Friday 6 March 2015

New Unit: Locating Practice

I feel so relieved having handed in my work for the last project, now that there's a new unit/ project that itself is such a fresh start; I want to work harder and push myself in order to be more creative in my practice.

The title of this unit was quite misleading; my initial thought was that this unit was going to revolve around location drawing and reportage, but it's actually about locating my practice within the world of Illustration. Although saying that, I will definitely draw on location whichever area I want to specialize in. 



Here is just a short summary of what happened this week:

Monday was the launch for the new unit, the last project of the year (yikes!). We were given a list of the different contexts in illustration (for example: narrative illustration, editorial illustration, children's illustration, etc...), and it's up to me to select which one (or several) of these contexts I would want to work with in for my own initiated project. 

Having illustrated and written a children's book in my foundation last year, I want to work within this context again (and also narrative illustration as they go hand-in hand) as I want to pursue a career within this industry. There's just something about combining both word and image together which I love. I love making my own characters, writing a narrative- so combining illustrations with the use of typography seems like a perfect fit for me. 

The first thing I did after being overwhelmed by the brief was to go and look at contemporary children's books and illustrators for inspiration. Some books I borrowed from the library included:


A few of my favourite children's illustrators include:

Emily Hughes
Oliver Jeffers
Rebecca Cobb
Jon Klassen
Ella Bailey

I particularly like the style of the illustrators above, and I'll definitely use them to serve as inspiration for my work. Nonetheless, research is an on-going process so I'm sure I'll discover more! I'm not quite sure yet as to what my story or theme I should work with to produce my children's book but I do have some rough ideas in my head; I definitely want to include some memories from my childhood so that my work is personal and meaningful. Overall, I want it to be simple, but effective in some way. 



Speaking of inspiration, the talented Maria Midttun (who graduated from my uni 3 years ago) came in to do a workshop with us for a couple of days. I was quite 'starstruck' actually, because I've been following her blogs for ages  and to actually get to meet and speak to her in person was amazing! Anyway, fan girl moment over, in her workshop we had to create an artist book (which is quite similar to a zine) based on anything we wanted. She told us not to be too precious with producing work as the turnover to produce it was just over two days. 

Mine was just a quick experimentation, based on spring/ a floral theme, which seemed quite fitting for the next upcoming weeks with the weather getting sunnier!





Wish I could have taken my time with my book more, as I feel it was rushed. But anyway I've learnt my lesson. 





The images above (and on the left) are just some collages and sketches that I made before making my artist's book. 
Looking back at this week, I feel that I've done loads of artist research, so it might be a good idea to take a break from it! Regarding the work I produced this week I feel as though I wanted to create a lot, not really thinking about the quality, so next time I'll bear this in mind, to think more about quality not quantity, and just take my time with things. Work hard, but don't over-do it. 

Doodling and writing down some ideas for my project would also be a good idea too. I'm just feeling really motivated for this last project of my first year at uni. 

I'll be sure to add more and show progress in the upcoming weeks!

2 comments:

  1. your illustrations are adorable xx

    //Ania, nurinek.blogspot.com

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    1. Aww thank you so much for the kind comment! And for following my blog too :) Love your illustrations!

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