Opportunity with Ladyfuzz

Earlier this week I was contacted my a girl named Ashleigh who is part of Ladyfuzz, a collaborative collective of creatives who create zines and other wonderful things showcasing alternative talent and life style. Ashleigh got me involved with Illustration Showdown last year so I was really excited when she contacted me asking if I wanted to contribute my work to the upcoming issue of Ladyfuzz. I was given free-reign with the work I created except the fact that it had to be linked to female fronted bands/musicians. This was completely fine for me as I'd recently started listening to a band called Waxahatchee that really fit in with this mini brief, it also gave me a chance to resist an old Kate Nash song that I adore and draw some things up for that. Here are the three illustrations that I sent off and hopefully I'll be able to add a follow up post to this blog post once the new edition of Ladyfuzz is on sale!

DR ME Visit

Last week collage artists and graphic designers, Dr Me came to talk to us in the studio. Although collage isn't really an element of my practice I still found the talk really interesting and useful in terms of some of the things we've been discussing in PPP. 

We've briefly touched upon contacting practitioners/agencies that we're interested in/inspired by and Dr Me had a couple of really good tips on the subject. 

One of the main points they made was to not be afraid to ask. Both of them managed to go work with a designer that they looked up to simply by having the confidence to ask, something which I lack slightly. Through just asking to work with this designer, they got to go to New York and spend a couple of weeks working with him and through this have managed to maintain contact with him, relating back to another point they made about keeping relationships with people as often it can lead to work opportunities and new clients. 

They also mentioned that in terms of finding work/clients, they had a very DIY approach. I can't remember exactly what it was that they did but I remember them saying that when approaching potential  clients, rather than sending emails out they took on a DIY, handmade, collaborative approach rather than the standard boring email. This is something we've also talked about within PPP in terms of how important it is to grab someones attention and how emails aren't necessarily the best way to go about doing this as a lot of the time people will either ignore them and not bother to read what it is that you have to say. 

I should have really made more detailed notes but long story short I think these guys were really interesting and had a lot to say about making yourself stand out and bringing work in. 

Top Tips from Dr Me:

. Collaborate

. Make Good Shit

. Go See Shit 

. Just Ask

. Just Be You 

SWOT

STRENGTH

I think strengths in my practice include creating a hand-rendered feel to an image using traditional and hand-drawn techniques. I also think that attention to detail and ability to follow a brief to its full requirements/deliverables is another of my strengths and my ability to manage my time as effectively as I can.

WEAKNESS

My main weakness is a lack of digital skill. I am not comfortable with using either Photoshop or Illustrator so have avoided these means of image making over my time and the course which has naturally led to a decline in my ability to use the software. I am rectifying this by slowly teaching myself how to use the software to enhance my practice.

OPPORTUNITY

I think opportunity in my work may possibly lie within a narrative field, or maybe in some sot of retail. In all honesty, I can't pinpoint where my work sits within illustration and feel that having the flexibility to work in different sectors could give me an advantage. There is also always opportunity to build on and develop new and existing skills.

THREAT

Threats to my practice include other practitioners that have a broader skill set than me. I also think that my lack of confidence could in a way be a threat, I don't have it in me to network and 'put myself out there' and I feel that in the long run this is only going to stop me from advancing myself as a professional and my practice.

Study Task 2 - Where Does My Work Sit...

Publishing and Book Design

Editorial and Reportage

Character and Narrative

Product and Packaging

Retail and Merchandise

Object and Environment

Advertising and Promotion 

Where does my work sit within the creative industries?

Personally at the moment I don't think that my practice sits comfortably in any of these industries. I haven't specialised enough to focus my work on one particular industry and honestly I haven't given much thought about it before. If I had to, I'd say that my work probably fits best with publishing an book design, character and narrative and possibly retail and merchandise? 

Where do I want my work to sit within the creative industries?

I'd quite like to expand my practice to fit comfortably within product and packaging and retail and merchandise. That being said I also find publishing and book design and character and narrative to be areas of interest and a industry that I'd also like to explore. Personally I think that it's best for illustrators/creatives to be flexible, by all means specialise in something but I think the people that might do well will be open to applying their work to other industries as well and that's something that I'd be interested in achieving. 

Time Management - Work vs Uni vs Attempting To Have A Social Life vs Not Loosing My Grip On Reality

I'm having a really hard time trying to juggle everything thats going on right now and it seems that no amount of time planning or diary keeping or calendar writing can help me keep on top of everything. I am currently really behind with COP and Responsive, kind of doing okay with PPP, and pretty much on top of 504 Process and Production, so I'd say I was half on top of stuff, half falling behind on the rest of it. Having collaborative responsibility in Responsive is also something that takes up time that I definitely can't avoid.

