Pictoplasma Festival - Berlin 2014

This year, we flew out to Berlin from Edinburgh in order to attend the 2014 Pictoplasma Conference in Berlin! which was held at the Babylon Theatre just outside the centre of the city. Although I was utterly terrified of flying/being outside/away from home/around strange people I hardly knew, I was determined to be optimistic!


One of the first talks I went to was "Buff Monster"'s. Buff Monster is a well known American Painter and Street Artist, whose main influences come from the oxymoron-esque combination of bright colours, the "cute" Japanese culture and heavy metal. And he has used this style of work to create huge pieces of street art, murals, painting and merchandise including prints, stickers, vinyl toys and plushes. I really enjoyed listening to Buff Monster's workflow and some of the reasoning behind his work, which is relatively simple with no main reasoning other than it's what he likes, and emphasises on the colour pink to show confidence, individuality and happiness which is consistent throughout his works. His work has definitely inspired me to start emphasising on the more grotesque and obscene elements which rarely show up in my work, and use inspiration from darker sources to get a variety of different outcomes.

Another Artist I enjoyed viewing was Tim Biskup, his work was very experimental and had a rather edgy visual effects on anyone who viewed it, which made it stand out vastly against the rest of the artists, as well as bring in a whole load of detail that could keep us looking at it for hours. I think the reason that Biskup's work is so successful is to do with the fact that he works with playful and vibrant psychedelic imagery. He creates this work by using a rather diverse selection of media such as silk-screening, textile production and rotocast vinyl. I think looking at Biskup's work has definitely influenced me to experiment with materials more, as well as style, as I think using mixed media in pieces and working with methods that are foreign to me, will help enhance my current style and even create a new one.

On the next day of talks, I got to see an artist that I'd never heard of before. Kimiaki Yaegashi is a well known Illustrator based in Tokyo, Japan. His work is rather simplistic with thick lines and bold colours and shapes. Admittedly I wasn't sure on whether or not I would find his work as appealing as some of the other artists, but I appreciated it none the less. However, once Kimiaki began going through his pieces it was clear that his work was greatly inspired by his heratige, as it included representations of well know Japanese spirits and that is what I appreciated most about his work. He also included his love of western productions, such as pizza, which, as we discovered later at his art show, was very much a part of his shows and gallery work.

The last artist that I went to see, was Austrian street artist, Nychos. I had already been aware of Nychos' work through Instagram and was rather excited about seeing him explain in some detail about his work and why he does it. His work is heavily detailed and focuses, typically, on forms of bodies, and them being almost dissected in order to show all aspects of the figure. In this particular image, it shows a cartoon styled wolf getting his skin ripped off, then his bones split in two as well to show his insides. The images are always quite segmented and orderly which fits in well with the places they are usually sprayed upon, such as office or industrial buildings  and I think his work has inspired me to start trying out this style of art. Where I should concentrate on content and how I can make images such as this blend in well with their background.

Whilst in Berlin I also came across the work of Jeff Soto, who I had researched previously in my two years doing the Foundation Degree and for me it was rather surreal to see one of his pieces in real life. Although the image isn't really clear, you can see the amount of detail and effort that have gone into this piece, especially in the face and eyes where a huge amount of shading and highlights have been used, and it made me fully appreciate the time and effort it must take for street artists to create such heavily detailed work, in a short space of time and with the canvas being such a strange platform to work on.

Over all, the 6 day trip to Berlin was probably something I'm never going to get, and definitely worth the two hours of sweaty anxious hell that I endured on the plane there. I literally cannot wait for next year and I think with more confidence and research into a number of the artists, I'll be able to communicate to them better and possibly engage them in some sort of conversation. I also had so much fun exploring the city as well, because not only is it a rather easy city to get around, it is teeming full of culture and passionate people, and it's definitely somewhere I want to go back!

 Character "Selfie," gallery in an abandoned building!

Oh, and we also went to an aquarium where the entry required an awfully awkward family photo:

Reflective Report on Year 2.

