World Wide What?

Original screenshot from the homepage of wesleepintrees.com

So here it is, after much trial and tribulation WeSleepInTrees is here! I've tried to make sure the site is as easy to navigate as possible and as far as I know everything is in working order! I also run a Tumblr account by the same name, that you can check out here, that contains more regular updates of personal and commercial work.

I've had an excellent amount of feedback on the website so far, little tips of corrections and compliments, so I have to say I'm very pleased with my efforts. A couple of months ago anything technologically adept would have been beyond me but after learning how to apply to small amount of coding knowledge I had, in order to modify templates and customise pages I'm happy with my website.

Updated banner with text and edited image for wesleepintrees.com

Hopes, Fears and Opportunities Part Two.

It's that time again, racing toward the end of the tunnel desperately trying not to stumble or flail or burst into tears. Except this time, this tunnel isn't just one within a succession of tunnels. Leaving this tunnel marks the culmination of education, the end of every routine procedure I've known for the past twenty two years. Gathering up every ounce of knowledge and confidence I've gained, applying them to the lessons i've learned and throwing the whole lot into the real world is more than one small step for girl. In one way I've been eager to step into the industry for over a year but I doubt the hungry momentum would have lasted. This year has been the slow and steady making and the fast and brutal breaking of me but as always I am full of hope, loaded with fear and embracing opportunity.

In part one I talked about how my hopes for third year encompassed overcoming the barrier I felt stood between my ideas and ability to communicate through illustration. The mental barricade between premise and product and the struggle to contextualise my images. I've become much more comfortable in myself and my ability, I'm not one hundred percent there but I think most creative people are a work in progress. I accept that. If you have nothing to strive for, no challenges or torment it would be almost impossible to improve and your work, stagnant. For me, the relationship between language and image will always be distorted, I will always struggle but every day little victories lead to a war being won. The grade I receive no longer holds the importance it once did, because leaving education is merely the beginning of my uphill hike and the past three years have equipped me with a sturdier survival kit. In terms of progress, sketchbooking has become enjoyable, messier and much more logical rather than a chore and a bore to navigate through. My working process and developments no longer amass dead ends and cliff faces, the journey represents a larger quantity than the destination and an amalgamation of techniques; watercolour, biro, fineliner and elements of rough collage have begun to seep through. I'm particularly happy with my resounding success in the technological department, harnessing photoshop as a relevant tool has sped up the editing process and allowed me to tidy up elements of my painting that I'm still not happy with, that I don't have time to re-do. Thanks to Illustrator my physical and PDF portfolio echo the professional appearance and layout of the Illustrators and artist's I've poured over. My hope to find a happy medium between hand-craft and digital has been fulfilled. Finding a healthier balance between university, work, life and sleep has also been extremely beneficial, for months I've suffered with severe headaches mostly due to anxiety, exhaustion and admittedly not wearing my glasses enough. Exercise, water and sleep are the best things to refresh a tired mind no matter how horrible you feel, I finally feel I can focus myself without having to write off a week for recuperation. Re-assessing my hopes over the year I would have to say that I hope the progress I've worked so hard for continues to build, I hope that my efforts to find whatever truth it is I have within spills out and that people understand, people want to contribute and to work with me. I would love to collaborate with as many people as possible, to create as much positivity as possible and to wonder, to learn, to always ask questions.

I'm no longer fearful of unfulfilled hopes because I know that whether it's these exact dreams or a variation of sorts, I will achieve them. I'm sure of what I class as successful, in a person or as a career. Happiness is the only constant I've come to recognise as a manifestation of success so far. However, an under-pining dread never dissapates, only transforms and weakens. The nauseous feeling that rises everytime i'm getting close to hitting a nerve within my work frightens the hell out of me along with the idea of losing passion for art, illustration or creativity in general. Therefore my residual fear is uninterupted, being at a loss for something to say.

