Stephen Cooper - Concept Artist

Concept Art is one of the few interests I have, and in this session Concept Artist Steven Cooper was a guest lecture to talk about some of his client works (Doctor Who, Paddington, Silent Hill: Origins) personal works, life as a concept artist, as well as responding to general questions regarding about the subject.

This session was very, very useful and interesting as I get to have a small insight into how a concept artist work, dealing with exposure and client work, including to know Stephen’s personal opinions, influences and advice.

After his presentation that consists a body of client works as well as some personal projects, I personally sat down with him and discussed about my interest in concept art and to share my experiences of learning in the past in my previous university, where I had studied Game Art Design in De Montfort University.

I discussed my experiences where I find it difficult, as a whole, to study Concept Art, where you need the skills of both 3D Game Production and Visual Design. I asked this whether it is necessary that, despite being a 2D illustrator, you need the skills as a 3D modeller to get into concept art, considering I myself is not keen in 3D modelling and it is too technical for me. Stephen explained that it is not that necessary, however it would give you an advantage over some who doesn’t know much of 3D modelling, and told me that gaining those skills is a plus to your employability within the industry of concept art. He told me that you can still get into Concept art without knowing 3D modelling, though basic knowledge is required just in case you would ever need to use one, which he explained earlier in his presentation, that he needs to self-teach on using 3D modelling software he needs to use, such as Maya and ZBrush to produce some client work. His opinion makes it all clear to me and that it is not a necessary requirement to get into concept art, though this makes me more wary that some, if not most companies are on the lookout for those who has both 3D and 2D skills, which can put those in an advantage over those who don’t have both, like me.

After the discussion I made it relate to one of questions that I want to ask, and that is:

Would you consider Concept Art the hardest subject within the field of Illustration?

Stephen agrees that concept art is, in some way, hard in comparison to other subjects in art and design, primarily because you would need to stay at top in being creative and motivated all the time, regardless whether the project you are doing is enjoyable or not. He said the design element is what keeps things challenging and you would need to think and produce new designs, which can be difficult especially if there is a strict time constraint on the project’s idea phase. You would need to know how to draw anything and don’t expect to draw your favourite things all the time, since the brief from the client could be of anything. If you can’t then maybe concept art is not the right choice, and would prefer to go to a more general digital illustration pathway, if creating illustrations is your thing.

Taking into account of what he said in response, which leads to my second question:

Did you work on multiple projects simultaneously?

No. Stephen said he didn’t and would personally prefer to work and focus on one project at a time, as he said his director assumes he has undivided attention and knowing he can handle the work, otherwise, working on another project without the director knowing would stir some problems, also taking into account Stephen would need to keep things confidential of both projects between the two companies. Plus it would personally conflicts Stephen’s working hours, as there is more work to do.

Did you have to self-teach to learn new software outside of work?

Yes. He said that a lot of companies does not provide any tutorial or training if a particular software skill is required. He reflects back to my first question, where he tells me that knowing some of the software is a plus to your employability, which I think he is correct. This had me reflecting back when I first acquired Photoshop a few years ago, knowing that I would need to self-teach myself, considering there’s no classes that teach you the ways of digital painting, unless you go to a specific art school/college. He said it is handy knowing a few extra things, but if it is something that you would definitely be using, you would need to teach yourself.

As an artist is it better to be well rounded in everything, rather than sticking to the things you like to do? Such as drawing specific characters, environments, etc.

Yes. Cooper said it is better to be well rounded than sticking to what you can do, as it will narrow down your opportunities. He personally say that sticking to one thing is somewhat generally not a good idea, but you do get artists who are recognised or well known for drawing the one subject or theme that they like to do, whether its character portraits or sci-fi robots, which is not a bad idea if it is successful, but overall he personally says that it is better to know your way round rather than boxing in on yourself. Sure it will make you recognisable in a way to be known as an artist who draws this or that, but drawing your favourite things all the time could somewhat hinder your job opportunities and skill.

It was nice to have discussions and debates on several topics with Stephen and was given small tutorials in Photoshop including some advice in painting surface materials. This session has been very good and was well engaged in discussing relevant topics relating to my own interests with Stephen Cooper and I may contact him via email for future references/purposes. 

Work Placement and Career Advice pt.3 - Interviews

This final session of Career Advice regarding on the preparations for a job interview is useful. I had written down notes just in case if I ever need to recap on a few things that I need to remind myself, such as preparing my own questions and to know some knowledge about the company I wanted to get into.

While I know some knowledge of preparation, there were a few things I did not know about, such as cases of set ups from the interviewers to test you to see if you are capable to respond in a specific manner, though from what I heard, some of the cases are somewhat bizarre and unfair to the applicants and only to be told afterwards they did not get the job just because they did not respond in a specific manner, such as the case, which I see as unfair, where the interviewer was ‘interrupted’ and he needs to talk to a colleague outside the room for 15 minutes, while the person who is getting interviewed patiently waited, until the interviewer comes back to resume.