During my first project of the year, I was set the task of creating a character of my own imagination who would star in my animation later on in the year. This wasn’t totally new to me as I’ve had experience at creating characters before, but it was nice know I’d be drawing something that wasn’t human for a change. I started out this project with simple sketches of my initial ideas, which was that of a small rodent hero, largely based off the likes of Meeko from Pocahontas and Scrat from Ice Age. These sketches slowly developed into fully fledged digital drawings and ended up being rather impressive looking character boards, showing his initial stance, his range of emotions and dynamic poses in all stages of illustrative progression. There were a number of strengths and weaknesses in this project that I took into account upon reflection. One of my strengths was obviously the digital drawing and colouring of my character boards, as my newly developed digital drawing skills over the summer were going to be put to the test in creating something to look rather professional and well-constructed. However, one of my weaknesses from this project was definitely the layout and putting together of my final character boards: as graphic design and logos aren’t the kind of subject I’m interested in, creating something where strict measurements and specific spaces was rather challenging to me. Although, with some help from a class tutorial with Paul, I was able to get past this issue and create a rather good-looking trio of character boards which all appeared in a clear and concise set. One aspect which I think I will take away from this project is definitely what I learned about the designing side of this project, such as the styling and layout of these character boards and our sessions with Paul, mostly because I felt as though that’s what I learned the most and I can now apply that skill to my work in the future.

For my second project, I was set the task of creating a number of walk cycles and loops, using a variety of alternative techniques. I was rather excited by this project, as walk cycles are always something I had considered to be PART of a project and not one on its own which was a nice change. It gave me a real chance to see, with the time available, just how many different ways and kinds of walk cycles I could make on my own. I think it's safe to say that in this project I did get slightly carried away with just making as many walk cycles as I could but in the same way, as I ended up getting very interested in making different characters walk and showing how certain characteristics and certain parts of their body would affect how they would move. I wouldn’t say I use a wide variety of techniques to make up these walk cycles, instead I think I just made a lot of different walk cycles, as in different variations of characters in different states of life and death, which I think is still something I can take from this project and be proud of. Again there were a number of strengths and weaknesses in my work throughout this project. One of my main strengths in this project in particular were my drawing skills: I think this time last year, the thought of drawing a complete 24 walk frame in a short period of time would have terrified me, as my skills in sketching un-human bodies, and my digital skills and abilities weren’t that high at all. However, this year I definitely pulled through with being able to work faster and produced more in depth and detailed pieces than I first thought I could, which is bonus. One of my weaknesses during this project was probably my lack of using other techniques to actually produce different mediums of work, for example I could have done a traditional set of illustrations and rotoscope them together, and I think this a point I will definitely take onto other projects I do, mainly because it will create a more diverse set of scenes and add a bit more character to the animations that I produce in the future.

My third project of the year included me sketching, developing, producing and editing a short animation. I began by creating my storyboard, as this would give me most direction through the scenes of my animation instead of me having to write things down. I created a good-looking storyboard which was clear, simple and had a set colour scheme through it. This storyboard definitely helped me as I began to create all of the assets for my animation as well. I began pretty slow, taking my time in making sure all my assets were up to scratch and full of detail, as I've not made a full 2D animation before! This eventually caught up with me and I was left rushing slightly towards the end, that and I also came into contact with MAC issues, where the computers were just too slow to produce more than 3 seconds of animation. I also had great fun using Adobe AfterEffects, which I think, will be my go to program for creating animations. It resembles Photoshop in many of its aspects and I think this is what drew me to it so well. Taking all that into consideration, I think there are a fair few new strengths and weaknesses that have come to light. One of the main strengths of my work during this project was the artwork, I think I was able to create some really strong artwork which worked well during scenes and all came together visually, exactly how I thought it would. Although I think the artwork is also one of the reasons for my weaknesses as well, as taking so much time to produce the artwork I think over-rode the limit I had set up for myself. This resulted in me not being able to edit together more scenes in time which, if I’m honest, had me kicking myself when the deadline came in. I think I will definitely take on the weakness and learn from it from now on though, as I never want to have myself in such a stressful situation like that ever again! And I will definitely learn to manage my time better and work at a faster pace and workflow from now on.

My fourth project of the year I was given the task of creating 3 5-second long idents to be used in the advert for the company, Digital Cinema Media. I started this project at an utter loss for what to do if I’m honest: as the subject was to create abstract pieces of digital 3D work to be composited onto live footage. I ended up choosing two rather dark feelings at the start of this project mainly because of the abstract shapes I had created during tutorials and they seemed to fit the bill rather well. I then went on to choose an emotion to counter balance the dark ones which was euphoria. For this I did most of my compositing, and I did this by creating small little particles, which could be a cross between bees and jellyfish… which zoomed and glowed across the screen. I think this project shows where I had my strengths and weaknesses quite well if I’m honest. For my strengths, I think they showed through pretty well when it came to compositing abstract shapes onto videos and photographs. I took in depth notes when we were being taught on compositing and it really paid off when it came down to doing that side of this project for sure. I also had a really big experimental phase where I made a variety of little shapes, with strange textures, colour and shapes which I think has made my confidence grow more when using cinema 4D for 3D work. I don’t think I had many weak points in the project, but one of the weakness in my work would probably be the trouble (or lack of inspiration) I had when trying to get my head round creating abstract pieces of 3D art to composite onto video. I did eventually get into many ideas and try out a few different things, but at the beginning I was just not able to think of anything that could be put together for this project. I did over-come this when the class had tutorials with David and Paul, who showed us it was a lot easier than we all thought. I think I would take the knowledge I gained about creating abstract pieces with me into future projects the most, as it was a subject completely new to me and ended up also being the most interesting as well!