Last but not least, opportunities. Opportunities present themselves in the most unlikely situation and I think that all should be taken. Whether the benefits are presented immediately or not; meeting one person, learning a new skill, having a helpful or a difficult day, visiting new places, earning some money or volunteering your expertise to assist another, you will almost always gain something. You can say no, be stubborn and get out of there at a later date if it doesn't go to plan but regrets are a huge creative drawback. I've gained invaluable opinion and advice on the pathway of my work and mind-set from close friends, peers, potential clients and employers and i'm happy to take any criticism I get. Fig Taylor asked me the usual, toe-scrunchingly frustrating question of  'what do you want to do?' and my answer, although still true in many ways, was 'whatever I can get my hands on'. Her advice was to guide my existing knowledge and natural enthusiasm for text into editorial pieces, start with set briefs that allow my mind to rest and my hands to work and move forward into intellectually challenging pieces that indulge both. I've taken recent opportunities to work with local bands, designing merchandise, album covers, promotional material and web content which is another way to contextualise my work and experience the different medium within products and advertising. I think the next step is evolving the way I hold myself as an Illustrator, finding a voice loud enough to promote myself and brand my illustration to keep to a specific audience whilst being accessible and versatile in content.

Taken from medinalind.com

Looking at the bigger picture and I can't see myself working as a conventional Illustrator forever, I want to teach, stand up for what I believe in, in more ways than one. I would love to combine all my passions; for creative endeavors, coffee making, trade and music to be housed somewhere, for others to enjoy and contribute to. Being jack of a few trades, master of some sounds alright to me.

Pen For Hire.

My business cards arrived! It feels very strange to have a business card promoting myself, but I'm really happy with how they turned out. I used two drawings from my portfolio that reflect my strongest technique and work well as stand alone images, the crow in particular has returned much positive feedback already. I wanted to keep them as simple as possible, so minimal information, plain backgrounds and an easy to read typeface. When it came to describing my skills I opted for 'Pen For Hire' in place of 'Illustrator' as I didn't want to box myself within that particular field. I'm still experimenting with context and like to think I have a variety of skills to take on a multitude of projects.

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.

Portfolio Visit Numero Dos.

This evening me and Dan Gatens met with Ben Jones, graduate from Stockport College, successful Illustrator and currently, multi-tasking teacher. I knew he had a busy schedule, especially before christmas, so I was extremely grateful that he agreed to spend an hour with us.

Sourced from benjonesillustration.com

After seeing Chris from the Media Octopus a week or so before, I'd updated my portfolio by removing a few pages and replacing them with images that flowed much more smoothly and placing each page in In-Design. The first thing Ben had to say was to minimise all of the descriptive text, leaving it just as a title and one line of context, and to remove the logo I had created to spot on each page. Using the space around the images would allow my work to breathe, speak for itself and attract the viewer with the quality of drawing instead.

After reviewing the rest of my portfolio he agreed with me that some of the pieces created with mixed media didn't fit in with the fine drawing and watercolour paintings and that towards the end of the year it'd be a nice idea to refine it further and invest in a quality portfolio, with removable pages.
I really value Ben's advice and was pleased with everything he had to say about my work whether it was critical or not. Unlike my meeting with Chris, the time spent with Ben was more focused around the layout and style of my actual portfolio and some tips toward an editorial I was working on. His advice for me personally was to keep up good habits, listen to my heart more rather than my head and get stuck in as soon as I finish uni. Apply for competitions (worthwhile ones), give every opportunity your all and never complain about being busy.

He's offered to look at my PDF portfolio early on next year and guide me with anything I need help with, which I couldn't be more thankful for.

Sourced from benjonesillustration.com

Beyond The Book; On the Wall.

'Turning Point' Lino print, hand mounted and framed.

Toward the end of Beyond the Book we were given the opportunity to prepare our work as a semi-professional show, taking into consideration selection, presentation and limitations of space. Personally I think this was a great idea and should be done for every project assessment. It allows you to see you work from another angle and consider elements of the development prior to the final result, more critically. Presentation is everything and I found choosing suitable frames to reflect my work and myself, much more difficult than I thought possible. Even after deciding on frames, mounts, wall fixtures and additional shelving there was the wall plan, the summary, mounted name plaque and then actually deciding which work was good enough to exhibit, far more than I originally planned for. And of course you have to account for everything than will inevitably go wrong. Which in this case, was almost all of it.

'Four Sharp Knocks: A Visual Interpretation of The Outsider.' by Charlie Heselton.

Close up image of supporting material, shelved underneath frames.

Entitled, Four Sharp Knocks (based around the line; 'And it was like giving four sharp knocks at the door or unhappiness.' right at the end of chapter 6, part 1.), I decided to use a series of lino prints as the main focus of the show that reflected this chapter. My sketchbook, supporting material and film negatives are shelved just underneath (as shown in the photograph above) and the laser-cut key-rings relative to the theme are pinned just to the right of the central image to restore balance from the shelf.

