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Client Studies 2020/2021

Part three: Reflection

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Perhaps the biggest thing I have learnt about and developed during this module is my confidence in my ability.

At the start of this module, I really didn't think that what I did was good enough or I was afraid that I wouldn't be capable of producing something good enough for a client if I was able to get an opportunity. This is definetly the thing that has held me back the most. I felt rediculously ill prepared to approach clietns, becuase I was, But I couldn't bring myself to take the chance on opportunities even if I was slightly less experienced, which is a shame. My lack of experience was frightening me, I felt like I was at a disadvantage, and as a result I was reluctant to try, which looking back was probably my biggest weakness. The only way I would have ever known how to present myself professionally and talk to clients or have confidence in myself, would be to do it and learn as I gain the experience.

One of the benefits I gained from this module that I have already begun to apply to my practice, is being able to seperate my personal illustration from what will get me paid in the future. There is a time and a place for certain themes and characters, as well as ways of working. Before I was very commited to traditional ways of producing work. I felt that digital art was almost a cop out, this module has also made me more aware or how limited I could make my opportunities if I hadn't embraced digital methods of working. I realised that modern illustration is thriving digitally, that is where most of these opportunities are sprouting from and especially in the midst of COVID-19 working online is going to be one of the most secure ways of finding paid opportunities.

Just like learning to seperate my themes and conent, I am now able to seperate more traditional, even fine art methods and keep those for my personal practice. This way I have also found new enjoyment in these practices, it is not so much a scenario of takin a break from my work by doing the same thing and just calling it relaxing. By aiming my digital work towards my professional illustration and my traditional work for me, I am able to create a space that still allows art to be rewarding and fun.

Since getting my ipad, I have really thrived digitally, I really never thought I would see the day I thought so, but I actually enjoy it. Procreate especially has allowed be to just expand my style and ideas in ways I have always wanted to and I am already begining to gain confidence in my style of working and confience that what I am producing is good enough for clients and is reaching a professional standard. Its versatility is a lot of fun and I am glad I made the jump, the ipad has really transformed my attitude towards the method of working and has turned something I dreaded doing, to something that is almost second nature.

Going forward, I realise that confidence is important, but what is the most crutial element of illustration for me is enjoyment. If I am constantly worried about getting work or pleasing people to an extent that is detrimental to my state of mind, I will never perform to my best ability. If I always worry about the end product, then I will never have the time to make the work itself the best it can be. To really be enthralled and engaged with the process of creation is what this module has brought out in me. By doing this I will be putting more energy into what I am making, which will resultantly produce better more authentic work, which will in tern attract and please clients and companies and that will lead to work opportunities.

[rumbleemelye]

Client Studies 2020/2021

Part three: Reflection

THE INDUSTRY / CLIENTS

From this module I have learnt a number of things about how to prepare and secure placements. It is more apparent to me how important it is to have a strong and diverse portfolio that would allow me to gain a varied amount of experiences, it is something I am currently working on in my Final Major project and this module has allowed me to break away from just my personal illustrations and start to think about the professional applications of my work too.

It is also wise when looking for placements to go for a 'more than less' approach when contacting clients. sometimes people don't get back to you or things can fall through and it's always nice to have a back up. On the same note though, this module especially this year, has made me realise how unpredictable things can be on a whole new level. It really has shown that for illustrators particuarly, it probably will not hurt to have your eggs in a few different baskets, because something you thought to be a safe and secure avenue of work might could become unavailable at any minute, leaving you with no work. So knowing how to illustrate across several areas of the industry probably isn't a terrible plan.

Where I have found myself ill prepared to approach businesses and clients, I can now see those areas for improvement clearly and know now that going foward I need a clear and professional portfolio and website. I need to make a CV for my illustravtive practice and I need to have the confidence that I can produce work that people will want. I think a big part of making this process happen will come in my professional practice module where I can dedicate more time to making my presence as professional and appealing as I need it to be.

