Portfolio Visit Numero Tres.

I had my final portfolio visit of the year this afternoon with Alan Dalby at his cute studio in Hotspur House, near Oxford Road Station.

Sourced from Hotspur House facebook

Alan's room is right next to LaserLea, who I visited earlier in the year, and in such a unique building right in the heart of Manchester. I was excited just to be back there and to visit his studio which was super cosy and very inviting.

Homepage from alandalbyillustration.com

Alan is my 'guru' who I was paired up with by the tutors and I'm actually very thankful for their choice. Although his work is very different to mine and he uses mainly digital methods of working, we have similar interests and work pace. He's established his work, website and social media as a brand that all resonate on a professional and accessible level, something I've been very interested to pick up on. We had a lot to talk about as we've met a few times previous to the guru meeting and I felt comfortable telling him the problems I was having within my technique and issues with my portfolio.

After taking on board the feedback I'd received from my previous two portfolio visits, I'd refined my portfolio, taken the logo out of the equation, created an introductory page and created business cards, so I had a lot of finalised material to show Alan. I was still surprised at how positive he was though, he said he could barely flaw my layout and that I'd found a balance between my work and the surrounding space. The only criticism he had was to ensure that all the text was in line and flowed between every page, and to remove the dates I had affixed to each piece. He was impressed with my business cards and asked to keep one of each, which I of course allowed, the least I could do. He particularly liked the work I'd completed at the end of second year for Noise, Piece for Protest, of which I had included the series of three animals holding weapons. I asked him for any advice with improving the presentation of my drawn pieces and made it clear that I would be happy to spend time removing the backgrounds and completely re-facing them if that would help. In regards to the line drawings he said that was my best bet, to enhance the original drawings and stop gluing them onto scrappy bits of card (a horrible habit I created in second year for some bizarre reason.)

Alan's Tumblr Blog linked to his site.