Reflection on Professional Practice and the course

This module is coming to an end and I thought it would be the time to evaluate my overall progression and reflection on Professional Practice, as well as the course in general during my second year of study.

Before the academic year had started I had looked into the things we would be doing and had talked to a few second years (‘previous’ students who were studying last year) what they had been working on and to get some insight to the things I would be doing. Initially the only thing I was worried about was finding work experience, which I don’t know how things would work out for me to find somewhere to do some work that relates to my practice and interests. Luckily there have been a few things that had happened that allowed me to follow my interests (selling at a convention) and to produce work for clients (First Story project). I thought I may struggle with this particular part of the module but things actually turned out alright and was fairly pleased with what I had done for it.

For the newspaper project I had mixed feelings with how it was handled. I feel slightly disappointed and I initially thought things wouldn’t be too bad since this is a group project, but I was wrong. I think there was an imbalance of mixing the right people together to create a strong/fair group. Our group was inconsistent in terms of communication and dedication.

The whole course in general was actually ok and it was not too hard as I thought, though I know that the second year of the course will be the hardest year, in terms of workload and expectations. There has been a few challenges, but not to the point where I actually struggle and feel stressed. Most of the work is doable, it’s all about time management and dedication. Tutorials with lectures for each of my modules were beneficial for my motivation and to understand how I could approach things differently, or perhaps to be a little more open minded. There hasn’t been a single problem (besides the newspaper project) in my studies for each module (still got Advance Drawing and Self-Publishing to finish) and I am surprised everything is going smoothly, I just need to concentrate and focus on the remaining modules once this one is finished.

Everything has been alright overall and I’m looking forward to 3^rd year for my FMP as I can finally explore my interests in digital painting further and to produce original/personal works for the project. This year has gone by fast and the work was manageable. The projects I had done for this year will help me ease my preparation for the 3^rd year and my final major project.

Inspiration

Over my years of study I had always looked into entertainment and popular culture, such as comics, games, films and animation, as my main area of interests and inspiration, as well as artists who worked in the fields of storyboarding and concept art. The one that I always had looked into the most was, perhaps video games. I don’t just play games in general; I usually pick up games that involve an in-depth story filled with a variety of characters and an expansive lore. Most of the games that I play are mostly role-playing types, where you play as the main character and you follow a journey through a narrative, as well as free roaming where you get to explore the world yourself and to find many hidden details that is outside of the main story.

The videogame that I find the most inspiration from would be “The Legend of Zelda” franchise. This may be a biased opinion, but this was the franchise I had grown up with, as well as being a big inspiration for stories and characters since I was little. Another videogame that I also liked was the “Final Fantasy” franchise that offers different stories and has an expansive lore for each game. Each entry (game) from the two franchises is entirely different to one another (although the narrative maybe somewhat similar to previous titles, which acts as a skeleton to create a entirely different story) and despite having similar qualities to their previous title they still offer a lot of content. Fantasy and Sci-Fi Fantasy are the two genres in videogames that I’m always interested in, since they offer so much imagination and story telling. Role playing games in particular are the types of games that I do find inspiration from, as it puts you into the shoes/perspective of the main character and feel more involved and connected with the story and characters. 

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (2013), one of the many titles in the franchise. The game stands out from the rest due to its cell-shaded Toon style.

Final Fantasy 15 (2016), the upcoming latest entry to the Final Fantasy franchise.

Within the entertainment industry of videogames I am currently following a few artists to help with Photoshop and digital painting. In today’s industry for entertainment, digital painting is becoming a skill that you would need and I wanted to continue to improve. I had only started digital painting back at the beginning of 2013, so it’s only been a little over 3 years since I had begun my journey to master the various methodologies of digital painting and to find my own voice/style.

Concept artist Feng Zhu is one of the digital artists I follow. He owns a school in Singapore, known as “FZD School of Design”, and has a YouTube account where he demonstrates techniques, ideas and Q&As on various topics and subject matters within the field of entertainment and storyboarding. He focuses on mostly games and sometimes films, but the knowledge he shares on his videos are very interesting and discusses his approach on his artworks, which I definitely find it essential to someone like me who is pursuing digital art as a professional practice. Most of the stuff I had learnt about digital painting is all self directed study and practice outside of university hours. While I may not learn digital painting on my course, I felt the need to spend time outside to learn it and at the same time I can incorporate the skills I had obtained and implement them into the projects in the course to help develop my skills ideas further. 