It is difficult to say what I would have done differently in terms of approaching clients and getting the placements, especially since the types of opportunities that I was working hard to get, fell through of no fault of my own or the businesses themselves. Lockdown is lockdown, it's been and still is hugely unpredictable and it was just unfortunate timing for me. I suppose in hindsight I could have set my focus on a wider range of opportunities (online ones).

The module has given a good insight into what it takes to secure these placements, in terms of how prepared you need to be, how quickly you need to apply and follow up with clients and opportunities.

Going forward, as I approach the end of my time at university, as well as the start of my professional career; I am more aware of the areas of illustration that I am interested in working in, so I will be able to build my portfolio to give me the best chance of getting those opportunities. It has really allowed me to acknowledge the types of illustrative work I am insterested in and I know I need to build a better professional presence.

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CLIENT STUDIES 2020/2021

PROJECT TWO: STORYBOARDING

My second project was producuing a stroyboard for a short film that my brother (Sam) was in the process of planning.

After he had explained the idea to me and I was on board to do the illustrative work, Sam sent me a few documents containing the moodboards, script and shot list for the project.

I had previsouly completed a very short storyboard for him earlier in the year, so in terms of style and detail, I sort of had complete free reign as I already knew what he was looking for and the general tone he was after.

Whilst working together, Sam made it clear that I didn't have to produce an image for each individual shot, that he just wanted a general gist, the only thing that he asked for specifically was the small hints of colour for the bird.

I sent the over roughs as I worked and overall Sam was really pleased with what I had done, he mentioned that my illustration were far more detailed than he expected and he really liked them a lot. I was very aware that sometimes your family can be nicer about your work than a client with no personal attachment might be, but Sam reassured me that he was being honest about how good he thought these were, by showing me a comparison to the work of a professional storyborder that the company he works for usually uses. To put it shortly, he felt like he had now been a bit ripped off by the previous illustrator since my storyboards were at a much higher level of standard than these other ones. It really boosted my confidence and it was a really rewarding experience to do this project and have the client be so pleased with the outcome.

I think one of the things that really worked in my favour for this project was the genre of the short film, as well as already having an understadning of my brothers taste in films and aesthetics. As soon as he sent the moodboard over I knew what he was looking for. Something that we did discuss a lot after the completion of the storyboards was my ability to really hit the nail on the head with the visuals, during this process we didn't really have large amounts of conversation over how these shots were going to be layed out. I only had the shot list to go off, so the rest of the detail was really up to me, I suppose in bigger companies there would be a lot more detail added to these shot requirements, but I didn't have that and sort of had to imagine directing this myself. Sam was really over the moon though, he said it was like I was in his head and I really delivered his vision.

I don't really know how much of that was good luck or whether I am more capable of understanding what the client is looking for. I know that a big part of selling youself as an illustrator or in any design aspect, is to be able to know what your client wants and even be able to produce work they didnt know that wanted until they saw it. That is really something I have gained from this project and is a skill I think can be transfered to near enough all areas of illustrative practice.

Taking on this project allowed me to add some diversity to my skill set and take on a task that wasn't totally familiar to me both in content and in practice, as I did this digitally on photoshop using a Wacom tablet. It is something that I find quite easy since the stroy is already made for you, you just have to bring it into life visually. I like the fact that storyoarding is the first time a film idea is realised visually and it is something that I would have interest in doing in the future.

[rumbleemelye]

CLIENT STUDIES 2020/2021

Placement: PROJECT ONE

INKTOBER

Inktober presented a range of challenges, as well as some good learning experiences. I learnt a lot about time management, style development, character development, and idea generation.

One of the biggest challenges with Inktober is having to create so many ideas in such a short space of time and executing them. I perhaps made this more difficult for myself by theming my 30 days around DRAC a character that had previsouly popped up many times in my sketchbooks. This challenged really helped me focus on idea production and took away form worring over tiny details or finished product.

