ilke-misirlioglu-yr3

[ilke-misirlioglu-yr3]

My Website

Link:

I have put my portfolio online onto a website in order to gave it portable and handy at all times.

The website was created via portfoliobox.net and I bought my domain name in order to have an easy to remember link that is also more professional.

Overall this website has treated me well, while applying for in-studio jobs a porfolio link is as important as your CV. I’ve made sure the website loads quickly by limiting the number of pieces on the main page. all of the pieces on the main page are visible by scrolling. I wanted to minimize the number of clicks a user had to do in order to view the artwork.

I wanted the work to speak for itself, as such I did away with all text except in the about section, which I kept short and sweet. There contains my email address to be able for recruiters or clients to be able to contact me.

One feature that was really important for me was to make sure my website worked on mobile, this was because I wanted it to be portable and anyone anywhere could access it if they needed to.

During my interviews for the internship; this feature came in very handy. In my interviews I was able to discuss my previous work with the interviewers using my iPad. They seemed to really appreciate that you could easily see all my work on there by scrolling up and down. One even commented that it was really handy of me to have come prepared with my digital porfolio.

Right now, I dont have as much focus in my work as I would like, so I have a bit of a variety of the types of work i’ve done. As I create more pieces I think my website will become more curated with the types of work I want to do more of.

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Self Promotion Piece & Review

This week we reviewed the self promotional pieces we had created with Phil Cleaver. It was great to see the different ones other students created.

My piece was a colourful illustrated envelope with a handwritten note, my contact information, QR code link to my website, as well as some business cards pictured below.

The feedback from Phil Cleaver was to make the envelope smaller in order to showcase the business cards better. This was a good learning experience as I was not used to physically creating a piece that was tactile, I think in the future I will think about creating more interactive promotional pieces with digital elements.

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What Do Clients Want?

Best practice is to get feedback from clients after eact stage in your work process. There is usually a lot of to-ing amd fro-ing when it comes to creating a final image everyone is happy with.

This is because the only way for freelancers to keep in contact with clients is through email or phone calls, outside of a studio environment, one party does not know what the other party is thinking or feeling so communication is really important.

You should ask what style the client wants your work in, for example if a client saw one type of work, for example a series of screenprint imitation works, they will not be happy with a realistic oil painting.

Having a flexible part time job can be a good way to suppliment income during times where there aren’t many jobs.

You should expect a clear briefing from a client. Otherwise you’re doimg their work for them and they will be unhappy when they get something they weren’t expecting. These details include dimensions, what use is for, colour scheme, fee, whether there’s a kill fee, and getting them to sign the contract you are happy with.

Make sure everyone responsible for the finalsay in the approval for the job has seen your roughs before moving onto final artwork.

In the end it’s always easier to keep a client coming than to find new clients. But remember, for a long career you need to get paid a good amount for the work you do. You are a professional so you should get more than minimum wage and respect yourself.

Introductory email example on a large mailer. (ie bikini lists)

—————————————————————————

Good morning,

I’m a London-based illustrator. I’ve reached out to you because I like the work you do and I think we could make even better work together.

Below are some examples of my work and you can visit my website at www.ilkemisirlioglu.com to see more. Alternatively, if you want to find out more about me you can see my twitter at @ilkemisi

I look forward to chatting with you, if you are interested of course!

Hope you have a good rest of the day,

Ilke Misirlioglu

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[ilke-misirlioglu-yr3]

Information about doing an MA

In this week’s talk we had some MA students talk about their experiences choosing to do an MA after graduation.

There is a Children's Book Illustration and Graphic Novels MA course at Middlesex University that is 1 year full time, 2 years part time. For me personally, I’m not interested to do one straight after graduation; but it was an insightful talk nonetheless. The talk gave me a lot to think about including would I want to return to study an MA after a few years working? I won’t know the answer to that question until I’ve done what I want to do aftergraduation; which is work full time.

Personally, I want to learn more about research topics outside of children’s books and graphic novels, and illustration alltogether. I think I would like to learn further on digital applications of art and design; including VR and interactive applications for use in healthcare or education.

I think wether to do an MA is a choice that must be made when the person is sure they are ready to return to study.

[ilke-misirlioglu-yr3]

Graduate Talk: Alex Foster

Thisweek we had a guest talk with graduate Alex Foster. He told us about his journey out of uni till now. Turns out the biggest advice was things change rapidly in the industry and what might work for one person might not work for someone else.

