I began this module very motivated. Last year I had much more of a sense of who I was as an illustrator, and I made work over the summer that I felt reflected what I’d learnt. However I’d got bogged down in the work around feminism and activism I was making for COP. During goal setting for 603, I wrote about wanting to come out of this degree with a proposal for a children’s book about feminism and activism. I began with good intentions at starting this project, but after Christmas and upon reflection, I began to realise that I was no longer that passionate about this project. Partly due to being inundated with this topic during COP, as well realising through research that the market is already saturated with books of this nature.
After realising this, I didn’t know what I was working towards anymore. Due to this I was mainly making stand-alone images for the sake of it. However during this time I did manage to carry on making the ‘Introverts colouring book’. This ended up being a high point of my year even though it was only intended to be a side project at first. I had aimed to get this finished by January so I could dedicate the rest of the module to making things for the exhibition and working on my portfolio. I did finish it around this time, although now I wish I’d added a few more pages. Regardless of this I am happy with it. It was one of the big turning points of this year in my move towards children’s book illustration. I got a lot of feedback from people saying that I should make another colouring book similar to this one but child friendly, which is definitely something I plan to do in the future.
During this module I’ve also realised how important it is for me to keep moving and not stop making work at any point. I’ve learnt that commissions and working to a quick turn around helps me to churn out work and stay motivated. Because of this I started offering customised portraits on my Etsy to keep the ball rolling on commissions. I’ve also found it takes me out of my own, self directed bubble sometimes, which is a positive thing.
Another turning point for me was Hanbury. Whilst we were there I got chatting to Chloe from Plum Pudding. She reassured me that the illustrations I was making at this time were closely aligned with children’s book illustrations. This wasn’t something that had occurred to me even though I’d set out to design a children’s book at the beginning of the year. I thought because I’d stopped focusing on this and moved on to work for an older audience that my work was no longer appropriate for children. She gave me a lot of helpful tips and I came away with a list of things I should put in my portfolio if I wanted to appeal to the children’s market. This was exactly the push I needed during the final stages of this module. After Hanbury I worked on adding more children’s book directed work into my portfolio, and researching the market. I also carried on working on my ‘Sad gal comics’ as these have been one of my favourite and most successful series this module and are something I still feel very passionate about.
During this module, I’ve learnt is that its really easy to set yourself goals and then not complete them, and this can be for many reasons. In my case it was a mix of falling out of love with a project, and time slipping away from me. In the future to combat this I will work to schedule my time better. I have also identified that children’s illustration is definitely the area I want to break into. However, meeting Chloe has taught me that I can do this along side working on my already existing practice intended for a slightly older audience. It’s funny that I began this year with intentions to illustrate children books, but lost that motivation half way and almost forgot the idea completely. I think most of all, this module has taught me how important it is to be self analytical. To step back from what you are doing (or not doing) and ask yourself why. If I’d done this earlier in the module, maybe I would have carried on with the children’s book work and would be coming out of university with a fully realised proposal. However I’m happy I’ve realised this now, and I think that I wouldn’t have learnt half as much this year if I hadn’t gone a bit off track.