For me, Inktober was about being able to come up with all these ideas and being able to see if I could acutalise them the way I had imagined. It was a lot of fun, even when the outcomes weren't as I had anticipated.

I got the opportunity to spend a whole month practicing and really learning how to work with inks, which was sometimes very frustrating and tedious, but as the month went on I gained more knowledge on how to make this medium work for me. This project definetly devloped my competancy in traditional mediea as well as fast and vast idea generation around specific topics, but for the first time it also left me wondering what I would be able to achieve if my digital skills were to imporve.

one of the things that began to present an issue to me throughout this project is personal time mangangement, not in being able to produce the images ontime, I was quite efficient and organised with that, but in the production of the illustrations themselves. I had been noted to me before, but the project made it very apparent that I need to take more breaks when I work. What seemed like 20 minutes was usually two hours and not only did that effect the outcomes of my work, it also had a physical toll on my body and eyes. I have better learnt to take breaks from my work now, although it is something that I often get caught out on.

At the end of this project I was getting rather tired of DRAC, but it had been recieved very positively on instagram. I was quite suprised by the reactions to the illustrations throughout the month. Works I really enjoyed weren't as well recieved and others that I wasn't particularly passionate about really picked up attention. It was a good reminder that you can never really gage what people will like and things are often better appreciated when the content is less neiche (Although there is always a time and a place for that!).

Just after Inktober ended, I actually got an ipad for the first time and could finally get my hands on procreate, which has completely changed my perspective on digitial drawing. Although I was quite sick of drawing drac by the end of October, my father had shown a great love for my DRAC drawings, so I decided to create a calendar of DRAC for him using my newly aquired digital resource. This wasn't originally going to go into this module, however I think it serves as a good example of how doing inktober has allowed me to develop this character and I have welcomed and thrived in a new method of illustration. The theme of the Calendar was DRAC of course but I spun it with the old calnedar girl idea, to create a satirical masterpeice.

[rumbleemelye]

Client Studies 2020/2021

Stage One: part two

Pre-Placement/Project Reflection:

In the pre-placement stage of this module, I had several avenues of potential sources of experience. Overall I wanted to gain more experience in areas outside my comfort zone and I really wanted to go and do some physical Illustration in shop windows or packaging.

A. After contacting serveral places including Khiels, I felt quite hopeful that I would be able to get what I was after, as businesses were trying to get people back in stores spending after the blow of the first lockdown and all the major festive periods were around the corner. Unfortunately in October Wales was put into another 2 week firebreak lockdown and all of those opportunities for physically go and ilustrate were gone. I was really disappointed and discouraged, but I still had other ideas for my placements, so not all hope was lost there. Sadly though since that time, most of the places I had in mind to illustrate, either were out of business or had to remain closed; then of course in December Wales went back into full lockdown, so by this time I had abandoned this idea.

B. Fortunetly I had other things going on for me, one of which was participating in Inktober 2020, which I put a spin on by doing DRACtober. At this time I knew I wanted to complete this challenge using traditionally methods of illustration and using dip pens and ink, but of course these images would be displayed online on instagram and on my website. I was still very focused on traditional methods of illustration, since my only digital resource at that time was a PC and a wacom tablet, which I hated using, the only work I really ever did use this for was the work with my brother.

C. As the opportunities for physical illustration faded out of reach, I turned back to working with my brother on some stroybords for short films he was planning to make in the coming year. I had previously completed one for him earlier in the year which he was pleased with and he has a couple more ideas in mind, including another short film and some music videos. In the end we agreed that the short film one would work out more beneficial for both of us and we spent some time discussing the ideas and shortly after he sent me moodboards and shot lists so I could start drawing some stuff up for him. I chose to carry out this project digitally as it was an area I lacked experience in and something I knew was only getting more and more popular.