Concept art by Feng Zhu

Storyboard artist Ilya Kuvshinov is another digital artist who I had followed just a little over a year ago. He is known for his female character portraits and I followed him for his style. The simplicity of his works captured my attention and I had explored his methodology on digital painting which turns out to be very simple and not that hard to follow. He has helped me to be more open and to not over complicate things with heavy detail and to approach things simply in terms of colour. 

Art by Ilya Kuvshinov

Progression on Modules/Course

During the Monday session (04/04/2016) it was mostly focused on catching up with the newspaper project and work experience, as well as the research project (AD5004) which I had completed ahead of schedule before it’s due date. As an update for this post, I had completed my work experience and I had enjoyed some of the things I was involved in. The experience of getting a table at a convention to sell prints of original and fan arts was probably one of the highlights out of work experience, and it was one of the things I was keen of doing. The rest of the work experience was alright, though I had also enjoyed the live brief for the first story project, which is something I wanted to at least have some experience with, since something similar could potentially happen in the future.

The newspaper project is coming to a close and I am ready for the printing production of my group’s newspaper, however I still need to know the other member’s progression on how their newspaper spreads are coming along, and I feel a sense of dread that the other members who are somewhat laid back has not done their spreads yet, which will become of an annoyance since this will cause a setback on finishing the project before the deadline.

My overall progress within this module has been steady, with a few minor hold ups due to the other projects that were simultaneously happening at the same time, which made me go back and forth between them causing some work to be a little behind on progress.

Catching up with projects that were behind schedule was not a difficult task as I usually prioritise on things that are either lacking greatly in progress, or having upcoming deadlines (which I would preferably finish it a few days before hand so I can go back to it to make any adjustments or to add anything extra to the project).

As of now I’m pretty ahead with the deadline for this module, in terms of completing the work experience (including the online forms) and the newspaper project is not far from completion. There hasn’t been any problems with this module and the course in general (besides the problematic group effort for the newspaper project) and I am feeling comfortable in my current position with my studies for this year, the only thing I need to do is to catch up on one other module (Self-Publishing) which I am behind due to recent and upcoming deadlines. 

Review of Promotional Materials

We all get a sneak peek into the things the current 3^rd years had produced during their FMP which are of promotional materials that are to promote their work to the public. We all had a good look at each student’s promotional items and picked our favourite 5 that we all individually and personally liked. Here are the 5 items that attracted my attention.

Badges. Janica Francisco.

The solid colours and the bold character designs is what caught my attention to the badges. The character illustration filled the entire space of the badge, making maximum use of the space. The simple colour choices that were chosen for each badge was ideal and by combining simple shading/tone, it doesn’t feel cluttered and complicated, which is good, otherwise adding in too much detail would end up defeating the purpose of simplicity, which is what I assume the student is going for when designing the illustration for such small badges. The size of the badge are of standard sizes, so overall everything about the badge is good. If the badge was any smaller than it is, the illustration might not be able to be as effective and it would be small to see it from a small distance.

I can see this being sold at online shops including events and conventions relating to art/comics/entertainment. In terms of longevity I highly assume that the badges would be used more of a decorative piece (pinned on bags/back pack, walls and on clothes), or perhaps being collected as a collection, so there will always be of some use.

Phone Case Illustration design. Ben Campbell.

The simple, yet complex illustration pattern/design is what caught my attention to this promotional piece. The design fits pretty well as an illustrative piece for a phone case. The simplicity of using black and white makes it more effective than if it were to be in colour. This can be seen to be sold on online shops, as well as in phone stores and perhaps, on social media to promote the product, such as Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. In terms of usage I can see it lasting for quite a while, as long as the phone is not dropped causing damage to the case. Outside of being a print on physical products, I can personally see this as a tattoo/body print. Although, there are more choices for this print to be used, such as t-shirts, bags, etc. and to be honest the marketing for it can be very broad for this type of illustration, which I think it is a good thing as it would help to expand and broaden out the marketing for it and public exposure of the work.