For my fifth project this year, I was set the task of doing a live brief, along with any other “out of college” work, over the Easter holidays. I found this to be one of my favourite projects in the whole year, mainly because of the freedom and lack of structure to it. I began by doing some personal work for a fellow college student’s album cover for his band, which required me to use a big mixture of traditional and digital work respectively which I really enjoyed, as it wasn’t close to anything I had done this year in terms of content. I also went ahead and entered my work for the weekly competition called “Illustration Friday,” which has a specific subject every week, and this gave me a chance to be able to create a piece of artwork in the shortest deadline I’ve had to complete yet! I really liked this challenge as it greatly improved my style of work by simply sitting back and painting rather than stressing over what grade I would get. I then had a go at entering my work in the competition called “The Young Illustrators Award 2014.” This was an open competition to designers of all trades from illustrators to pattern makers to animators. I was equally as excited about this project as I was the others, simply because of my increased skills in digital art and my desperate need to show it off. I was really enthusiastic about this part of the project and I think that’s why it came out so positively, as I was more relaxed and ended up showcasing skills that I didn’t even know I had when it came to painting the figures horns and face. The rest of the aspects of this project all had a similar effect on me, and the more I did, the more confident I was as both an artist and a person, which lead to me speaking to a number of design studios online (through twitter) and making me have so much more confidence over all. Like a much needed morale booster. There were a number of strengths and weaknesses throughout this project that I think need addressing, and one of the strengths I had was my skills overall as a digital artist. Over the past year I have definitely become a much more confident artist, and it’s almost surreal seeing a lot of the things I wanted to happen this year, happen. And I know that from hard work and pushing myself to try things I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near had I not started this course, is something I know I NEED to take with me in the future if I hope to get any further than I am now. One of my weaknesses I discovered during this project was definitely finding time to spread over different pieces of work, and not trying to commit to one thing at a time. This will help me not only get jobs and tasks done quicker, but also help me when it comes to being distracted of losing motivation in pieces of work, which is one of my many noted weaknesses in my SWOT analysis.

To generalise this year in a small summary, I think it’s safe to say it’s been just immense in the types of work I’ve encountered, as well as the work I’ve produced. I can’t even begin to explain how astonished I am of what I’ve achieved in the past two years, combined with the knowledge I’ve gained and people I’ve met. My skills have developed to a level I used to fantasise about having during A Level, and my workflow was more than quadrupled in the past two years and I’ve been spouting out pieces of work I never knew I could even think of producing. Not only have both my workflow and skills improved since the start of the year, my attitude as a whole has also changed for the better; I’m much more open to the hundreds of styles of art, as well as having more of an opinion on culture, both popular and independent, which I think is a vital component when going into an industry such as Animation and Illustration.

Anxiety Awareness Week 2014

Brief:

Since Anxiety is something that effects almost every aspect of my life, I decided that since Anxiety awareness week was coming up soon, I would do something to recognise this, as well as try to possibly educate, through a visual means, what life is like when suffering from this. I knew this would be an iffy subject to go over, as I never like fully discussing what happens when I experience anxiety, but obviously drawing an illustration is heaps better than sitting down and trying to explain to someone what it’s like.

Evaluation:

 I knew straight away that I wanted this to be a pure black and white, pure and simple, without anything to distract the viewer from the main parts of this image. I also chose to complete this illustration in pencil, as I think keeping things simple and pure it the best way to get a message across. I started off with a really basic sketch, and wasn’t sure if I was going to actually out any features on the face of my character, simply because there isn’t a defining face for who anxiety and depression can happen to. But I did end up choosing to put a face, which I suppose looks a little bit like my own (but not intentionally) just to make it a little more personal. I wasn’t quite sure on how to depict anxiety as an actual subject for about three days, as trying to describe it to someone is difficult enough, but the defining word that stood out whenever I’ve tried to describe it is “gripping” and “something that can just cling to you for hours,” and this gave me the idea for a talon, as its scary, sharp and strong enough to project the power that anxiety can have over someone.