D. Eventually I did try and apply for some of the univeristy opportunities and was quite optimistic, but unfortunetly I was not chosen for any of them.

As I moved into the in-placement part of the module, I was quite suprised about how things had gone, things definetly took turns out of my favour, but I began to set my conentration of the opportunities I did have going for me instead of dwelling over the missed ones.

[rumbleemelye]

Client Studies 2020/2021

Stage one: part one

Pre-Placement/Project Reflection:

At the begining of this module I was rather overwhelmed with the task ahead. I had very little idea of what area of illustration I wanted to focus on in my career and this module was asking us to consider just that and if possible, try to aim our placements to that.

In order to manage my time and my stress I looked at what experience I would like to gain before my time at univeristy ended and also relfected on past modules that I enjoyed that were collaborated with Clients and companies.

A. Eventually I decided that I would like to try and take on a physical illustration placement, decorating hand designed packaging or illustrating window fronts for the holidays, as this was something that would put me very much out of my confort zone and help me develop my organisation and networking skills. I contacted Khiehl's as this is a company that I had illustrated for 3 times previously in other modules and uni opportunities, as well as several small cafes and independant stores around cardiff for window front designs (for both halloween and christmas).

B. The second type of experience I looked into was online networking and expanding my digital presence. This year for the first time I decided to take part in Inktober, but I put my own spin on it. In efforts to establish my online presence and have a type of portfolio other than instagram to show, I also made my frist website, in order to select and curate my work into a more paletable layout. By making the website I thought I would be more prepared to secure placements. I was unsure of how to categorise and order my website and I knew I still was lacking a CV for my professional practice in Illustration, so for a long while I felt at a disadvantage.

C. I didn't go into this module completely hopeless though, despite wanting to gain epxeriences with companies and clients I did not know, I had the work opportunity waiting for me to work with my brother on some stroyboards for short films he was producing or in the works of making. This felt like a sort of safe bet for me and although I know it is valuble experience, I wanted to have a placement that wasn't with someone I knew so well.

D. The last source of placement opportunities was through university advertisements. At first I was very reluctant to go for these, as I thought I didnt really have the digital experience to deliver what a client may be looking for; but moreover I just didnt think my work would be good enough and I felt ill prepared to approach companies.

I went forward with these options in mind.

[rumbleemelye]

Historical Analysis of Illustration (2019)

in my final week of finishing up my essay, I went back through and corrected any Spelling, grammar and in text referencing mistakes. I also labelled my images as figures and organised my image reference list.

Whilst going through my essay, I added new visuals in certain parts in order for my writing to make even more sense. i included a screenshot of the film in Seitas memories where Setsuko is by a lake, which i looked at a couple of weeks ago; and a Hotaru print from the 1700s, to demonstrate the use of the firefly in Japanese art history.

i have had some issues working with google documents when editing my work, such as paragraphs jumping to the next page instead of one line down, not being able to add text boxes under my images, so having to shuffle everything for ages and a general frustration towards the sensitivity of the app. I would write in Word, however i would not be able to easily save this as a PDF from there, which is why i used google docs. For these reasons i will be leaving my essay in the finished state it is currently in, although i know there are small improvements that could be made. I believe my work shows good analysis skills and includes a lot of what it needs to, so i am happy.

This whole process of researching and writing has been enjoyable for me, I always like to expand my knowledge base in anything and everything; and it was interesting to look deeper into a film that i really admire. It has also been nice to write the essay itself, I believe essay writing is an extremely useful way of learning how to overcome obsticles,managing time, testing motivation, as well as being able to continuously find improvements in your own work which develops ones sense of self critique and independence.

At the end of this week I will be submitting my essay online.

[rumbleemelye]

This week I went through my essay and my log and gathered all the relevant references and sources of information that I used. I then ordered my references by how they came up in my writing and made a bibliography of my Sources, trying to order them as best as possible alphabetically. I had also listed my images that I used in my essay to analyse. During my final week I will make sure my essay has enough words to meet the required word count, and do a final check for grammar and spelling errors before submitting my final work.