Illustration stickers. Keri Green.

Cute character illustrations and its charm is what caught my attention to the sticker set. The only place I can see this promotional piece is in book shops, perhaps bundled with a book, other than that I can’t think from the top of my head where else this could be sold, maybe online shops but I don’t think it’s enough to be sold on the web, but I could be wrong. In terms of usage and longevity, stickers don’t usually lasts that long in comparison to the other promotional items by others, but this depends on how it is being used by the customer, but in the end stickers generally don’t last that long.

Colours and design of the characters is what draws the most attention and it is effective, especially if this is all targeted towards young children. The design of the characters seems to try and capture the feel and warmth to bring happiness to children.

Business card. Janica Francisco.

The font and personal style/customisation and its layout is what caught my attention. A promotional piece to reveal to the customer about the artist’s social media pages and contact details which can be seen given to those who buys the products/prints in conventions. Business cards usually lasts as long as the customer holds on to it for future references and interests.

The business card kept its simplicity with a black background and clear text font, including logos of popular social media sites to attract attention towards the important information about the artist the customers would want to look into. As for the illustration that was chosen to represent the artist, I believe this was of a personal decision, though this can be changed if the artists wants to and I don’t see anything wrong with changing it as long as the side of the contact details remains clear.

Pencil Case. Emily Jaysep.

The simplicity of the illustration printed on a plain pencil case looks very nice in terms of quality and overall presentation. Its longevity would last a fair while, or perhaps, ages since it’s only to store equipment and it’s not made for practical purposes. Online shops, art stores and general book shops such as WH Smith and Waterstones is where I believe this can been seen to be sold to customers. Its design is simple, yet effective at the same time. The simplicity doesn’t need anything else and I think it is perfect the way it is. The cream colour mixed with the black outline of the illustration is more than enough to give it a nice, relaxing feel to it, rather than giving entirely new colours to the bear, that would otherwise conflicts with the overall simplicity between the pencil case and the drawing. 

Discussion on FMP Proposal and Ideas for Project.

I know that a lot of people are concerned about what they wanted to do for their Final Major Project in the third year, and that project is what will determine what you want to do for a career and artist. To me, whilst it’s something that I am looking forward to, will be the opportunity to express with my works what I want to do as an artist. I have a few ideas floating around, though I am not fixed on one idea to go forward just yet, as I want to be open minded on the things I could potentially do for FMP. There are three ideas I have in mind and they are of:

1. Re-imagining childhood drawings and their worlds.

Taking drawings I have done over the years that had led me to this point. These drawings can be of doodles, sketches, characters or anything I had done throughout my years of education and free time. Using these as a starting point or reference to re-imagine these drawings collectively to create an imaginary world together.

2. A-Z list of an imaginative world I create.

Create a world of my own and produce a list (A-Z) that are of characters, scenery, sequence, creatures or themes of that world.

3. Stand-alone and collective illustrations that shares the same universe.

Create a world of my own, and produce several illustrations that can work as a standalone piece individually, as well as being able to be part of a collective with other illustrations that can loosely create a story with one another together.

At this moment I am leaning towards my 3^rd idea of creating several illustrations that are standalone, yet can be part of a collective with other illustrations, such as character portraits, creatures, scenery or sequence, that draws up a loose story of its universe and its events. Although, I would probably go back to my drawings I had did in the past, at the time I considered it all as a hobby, to get some reference as to what I always liked to draw.

I have mixed feelings whether to approach the project as concept art, or as an illustrative project, because there are a few things that I liked from both, and things that I don’t like from the two.

First of all, I always had interests in concept art, and I had studied it in my previous university for a short time. I always thought that concept art was about designing cool characters, but that is what I thought in the past. After realising that concept art is much more than just producing fancy characters, it is more of a ‘design’ subject, and to break into the industry is really hard, considering you need to master the skills of anatomy, perspective, colour, etc. Majority of the concept art I had looked into (the higher tiers of concept art) are heavily influenced to semi realism in terms of style, in which I do not want to go towards.