There are plenty strengths and weaknesses in this piece for me to pick out. A strength that is most obvious to me is my line work, and I really enjoy using line density to add character and an overall theme to my work. I have a pretty steady hand and am able to create the long flowing streaks in her hair and eyelashes, but am also able to make the bold and angled lines on the talons gripping her hair. Although one of my weaknesses is my trademark “female face” that I use in literally all of my work, and I WOULD like to sometime soon just concentrate on drawing males more, and depict different looking people rather than my “default face.”

I think the skills I have shown in this piece are skills I would really like to take on with me through to later work, and I think I could achieve this by going back to doing more traditional sketch work before putting my work on digitally, as now I tend to just do my work straight away in a digital format. I think this was inspired slightly through researching Dave Correia's work online, as I found that his way of showing so much detail an using a traditional workflow at that. 

The Young Illustrator's Award 2014/ Evaluation.

This year, I have chosen to take part in the Young Illustrator’s Award 2014. I feel as though this is an apt competition for me or anyone to take part in because of its limitless choices in what someone who is participating can do.
My entry for the competition is something I thought about a lot, and failed to come to any conclusion. So I went and dug down to the literal meaning of the word “Inspiration,” and decided to look at a number of artists who first sparked my interest in Art, and this is where I rekindled my love for Alphonse Mucha.This year, I have chosen to take part in the Young Illustrator’s Award 2014. I feel as though this is an apt competition for me or anyone to take part in because of its limitless choices in what someone who is participating can do. It is a self-directed competition, where the Artist chooses their own theme and subject, which they can then present in the hopes of winning. 

My entry for the competition is something I thought about a lot, and failed to come to any conclusion. So I went and dug down to the literal meaning of the word “Inspiration,” and decided to look at a number of artists who first sparked my interest in Art, and this is where I rekindled my love for Alphonse Mucha.

Evaluation.

Over all, I thoroughly enjoyed this project. I knew from the word “Go,” that it was something fresh and void of all other projects we had been asked to do so far, and was something completely of my own choice which was just an added bonus. I also knew that, because it was such a wide spread subject, and that I could do pretty much anything I wanted, I would almost definitely have trouble trying to think of what to do. This is why I went back to one of the first things that inspired me to start going into ILLUSTRATION and not just painting. On the other hand, choosing to do something based on the style of Alphonse Mucha was also a dangerous one, because he has been such an inspiration to so many people, I knew I would have to make my work stand out against the hundreds of other pieces of work based on his style. I began clearly unsure, for about a week, on what I wanted my piece to be on, but I ended up going with what I knew best, and stuck to my strengths when it came to illustrating. I was a lot more confident with what I actually wanted to produce, and because of my recent development in skills over the year, I could see much clearly, what I wanted my final outcome to be, rather than had I tried this out before christmas.

I used all of the knowledge I have gained over the past two years, not only with regards to illustrating, where I have been shown in detail some top tricks, shortcuts, workflows and skills in programs such as photoshop, where those tricks can be applied to other programs I use as well, but with basic skills. An example of this woul be on colour schemes and learning to literally paint in a digital format. I feel as though these aspects are clearly shown in my competition entry, and are able to give off a defining mood and theme to my image, without me having to explain anything about it.

One problem I had during the production of this piece was a general flop in my motivation towards it. I sat for a good 3 hours re-doing the same pieces over and over again simply because I was unhappy with how they looked, and it almost got to the point where wanted to change the idea completely. However, with some inspiration (watching speed painting tutorials on Youtube…) I was able to gain back that motivation and change the colour scheme of the figure’s face slightly, where it was easier for me to begin colouring her skin. There was also an ongoing war for about 3 days with regards to shading on the figure’s face, as I had never really painted a face from that angle before. And I over came this by taking photos of my own face, with specific lighting set up to immitate the scene I wanted going on.

To conclude, I have thoroughly enjoyed this project, as it has tested me on more than a physical scale and left me knowing even more about digital painting and illustration, as well as me appreciating the work and effort behind Alphonse Mucha’s wonderful pieces of art. 

My Creative CV.

I was completely stumped as to what to do for my Creative CV, as I wasn't sure how to describe myself in such a positive light, without sounding rather pretentious. I decided to knuckle down and just try and relate the imagery of my CV to my personality and art style.
I chose a pretty detailed mandala style to begin with, and this would be the main focus of the piece, showing any possible employers straight away what my talents include on the specific style in which I work.