In The Outsider, Mersualt acknowledges that the action of shooting the arab will cause him to feel unhappiness yet the clinical symbolism of attaching his emotions to a solid object like a door, instead of describing them. Throughout the entire scene he focuses on tangible, physically felt senses e.g what he can feel, see, rather than emotion. For example, he can describe the murder weapon in surprising detail but cannot portray remorse or regret at the fact that he has killed another human being.

Mersualt also eludes to his weakness to the weather and unpredictable surroundings, and remarks that if the sun hadn't been so hot, maybe the murder wouldn't have happened. The way that the beach is described in this chapter is extremely vivid which is why the series of four lino cuts are printed in yellow, orange, red and black, the portray the blinding hot sun.

In accordance with moral nihilism; killing someone, for whatever reason, is not inherently right or wrong. My focus on the beach scene illustrates how the 'turning point of the book' is only central in relation to human morality. I wanted to portray my work in a sequence; linear and almost repetitive, to reflect the regimented mentality of Mersault (focal character) and project his descent through the subtle variations of a singular symbol.

My opinion of my 'miniature exhibition' has changed drastically over the course of the last week. To begin with I was happy with what I had produced and how it was hung, in hindsight feeling proud was a confidence boost and although after receiving feedback and looking at my work through much more critical eyes changed my feelings on this body of work, I've tried to not let it affect my confidence. Looking at your own work through rose-tinted glasses can be dangerous and even though I remain pleased at the presentation and framing of my pieces I realise that the work presented was subsequently not as high quality as it should be, especially as the focus. Not only that but I didn't consider variation when selecting pieces, I wanted the series to be shown as a repetition but the central image looked far too similar and the surrounding material lacked aesthetic 'oomph'.

Another important lesson I learned the hard way was to do with hand-cutting your own window mounts. I learnt this lesson about an hour before the show was meant to be complete, I was lying on the studio floor brandishing a craft knife and a mounting tool, I was not smiling. There's a knack to it that I just do not have, one to be left to the professionals. It was an eye-opening experience however and in my defense it could have gone a lot worse.

Website Research and Review.

Having just purchased my very own domain I realised I hadn't the foggiest what I wanted my website to look like. So...website envy commences! This was probably one of the easiest areas of PDP for me as ninety nine percent of my bookmarked pages online are artists websites or design pages. Websites are very easy to judge by sight and of course how easily you can navigate round them, but now I needed to look at them through a designers eyes, review elements I would carry onto my own site.

First port of call was to take a peek at some of my favourite illustrators and creative makers websites to see how they saw fit to execute them, I'll start with a front-runner; Dennis McNett, creator of Wolfbat and holder of wolfbat.com.

Wooden Carving by Dennis McNett of Wolfbat.

His love for narrative work has been translated into various different techniques, be it print, products, sculptures, intricate wood carvings or exuberant events, which means that his website must be equally as flexible without being over-complicated.

Screenshot of wolfbat.com homepage

His website does his work justice complimented by the excellent photography and organised sections. The homepage is broken into a triptych that flashes between two sets of images, each image a preview of the three main fields his work is devoted to, print, sculpture and installation. So straight of the bat you're getting a summary of the website and a taste for whats inside. The logo in the top left corner is beautiful up close; black and white inverted drawing of a wolf head with bat wings, it's just a shame it's so small. It has all the staples, contact page with a touch of 'about the artist' (maybe a little self-indulgent but interesting non-the less), an almost endless gallery of wonderfully presented work split over five sections (great organisation and for work of this caliber the sub-categories are a must), and link to well managed blog on tumblr. But the little extra that sets Wolfbat's site apart from others is the 'Happenings' link. Thanks to the nature of his Installation work and weird and wonderful mask making abilities, McNett and his dedicated team stage larger than life performances, parades and sculptural scenes that are filmed with accompanying annotations. These are found under the Happenings section and are outstanding to watch. In conclusion, Wolfbat.com is very well organised, straight to the point and really very simple which accentuates the work more in my opinion, his pieces speak for themselves and this site really lets them breathe.

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Moving on to another personal favourite, Caitlin Hackett. Her website was more disappointing as it isn't really a website at all. The homepage of caitlinhackett.com looks like it's barely been touched with just one image, no banner or even change of font and each link leading to different sites.

