Portfolio Review with Craig Oldham

I got in touch with Craig from the Manchester based design company Music. My class were briefed by him last term for the ongoing Fishtank competition to decorate their studio. Here's what he said:

'Emily, hello.
Thanks for sending through your book.The studio is somewhat crazy at present so please forgive my somewhat brief feedback.
If I'm honest I prefer the more three-dimensional pieces in your book.It would be better I think to show more of these (as in more views on them).Also, treat them as objects and try shooting them better—think more about the context of them, should they be in the kitchen, in the set, or should it just be about the object? Do you need hands in there? Is there a completely different context? What was their intention? 
Thinking about this will help your 'storytell' better in your book.

Hope that helps.All the best.
Craig.'

His feedback seems to reflect most people's reaction to my work, in that he is drawn to the most 3D pieces. His advice about shooting them better is also a valuable point and it's something I will definitely look to improve. However, I feel that not being able to meet him for a review of my physical work may have hampered his understanding of it. Maybe this suggests that I need to arrange certain pieces better to let the work explain itself. The suggestion that I need to treat my creatures as objects makes me feel that I need to think carefully about how to convey a narrative in an image using 3D characters in future- obviously this will be particularly important for the images I'm creating at the moment for my book. I don't want the animals I make to be seen as stand-alone objects all the time.

Portfolio review with Matt Bray

Today I sent Matt a message asking if he could take a peek at how my portfolio was looking, and he very quickly got back to me saying to send it over, and I'm pleased to get a super positive response!

As I've never shown him my work before, I was unsure what he'd make of my style, seeing as his own is much more digitally based, and in my opinion, far more polished and professional looking. 

Here's what he said:

'Hey Em,I’m loving your portfolio! You’ve developed a lovely style that comes across as fresh and unique as well as personal and sensitive. My favourite two pieces are: ‘Life Stories’ and ‘Leon’. I think both pieces are great examples of the warmth and fragility that your work has. I also think they’re both good examples of the two different approaches that your work seems to have:The fist approach being the use of 2D pencil drawn figures in 3D environments; the second being the knitted characters.I love both approaches! I think they compliment each other beautifully.I’d also love to see both approaches put together: the pencil drawn characters and the knitted characters- I think they would work together really well I’m really impressed by your portfolio and the high standard of your illustrations! Hope you enjoy these last few days of uni and keep up the awesome work All the best,Matt'

 Leon

I'm glad Matt specifically identified two pieces that I am particularly proud of, it's encouraged me to trust my own judgment regarding the quality of my work. I'm pleasantly surprised that he was not only drawn to the hand-made characters, but also the drawn elements which I so enjoy (and miss!) doing. The fact that he talks about combining the approaches is great too, seeing as it has been an aim of mine for the development of my work, and it's definitely something I will be striving to do as time goes on.

Lorraine Owen

This week we had a talk from The Organisation's managing director, Lorraine.
She offered us great, straight-forward advice about what she feels are the benefits of having an illustration agent like her.
She made clear points about what her job entailed:

• Providing a 'portal' for her illustrators, marketing their work to a huge range of clients.
• Making sure that illustrators' work is recognised for its value, so they get paid good prices by clients.
• Helping to develop illustrators' portfolios commercially.

She also mentioned that having an agent behind us might gain more clients simply because it reassures them of our credibility; an illustrator with an agent representing them is more likely to be reliable and professional.

Her other advice to us for getting work after we graduate was to always be proactive. Self marketing is important too! A positive and open mind-set towards work and potential clients will open us up to global opportunities for work; we mustn't forget that having a laptop gives us the potential to get work all over the world.
In regards to our portfolios, she had very specific recommendations for what a lot of clients at the moment are looking to see. This included:

• The more subject matter that can be seen, the better. What the client sees is what they commission.
• Drawings of people/the figure are vital.
• Popular content in editorials is related to finance, travel and maps, so try to express these visually.
• Character expressions.
• Around 20% of the work should be black and white, so that clients can see your use for newspapers and packaging.
• Make work look like it has already been applied to a commercial brief.

After our group talk Lorraine came to talk to us all individually about our portfolios. Although she admitted she wasn't used to work like mine, she was very enthusiastic about it and suggested there might be a commercial niche for my made animals in unusual places; I'm going to try and contact pet and animal magazines to ask if I could put in an advert about a service to make people's pets! We also talked about the importance of giving the figures a good setting, and some of my images need improving in that way.

I'm not sure joining an illustration agency would be particularly beneficial in gaining me work, but I've taken away other useful ideas from Lorraine's visit (especially the proactivity and self-marketing points) that might help to get the ball rolling for a career after graduating!

Portfolio review with Foursight

Today Bryony and I went to see Jord and Dom (of Foursight). It's encouraging to see familiar faces making a name for themselves in the industry, and for the first time out of the college in their own studio!

It started well when they liked my portfolio folder; I've chosen a dark blue one that holds loose sheets of work, so people who view it can take it out/shuffle it around easily if they want to. It also meant I didn't have to worry about the order being too strict as making the work appear coherent with facing pages seemed a little challenging based on the body of work I've assembled so far. 

Overall both Dom and Jord were very complimentary about it.

Jord asked how I constructed the image, (looking at my image for Life Stories), so it's good to know there's hopefully a bit of mystery about it, if the methodology of my illustration isn't immediately obvious. I pointed out that I was a little insecure about including my 8 x 8 work, as I feel the drawings are weaker than they could have been, but they thought it was still effective.

The piece that seemed to get the best reaction was Leon. I think this is easily the piece of work I would feel the most confident in showing off, because it shows my 'making' skills at their best. It seems to shine through how much I cared for and enjoyed creating this lion.

The final piece in my portfolio was 'Mini Monty', one of my first animal creations in this style. Again, I was tentative about the reaction I'd get about this because I was unable to get it photographed in the studio like the lion. But, as has been mentioned before when a graduate from our course had a look at my work, they quite liked how I had photographed him in a domestic context (with the kitchen for a background).

After they had looked at all the work in the portfolio, I asked if there was anything they thought shouldn't have been included, or wasn't very good. They couldn't pick out anything in particular to criticise. They thought that it showed off my two ways of working, and the main piece of advice was to continue making and producing images as much as possible, so that we will have plenty of strong work to choose from for our final portfolios when we graduate. 

Although I'm happy it seemed to go very well, I am slightly concerned that my portfolio divides my work into two very separate ways of working. My made animals stand well on their own as sculptural pieces, but I am hoping to integrate my drawing and making together in a stronger way, so that neither aspect appears forced or incongruent next to the other. I think I am capable of doing this, I just need more work that proves it in my portfolio!

Another memorable point that Jord made was that we would find it easier to make good work if we do what we really want to do. This struck a chord with me as I have always felt I work the best when I am able to make a strong personal connection to a project...if I am able to see a way into something that makes me really care for it, then the ideas start coming and I treat it as something special. I felt this way especially when I created 'Mini Monty', my lion, my totem, my picture for Life Stories and my work for Little White Lies (which I will add to my portfolio as soon as I'm able).