Aswell as juggling four different modules I'm having to fit in 16 hours of work at my part-time job which is spread over 4 nights at 4 hour shifts. I know these aren't stupidly massive shifts and in all honesty it's a pretty easy, if tiring, job BUT trying to keep on top of work and then go and spend all evening working somewhere else is proving to be a problem in terms of how much I'm getting done. Unfortunately, not having the job would make uni life even more stressful than it already is so this isn't something that I can get rid of, but I am thinking less hours would be a hell of a lot easier for me.

It'd also be kind of nice to keep a bit more a social life this year and also get through second year with my sanity in tact. Last year was really stressful, I was struggling with my mental health and didn't really spend time with many people outside of uni. This year I really need to make sure I'm looking after myself but also making sure I'm going out and doing things and makings friends and having a bit of fun.

I'm going to try my best to make some sort of time plan/way of dealing with everything but my shifts at work change weekly and there's always something different going on at uni every week and then it's always nice to do something for myself/with others when I have a chance.

Slightly pointless blog post but I kind of needed to get my thoughts about all this out.

Nomi Chi

I recently found Nomi Chi while having a quick look on Juxtapoz and she is stupid good at everything I wish I could be good at. Naomi is a Canadian Illustrator and Tattooist based in Vancouver. Inspired by nature, esoterica and the macabre, her illustration practice is quite surreal with hand drawn and painted features throughout.

- I love the quality of line used in more of her line base images, theres a great attention to detail in Nomi's work especially within her characters and animal based illustrations 

- I also really like her use of shape. I tend to avoid shape as I feel it's too blocky for me and I can't communicate enough through a lack of detail but I really like how she's used the shape of the rabbit and then worked back into it to add more detail 

- Colours aren't my favourite and I struggle to work with them sometimes but Nomi's work incorporates mostly soft pastel tones in a way thats not too overpowering to the artwork. 

- Spot images are great, everyone loves a nicely composed illustration of some scenery or landscape but I seem to be a little more drawn to images that work well as stand alone pieces. Sometimes less is more. 

- Nomi's creative talent extends into her tattooing practice aswell, both have their similarities and differences and in an interview I was reading Nomi explains that her illustration practice is more of a personal outlet where as her tattooing practice has to be more structured than the work she makes in her free time 

- I've been really interested in tattoo's and tattooing for a few years now and it wasn't until the last year or so that I've started to consider this as something I might like to gain some experience in and possibly turn into a career, it's nice to see that there are other people out there that had a similar ambition/interest and to see how their work is evolving 

- All in all, a really cool gal with really great work

I Made A Zine!

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking about the idea that sometimes we never get a chance to tell people somethings because of loss of connection/relationship/friendship. I sometimes wondered what I'd say to people if I got the chance to meet them again or if we had a chance to talk and started thinking about making a little zine about it. About a week ago I was reading an article in Oh Comely about letters wrote to past boyfriends, bringing to light all the things that the writer had left unsaid. I think seeing something that I was thinking about in a published magazine gave me the confidence to run with my own ideas and create a little zine called 'Unspoken', based around the idea of things that are left unsaid.

It's pretty simple really, and the copies of it are only photocopied but it was really good to be able to recognise something that I was thinking/feeling, create something out of that an publish it for the world to see, it the whole process was very relaxing and i think I'd definitely be up for making more things like this again!

SaveSave

Study Task 1 - 5 Things...

5 things I've learnt on this programme so far... 
- Roughs are important
- Mistakes are okay (and sometimes lead to good things)
- Immerse yourself in research 
- Photoshop/Illustrator is the devil 
- Colours aren't that scary 

5 skills I think are my strengths...
- Pencil work/line work 
- Researching 
- Being more exhaustive within my sketchbook 
- Roughing 
- Procrastinating 

5 things I want to improve...
- Time Management 
- Digital Skills
- Regular Blogging
- Mental Health/Self Confidence/Attendance
- Confidence within my work 

5 things I want to know more about... 
- How to network
- Collaboration
- Getting my work 'out there' 
- How to present myself in a more professional manner
- Digital image making, particularly how to keep a hand-made feel to an image when creating work digitally 

5 practitioners that demonstrate my interest in Illustration...
- Alice Ferrow
- Tallulah Fontaine 
- Lizzy Stewart
- Irana Douer
- Gemma Topliss 
- Harriet Lee-Merrion