He talked about his own experiences with clients, agents, com-etitions, all of which was very useful to hear from a first person perspective.

He told us about how sometimes you fall into your own niche based on past work you have done, for example for alex, it was maps.

This is his website: http://www.alex-foster.com

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Getting a Head Start

I’ve already explained a bit about social media in my previous post, this post focuses on how to get ahead of the game in getting your first few jobs. 

Tip #1: Make a website

Ideally, it’s best to buy your own domain name, it instantly makes you appear a lot more professional. 

When making a website, put your best image right on the landing page, this is the hook that gets whoever is looking at your page to keep scrolling.

The less clicks there are that gets you from one work to another, the better. 

Make sure the design of the website is clean and loads fast. The provider I use is Portfoliobox, it’s a free website builder and in my experience a lot better than Wix or Squarespace. Sometimes the website builders with the most advertisements aren't the best ones.

Tip #2: Know yourself

Your website and social media should reflect the look and feel of your work. Also it’s important to tailor your website to whatever you are applying to at the time. For example, if you’re applying to work in film, put illustrations that are similar to the work whichever film studio you are applying to. One way to do this is to look at people who are already hired for the job you want are doing. 

Tip #3 Know the market

You should do lots of research for what’s popular in which markets, whether that be children’s books/packaging etc. And find a niche that appeals to you and you think you could do. After this you can approach smaller clients, agencies etc.

Tip #4 Success breeds success

It’s easier to get more jobs after you get your first break. To do this, some ideas to try are participating in competitions, finding connections through old jobs, current jobs, and uni. Applying for an internship is a great way to get your foot in the door of a studio you want to work at if you want to work in full time employment. 

Tip #5 Build contacts

You can find Art directors through the internet, and contact them via email with your work. This works a lot better if the art director is already familiar with your work, but if not, you should put a couple of examples of your work (not too many!) right in the email. 

If you’ve done work for a client before, you can email them every couple of months if they have any more work going at the moment. 

If you go to a conference or meet someone interesting, it’s a good idea to bring business cards with an example of your work on the back, or send postcards through the mail to art directors.

[ilke-misirlioglu-yr3]

Social Media

Social media can be a great way to get your work in front of art directors, clients, people who know people etc. The more eyeballs you have on your work the better your chances are. For that reason, it can be great to spend some time a few times every week to update and curate your social media feed.

Every social media platform is different in this regard. For example, Twitter focuses more on interactions with others and making connections through commenting and retweeting, whereas Instagram focuses more on creating a curated feed and private messaging directly. But there are some tips that stay true for all of them:

-Curate your work (this is especially important on Instagram, if there is old art on there that no longer reflects your newer work, get rid of it.

-Keep your professional life and your personal life separate

-Update your feed regularly

-Tag your posts

-Be social with other artists, make friends

-Reply to comments!

-Interact with your followers

-Follow other artist

-Go into art tags and like all of the posts you like, maybe comment on a few and be social!

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Handling Stress

Sometimes it all gets a bit much, so put on a movie and relax! 

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Collectives

Artist collectives are a way of keeping in touch with other illustrators. Freelancing can be lonely, and being part of a collective can help curb that loneliness. Things like having exhibitions, renting tables at illustration fairs, printing zines etc, become a lot easier once you are sharing the costs and responsibility across a group. 

Collectives have become easier and easier to form thanks to group messaging apps such as Slack or Discord. It’s never a bad idea to start a group chat to work on a group project. The more people you keep in contact with, the more contacts you have for later on! 

[ilke-misirlioglu-yr3]

Plagiarism and Parody & Pastiche

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is when your work or parts of your work are used without your permission by someone else. 

This can be annoying at best, and illegal at worst. In the UK you own all the artwork you create, so a watermark isn’t necessary. However this doesn’t stop people from using your artwork that you post on social media. Luckily, most  of the time people take down your work if you ask them nicely, if not there are “report” buttons that allow you to report the user that is reuploading your artwork. Cases of plagiarism in other contexts however are sometimes unavoidable, as unfortunate as it is because it’s a long and expensive process to go to court with it. One way to use them to your advantage is to spread  awareness on the issue (without being slanderous) sometimes these posts become viral and it’s some compensation vs the issue. 

A fuzzier topic is when your art style is plagiarised. You can’t copyright a style or a process of working, however this should be avoided because while it might not be illegal; the community will frown upon you for it if it’s obvious that you have used someone else’s work without crediting them. 

