Website is up!

I now have a website set up. Currently the address is http://tom5550123.wix.com/tomshatwell but will soon change to tomshatwell.co.uk after the domain has finished processing.

I have put most of my favourite works in the gallery so feel free to have a look. It is still a working progress and I am gradually learning how to use all the tools, but more will come soon.

Portfolio Review - Little Brown Book Publishers

I travelled to Blackfriars in London to visit the studio of Little Brown Book Publishing. (see separate blog entry). While I was there, Hannah Wood took a look at my portfolio. It was quite nerve wracking to go into an industry head-first with about 10 marketing directors waiting to see the book designs I had made. Hannah and a lady that was with her sat and waited for me to tell them about each piece of work. I'd never professionally explained each piece of art I had done until this point, it was even more scary trying to talk through the silence of them.

Overall they seemed to like my work, there was a tight schedule, and my portfolio review overran so I had to make haste, keeping it short but sweet. They said that it was a good idea that I chose to put drawings into the portfolio, because far too often do people slam all their best final work into a portfolio and sometimes it can be difficult to see where a certain brief could have gone if they had done things differently. Showing some decent rough work allows them to see the foundations of where a project could potentially go.

They thought my Animals in Anguish characters were a little "extreme" but I explained that it was because I was trying to make an extreme point and 'shock' the audience. They saw this with reason but I do acknowledge that some people could seem offended or shocked by these characters, but this is what I wanted them to feel.

Animals in Anguish Update

For my final project, I have been working on my Animals in Anguish posters. I am thinking that for my final show I want to showcase a few posters petitioning against cruelty to animals. I have a poster I am currently working on which will be an illustrative conveyor belt, going down the page, with chickens getting turned into meat products. It will exaggerate the processes of the production line, and be slightly humorous, but at the same time, sticking to the point that they start off as chickens and end up at the end as meat products.

Another poster I am working on is a series of character models which are humanoid animals. Combining the things which we overlook happening to animals and reiterating them as humans, where we would be very disturbed to find someone 'processed' in the same way. One character is a man on a plate, with legs sticking out, just as a chicken is presented at a classic dinner table. Another is the man with antlers, who has fur and antlers, appearing to be some sort of moose character with his tie being his red tongue. This is stressing a point that he is wearing the animal, we don't think about how our clothes are made, but we are technically wearing an animal, almost like you skinned them yourself without thought to how these are actually obtained. Ethically?

I am still working on some different ideas but they are all sketchbook work for now.

Animals in Anguish - My Project Drawings

I have started my final project and have decided to make it about Animal Cruelty, maybe lead into environmental issues that are affecting animals, I have started out by drawing animals just to get my head into the project. Here are a few of them:

Duckling

I feel that it is important to get into the project by just drawing and drawing and drawing. If I am going to feature birds or reptiles, I need to know how they look, how they position themselves, how they move. So I have started by drawing them.

Mouse

Kitten

A few attempts at birds

Next I am going to think about making posters and how the drawings I have made would factor in to them.

E-Portfolio Feedback - Philippa Lightburn

I sent my e-portfolio to Philippa Lightburn, Philippa is an illustrator who was an ex-student at my university, and has gone on to be a professional freelance illustrator.

"I've had a look through your portfolio and I'm really impressed with both your work and the layout. I remember meeting you at the guru evening and I don't think you had a lot of your work with you so seeing it all together like this is really nice! You've got a great style that is obviously working well for you and your portfolio flows well from page to page."

"My favourite illustration is the pollution piece for the RSPCA. I just think it's such a great idea that has been executed really well and it has an immediate message. The two block colours work nicely and it's very graphically striking. I also really love the Wind in the Willows book cover - especially the trees in the background. They're really beautiful colours and have a lovely texture to them."

Since a lot of my portfolio contains a lot of mixed media between hand crafted objects and work I've made on the computer, it's nice that she can appreciate this, and appreciate the use of colour between them. The Fairtrade piece had a strict colour palette, so it's even better that I managed to hold a good synergy regarding colour in the piece.

