The Helpful Hand of Dominique Byron: Portfolio Visit

Not so long ago I posted about Dom Byrons' exhibition up at Kosmonaut bar in the Northern Quarter of Manchester, 'Conspiracy Theories'. Well I contacted her afterwards to say well done for hosting such a well presented show and asked her if she had the time to take a look at my PDF portfolio and website. Of course being such a generous person she obliged and didn't hesitate in sending me reems of advice on both.

All images taken from dominiquebyron.com

In regards to layout she didn't have any recommendations on adapting them, only kind words about how clean, well annotated and consistent the PDF is and that the website was easily navigated. The navigation and usability of my website are two things I've been eager to receive feedback on, posting links on Facebook and Tumblr have helped me to gain knowledge on this matter and gain public opinion. A big reassurance. Next up was the range and consistency of my work, she picked out straight away that one of my favourite subjects to illustrate revolves around animal form and fictional characters, something that has always caught my attention in narrative or real life. She commented on how well informed my line drawings were and that potential clients would have confidence commissioning me from these examples. I'm not really one for ego inflation but it's rather nice to hear that your work is seen as high standard by successful Illustrators in comparison to you mam telling you it's lovely even if she doesn't know what the hell it is.

"Your work seems to stay consistent and look good with the use of different materials or processes. The paintings are cool and add a nice splash of colour throughout your portfolio. Your screenprint looks ace too, having the detailed fox with the block colour of the leaves is a really nice balance. I think that showing you can do both b/w and work with colour is a real plus and just adds another string to your bow. The attention to detail and time you've spent will really set you apart I reckon." (Byron, taken from an email conversation shared between us)

Again, she put another worry to bed for me when mentioning how she could see ways in which my work could be applied to different media easily; books, album covers, products and textiles. Distinctly my 'Piece for Protest' Fox and Pig as a pair work instantaneously as text supplements, perfect for editorial content as they hold extra concept to accompany an article. For me, this is something I'm going to make the effort to try my hand at more regularly after university. I believe that applying concept to my work will bring out the best in it. She added that if editorial or merchandise were areas I could be interested in, I would benefit from creating templates and mock-ups to place my illustrations in as clients will immediately be able to visualise a much wider window of application.

Really helpful and encouraging words, again thank you Dom for your kindness!

Portfolio Visit with Chris Madden: Good Egg

Taken from robotmafia.com

I remember my first day at Stockport College, feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed, full of hope and clutching sharp new pencils. The first thing I saw walking down the corridor to my new studio was the image above...'Fireworks' by Chris Madden. Three years later and I've met some wonderful people, successful in every weight of the word, including Chris Madden who I had the pleasure to meet at Draw North West; a Manchester-based creative meet-up, that he coincidentally runs.

Now although Chris may not be a potential client, I trust that he knows Illustration inside out and surrounds himself with more creative people on a daily basis than you could shake a stick at. I've had a hard time trying to contact agents of agents of illustrators and even worse experiences being told I have no direction by self-inflated baffoons who feel they've made it if they've got a couple of ten pound notes to rub together. However, it's no secret that Stockport fledglings tend to have a quality that sets them apart, kindness. Taking time out of a busy schedule to do something for nothing and the courage to be honest without breaking someones heart is rare in such a competitive industry. I'm sure I've been looking in all the wrong places elsewhere, but Manchester, Leeds and York exude such a beautiful attitude via their young creatives that I didn't really need to.

Anyway, getting back to the subject. I emailed Madden in the hopes I would catch him when he would have the time to talk to little ol' me, I wasn't dissapointed. In response to all the material I sent him I received a wonderful response again reinforcing successfully balancing my black and white drawings alongside colour, maintaining loose drawings in contrast to detailed images and using the simple, clean layout of my website/portfolio to harness the style of the drawings.

I asked him specifically about branding as it's one element I've always been unsure about. Mentioning the banner on my website in particular Madden suggested that I used the icon of the bat to tie my work together instead of one small logo i.e using the bat on the banner, on products, at the forefront of my portfolio etc. Considering this I would probably use the colour version of my banner illustration as it highlights the merging of watercolour and fineline drawing, my preferred media. At the same time, I would have to be cautious not to exhaust imagery, try and keep my portfolio and website varied so that clients have fresh illustration to look at across the board and I'm not constantly repeating myself. Another reason why I connect my Tumblr account to my website, Tumblr is an easier way to update regularly without the pressure of all the pieces being finalised. The connection between viewer and artist becomes more personal as they can see you process, read as much or as little about you and intertwine your personality with you work.