When I first began making my CV I knew I wanted to make something which reflected me and my talent, but to try and also make it not too much "IN YOUR FACE" either, as that can be off-putting if it was too vibrant or pushy.
I went with texture more than actual content for this piece and I think it has paid off. I began by making an intricate mandala design and then lining it digitally. after this i played around with the colours until I decided to stick with the white and change the background. I went for the "Your efforts are limitless," or "The skies' the limit," kind of deal and created a custom brush to create the clouds in a swirling pattern, and then brushed out and blended the clouds into the night sky with contrasts with the design perfectly. As I am planning for my CV to be like a contacts card, I chose to put my qualifications on the back of this card, so that anyone who's interested would be able to see my workflow well, rather than trying to distinguish it from the text. I think the layout of the text is OK, although I think if I had time to change it I would have made the CV into a little booklet, simply by scoring and bending card, and having each different section on each page, making the text bigger and birghter, and also being able to add more illustrations on each page.

Making a Society6 Page.

In the last three months I've had more and more requests about people buying my artwork, and although this is insanely flattering, it's something I also worry about quite a lot, purely because I can't/don't leave my house very much and wouldn't want to set commitments I'm afraid I couldn't keep. 

However, my classmates, Kym and Danielle showed me THIS beauty, where the company take off a percentage of what I would earn, in order for them to distribute, mail out and create the prints/accessories I upload! As I'm not too bothered about making a lot of money from this, it's just nice to know it's something that's taken care of and I don't have to panic over.

My Society6.

Illustration Friday submission.

I decided to do a piece for Illustration Friday, as part of my Live Project module. The theme for the week was "Survival," and that got me thinking quite deep about people struggling to survive as a result of other people, instead of that against something like climate or predators. 

I found that whilst painting this piece, I did a better job of it than I thought I would. I was able to use a much more thick style of paint and, especially on her face and eyes, I was able to fill in a lot more detail using just colours and not have to include lines to define her features. 
Once I finished this piece I then went and uploaded to the Illustration Friday page at Illustration Friday. And was really pleased with how it looked on an actual web page. 

I also decided to be a bit more daring and put it on Twitter, not really expecting anything to come from it, but just for people who follow me to see. And within about an hour I got a notification saying that the Illustration Friday's Twitter had retweeted it!I wasn't sure whether this was a big deal or not but I checked the their Twitter page and they only retweet maybe 3 - 4 submissions per week, so I was insanely pleased with that!

Re-creating my Storyboards.

I decided that, because I didn't get a chance to finish off my animation, I would take it upon myself to re-create the storyboards I had created to a better quality and making them look more professional. I have recreated the set up from scene 2- my animation, and have used screen shots from my actual first scene of my animation as well. 

Evaluation.

I found from recreating these pieces, that I gained a bit more knowledge into how colour schemes can look really effective, especially in an animation like this. The fact I have taken proper time to recreate certain pieces, such as the set from scene 2, and the characters themselves, makes the whole thing look so much more clean and tidy, and I'm really pleased to have it as a piece to represent my work. I am particularly pleased with an idea I had in order to make it look as though there were a 

corridor of trees in the 3rd storyboard, by simply free-deforming the image of the second scene and painting over it.

On the whole I really am pleased with this piece, it gives a much better idea as to what I wanted from my animation and speaks to a much higher and professional looking quality! 

Commission Work - HOLLOWBEAK Album Artwork/ Evaluation.

Shortly before we broke up for Easter, through David, a fellow student was referred to me with an opportunity to design and produce an album cover for his band "Hollowbeak." I was rather nervous at first when being asked to do this, again my fear of letting someone down or not producing what they wanted was all to great. But once I spoke to him a good few times it was clear he was rather easy going and had lots of straight forward ideas, and the more of those he had, the better for me. 

Evaluation.

I think when doing this piece I was very nervous to produce something the best I could considering it was a more “graphic” project than what I would normally focus on. Despite this, I went on and created, step by step, different elements of the album cover until the final project was complete. I began with using a pencil and ink as initial sketches and then uploaded them to my computer in order to digitally line it and colour it up. Another aspect I was rather nervous about was the colours that the client had described, as we all know I’m stuck in my simple and pastel colours. However, using visual research from comics and cartoons which use the same style and colours as what I was going for, I felt much more confident in what I was doing. I also ended up creating a gradient like effect on the wings of the bird through blending and painting in a purple/grey and bright green together, much like you see on pigeons and parakeets. And although I was just creating the separate images to go on the album cover, I mocked up this idea to symbolise what I myself was going for in the final outcome.

I think there are a few obvious strengths and weaknesses in my work for this project: one of my weaknesses for this piece is that I don’t pretend to know a lot about graphic design, with all of its confusing measurements and such, which is rather apparent in this piece. However, I do feel as though I did make a good attempt as setting out the elements I had, given the tool I had. One of my strengths for this piece was definitely the creation of the image itself, the bird-like monster which I was given the task of creating looked really effective against the dark and creepy background, giving and eerie and grungy looking effect on the whole image, I used a water colour effect on this bird to give it a vibrant, but washed out (?) effect at the same time.