Parody & Pastiche

Parody is imitating an artwork for humour & mockery. 

Pastiche is imitating an artwork to celebrate and reference it in the new artwork.

For example: this is a pastiche to Andy Warhol’s prints of Marilyn Monroe, but using a photo of Kate Moss instead. 

[ilke-misirlioglu-yr3]

Agencies

Agents can help you get bigger jobs and more of them. Most agencies will only accept you if you have a significantly large portfolio of similar styled work. You don’t need one if you can already get enough jobs without an agent. They will take a portion of the pay from the work as a fee but should help negotiate a higher pay to make the deal profitable for you.

Every agency has a different submissions policy so you should look on the websideof each one before sending an email. 

You should think carefully about whether you want an agent or not before you start applying, freelance work isn’t for everyone, so if you don’t have much experience and don’t know if it’s what you want to do or not, you can become pigeonholed into a specific style or type of work.

Here is a list of agencies I like the look of:

Lemonade

Central Illustration Agency

The bright Agency

Handsome Frank

Folioart

Advocate Art

[ilke-misirlioglu-yr3]

Keeping Organised

Keeping track of your business is really important. In addition to keeping on top of deadlines, keeping a spreadsheet of freelance work month by month per tax year, which is April 5th to April 6th.

Some info to put in this spreadsheed include:

Invoice number

Deadline

Name of client

Email address of client

Description of comission

Price of the comission

Art complete? Y/N

Paid? Y/N

Some paperwork that needs to be kept safely include:

Invoices

Reciepts for business expenses (also a portion of rent working from home)

Bank statements (for business accounts)

[ilke-misirlioglu-yr3]

Contextual Studies: A starting point

LGBT+ representation in contemporary children’s cartoons: Its effects on self esteem and the attitudes of the wider community

Plan of Action:

December 10th- I will have recorded all of my interviews

January 7th- I will have transcribed all interviews and started to analyse the responses

I will also have conducted seconadary research by reading books and articles related to my topic.

Febuary 4- Full rough draft deadline

April 23- Final deadline

Overview of topic:

TV shows provide valuable role models for kids that may not have access to them within their family and local community. LGBT+ representation in mainstream children’s shows has been largely absent until very recently. The representation of the LGBT+ community in shows aimed at older audiences have been overly sexualised and made unsuitable for children. I want to research the effects of this on the self esteem on LGBT+ adults who grew up without these role models. To do this I will be conducting interviews and analysing my findings as my primary research.I want the interviews to be a starting point for the issues I will be exploring in my text, as personal accounts are the basis of this research.

I will also be conducting secondary research by analysing studies and journal articles on the effects of positive role models on childrens self esteem, as well as academic texts written on feminist and queer theory.

Originally my research topic looked at the effects of gender stereotypes in picture books, however I found that usually parents and local communities of the children could pick and choose the books read totheir children, therefore control the topics the children were exposed to through this medium. I found that TV shows are more difficult to control therefore potentially be more harmful with their negative stereotyping of marginalised groups. However, they could also provide role models with positive representations of marginalised communities.

By the end of this research project, I would like to have created a discussion on the topic, with a focus on hearing the opinions of individuals within the LGBT+ community.

The final essay will be presented in a designed book format with visual examples such as screenshots from shows and scenes I will be looking at. Each section of the essay will be defined via subheadings.

 My bibliography from last year’s literature review:

This research was done on a variety of ages, mediums, locations, and topics, however all of the results show similar effects on exposure to positive role models with positive self esteem in children . Whilst my research will not be a scientific one, I will seek to have a space for retrospective reflection by the individuals I interview.

Ahmed, S., Ahmed, S., Morrison, S. and Hughes, I. (2004) 'Intersex and gender assignment; the third way?', Archives of Disease in Childhood, vol. 89, no. 9, pp. 847-850.

Baron, A., Schmader, T., Cvencek, D. and Meltzoff, A. (2014) 'The gendered self-concept', in Leman, P. and Tenenbaum, H. (ed.) Gender and Development, East Sussex: Psychology Press.

Bern, S. (1981) 'Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing', Psychological Review, vol. 88, pp. 354–364.

Child, I.L., Potter, E. and Levine, E.M. (1946) 'Children's textbooks and personality development: An exploration in the social psychology of education', Psychology Monographs, vol. 60, pp. 1-54.