[rumbleemelye]

As I near to completing my essay, this week I took time to make sure my grammar was correct by having it proof read. I then corrected the grammatical errors and well as reading through my essay to make sure it flowed well and included everything it needed to. Over the final two weeks I will be making sure I have all my references gathered and will order them in the correct manner. I will also be checking my word count and seeing if I need to add or deduct anything from my writing to meet the required 2500 words.

[rumbleemelye]

This week I re-watched Grave of the fireflies. I did this in order to ensure my points I made during my essay were appropriate, as well as to see if there was anything else I could add. Over the next week I will be making any additions and changes to my wirting so far.

[rumbleemelye]

during this weeks research I began to look at the colour choices through out the film. this will help me expand the technilogical development areas of my essay and overall gives me greater understanding of how colour communicates certain moods and tones.

the six scenes I collected show the varying colours throughout the film, the first two scenes (redish and dark) are the characters spirits.and despite being in the afterlife as it were, the colours suggest that they have not met peace or at least Seita (boy) has not. They seem to be in a state of purgatory, in pain and tormented. this could be subtle hints towards the lost souls of the war, those who died/ remained unnamed? the state of their clothes also is a key part of these scenes, as they have been restored back to new. again perhaps another hint towards Japanese attitudes towards duty and responsibility. in the case of the film it definetly relects seita's inablility to fulfil his own duties, and in this spirit world he must live in constant torment having to wear the clothes he is no fit to be in.

the next to images show destruction during and after, the colours are more intense during the fires, however after everything is faded and bleak. there is no colour in the landscape, prehaps to say that no life survives here anymore. Seita fades in with the background, turned away from the audiences view, the devistation of the towns, and the failures of people like seita (firefighters) to control the firespread, are an obvious embaressment. the only bright colour in the scene comes from setsuko, who shows innocence and naivity; being in the foreground the audience gains great perspective of her fear and suffering through this event.

the colours in the final two images are vastly lighter and more jouful, these are what are to become Seitas happier memories with setsuko in these times and so are bathed in a pure light, just like setsuko herself. the seperation of colours here from the rest of the film, clearly sets the moods apart.

these notes I will keep in mind when writing my essay and will look back to when i note on the illustrative techniques of the film.

[rumbleemelye]

This week I have carried on focusing on my introduction and conclusion. I researched information about the original story as well as the directors personal links to it. In my conclusion I wrote about the success of the film and compared it to ideals in the modern day. During my research I also read articles and historical news entries online to widen my knowledge about Japan in the war, as well as reading articles about fireflies in Japan and the history of them in folk tales and art, this enabled me to reference certain points in my scene analysis in order to back up my points. Over the next week or two I will be adding the last bits of analysis and referencing to my main body in order to complete the first draft of my essay. After this I will scan through my writing and then work towards my final essay.

[rumbleemelye]

Throughout the last week I have been beginning to create a structure of what I'm going to include in my introduction and conclusion. Having gotten quite far into the main body, I decided to change my focus and start preparing the introduction first. For this part I want to give a breif overview of what the film is about and talk a bit about the origins of the story in order to bring about some historical context. Then I will summerise in a sentence of two what the essay will be about. For the conclusion I want to talk about what has been extracted from the film as a whole and contrast it to present day attitudes. It is important that I connect the dots from how old the film is and the style it's in to how well it continues to be in provoking emotion and being an educational tool. To achieve this I will be doing more research into the origin story and also takahatas own personal links to that. As well as continuing my research, gathering references for the main body.