Something I can take away from this project is definitely working in a darker canvas, and being able to make colours stand out against those backgrounds in a tasteful way without making it look too distracting or off putting. 

Hollowbeak and it's Artwork can be found on Facebook.

Live Project Week 1 Reflections.

UPDATES:

Monday 24^th of March: Have been in correspondence with client and have brought up a number of ideas, which they approved of. Had the idea to bring up a Surfing theme behind the “7^th Wave” name – will look into water patterns and surfboard designs to put into practice.

Tuesday 25th of March: Drew up 4 ideas, rather than the initial 3, in order to show specific details and changes through the ideas. I chose to go rather literal with what they asked for, rather than giving my own interpretation of it, as they were quite clear in what they asked for. 

Client was pleased with these outcomes, although I did urge them to point out ANYTHING they felt was out of place, and no offence would be taken it they didn't like or approve of anything. 

The same day they emailed me back which one they wanted and drew on necessary changes that they would like to be applied, which were few, but would make a large change to the layout of the logo. They also stated they would like the colours to be ever-so-slightly more vibrant against the grainy background.

Wednesday 26th of March: Once I had received the feedback from the client, I then went on to make the changes they had asked for, which included enhanced colour and changing position of a few of the individual pieces, and this was the final outcome. 

Thursday 27th of March: Went to meet up with the client in person with regards to another logo that they wanted me to design. From that meeting I took away the relevant information to design a logo based on a comic-book style, onomatopoeic piece. And straight away I looked into a mixture of  

Batman slapstick noises and the works of  Roy Lichtenstein. I came up with these ideas initially, but decided to go all out and look over  a range of fonts, baring in mind I had to stick with these colours. I also found that the image on the left was rather difficult to read, as the colours 

blended in together and the outline wasn't thick  enough to distinguish the letters from the background. 

I then decided to try out a different font, which could distinguish between the font and the background colour. I personally think that this font is so much better than the previously used one, however, a meet up with the client is still needed in order to see their opinion on it. 

Friday 28th of March: Met up with the client to discuss the ideas that I already had. And upon reflection, the client asked me to try out a few ideas from a totally opposite approach, something along the lines of a more clinical theme. 

Live Project: Week 1 Plan - 24/03/14

Self-Initiated Study Plan Week 1 "7th Wave & Bang On Catering" Logos.

For my self-initiated study, I have chosen to create a number of varied illustration and design pieces to add to my portfolio. These images will show the development in not only my personal skills but show what I have earned when it comes to illustration and digital painting over the past two years. I will do these images on a weekly to half-weekly basis depending on how fast I work, and document my timing and initial outcome by creating thorough timetables and simple evaluations/explanations of my work as I complete them.

Monday, 24^th of March:

This week I will be creating two logos for a local catering and coffee business. My aim is to provide the company with logos based on the information they have given me about the company, and my own research into subjects behind the naming and colours related to this subject. I also plan on having multiple meetings with the clients in order to keep them updated with my progress and ensuring that they are happy with what I'm doing.

Days:	Monday 24th	Tuesday 25th	Wednesday 26th	Thursday 27th	Friday 28th	Saturday 29th	Sunday 30th
Work to Complete	Research into “7th Wave” title and the meaning behind it. As well as corresponding fonts attached to this subject.	Draw up 3 initial ideas for the 7th Wave title, and email client accordingly.	Upon client’s reflection I will complete my finished piece, based on any changes the clients want to make.	Search into possible themes for clients “Bang On Catering” logo – into comic book and Batman theme.	Create three ideas for the Catering title and email client accordingly.	Upon client’s reflections on the ideas, complete final pieces based on any changes made.	Final meet up with client to discuss final image and payment.

Skillset and Job Roles/ Individual Learning Plan.

There are a number of jobs, in the animation industry, that I am interested in once I leave college: 

A Digital Painter:

http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_4106_1.asp

Skills Needed: 

"Digital Painters need a good eye for both detail and colour. They must be methodical and conscientious about follow up, have good computer skills and be able to adapt quickly to new programmes. More senior artists need to understand the Animation process and should be able to use the relevant software, but new entrants can expect to be trained on the job. They must be able to take direction and to work as part of a team."