"The presentation of your portfolio is really strong and I can't fault anything. All the other gurus I've emailed have had little things that I would change with the layout, but yours is perfect!"

I feel I was happy with the way my work was presented, each page follows the exact sizing and measurements of the previous page, so it pleases my perfectionist side. It made me smile that she used the word 'perfect' though, that was a nice comment to receive.

"The only minor thing I can spot is perhaps some of the typography. I really like the typography on the two book covers, the hand drawn quality of it is really nice and compliments the work well. The fonts on the RSPCA and Fair Trade images could perhaps be a bit more interesting and match the styles of the illustrations more. But this is a really minor thing so please don't take it to heart. I'm only picking up on it because I went to a graphic design agency and the guy said I could do with changing the font on one of my pieces. Graphic designers are really in to type so carefully choosing one or designing your own can be worth your while!"

This has been interesting because Pat Carroll said the opposite, he has worked with graphic designers for years and doesn't think the typeface works with the skyline. I do think the type does fit with the series or books, it's a very hand rendered characterful typeface and I do like it. It's very interesting to receive opinions from people who have experience from the industry, because it's just an opinion, and you can only take from it what you asked for, a collection of opinions gives you a more broad range of feedback.

Overall Philippa was very pleased with my work and I am glad with this. I want to try and improve some of the pieces of work though, there are other potential pieces that didn't make it into the portfolio that maybe I will reconsider.

E-Portfolio Feedback - Gary Prendergast & Pat Carroll

I have been given feedback by two artists, Gary Prendergast and Pat Carroll, Pat has worked with many successful graphic designers and students, and has made LPs for band albums such as The Happy Mondays. They found my portfolio layout to appear very professional, all the pages are perfectly laid out and look as they should. They were both very fond of my illustrative and graphical combinations in my work, and said that they can tell straight away what kind of style I have with my work. 

Pat was very impressed with my RSPCA work and thought they were my strongest pieces, some pieces such as the Josie Dew piece, has a great potential, but is let down by the typeface and the statue in the centre, it would be good if this piece could be amended. I felt I liked the typeface, but agree with the statue comment, it is a bit of an anti-climax, it just looks a little out of place. If after removing the statue, there is too much of an open gap, I could work on making the skyline a bit higher.

They said my work reminded them of an artist called Paul Rand and recommended I look into him, as my work has a similar style. Overall, they said that my portfolio does have a really nice feel and gives off my aura, which I am glad about. I will go into my eportfolio and try to make some amendments to past work over the Christmas holiday.

What does illustration mean?

"As our visual language evolves, the playing field is leveling. Graphic designers, sculptors, painters, creative developers, and even musicians amorphously meander across different parts of our creative industries. As a consequence, I often wonder what the term 'Illustration' now means. Maybe as a medium it might need to do more than vocationalise aesthetics and cultivate a border palate of profundity for its own survival." 
- Michael Salu, Artistic Director of Granta Magazine 
2012 Varoom 

This is a very interesting and provocative quote. Technology is constantly upgrading, and has evolved how art is both created and perceived, is this a good or bad thing? Like a lot of things, there are pros and cons, take the new 'gifs' for example, a way of creating illustrations to be in two or three fast moving images, to create a 'moving' image, these are seen on websites now as an alternative to images in some e-magazines. These being better or worse than how they are shown in physical magazines isn't relevant, whats relevant is how they are being implemented into technology. 

Today we see the art work of Picasso in galleries and are amazed at the presence of the piece next to us, to think his hand once touched that canvas, it has an aura. But seeing the same image online isn't really the same, but how would someone being born into this new technological world perceive this? Would they miss this out, and only see the 'new' (which to them is the 'current') as being worthwhile? The playing field isn't just leveling, it's also changing. New vocabulary is being added to visual language, but I feel that different ages will see this in different ways, some will see it as an addition, and good thing, and others will take it as a change, when a way of working is being implemented, another way of working is being sunk. 

