flash, while using a graphics tablet. I also feel like I've got good observational drawing skills.

Timeline of how to become a children's illustrator.

My timeline of how I plan to become an Children's illustrator. I've been playing with the idea of becoming a children's illustrator for a while as it would allow me to create magical adventure stories and illustrations in the cutesy style I aspire, all in one. I look forward to publishing work and making prints and merch. I'm sure my timeline and path will end up changing along with my likes and dislikes anyhow.

Digital painting practise

This is my WIPs of practising a different way of digital painting using Paint tool sai and messing around with colours and hair styles. I was trying to aim for a more vibrant but still soft way of painting.

A favourite image.

This was a fanart piece I did for Atsuko Maeda's solo debut titled "Flower" This is one of my recent favourite digital pieces. I had sketched out the line art traditionally then scanned and edited it digitally, by just messing around with layers and blends. It doesn't have an amazing likeness of her, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.