Chung, S.K. (2007) 'Media Literacy Art Education: Deconstructing Lesbian and Gay Stereotypes in the Media', International Journal of Art & Design Education, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 98-107.

Connell, R.W. (1987) Gender & Power, Oxford: Polity Press.

Doonan, J. (1993) Looking at Pictures in Picture Books, Gloucestershire: The Thimble Press.

Duveen, G. and Lloyd, B. (1992) Gender identities and education, London: Harvester.

Eckert, P. and McConnell-Ginet, S. (2013) Language and gender, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Evans, L. and Davies, K. (2000) 'No Sissy Boys Here: A Content Analysis of the Representation of Masculinity in Elementary School Reading Textbooks', Sex Roles, vol. 42, no. 3/4, pp. 255-270.

Frawley, T.J. (2008) 'Gender Schema and Prejudocial Reacall: How Children Misremember, Fabricate, and Distort Gendered Picture Book Information', Journal of Research in Childhood Education, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 291-303.

Fried, F.J. (1982) Stereotyping in Children's Reading Materials, East Lansing: National Center for Research on Teacher Learning.

Gooden, A.M. and Gooden, M.A. (2001) 'Gender Representation in Notable Children's Picture Books: 1995-1999', Sex Roles, vol. 45, no. 1/2, pp. 89-101.

Hamilton, M.C., Anderson, D., Broaddus, M. and Young, K. (2006) 'Gender Stereotyping and Under-representation of Female Characters in 200 Popular Children’s Picture Books: A Twenty-first Century Update', Sex Roles, vol. 55, no. 11-12, pp. 757-765.

Iser, W. (1974) The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett, Johns Hopkins University Press.

Iser, W. (1978) The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett, Johns Hopkins University Press.

Kane, E. (2013) Rethinking Gender and Sexuality in Childhood, London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Ladybird (2007 ) Boys and Girls: A Ladybird Book of Childhood, Loughborough: Warne.

Leman, P. and Tenenbaum, H. (2014) Gender and Development, East Sussex: Psychology Press.

Martin-Storey, A. (2016) 'Gender, Sexuality, and Gender Nonconformity: Understanding Variation in Functioning', Child Development Perspectives, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 257-262.

Nachbar, J. and Lause, (1992) 'Breaking the Mold: The meaning and significance of stereotypes in popular culture', in Popular Culture: An Introductory Text, Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press.

Narahara, M. (1998) Gender Stereotypes in Children's Picture Books, East Lansing: Nationl Center for Research on Teacher Learning.

Nikolajeva, M. and Scott, C. (2006) How Picturebooks Work, New York: Routledge.

Ochman, J.M. (1996) 'The Effects of Nongender-Role Stereotyped, Same-Sex Role Models in Storybooks on the Self-Esteem of Children in Grade Three', Sex roles: a journal of research, vol. 35, no. 11/12, pp. 711-736.

Peterson, S.B. and Lach, M.A. (1990) 'Gender Stereotypes in Children's Books: their prevalance and influence on cognitive and affective development', Gender and Education, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 185-197.

Schau, C. and Scott, K. (1984) 'Impact of gender characteristics of instructional materials: An integration of the research literature', Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 26, pp. 183-193.

Taylor, F. (2003) 'Content Analysis and Gender Stereotypes', Teaching sociology, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 300-311.

Taylor, K., Lesiak, J.L., Carroll, J. and Lesiak, W.J. (1993) 'Kindergarteners' Responses to males in nontraditional roles: A replication of Styer (1975) ', Psychological Reports, vol. 72(3), pp. 1179-1183.

[ilke-misirlioglu-yr3]

Writing Invoices

You need to send invoices after the completion of a job so you can get paid.

in your invoice you need to write:

The date

Invoice number (for your records)

Your Name

Your Address

Your email address

Client’s name

Client’s business’s name

Client’s email address

Breakdown of costs of the work supplied

National insurance number

VAT number

Total amound of money the client needs to pay you (Including 20% VAT if registered.)

To be paid within 28 days of recieving this invoice

If the payment is international you also need an IBAN/SWIFT code. It’s important to keep in mind that for international clients, the bank charges a fee to accept payment, an alternative for smaller jobs could be using Paypal, but that runs the risk of slow payment, and issues that take a long time to resolve. So i would only do this with clients you trust or small jobs that you won’t take a big hit from if you don’t get paid.