Homepage of Caitlinhackett.com

To view her work, you have to enter carbonmade site where her initial page is a lot more inviting and better thought out. In my opinion, the whole set up is an easy answer to a professionals problem. As a practicing designer you're expected to own and manage your own domain, site and email. Some agencies or directors just won't take you seriously without it, but in the real world not everybody is a technological genius or has the money to pay somebody who is, to do it for them. I think in Caitlin's case she recognises the need for her own URL but was happy with the carbonmade portfolio so didn't feel it was necessary to duplicate.

Homepage of Caitlin Hackett's Carbonmade Portfolio

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Next up is Jason Holley. Even though I haven't' looked at Holley in depth or known about him for a great deal of time, I find his work and process fascinating and his videos on vimeo incredibly witty.

'Slings and Arrows' by Jason Holley,

His website is very professional and although I'm not a huge fan of the homepage the links have an odd little twist. If you hover over them, the headings are transformed into quirky little anagrams, not really a great deal of function there but since the page isn't cluttered with logos or text it makes for a nice touch.

Homepage for jasonholley.com

In short, the best part of Holley's website isn't really the way it's presented (although in Archive and Illustration the neat square thumbnails are attractive) but the unusual amount of information you get about each piece. He comments on the intent and purpose of the piece, method used to create it and even a short evaluation containing his opinion. It's a window you don't usually get with artist's and especially not with their public displays of work.

Throughout my research I came across good and bad websites, as with everything and without being cruel and naming/shaming the bad ones I just took note of what to avoid. One of the most irritating traits a site can have is an automatic music player, I genuinely don't know why you would even do that, especially if you've got questionable taste in music. Another niggle is websites that are overloaded with flash files that take ten minutes to load, don't work properly and then crash your computer. It's true that less is usually more. The only other thing that really gets my goat is having the website mostly about the person rather than the work. It's fine to have 'working process' images and a little bit about yourself, even a self indulgent resume to fluff yourself up for all the world to see but there's nothing worse than the homepage or contact page being an essay of the artists life and interest. Nobody really cares that you've got three dogs and like a lie in on a Sunday.

Portfolio Visit; Numero Uno.

I'm pleased to announce that today I met with Chris Knowles, Graphic Designer for The Media Octopus.
The Media Octopus is a digital marketing agency based in Manchester using creativity, experience and a strong team to help clients bring their products to market.

Specialists in both inbound and outbound marketing, Chris and the team use social media, PPC, SEO, content marketing, direct marketing and most importantly for me, design.
As written above, Chris is their main Graphic designer and learned almost all his knowledge on the job. This is one of the reasons I wanted to contact him, to find out how easy and rewarding it is picking up experience and building a career from scratch. I met him at Common bar for a beer with my portfolio and an open mind.

Even though my portfolio was in it's early stages, Chris was very positive when looking through everything I'd put together, he ended up asking me more questions than I had prepared to ask him! The conversation was focused more around my intentions and plans for the future, ideas as an illustrator and thoughts on different techniques rather than my actual portfolio or quality of the pieces I had arranged. Personally I found this very beneficial. Although I do need pointing in the right direction when it comes to presentation I found it refreshing to talk about what matters to me and the direction that I want my work to progress in.

I asked Chris how his team work together and how they all found their way into the industry and he confirmed some of my existing thoughts that it's sometimes not what you know but who you know, and asking the right question at the right time is sometimes all it takes. It's not necessarily about luck or being pushy but having confidence and practicing self-promotion at every opportunity will pay off.

First screenshot of homepage for themediaoctopus.com

Second screenshot of homepage for themediaoctopus.com

Hopes, Fears and Opportunities Part One.