• As it states in the quote above, Digital Painters must have a keen eye for both colour and detail. - I feel as though this is something I am always working towards and improve on every time I create a piece of work, as the situation I am currently in is that every new piece of artwork I create is my favourite, and when I try and replicate that in my next piece, it ends up being improved upon even more. And that is something I think is vital as a Digital Painter. 
• It also states in the quote that Digital Painters need to have decent computer skills and be able to adapt quickly to new programmes. At first i felt as though this was something I most definitely needed to improve on, as I was always reluctant to try software I hadn't used before. However, now that I have been weaned into a number of different programmes such as After Effects, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and Cinema 4D, I feel as though I can quickly move between programmes and get a general feel for them quickly. 
• Finally, the quote also states that Digital Painters must be able to work as a part of a team. When I first started the year I know for a fact I was rather reluctant to engage with people I didn't know, as the childish thoughts of "What if they don't like me?" would spring about. But now I do feel much more confident as an individual and as part of a group and I feel as though I can take charge or show direction when necessary. 

Concept Artist (2D in Games Design.)

http://www.skillset.org/games/careers/profiles/article_4733_1.asp

Skills Needed: 

"Usually using traditional materials (eg pen and paper) rather than computer software, the Concept Artist sketches ideas for the game worlds, characters, objects, vehicles, furniture, clothing and other content. They also suggest level designs, colour schemes, and the mood and feel of the game. They are usually very good at perspective drawing and architecture. Although not involved in creating the actual game art, their concept will determine the look of many aspects of the game."

• One of the key aspects of Concept Art is that artists would be using pen and paper rather than a computer. I feel as though this is something I can definitely work towards, mainly because as my digital skills have developed, my traditional drawing skills have also improved, especially when it comes to facial expressions and features of the face and anatomy. However, I do lack some confidence when drawing in a traditional format, mainly because of the lack of accessibility when it comes to mistakes (in other words, I'm lazy about cleaning stuff up.)
• Another point that the quote makes is that Artists would need to be able to draw objects, either everyday or something unique, and that is something I need to work on a lot I think, starting with scenes such as cityscapes and alleyways!
• It is also stated that Concept Artists must also suggest level designs colour schemes, and the mood and feel of the game. This is something I really want to work on not only with my personal work, but to have under my belt when applying for jobs too. And recently I have been taking a lot of care into my colour schemes, not only constraining them to a certain degree, but using colours that I wouldn't normally that also work together. 

My Individual Learning Plan.

Here, I am addressing some of my weaknesses and  how I plan on over-coming them using simple and effective methods:

• Time Management - As I may have made clear throughout this blog, I get distracted by absolutely ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. I consider this a very serious problem when it comes to my work and it's something I've been trying to knuckle down on since the start of the year, and within the past few months I've found a solution. What I've been doing is cutting myself from any from of television, DVDS, videos, and online distractions (Facebook/Tunmblr/Twitter.) And I have done this by finding a website that completely blocks me from accessing specific websites for a certain period of time, no matter how hard I try or what proxys I use. It's been literally fantastic! I've found that I quickly get over the urge to pop up Facebook and forget the internet even exists for a while, and even when the amount of time I'm blocked runs out, I'm still in the mind frame of doing work and just continue on! I also listen to the radio a lot, so as to keep my mind occupied with someone talking, but not enough for me to reply or try and look something up. 
• Confidence in my own work - It's no secret that I get anxious to the point of no return when I'm urged to talk about/present/contact people about my work, and it got to the point where I was convincing myself I wasn't going to be able to get a job once I leave college. So to conquer this fear I decided to take at least a little step forward and begin to talk online  about my work. The reason for this is that being on the internet is a whole world away from real life, and if I do something to embarrass myself or I don't get a reply or I receive some sort of message I don't want to is all helped by one word - "DELETE." I've started a "F- this" kind of attitude where I might as well try something and if it doesn't work I haven't technically lost anything, I just haven't gained either, and that's good enough for me. 
• Loss of interest in work - There have been a number of times where I have completely lost any motivation towards my work and it's left me feeling awful, run down, and wanting to discontinue my education. Although I know I'll never be able to bring myself to quit, it's left me feeling awful and down. So. in a way to battle this, I will be making myself try something completely new every time I create a piece of work from now on. I have started to do this with new pieces of work and because all of these pieces are things I want to get right, learn from, and display and show people, I have ended up being so much more interested in my projects and love the final outcomes of my work. And when it comes to personal pieces, I'm hoping this process will help me improve my workflow and over all style every time I'm painting and drawing! 

Opportunities I am going to pursue.