My own work will probably take a toll at this, I work as I want to work, I create images I like and cast it from my own heart, but I can still do the same thing using new technology, or adapting new techniques. I would really like to learn how to make gifs and any new advancement, as a new way of working is another challenge to overcome and maybe it will help me to find a new way of working that I can really enjoy.

"Illustration" to me means to produce art from the heart, this means making designs that I want to make, that I want people to see, not necessarily like. To me, changing or making a new word for illustration would be irrelevant, because it would still be the same thing. I may work on a computer sometimes, but I'm still illustrating, I'm still using my soul as the inspiration for my work, regardless of whatever subjective word is used, so what's the difference?

AOI would also have to change it's name.

Hopes Fears and Oppertunities

At the start of the year, I set some Hopes, Fears, and hopeful opportunities. Firstly, for my hopes, I wanted to create work that I (note the bold 'I') both enjoy making and am proud of, and I feel I have gradually felt the freedom of being able to achieve this, as in previous years I have felt that I have restricted myself while searching for how I want to work. During the last two projects I do feel that I am creating work that I want to make, and not necessarily something that someone else would like to see, I am gaining confidence in myself to make what I want to make!

Fears are always present, but I feel I have gained an immunity to criticism, I have always been worried about what someone really thinks of my work, and have always doubted myself when receiving compliments for my art, and think about what the person may actually be thinking. It's unhealthy to think in this way because if you ask someone for what they think, they will generally tell you what they think, when you ask someone for visual feedback, it's a very honest subject but just an opinion.

I feel that illustration is about finding your heart, and this should be reflected in a person's work. At the end of the day, you ask for someone's opinion, and you get their opinion, but that's all it is, and another person will give you another opinion. One human's opinion shouldn't be the only tie when making art, it's about what the artist has to offer (unless ofcourse, the work is for someone, but even then they want a piece of you, not themselves)

For the next semester I need to get involved in a few opportunities as I have in previous years, there's no better way to learn about yourself than to explore the art world, see how people work, get involved with them, see how things are on the inside. I loved working with Lord Whitney last year, it shows that on the inside they were just like me, there's no reason why I can't be as successful as they are. It was also nice to see how casual they are, they aren't 24/7 workaholics (well, only until the deadline date) but you can be both professional and casual at the same time, being yourself. 

I hope to spend time with other artists in the next semester, maybe get some experience to see how different artists apply their methods, and how they cope with stresses and just generally what they're like!

Website Scouting

I am currently looking at various websites as an idea of how to invent my work online. I have looked at a good range of illustrator's websites. Most illustrators websites are very eye catching yet simple, from my observations, I have come to the conclusion that illustration websites aim to have the following qualities:

1. Easily navigate through work - There's nothing worse than looking through a website and not being able to find what you need, confusing titles, colours that make you want to leave, loading videos that make people want to press the X at the top right corner of the screen (or left if you use a Mac) or close tab or whatever.

2. Website should have a 'feel' that relates to the artist - All of the websites I have seen have an atmosphere that gets you into the mood of the person's work, if that art work could have a home, what would it look like? This is the basis for the website, it should point towards the work itself.

3. Look Professional - "talkin lik dis makes ur webi luk shitm8" Making everything look nice and tidy and professional just makes YOU look more professional. Let the design compliment your work and it should all fit together. 

I have looked at Lord Whitney's website (http://lordwhitney.co.uk/) It has a nice intricate design with some of the props they have made as a background. One notable thing they have done with the home page is made it say different welcomes and have different lighting effects depending on the time of day. Such as "Good Evening" and "Good Morning". The actual website has a distinctive layout, with a simple to use black bar across the top which contains options to view the work, news and contact information.

