What key objectives need to be done to fully realise remaining projects currently in production?
- keep working on mini booklet to give out at Hanbury
- finish all pages, get it printed, maybe don't use Footprint as you only need 10 copies max
- finish current poster commission and work on getting more commissions that link up with the work you're currently doing
- sad gal comics are great! keep going with these!
- colouring book is done, sent off to print and should be arriving coming Monday- now to work on publicising it, putting it on Etsy, selling it at events
- enjoying working on comic strips about personal experiences with mental health- however at the moment these are just stand alone images
- could compile these into a zine for the final show?
How has your work developed since starting this module?
- starting to combine portraiture and words more often, every piece of recent work uses text in some way
- double way of expression, enjoying writing at the moment so incorporating this into your work
- the strength of your digital work has improved, better use of colour and texture too
- your ideas of what you want to achieve are a little less clear- seemed to be thinking of doing more large scale projects at the beginning and now you're just making stand alone images
- maybe need to start doing some work exclusively on a theme or for a purpose
- look at doing some editorial or other work that you'd like to aim to be commissioned in for the future
- carry on with comic strips as its clearly a composition style that works with your love of words and imagery combined
Does your portfolio of work currently represent your ethos and ambitions as a creative? If not, what steps need to be taken?
- yes! lots of work around feminism, activism and mental health/feelings
- your intentions of what you like to make is clear and thats why you're being commissioned to make work that fits in with your practice
- work is still varied, mixture of text and portrait pieces
- all work has clear visual style that yours
- all work is quite opinion heavy, work more with this
- identify what kind of clients you'd like to work with/for in the future, this will inform the kinds of projects you decide to do
Other comments:
- next step- buy an ipad as this will help you develop your digital skills and will mean you can work on commissions on the go
- all your work has a strong, opinionated voice- look into mixing your work with public speaking
- Lisa Congdon- blog about what you believe in and use your work to add visual interest to what you're saying
My comments:
Its really nice to see that people are beginning to see a sense of me and who I am as a person become apparent in the work I'm making. I think this is largely down to how auto-biographical my recent work has become, in particular the 'Sad Gal Comics'. In making more personal work I'm feeling much confident in talking about the work and what it means. I think due to the fact that it actually has a lot more meaning behind it than some of the work I've made in the past.
I also am really enjoying the working method I've been using to make all of my recent work. I think it achieves a nice, organic looking quality, whilst still being made digitally which means it's easier to make the drawings more accurate and polished. I've also been really enjoying working in the limited colour palettes which I got into the practice of doing when I was still thinking of getting my Hanbury zine digitally printed. Even though I won't be going through with this I think this limitation on colour has really brought something special into my recent work and helps me to create more tone and feeling in a drawing.
At the moment, the only things I'm enjoying making are the sad gal comics and the zine. I can see at this point in the year that I'm definitely not going to achieve all the things I set out to at first, so I'll focus my work down to just working on things that I think will benefit my portfolio at this point. I've seen that Cicada publishers will be doing a talk at Hanbury so I'm intending to chat to them if I get a chance and ask about the current trend of feminist children's books and whether its even worth trying to make one if the markets already too saturated. After this depending on what the say I may have to refocus my work down even further in order to pick the direction I want to go in for my degree exhibition work. It might be that I just exhibit my colouring book as thats the only really final, cohesive thing I've made this year. But if I feel I have enough time, I'd really like to try and make more of the 'Sad Gal Comics' as I definitely feel this is an idea that represents me and what I want my work to say very well, and would therefore be perfect for the exhibition.
