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1

I did my work placement over the summer at a Bulgarian company called Ciela. They’re a publishing house and bookstore chain, and the work I did was for the art department.

I was very determined to get a local placement, since I want to continue living and working in Bulgaria, but I wasn’t sure how to go about it. Thankfully, one of my mum’s friends turned out to be a lawyer at Ciela, and she agreed to ask the boss if they’d have anything for me. The boss agreed to look at my portfolio, liked it, and had me come and assist in the art department to do advertisements.

At this point in time the placement hadn’t even started, but I already realized how unprepared I was to look for art jobs, as I didn’t actually have a portfolio ready. I quickly put a few of my latest pieces in a PDF and send that over, and thankfully it was enough.

After the placement was over, I started working on a commission and portfolio website, in carrd and wix respectively. Both are almost complete, but I’d like to go through the professional practice class as well before I declare them ready.

My supervisor for the placement was a very nice lady named Milena. While it was an online placement and we communicated mainly through emails or phone calls, I did go to the office in person once, to meet her and the artists working full time. It really helped sink in for me that this is a real professional thing that is happening.

Like I said, Milena was very nice, but she wasn’t part of the art department. She dealt with the more technical stuff around book publishing - looking over manuscripts, editing, etc... She was chosen to be my supervisor, because she was the only one that knew enough English to be able to correspond with the university.

So, the first task she gave me wasn’t actually an art related one. She gave me 5 days to find 5 children’s books in English that they could potentially translate and publish. I had to write a few paragraphs about each book, why it should be translated, and if possible find the authors’ or their agents’ contact information.

A screenshot of the email exchange with Milena.

I send her the 5 write ups for the books I found, and she promised to come back to me the next day with feedback and a new, this time art-related, task.

While the task did come, I never did get feedback on the writing I did. At the time, I felt too shy and nervous to ask about it too, assumed Milena’s just very busy, or is herself waiting for feedback from whoever she had to give those write ups to.

Still, this kind of skittishness and shyness really won’t do me any good and I’m trying to work on myself to be more confident and assertive.

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2

To be honest, the first task of the placement made me kind of scared about the rest, but it turned out fine, as everything else was art-related.

The next thing I was asked to create were booklists - an A4 page that people can download from the Ciela website and write down the books they’ve read. Doing research on this, most booklists that can be found online are just lists that have space for author, book tittle, and sometimes a short review. I took that basic concept and made it more decorated and interesting, while being careful to not have the illustrations take over the space meant for writing. No matter how pretty they are, they also have to be functional.

I made 8 thumbnails, and detailed a bit the 4 that I liked the most.

I was asked to finish numbers 4 and 5. However, before I could, Milena finally got me in contact with the in-house artists and designers who would give me my tasks for the rest of my placement. She said that whatever they give me should take priority over the booklists, so I even though they were quite simple to do, I ended up finishing them only at the very end of my placement.

I’m very happy with the results, though I do wish I had more time to work on them. If I could colour the lineart, put some nice highlights on the food or funny tittles on the stacked books, it would have been better.

Time management is something I struggled with throughout the entire placement, and I think it was a very valuable experience in teaching me how to estimate work time and set my own and others’ expectations.

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3

Onto the first of the tasks given by the actual artists - it was a banner for a discount on the Ciela website.

When I met everyone, they warned me that they need to get stuff done quickly, and tasks usually come at short notice. They specifically used a Bulgarian phrase that translates to “being told something today and needing to get it done by tomorrow”. Usually it’s just a phrase for being rushed, but this one time it ended up pretty literal.

I was told they needed this banner in 8 different size formats friday evening, and it had to be uploaded on the website on sunday at midnight.

Needless to say I was, nervous. Still I did my best and worked as fast as I could and send in thumbnails

The artist I was talking with, Temz, was very quick in responding too, and after talking with her shortly I turned in this

It was, not great.

She called me to tell me that while the waves are pretty and the idea is really nice, the orange background and the typography are horrible and gave me pointers on what to do to fix it. Working on it some more, it turned into this

Which was more well received in terms of colours, though the typography was still pretty bad.

While I did study typography and font making and such in highschool, it’s been quite a few years since then, and it has always been somewhat of a weak point of mine. Temz was very nice about it and offered to get me into contact with one of their in-house designers who does amazing typography. She would do the words, and I would just make the illustrations. I agreed, though at the time, Temz phrased it a bit confusingly and I thought she wanted to do that only for the banner in this format, because this one was the most urgent, and that the other 7 were left to me.

So on sunday I send in the empty illustration for that format, and finished the other 7 with text and send them in on monday. At this point, Temz realized the miscommunication that we’d had and cleared things up, so it was smooth sailing from there on.

To be honest, I wasn’t completely sure I had understood her correctly, however, I was also too scared to ask for clarification. Why, I wasn’t so sure at the time. After all, everyone I had talked to - mum’s friend, the boss, Milena, Temz - were all very nice to me even when I made mistakes.

It isn’t until basically just now, as I’m writing this, do I realize that I was scared of looking stupid by asking for clarification - I should have understood it the first time around.

When I was younger I was yelled at and chastised a lot for being slow, for being stupid, for needing to be told things more than once before I got  them, both by other kids and by my parents and teachers, but I didn’t realize how much that changed my mindset and how it’s still affecting me. Every time I’m confused about something, I would run in circles in my head trying to guess from context clues like it’s some puzzle game instead of asking someone, and it finally came back to bite me.

But, now that I’m aware of how I’m prone to doing that, I can catch myself doing it and try to change.