As a final thought; "Overall, you are on the right track and are doing more things right than you are giving yourself credit for! If you need anything else over the next few weeks (or ever really) i’m more than happy to give advice/critique etc.

just give me a bell - Looking forward to seeing your work at the degree show!" (Madden, conversation via email)

Eternal thanks to Chris Madden for being an excellent role model and all round nice guy!

Plain Sailing with Kris Sale: Portfolio Visit

Taken from Sale's Twitter, search Kris_Sale

I've known Kris Sale for a long time, I respect his opinion as a friend and an Illustrator in equal measure so thought it would be beneficial to ask him to take a look at my Portfolio and website as I knew he'd be honest with me. He graduated Stockport College two years ago and was one of the very people to recommend it to me in the first place, sometimes it's nice to get opinions from people who know you and your capabilities well.

One of my favourite pieces of his 'VS', taken from cargocollective.com/krissale

After showing him my Portfolio and Website he commented on how much my work had improved since last time he saw it, which must be well over a year ago now, and how it seems I'm starting to find myself and a consistent working style. This has been something that has preyed on my mind for a while now, worrying whether all my work has a similar look and if potential clients could link pieces as my own through the style. I contrast to this, I would never want my work to be over-stylised and lose the raw edge my drawings tend to keep. 

One of the main frustrations when organising my portfolio had to be finding a balance between my preferred black and white drawings and more colourful paint and mixed media piece. Luckily this was something Kris picked up on and helped to re-order so that everything flowed much more easily with balanced intervals between the different illustrations.

The main bit of advice Kris had for me was also related to organisation, to start and finish the portfolio (and to some extent the website) with two very strong pieces, so that the viewer is instantly impressed and left remembering you on a high. In reguards to the order of my portfolio at the moment, my opening piece 'Nevermore' I would consider one of my strongest pieces, featuring on my business cards alongside my portfolio and website. However the final piece 'Headache' doesn't say anything extra about my work. Kris suggested either creating a new piece intended for the final page or use the wolf that features on the other 50% of my business cards, food for thought and something that I will definitely switch around.

Thank you for all your help and worldly guidance Kris!

Day Job.

All images taken from Dayjob.org including logo.

Dayjob is a cleverly named collective comprised of 10 graduates with very different working styles but a mutual love for illustration. Based in London, the group have all sprung fresh from Camberwell College of Arts situated in Peckham and now spend as much time outside of their day jobs as possible, collaborating on bigger projects and installations. They work with a huge range of media as each member has preference over materials which brings depth and variation to large quantities of work generated interdependently. Personally I felt the playful characteristics of the members we met will be a real help for the longevity of the collective and a great asset when running events.

Their studio was tucked away in a far-flung industrial estate amidst Elephant and Castle, isolated but spacious. The top floor of the building was dedicated to a whole raft of various artists tucked into their allocated booths or spilling out across the hallway. Seeing the walls lined with work, homely belongings, decorations and found furniture scattered around Dayjobs' studio pushed pangs of jealousy into my heart, it was like their second home, their peaceful getaway crammed with inspiration and helping hands. To me, this seems like the most logical step after university and after to speaking to Charlotte and Grace I feel extremely motivated to find a place with a few friends to set-up camp while we find our feet.

 

A nice little bonus at the end of the day, after being pumped full of inspiration, was a little confidence boost in the form of a very constructive portfolio review. I felt more nervous showing my work to the girls than I had been previously, even with established Illustrators. I think the fact that they were at such a similar age to us whilst being indoctrinated into the industry in such a viciously competitive place as London intimidated me at first, but the friendliness and laid-back attitudes they all adopted acted as comfort rather than confrontation. Two of the girls spent a good fifteen minutes looking through my work stopping to ask questions or pose comments every so often, very reassuring that they didn't rush through it like a flick-book and yet another pointer as to the kind ethos they uphold. I was especially pleased with the response my personalised portfolio received as I spent such a long time getting it how I'd envisioned it. The main comments I took away in regards of constructive criticism were mostly related to attention to detail; print every page on good quality paper, clean the plastic sleeves regularly, tidy up the text and descriptions so they appear on the same line on each page but justified to the edge of each separate image. Seemingly standard prompts but things that had obviously slipped my judgement. All comments in respect to my work were again positive, the pieces they picked above the rest were all line drawings, for a reason slightly different to the usual. They mentioned that the control I had shading with lines could lend itself to anatomical drawings of educational posters, the thought of which had never crossed my mind. They echoed the idea of adding more balance into the portfolio or refining it down to one specialism which I feel will become more apparent over the next few weeks.

All in all a really brilliant and insightful day, I hope to keep in contact with the team and hopefully see them at our end of year show!

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

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