The website really gives a feeling of being in the Lord Whitney home and just what they are about, it has an interesting timeline of each of their work events. The website doesn't just compliment their work, it contains the aura of it, it directly relates to the them.

I have also looked at David Shrigley's website (http://www.davidshrigley.com/) He has a nice white-text on black background theme with a very illustrative typeface, there are many options on the right, the only main difference and flaw with his website is that the link you choose usually leads to a boring white webpage with blue links to view work. It would be nice to see the same theme going throughout. Saying this, the website still does it's primary functions, allows the viewing of work and provides contact details.

David Firth is an animator that makes illustrative cartoons, he has a website called Fat-Pie (http://www.fat-pie.com/) His website hosts all of his different series on the left. There are also links for FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), images, contact details as well as links to his blogs and social networking pages. His website does look fairly narrow and basic, but it does it's job. Unfortunately, Firth seems to be quite lazy and only updates it about once every few months, but just like a blog, it shows his latest posts and additions at the very top.

His website design doesn't seem to adopt any particular style, it's just basic blue with white and black text. Probably because it's more of a showcase blog than a proper professional artists' website.

I have looked at an artist called Lauren Brading (http://www.offthepagedesign.com/), she has a very simple website (I think it was probably made in Wix, a simple website building host), the website looks fairly bland, but is complimented by that nice lovely AOI logo under her name! I personally prefer to look at her work on the AOI website itself, just because her website just looks a bit too small and basic.

I think having looked at some of these websites, people try to do as best they can for as cheaply as they can (Free website makers seem to have limited options, whereas if you build it yourself from scratch, the world is your oyster. I wouldn't say any of these sites are particularly 'bad', some are just better than others. They all serve a websites purpose, but they're illustrators, a website is such a good opportunity to get your style across!

Business Cards

I have made some business cards for myself. just to see what they will look like when I come to make some official ones after Christmas. I think they look decent, they have a very 'shapey' feel to them, and a warm illustrative emotion. Will just have to see what they look like when they arrive...

I have worked with the skyline imagery from the current project to make the cards, I thought this was a nice idea as the skyline works well with all the illuminated lights, it is quite eye catching.


Front:

Back:

I wasn't 100% sure exactly where the cutting will take place, so I may lose a little of the design, but here's to testing.

Little Brown Book - Mockups

After a few weeks of designing, I have 'beta' versions of the book covers.

Looking at these from far away, I want to get rid of the bikes in the background, it was used to show that the book is about bikes, and was a way of synergising consistency between them all, but it looks too much like a watermark of some sort.

Little Brown Book Project - Working Progress

A few weeks into the project and here is whats what. There have been a lot of different designs going on, just playing around with different approaches and methods.

For this, I drew a picture of the USA and used a characterful type, it's probably a bit simple, but simple is simple for a reason, it works in it's own way. It's sometimes nice to start again on a white piece of paper and start from scratch.

It's fun to get carried away with bikes!

Tried to work with bigger imagery but it looks a bit too much like someone projectile vomited a premature version of a final design onto here.

Little Brown Book - Feedback

I have shown my work to Little Brown Publishing and they were quite surprised by the work of everyone. Their advice to me was to continue to work with shape and try to forge a concept of using the whole page (front, back and middle), as they particularly would like to see imagery that fills the whole page and not just separate to the front or back, this is an idea I agreed with as I have done this in the past for projects such as The Wind in the Willows, where I have used the double page to plant a whole scene.

They also recommend I work with a Graphic Design student to combine a suitable typeface with my designs, I don't always like working with others as I feel I can think better in my own head and like to think I'd be fine finding a good typeface, but having someone else to bounce ideas and combine thoughts is always good and it will be interesting to work with someone I don't know and hasn't had the same design experience. 

I am going to continue to think about the layout of the page and how this can be used to an advantage, instead of sticking to just using each page separate. I also think that if I use shape in each design and stick to my style, I will have automatically kept the synergy going and that will be the common basis for the 7 designs. 