5 websites/online resources that demonstrate my areas of interest within the creative industries...
- Juxtapoz - Literally just found Nomi Chi on here and she is ridiculously good at everything I want to be good at 
- Creative Review - reviews creative things, wonderful
- Pinterest - Kind of typical but I find that it's really useful to just find what you want pretty quickly, good source of inspiration, easy to find funky illustrations
- Frankie Magazine - always have really cool cover art and also interviews with/articles on all different kinds of practitioners, mostly look at the printed magazine but they have some funky bits and pieces on their website too
- Oh Comely - not necessarily an online resource but a printed magazine that features different illustrators every issue, I've found some really great work through this magazine so thought it deserved a mention 

Mega Crit

Crits terrify me but mega crits are okay because i can leave my work on the table and walk away from it while other people look through my sketchbook. It was really cool to walk around and see what everyone else had been making over summer and how peoples work was starting to develop. 

I really didn't get enough done over summer, after the nightmare I had last year I needed a break from creative things and now I'm feeling ready to pick it all up again and try and push my work that step further. 

These were a few pieces from my sketchbook...

 

I really enjoy working in black and white (if you can't tell), BUT I really want to work on incorporating colour into my work, I feel like a lot of the sketchbooks I looked at today were a lot more developed than mine and feel that finding a way of working with colour to enhance my illustrations would start to make my work feel bit more finished? 

Also, I've started working in pencil a lot and I know that might be a little boring but I love the texture and the quality that you get from it and the flexibility it allows you to have (I can rub out all the stuff i don't like)

These are some pictures I took of work in the mega crit! I'm feeling a little overwhelmed at the quality of work I saw, I feel like i have a lot of progress to make due to the knocks and bumps I had last year... Either way, I'm feeling inspired to get making things again! 

 I really liked the textured, colourful background in these pieces, they work really well as a double page spread but I particularly like the finer lines and detail in the illustration on the left

I liked the negative space that was left in this piece! Not sure wether it was intentional or not but it looks really cool and works well with the blocks of brighter colours

I chose this piece because it made me laugh and it looks funky, 10 out of 10 for this one. 

End of Module Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL402 Personal & Professional Practice 1	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	Leah Haywood

1.  What learning have you inherited through this module and how has it impacted on your own understanding of professional practice? Consider yourself as a student at University as much as an illustrator
I think mainly I’ve learnt a lot about research and how it doesn’t have to be just reading a book or browsing the internet. Getting outside, visiting galleries and new places can help inform your research just as well, if not better, than books and internet searches can. It gives you an experience to learn from and so helps you form a more educated opinion on something after having experienced it for yourself. I’ve also learnt as a student about looking after yourself mentally and physically. My mental health has had a large impact on my performance this year and I’ve gradually learnt how to take better care of myself and work around my struggles, I’m looking forward to being able to deal with this a lot better in second year and so getting more enjoyment out of the course.
2. What approaches/ types of research have you found most valuable over this module? Why did they have such an impact?
Pinterest has had a large impact on me and my practice this year, it’s so easy to find new practitioners who’s work you admire, and this in turn leads to the discovery of new media and processes. I think the biggest type of research to impact me has to be first hand trips and visits to locations/exhibitions. Having an experience informs your work a lot more that just reading a book or clicking through websites. Also looking at third and second year blogs helped, it gave me a little bit of guidance in some ways and helped me see how different people approach different briefs and tasks.
3. In what way has PPP informed the way your work in other modules and your illustration practice as a whole?
PPP has really helped me understand more about who I am as a person, what kind of work I want to make and why I want to make that kind of work. I used to think I’d draw certain things because I liked them, or I had an interest in that specific thing, this is true for some pieces of work but I’m starting to see how my experiences as an individual can start to inform my work and influence the work that I am making. I think PPP has also helped me to deconstruct and analyse other artists work and this in turn has helped me deconstruct and analyse my own work.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your PPP submission and how will you address this in the future? I think one of my weaknesses is that I didn’t go to enough exhibitions or events throughout the year. I feel like I’ve actively research and discovered new artists and illustrators but that I would have benefitted from involving myself more in my practice and getting out there and experiencing different things that would inform my practice. I hope in the future I can push myself to get out a bit more and discover some new things through exhibitions and events, and that this in turn will help me to further my practice.
5. What communities of practice and professional contexts do you intend to investigate further as you approach level 5? Why do they appeal to you? I think something I would definitely like to investigate and involve myself in more is zine culture. I love the idea of being able to spread and share thoughts and ideas through little publications and I also have an interest in narrative which I’d like to explore further. I would also like to be attending more exhibitions and events and maybe even participate in a few more, such as Illustration Showdown, this will give me a chance to network and meet other creatives.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance				x
Punctuality				x
Motivation				x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced				x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group		x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.