[rumbleemelye]

For this weeks research I did less visual and more factual research. I went about finding out information to back up my ideas that I had previously been working on, as well as finding out new information as I began analysising a new scene. My research methods included reading through war/Time that I had previously found and noting down specific things which I would like to reference in my essay; as well as looking at online news reports from the BBC about Japan in the second world war to expand my knowledge about this time period. When reviewing what I had written so far for both the scenes I have analysed, I marked out the structure of my essay in order to determine whether I was including everything I needed to. I separated the structure into four key elements: Point, Explanation, Reference and Link. This way it is very easy to see what I need to add into the essay and allows me to carry on writing effectively without repeating myself. From doing this, it was apparent that I needed to include just a little more factual evidence (reference) in order to properly justify my analysis, so this is what I will be focusing on when I continue to write and carry out research.

[rumbleemelye]

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (1988) directed by Isao Takahata Studio Ghibli production.

War/Time, by Frenchy Lunning (2009)

This week i began writing the first drafts for my essay. I have chosen to focus on moving image and am looking at Isao Takahata's 'Grave of the Fireflies'. The film is set in Kobe 1945 and follows the story of Seita and Setsuko.

Whilst having seen the film prevously, i wanted to dive deeper into the story behind the movie and the purpose of the film itself within Japan. Firstly i went to the library and found War/Time, which featured a chapter about 'Grave' in it, after reading this i gaged more of the social and political messages within the film, as well as finding out more about Japans governmental ideologies at the time, however when extending my essay i will need to do some further research into this in order to back up my points.

For this weeks short task though, i found two scenes from the film to write about which i have included above. when i come to finalise my essay i will be removing one image and combining the writing with that for the other image and introducing another scene from the film which will be the second half of the analysis.

when i was writing, i found my trouble areas were finding the right places to reference my sources and remembering to link what im saying back to my title. When i come to extending my essay, i will aim to solve these issues by maklking sure i know what specific things i want to reference before writing, which will then give me more room to focus on the analysis and making sure my writing stays focused

[rumbleemelye]

Photographs from the Special Collections Visit at Cardiff Univeristy

(A & B) Biological illustrations from Robert Hooke, Micrographia: or, some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses (1667) These Illustrations were made by engraving copper plates, rolling the ink over, wiping it and then printing under pressure. The Illustrations were produced as both a way of recording new evidence and a way to show and educate people about these scientific studies.

(C & D) Contemporary Illustrations (C)Ron king, turn over darling (1990) made from wire pressed into paper. (D) 'Girl' annual. (1952-99) A British Comic annual (brothered by Eagle comics) made to appeal to children of the 50s and provide more "appropriate" /alternate storylines to the agressive and violent ones coming from American comics.

(E,F & G) Illustrations from The' Graphic' (July-Dec 1882) The First time colour printing was used in public reading material,used for premium/exclusive sales techniques The magazine included collections of printed art pieces, adverts and artifacts, available to the public for the first time without having to travel to museums ect.

(H) Illustrations for news Illustrated london News, (Jul-Dec 1855) Illustrations made by combining copper engraving and woodblock carving techniques. included news report illustrations, as well as a collection of illustrations of foreign places, maps and public figures around the world. These illustrations were the first way in which ordinary people of the time could find out about the world beyond where they lived.

The trip to the Special Collections was very interesting, it was good to see the evolution of print making in England and provided me with greater technical knowledge of the craft. However moving on towards writing my essay, I want to look beyond the Uk for my topic, as I believe it will be both interesting and beneficial to my own practice, to find out about illustrative work from other areas like the East for example. Despite not usuing any of this particular illustrative work for my essay, this trip will enable me to better link the images I analyse to the historical context that surrounds and informs them.

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This task has made me aware of how many ways there arctually are to find out about each area, which will help me expand my knowledge and could be useful if i feel like i reach a dead end trying to find information in a cartain way. At times it was difficult to think of unique sources of research for each area and not repeat, but i tried to think broadly. Going forward in my research it will be considerably easier to refine my searches and keep my work going without hitting any walls, as i will have these lists to refer back to. They will help me cover a wide range of sources making my final essay that much more informed.