The part where he talked outside for 15 mins was a set up in a way to get that person who is being interviewed to tell the interviewer that she’s here for the interview, not to have time wasted, as a response, though clearly that did not happened, hence the job offer was rejected.

As I heard the story about this case, it seems unfair, because you wouldn’t expect to get up and kindly confront the interviewer to stop talking and resume the interview, my initial response would be to sit quietly and patiently wait for the interviewer to return, how would anyone know this was actually a set-up, and to go out to tell the interviewer that you are here for the interview seems rude, as the talk between those two could be important or confidential and not want you to know about.

This is something new I had learnt from this session on interviews and now I am more aware that the company or the interviewers that I would apply in the future might play some tricks or set-up to throw you off guard. Some can be surprising, while some may seem unfair and feel one-sided. 

Work Placement and Career Advice pt.2 - CVs

In this seminar, CVs was the main focus. For someone like me who has not written a proper CV before, this was extremely useful as there are some helpful tips to understand what information I would need to provide within a CV. I may have written one years ago back in secondary school when we were tasked to do 1 week of work experience but how the school handled the situation was annoying and they ended up placing me in college to do clean up duty which I did not asked for.

Some people were shocked to hear I don’t have a CV nor had done a part time job, I understand they were taken by some surprise to hear that for someone at my age, but also felt that they think I am behind in life and kept telling me to get a job, but during my time in education I did not see any time to find one, which others think it is an excuse, but to be honest I rather wait until I finish my education.

As for the seminar, I had written down notes of the things I need to know that are important, such as the order of details and information that are to be put on the CV, including skills, qualifications and interests, as well as the very little details that makes the CV presentable, such as the use of any graphic colour and choosing appropriate font style. I also get to know other approaches such as on-line CV and a creative CV, which I had not heard of before. Other information regarding cover letters and e-mails are also very useful to know how to write in a professional manner. Though I do know in general how to write professionally, but this has helped me to understand a lot better and clearer.

So far I had not written a CV to this date, though I will eventually as a practice. This seminar was useful and I thought I would need to go down to the career advisers myself at some point to help me out regarding on CVs, but thankfully the seminar had focused on this matter and I’m glad I had attended the session. Later on I may still need to go to the career advisers for further information but for the mean time I know what I would need to do for the CV with the notes I had written.

Work Placement and Career Advice pt.1 - Online Exposure

This seminar in particular has been very useful in terms of knowing information regarding on careers and how to find the right work experience within the field of illustration for professional practices. During this session I had written down notes and key things that will help me for artist’s exposure and approaching work under a professional manner.

Throughout my education I had not took one job for work experience, whether that’s a regular part time job or voluntary work, mainly because I was focused on education, especially college and during my time in my first university before I came to Gloucestershire I had faced several complications which would of conflict with finding work if I ever had. I did do one work experience during secondary school, however, I don’t think it counts because after several rejections and trying to find work experience that links to my interests in illustration or graphic design, the school sent me to a local college to clean the studios instead, which to be honest is not exactly ‘work’ experience to me.

I always wondered what other ways I can approach things now for work, and this seminar was really helpful to know the different ways and possibilities to go out there and pursue a career relating to what I like to do, a career relating to Illustration. It is something I had been waiting for to be honest, finding work within the professional field of Illustration.

One of the things that was talked about was exposing yourself as an artist and begin networking other people with similar interests. This was only talked for a brief moment, but this in particular has been on my mind for quite a while, because I do want to display and share my work with other fellow illustrators, whether they are traditional or digital artists, Hobbyist or Professional, around the world. It was always something I wanted to do for quite a while. Several years ago I had been sharing my illustrations, which I considered as a hobby back then, on a website known as “DeviantArt”. I had posted some of the drawings I did as a hobby, but after a while I deactivated my account and left and at the same time, I felt I wasn’t ready for the whole ‘exposure’ thing. But now I feel I am ready, and recently I had set up a new account on the website, posting original works and the occasional fan art of popular characters on a regular basis.

I will be setting up accounts in other sharing websites such as “Tumblr”, but for the mean time I will settle in with “DeviantArt” first, then soon expand over to other social media and setting up a professional profile. 

Other things that were mentioned such as competitions is something I would consider looking into and to try out, though it depends on what the competition is. If it would help me expose myself as an artist on a greater level in any way, then no doubt about it I would try that completion(s) out. So far there’s nothing at the moment, as I would need to look further to find the right competitions I can compete in.