I always wanted to do something illustrative, yet at the same time concept art, and I always wanted to pick a few things from it and apply it to illustrative works to paint, it’s more of a mixture between the two than being one or the other. With an art style I’m currently honing to improve, I want my art style to be my voice, a visual voice to welcome viewers to my world of imagination and characters, and that’s is what I like about digital illustration. This can open up opportunities to get some work sold as prints, which I do like about.

For concept art, the only thing I like from it is the presentation of artworks. The presentation of character portraits, as well as the graphic texts that are there to accommodate the illustration, is something I’m trying to work on at the moment, as it brings out that professional standard to showcase your artwork. This is more to do with online posting/web browsing, but it is noteworthy to know how to present at the right standard.

Judging from what I like about the two, I would want to blend my artistic style for illustrative outcomes with the professionalism of presentation from concept art for portfolios and online posting.

To clarify what I wanted to do, I will choose the 3^rd idea as my starting point. I always wanted to create my own world with characters that I can freely design, and sceneries I like to draw to feel fantastical and inspirational, its lore and its universe. This will most likely be my FMP, but this can change throughout the course of the project. 

Discussion - Fees and Pricing in Commissions/Prints

Price and fees are one of the things that I’m currently struggle with to get a grasp of, as I have not really sold prints, nor taking in commissions to produce work for customers/clients. In this session we discuss the topic of pricing commissions, which I do want to hear about as it will definitely give me an insight to help my understandings and knowledge for pricing artworks and to look into different areas of commissions such as book covers, magazine covers, posters, in-book illustrations, etc.

I find that a lot of the pricing for commissions varies a lot and that there are many factors that contributes it, such as deadline, working for national or international papers, companies and authors. Being commissioned by a large company with a high reputation would of course pay you more, whilst you would be paid less from a small business that is in the minority. A few hundred pounds for a commission seems alright to me, though there are those that can hit the £1000s bracket where a lot of artists wished to be paid for, and some of these I find are ridiculous amounts where it could equate to a year’s worth of salary. Like I said, this comes down from how big or famous the company or person that is commissioning you.

An in depth analysis to all the different types of commission work and their pricing had me thinking how much should I sell my work to customers. There will be a time where I would be out there selling my illustrations for exposure and gathering an audience/followers, and naming my prices can be difficult. Making your prints expensive can make people pass, while making them cheap will draw attention, but at the same time you won’t be making enough unless it was to be sold at a mass quantity in a short period of time to the consumers. I would want to name my prices for my prints at a fair amount, not too expensive, yet not too cheap, but as of now I’m not an established artist, just someone within the minority, I will just put the prices at a fair range, depending on the quality of the image.

The session has taught me to see what income illustrators/artists make for a living and it made me realise that there’s not really a fixed figure for a yearly salary, considering that artists work on many different projects over the years with different pays and contracts, so there could be a year where you would earn more than the usual, and there could be a year where you earned less, which is not far from the truth for all illustrators whose yearly salary are different over the years of profession. 

Talks and Discussion on FMP with 3rd Years

In this session it was mostly focused on the introduction to the FMP in the 3^rd Year and we all get to have an insight to what the current 3^rd Years have been doing for their projects. As groups we rotate to each 3^rd year who volunteered to discuss and present what they are currently doing, each offering their own perspectives, ideas and approach to their interests and potential outcomes.

There was a diversity of different approaches to their project, where many pursued their own personal interests while others go down the route relating towards the commercial/graphical aspect, and it was interesting to hear their own take and what they had done so far to advance their FMP.

It was a good session to hear what the 3^rd years are currently doing in order for us to be aware of the situation when the time comes for me and fellow classmates to be in their shoes next year. While it is early to say what we want to do for 3^rd year, I do know what I wanted to do and to pursue, so between now and then will be the time of preparation to gather and to look into what I want to do in the 3^rd year. I will be following and to continue my pursuit of my personal interests in digital illustration for my FMP.