• The Northumberland National Park - Even though I was in the middle of a project, I went ahead and designed a small character for the competition which took place back in December. I feel as though that small live project was the starting point in my new work flow, as I'd been looking at a number of Artists in the Juxtapose magazine articles online before hand. I also found that looking through other artists work does not make me jealous at all, it literally spurs me on to create something as good as what I've seen and is a great motivation. 

• The Young Illustrator's Award 2014 - I plan on taking part in this competition as an Illustrator and will document all of my workflow, which hopefully depicts my new style well and gives and insight to my thoughts throughout the project. 

• Illustration Friday - This weekly competition will definitely enhance my timing issues, as the projects are only a week long, and finding inspiration, obtaining materials, drawing and painting in just a week will actually get me setting my priorities right and have me planning around a few different things, which can only help me at this point. 

• Anxiety Awareness Week - Although this isn't really a competition, anxiety is something that controls every single aspect of my life down to the very last minute of every day. And I think it will be rather therapeutic to do something art related for that week. I do have plenty time ahead of me as it isn't until May, but noting it now for the future will help me plan. 

SWOT Analysis for 2014.

Strengths:

Knowledge of Digital and Traditional methods – Can use both traditional and digital means to create pieces of work, with a basic to well-practiced understanding of software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Paint Tool Sai.

Self-Taught – Didn’t conform to traditional, and inconsistent methods of teaching when at school and took to the Internet and nontraditional artists as a basis, giving me a broader and extensive amount of inspiration.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

Open to Ideas and Alternatives – usually listen well to alternative ideas both when I’m struggling or not. Usually the best advice is given during group work and tutorials, and comes fro a lot of different practices.

Took Risks during Animation Process – I was advised during our Digital Skills Application project to try out a number of different ways to create animations, using a number of programs such as Cinema4D and AfterEffects – which I hadn’t really used before.

Improved Upon my Digital Painting Skills – During my Essay on how digital painting has affected the Art industry, I learned a vast amount on other processes of Artists workflows that have influenced me, in more depth.

Went out of my Comfort Zone when Making characters – In my most recent animation project, I decided to use animals as my cast, and not humans, to get out of my usual comfort zone and “go to” characters.  This gave me many more challenges when it came to animating these characters.

Improved Time Management – Since using personal timetables, I have become much more aware of work I have left to do and am able to complete work much more on time.

Weaknesses:

Time Management – I tend to give myself less time than I actually need, sometimes resulting in my work being to a lesser standard.

Working using Scale and Measurements – Have a tendency to unintentionally lose or alter the scale of my drawings when creating walk cycles, not a concise tracer.

Confidence in my own work – Lack of confidence or satisfaction with a number of my drawings, leaves me rather fed up of them, and they tend to be something that needs to be carried on through a project. And can sometimes lose interest in the project.

Lack of varying characters – I tend to stick to the same kind of characters, the majority of them being human and don’t feel as though creating more inhuman characters is a strength of mine.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

STRESS – I take too much upon myself and don’t allow breaks between the amount of work I do, which tends to leave me in a work induced coma, unable to figure out which load of work to do first.

Can get too attached to my work – Working on digital illustrations and animations for clients other than friends and familiars, has shown that I must not get too attached to my work, and can’t take criticisms of that work too personally either.

 Opportunities:

http://illustrationfriday.com/category/contestsprojects/ - Competition done every Friday, I fell that this competition would benefit me, as it gives me a major time limit to help improve my time management problems.

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/index.php - A more challenging competition where I would have to “conform” to the rules, as it is designing the cover of a book for someone’s book cover.

http://www.loopdeloop.org/ - This would help me get body proportions right and discover ways to make stranger characters move and function.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

http://www.loopdeloop.org/ - This would help me get body proportions right and discover ways to make stranger characters move and function. – Have completed this project and gained the ability to produce an animation which is timed perfectly to music, something I hadn’t been able to do before.

http://www.illustrative.de/award/award/ - The Young Illustrator Award 2014 is something I want to try out, purely because of the amount of subjects (which relate to illustration) such as Visual Art, Pattern Design, Graphic Design, Animation and Comics.

http://www.panmacmillan.com/macmillanprize - The Macmillan Prize 2014, is a competition set up to stimulate new work from young illustrators when it comes to designing book covers. I think that this project would be perfect for me because of the fact that the company are looking for a very specific kind of design, and it would test my illustrative strengths to their full potential.

Threats:

Other Commitments – Making time for both work and commitments outside of work could be challenging due to the extent and amount of work I sometimes get given.

UPDATE – 21^st March 2014

Panic and Anxiety – Worrying and panicking about certain aspects of my work can make me forget about other parts of work. I have also missed important days of college due to panic attacks

Which have cost me dearly.