Overall I feel a little more confident about finding work that relates to my interests within the field of illustration, it was something I needed help with in particular. Finding a regular job for part time work to get work experience is not exactly my thing, I know, I need experience in work regardless, but I wanted to get a job that I do enjoy, which is Illustration and that is my target. Finding a part time job will be my backup, starting with voluntary work first, which I will be looking for, to get some basic experience.

The information we were all given during this seminar was really helpful in terms of finding and knowing how to approach companies professionally and setting up a Portfolio at a professional standard. Building a CV is another thing that was mentioned, which I will talk about separately. 

Group Presentation

Getting together before we present our presentation was the first thing we do, as we all gathered what we had looked into to discuss about Scientific Illustration. Unfortunately, one group member was away so it became a 4-man group. Two of the group members had put a lot of input of slides showcasing different images and works of the topic, as well as an interview that one of them had done for the presentation and overall we had too much slides to cover, but we decided to cut the time slightly short on each slide to keep things interesting and going. Technically only 3 of us, me being the last one to put my slides together at the last minute, had done research, as the one member who didn’t find the topic interesting, did not do any research of his own for the group presentation. So to make up for not contributing, we have him introduce the presentation for the audience.

After a short introduction the two others who had a lot of input discuss their own findings and research which went surprisingly long but they both managed to keep at it at a steady pace throughout until it was my turn.

I was a little shaky at first but managed to stay on track, the only thing I was worried about was whether I ended up repeating myself, and since I don’t have anything I could read from apart from my small notes, I usually pause quite often to figure out what I wanted to say. With only two slides I do feel there needs to be more, though with a lot of content provided by the other two, we didn’t want to extend the maximum slides we can only go for (20 slides) as it might drag the presentation. However, the main focus of the presentation was to explore scientific illustrations both historically and in the present, as my part is just a little extension as to what scientific illustrations can some-what extend into. Though with an extra 1 or 2 slides would have been good, but it doesn’t really bother me as much as long as I got something to say and share for my part as a group member. 

We all didn’t rehearse as we just put together what we had done at the last minute, but I’m sure each of us knew what we wanted to talk about so we were pretty confident. When I did my part it was not scripted, partially due to the reason why I had not put my slides in until the last minute, which was my fault to be honest, but I was satisfied with the things I wanted to say, though it could of have been a little more fluent in terms of not repeating and pausing at some point, which could of have been avoided.

During the session the presentations of the other groups were good: some were scripted while others have a lot of information on the screen as they do their part, which I didn’t mind at all. I have general knowledge of the topics that were discussed in each group but managed to find some interesting facts, such as the wages the artists were getting paid and the backgrounds of artists of how they start and became what they are now. Sadly no notes were taken but I mainly listen in to the information that the other groups are sharing. Some groups were a little similar to one another in terms of topic, such as concept art and children’s book illustration, though each group’s findings are different so at least there were some different content being shared under the same career field.

The only thing that I learned was pretty much from my mistakes, and that was to leave things at the last minute which ended up rushing the presentation, but this also include the fact that each one of us did their own part of the presentation, and we only came together to fit what we have together in the end before we present. Organising the slides together was ok but it did took some time to finalise what we want and luckily the group presentation did not start until a little later, which had brought us some time to fix and update it. 

A - Z Task and Research for Presentation

Our first task as a group (of 5 people including myself) was to write an A-Z list of all potential careers within the field of Illustration with each alphabet. We began writing what each one of us know what job or profession starts what letter which started off easy, however, it rapidly became harder for us to find out what career names that start with letters that we don’t really come across, such as the letters Q, V, X, Y, Z etc.

We managed to find more than one career that fits under an alphabet, such as the letter C, where ‘Concept Art’ or ‘Children’s book illustration’ would fit under, however we could only pick one but at least we got more than one answer for one letter, though finding ones that we could not think from the top of our heads was beginning to itch our heads and we ended up writing jobs that are some-what not related to the career of Illustration at all as we just filled in what we know ourselves. We struggle to find some but ended up giving up and the sheet has a mixture of jobs that are both related and not related within the professional practice of illustration.

For a 15 min task we did what we could, and finding career names with the letters such as Q, V or X boggled our minds and made up gave up fairly easily, it was fun, but it was over pretty quick.

Afterwards we picked the one career from the A-Z task to create a presentation and we chose Scientific Illustration. We ended up debating for quite a while because one of us thought it was a boring topic and the others are opened about it. I wanted to do it, because it is what I and everyone else knows about, plus it is an interesting topic to look into. We tried to persuade the one who was against it and he eventually gave in, though he didn’t put a lot of input into talking about it afterwards.

We all did our individual research and I accidently left my part to the last minute which was my fault as I was concentrating on other projects that are simultaneously going at the same time (Sequential Illustration, Advance Drawing and Theory). It was a slight rush to add my part as the last part of the presentation with only 2 slides, though I know what I wanted to talk about so it was ok, yet was a little nervous. The others had researched what and how scientific illustrations had helped us, both historically and in the present, while I chose to look into how the technical side scientific illustrations has reached into entertainment design, such as creating and designing imaginary animals for film, games and other works of sci-fi and fantasy fiction, that would often require scientific analysis on how the animal operates so the art team understands what they are creating.