Each year of university has been a completely different animal to handle. I feel that over the past two years I've overcome substantial hurdles and managed to tie myself up in knots, in almost equal amounts. First year provided a shed full of confidence, new techniques and skills, nurturing of existing skills and exciting opportunities. Second year consisted of two steps forward and one step back in my opinion. I excelled with set briefs and collaboration which were two of my biggest fears to begin with, but drifted into a minefield of identity based crisis'. I've learnt to separate normal fears from anxious worrying which has helped my productivity and self-motivational skills,

So starting third year I reserved three bags full of hopes, mainly to overcome my biggest demon, the concrete wall cemented between premise and product. For me, talking about my ideas, what i'm excited about and what gets my goat is a breeze, as is writing about it. Language is simple and I have no problem articulating what I have to say in this way. When it comes to technique I'm comfortable using paint, sculpture, photography, pen and paper, I am neither jack of all trades of master of one but I am satisfied I can create. However, what I am dissatisfied with, (well closer to horrifically frustrated with) is not being able to transfer my notes and ideas into something visual. My developmental process is entirely illogical, basically all over the place and on occassion non-existant. Working late into the night every few days works on a 'creatively fuelled purge' basis but not long-term. It puts me out of step for the remainder of the week, ruins my energy levels and affects my attendance. I've started with tackling my perception of the end result, and tried to divert my focus into the process and developmental stages of any project. I hope to build on this by using my knowledge and love of language into 'attachments' to blend the early stages and create a step-by-routine to enable the utilisation of my ideas. By applying the idea of 'little and often' to my working process, the pieces I create should progress contextually and leave me with a greater volume of work. If I can hone this into a habit I will have automatically opened doors for myself in terms of which briefs I can comfortably take on.

On a different note, I also hope to finish the course with a strength in technological software, i.e photoshop, illustrator, in-design etc which I previously thought a waste of time. I already happily enhance and edit my work on Photoshop and I have basic knowledge of In-design but now that I've set aside my differences with technology I feel it would be appropriate to strengthen my skills in this area so as not to restrict myself when I'm released into such a competitive industry.

As far as fears go, I'm guessing the most obvious answer is not achieving my hopes. I'm not terrified of failure though. In my eyes every time you fail at something, you fail better each time, as Churchill once said; "Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiam." So in place of being afraid of failure, i'd say my main fear is based on losing sight of what I'm striving for. Having no passion or goals to reach for, having nothing to say and an empty mind scares the hell out of me. Naturally I'm fearful of finishing University, after being safe and sound in education for has been my nightlight for twenty two years and although I'm no stranger to the world of work, I am quite aware becoming a successful illustrator does not get handed to you on a plate.

And of course, I'm a little bit scared of Gary.

Moving onto opportunities I would have to say that I'm really looking forward to working with Age UK again early next year. It was an emotional rollercoaster dealing with such a sensitive issue as dementia but entirely rewarding. The original brief was enjoyable to navigate and produce rich images for and after recently completing the third image for Age UK I am proud to say that early next year the pieces will be used in a publication and will become a possible selling point. Editorials are now an exciting opportunity for me especially as I get to see my work in context and it automatically sets me boundaries which my mind otherwise blurs. I have the pleasure of meeting with graduate Ben Jones for a portfolio viewing at the end of November which will hopefully give me an insight into the fast-paced world of editorial based briefs, as he has recently championed the New York Times.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Sharp as Laser-Wire.

One of the most beneficial workshops we were given the chance to attend this semester was the Laser workshop with LaserLea at Hotspur House, in Manchester. It was a very basic introduction into the prep, procedure and alternative outcomes regarding using the Laser machine.

Before attending the session we were asked to create a design that could be used as a small circular keyring, on either thin balsa wood or perspex. Depending on your individual working style, your work could be imported as either a bitmap (suitably better for hand-drawn designs or anything requiring a more organic finish) or a vector file (clean lines and precise designs). I opted for a bitmap and decided to use my design alongside the current Beyond The Book project.

'Four Knocks' Simple Keyring Design

Cai (who runs LaserLea) was fantastic, she explained everything thoroughly in easy to understand terminology. She allowed us to look through previous clients laser-cut odds and sodds which gave me the idea to get my portfolio cover personalised next year by having the leather engraved with my own design. It was particularly helpful to me because I've shied away from having my work projected onto products or even progressed within context in the past, so seeing how the simplicity of a design can be effective on unfamiliar materials was invaluable.

Light Balsa Wood Keyring.

Engraved Leather Patch.

I ended up with three separate items featuring the same design to take away with me at the end of the day. Only two are photographed, the wooden keyring and the leather patch, as the perspex keyring was difficult to photograph from reflection and ended up splitting from the pressure of the key-loop.

I feel my design worked well for the purpose as it was simple and easy to navigate although I wish I'd spent more time on the type as it's uneven and the spacing wasn't thought out. The leather patch was my personal favourite and the result has definitely left me interested in Laser for future products.