Although I didn’t get this at the time yet, the way Temz reacted by just patiently explaining herself reassured me as well, so communicating properly became much easier.

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4

After everything was cleared up, I started talking more directly with the designer I was to work with, Fidelia, so Temz was no longer our middle man.

Fidelia send me a list of events and holidays that they would like to have art for to put on their facebook page, along with general themes and aesthetics they’d like for each one. As we agreed earlier, I would make the art and leave space for text, which she would add later.

She asked for an estimate on how long each drawing would take me, understanding that the time was somewhat limited and we probably wouldn’t be able to get through everything. As I was supposed to be working 3 hours a day, I gave an estimate of about 3 days per drawing.

At the time, that seemed like a pretty reasonable time frame. But, thinking about now, it was 9 hours per drawing, and it seems a little short. I did use a very simplified style without much shading and limited colour and detail. And the time was actually perfectly fine for the first two drawings I did - for Halloween and for the 6th of September (a Bulgarian holiday celebrating the country’s unity)

I was especially excited for Halloween, as it was the one prompt that allowed me to draw a character, which is what I specialize in.

After sending the sketch, the feedback I got was that there should be a bigger focus on books, as they’re a bookstore and publishing company. I ended up giving the little witch a magic book to read from, and changing the stool to a pile of books. After having the lineart approved, I send the finished thing.

This ended up being my favourite piece of art I did during the whole placement.

For the 6th of September I didn’t have such an immediate idea so I submitted more sketches for feedback

I tried to sneak in characters again, but it didn’t work, and the sketch Fidelia told me to finish was the second one. At this point I also started putting the Ciela logo on the book spines. I’m very happy with this one as well, and I started developing my own way to draw roses, which I’m really glad about as I use them a lot in my art.

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5

Next was a drawing for the 1st of November - a day that celebrates the people that kept the Bulgarian language and culture alive during the period Bulgaria was under Ottoman slavery.

The only guidelines given in the list Fidelia gave me was that it should be patriotic, so I tried to include iconic things like the flag and the first Bulgarian schoolbook, recognizable by the fish on it’s cover. One of the thumbnails was just that, the other one was a lion - the animal on our coat of arms - reading it.

Unfortunately that was really far away from what Fidelia had in mind. The feedback I got was that I should not focus on such specific stuff, but give a more somber and respectful feeling. So, I scrapped these completely and tried again, this time with more success.

This one was a little bit of a struggle, but I still like the result, especially the candle and flame.

After this, however, I started really struggling with the short time I had given myself. Next, I tackled the Christmas and New Year artwork

While the concepts and compositions came fairly easy - a Christmas tree with a aurora borealis and two champagne glasses, two books with fireworks - it was the execution of those concepts that I really struggled with.

It really felt like the simple style I had chosen was fighting with the subject matter, like it wasn’t what these ideas needed, but I also didn’t have enough time to stop and think how else I can draw these. I just had to get them done. And while I don’t think they turned out badly, they could also have been better.

This part of the placement really hammered home how I need to be much better at time management and estimates, and I have started paying much more attention to how long art takes me. I’ve also since lost the habit of locking myself into one particular style, instead thinking of what kind of style and work method would be best for the particular idea.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the facebook page to see the finished work with the text, however, I haven’t seen any of the art I did posted yet. I’m not particularly bothered by it, as it’s not a popular page, it’s much more rewarding to me that the boss and in-house artists liked my art and expressed interest in working with me again after I graduate.

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6

And that was the end of the work placement. It was a very interesting experience, and I’m glad I did it during the summer, as the distance between then and now gives me the opportunity to reflect on it much better.

And upon reflection, the main thing that I learned from working for Ciela, is that I don’t like working for companies.

I’ve been doing private commissions for friends or just people that like my art for years, I’m used to working for others, so I thought that the work placement would be similar, however, I couldn’t be more wrong. Just the feeling of working for a company vs that of working for a single person is completely different.

This is connected, I promise, but I’m someone that creates art because I am also someone that enjoys art. I get happy when I see new art from artists I like, and I want others to be happy when they see my art as well. Of course, I also just like the process of making art, so I can enjoy drawing or writing anything, but the audience’s reaction and their interaction with the art is also important.

But, while I did like all the work I did during my work placement, and I enjoyed creating it, it feels very soulless, like it’s just a means to an end. It’s not art that anyone wants or appreciates or is looking forward to; it’s just that the company needs to announce a seasonal discount, or to remind people it exists so next time they’re out and about they might notice the bookstores and go in, etc... And the best way to do those things happens to be through nice artwork.

I had similar issues when I was studying advertising design in high school - I don’t like using my art to sell stuff or promote companies and products.

I didn’t like working for a company

But I will continue seeking work from companies once I graduate. While I’m very idealistic, I also understand that ideals won’t pay my bills or put food on the table, and it’s hard to be happy on an empty stomach.

While what I really want to do is to tell stories, through comics or animation, until that becomes enough to sustain me, I need to find work somewhere else, freelancing or being employed somewhere.

And now that I know what it feels like to work for a company, I can adjust my own attitude and feelings accordingly. I’m glad I got to have this short test run, as I feel like I would have fared a lot worse if I were to have these feelings and revelations while stuck in a long contract.

Additionally, smaller businesses, indie games, storyboarding or book covers and illustrations would probably be different and closer to the kind of art I want to create. Perhaps it’s just advertising that isn’t for me.

I still have a lot to learn and figure out, but in any case, I’m very glad to have had this experience, and I’ve learned a lot from it, maybe even managed to grow as a person a little bit!