Little Brown Book Project, Initial Ideas and Thought Processing

Trying to come up with a few starting points for book designs for Little Brown Book Publishing, the Josie Dew character seems to be very funny and spontaneous, so I had an idea of making her bike look ridiculous as I could imagine her to be carrying lots of luggage and have a basket with lots of items shoved in, like buckets and spades, sleeping bags and umbrellas.

I have also started to implement the typeface I made, but it doesn't seem to be working too well, making a typeface is quite difficult and seems to look better on paper as an alphabet than put with a design. Going to continue to work on these and play around more with shape.

Little Brown Book Publishing Project

I have been given a chance to design sever book covers for a series of books for Little Brown Book Publishing. The books are by an auther called Josie Dew who has travelled all around the world on a bicycle, the stories seem to be very crazy and funny as she goes anywhere and everywhere on her bike, and it will be a fun and interesting experience to design the covers for these!

I really want the designs to reflect my style of work, as well as Josie Dew's humour. I'd want her to appreciate the thought of design behind the book covers. 

I wanted to start off by making a typeface just to see what it's like (and how difficult it is!) I thought this threaded typeface I designed might look good on the designs, but we'll see..

Gears: The Movie (Radio 4 Final Stop-Motion)

This is my final design for my Radio 4 Project. Firstly, I felt I could have added alot more to the stop-motion but time was heavily afflicted due to all the presentations, essays, and everything else I've been doing over the last two weeks. The project has been slightly neglected, but this is the first animation I have done all year and it does have a nice charm to it.

Without careful planning, animations never go well, same with films, bad directed = bad film. But anyway, enjoy the animation. This was for a segment of a Radio 4 show titled 'Birth of Radio'. I think it goes with the theme, because cogs are old fashion mechanics, and they fit the atmosphere of what is being discussed. But to be honest, I wish I had more time to amend this. 

Thinking With Gears...

While researching old radios and old mechanical items, I found a common field was gears, gears are used in old mechanical devices and are quite useful forgotten objects. I think I want to use gears as a main part of the animation, so I have started drawing out some of them. I am thinking maybe they can intersect with one another and this could possible turn into some sort of stop motion.

Just been playing about with some text that could maybe somehow get into the animation. Sorry if some of the images look a little confusing, but inserting small images together on blogger is more difficult than trying to dissect a cow.

It would read "The great machines of the industrial revolution were in full swing, producing 'things' for the empire."

FairTrade A-Z Finale

I have just about finished my final designs for FairTrade A-Z. Just missing a few final letters, those being 'M', 'X', 'Y', and 'Z'. For X Y Z, there are no actual products, so I must try to think outside the box with this one. I haven't properly implemented colour yet, I just wanted to get the designs done and dusted, but I think in colour, they will look great.

Oh, and the 'M' is there because I fail at drawing mangoes.

A-Z Final Poster Design (Beta)

This is my final poster for FairTrade! Well, almost, it isn't quite finished yet, I still need a fair few letters, but they seem to be piecing nicely. The background needs tampering with as there are a few white marks that need to be erased. But as far as it goes, this is an initial final design... If that makes sense...

After doing this, I'm starting to get sick of the blue, but probably just because I've been working on it all day...

Wind in The Willows - Final Design

Here is my final design for the Wind in The Willows project. It has been a really fun and exploratory few weeks and I really had fun making characters and investigating their habitats and characteristics. Overall I feel fairly accomplished with my final piece, I had a fair few final design ideas, and this is the one I decided to implement  just because I thought it said more about how I've been working in the past and made the most sense to put into play. 

If I could do the project again, I would probably spend longer on character design as I think that is the weakest (although most crazy!) part of the piece. I do really admire the creation of the scenery, this is the strongest part of the project, because this is how I started it, the scene is the most important thing in my opinion because it is the first thing you see and feel. I am going to submit this design to the Puffin competition later today.