I concentrated on one artist, known as Terryl Whitlach, who was a paleontological recreationist who reimagines extinct prehistorical animals from the bones up. Her background is useful to the topic of scientific illustrations and how of her work stems from it ranging from zoology and animal anatomy as well as fantasy generated animals. I own a copy of a book about her work so it was really useful to use as my main primary research. 

Cover of the Book that showcases varies works by Terryl.

Evaluating Skills as of Second Year

As a university student I will evaluate and reflect on the strengths and weaknesses I have as of this year and to recognize the areas of development, whether those skills needs to be improved and/or to be worked on.

A few years ago I was working traditionally with watercolours, but after discovering digital art, I felt I can do much more with my work digitally, and so I pursuit digital art as my new medium. However it’s not until when I went to my first university (before I dropped out) when I met new friends, who kindly gave me Photoshop. From then I decided I wanted to pursue digital illustration. 

I have been using digital medium such as Photoshop to produce work for nearly 3 years. At first it was used for education. Sometime later I had been using it as part of my hobby to produce personal work, and now I am using it as my primary medium over the past year for university projects and personal work on a consistent basis.

In terms of generic skills within the field of Illustration, such as understanding briefs, visualising ideas, using colour and to make corrections on work, whether they are of authorial, personal or promotional, I am okay at doing independently, although they might need a little more improvement, but overall I am fine within these areas. To work under given formats, scanning artwork, preparing work digitally and to save work under appropriate format and colour code is what I am currently strong at, since I use the software, Photoshop, as my primary use for artworks, whether that’s to scan in traditional work to make adjustments or to produce an entire artwork from scratch, I have been using this software on a consistent basis and naturally I had learned these skills over the years of usage.

Working to a deadline is something I can do most of the time, though it depends on certain things. There can be times where I am behind and need to rush the work, which can lead to pressure and stress. Lack of motivation and artist’s block can be a problem and it sometimes happen at random. Generally I am fine with deadlines, it really comes down to motivation and how I feel, in terms of stress and relaxation.

Marketing, in terms of fees, taking in commissioning process and to manage terms, contract and finance is something I will need to improve on, because as of now, I had not been commissioned or been speaking with clients regarding fees on works, as I have never done it before. However I am hoping that the work experience later this year will help me out at some point regarding on these areas that needs improving.

For the practical skills, I am confident (not strongly confident though) in working in 2D digital format and know a fair amount of knowledge in characters, concept art, portraits, fantasy, etc.. These fields are my strongest, though they all need improvement in some way, as I am still trying to learn how to paint and draw. Other skills that are not related to these areas that I am strong at, such as diagrams, architectural, collage, fashion, abstract, etc. are not my strengths, though perhaps they are my weaknesses, as I have no interest in them and generally don’t appeal to me to work with. I am more digital focus with my work and that’s where I want to go to as my direction.

In terms of specialist skills, the only things I am strong at are those relating to my practical skills, such as skills in relevant software and to create dummy books for drafts (which I required a new skill from last year) but overall in terms of my skills in various specialisms are generally okay. As of now my strength lies in digital work, but in terms of software I may need to look into others that might be relevant to my skills, such as learning InDesign and other related software.

My key skills overall lies within the digital medium and the things I want to consider in continuing to improve are of painting and drawing, including how to market and to promote myself, financial support and commissioning. There maybe a few things outside these skills that I might want to pick up along the way just in case, such as landscapes, natural history and the narrative based skills that might be useful for my future works and projects. 

Initial Thoughts on Second Year and the Prof Practice Module

After completing the first year of study I was aware of some of the things that students would need to do for the second year in the Professional Practice module such as work experience and to write blogs reflecting my views on career advice and the weekly discussions/activities about the industry practice. I will be reflecting the module on a weekly basis as time goes by to see if there are things that I do enjoy and find important, including other activities that I will be taking part as part of the module, which includes work experience and group activity.

I won’t be setting my expectations too high for the module as it might change over the course depending on how well I do, so at the moment things are steadily getting there, however it might change pace.

Within the module the discussions relating to work experience and career planning would be beneficial to help me out a lot in terms of finding work within the my field of practice (Illustration) and how to approach things in a more professional manner, as well as beginning to find contacts and networking groups of people, since, to be honest, I have not got any work experience at all (I will be discussing this further when it comes to career planning and work experience separately) and I need all the help I could get to make sure things are done right for it.

In the meantime of this module I will see what comes around. I’m ok with group activities, it’s just the work experience that I might find some trouble.