Summative Position Statement

As an illustrator right now I am someone who enjoys to tell a story, to use narrative and humour to get a point across whether that be in an editorial image or a full comic. I like doing work based entirely on a joke and i like indulging in a complex issue that needs research to understand. I use a combination of image and poetry to convey an idea or an opinion.

I am a creative who is heavily committed to heavy line and texture work, i like making bold, striking images that are tangible and full of detail. The juxtaposition between my graphic style and my light-hearted humour creates a gritty view of every day life. I think in sequential and this aspect of my work method lends itself tidily to the world of animation and cartoons as well as illustration. I do work in editorial and make representative images from single words. I think my editorial still represents the narrative side of my practice as it still explores illustrating a story.


Now as i enter the illustration world I want to create more comics and sell myself as an author-illustrator. I also want to get into the world of cartoons and animation, my practice could be a valuable addition to a story boarding or background team for a cartoon. I also will use my own animation non- commercially, purely for enjoyment and advertisement of my practice. I think my work is unique, interesting and never stops evolving and that is what will set me apart form the sea of illustrators.

End of module evaluation

Strengths

I think my main strength in this module has been the thing i have dedicated most time to. Acceptably it probably wasn't the wisest decision to use so much of my year working on a promotion video, but i think it is something that will really benefit my practice. I wanted to showcase my animation and advertise my practice at the same time. I consider the video to be a success because i achieved what i wanted; to make an advert with animation, music, and lyrics all created by me so that i can have credits after where i am credited for everything. It gives an idea to my humour and illustration style and i think it will be a good thing to send out to agencies and companies i want to work with.

Another strength this year has been my use of instagram. Over the last three years i have made myself accounts in all the different social media platforms but i've never really got into regularly posting. I don't tend to regularly use social media anyway so its been a steep learning curve.
Instagram lead to a job doing a t-shirt design for a canadian company 'mister dress up'. I was surprised at first because it wasn't one of my finished illustrations or something i was doing for a project. Instead the picture that drew Sam (mister dress up founder) in to my practice was a small drawing i had done in my sketchpad of me looking super tired. I think this shows that my playful drawing has value in my practice too and maybe that work shows more of my personality than work for briefs. This has encouraged me to always have a personal brief along the side, somewhere where i can show my full personality in my work.

Thought Bubble went much better this year than last, i think the overall aesthetic of our table was more professional. I built a stand because it was something i realised all the professional practitioners where using last year. I built it myself because i work on quite a strict budget, but i think my choices in material and colour made it still look high quality. I spent a lot more time talking to people at the event this year, which i found really confidence boosting because I always worried that it would be really hard. I got interviewed for a video that was being made about the event and that was fun to have my face on something representing Thought Bubble. I generally think that i just went into this years thought bubble with my business mind on, i was trying to push professionalism and considering what would sell based on what i learnt last year.

I think my creative CV, although completed last, came out quite successfully. I like the design I came up with to hold the prints and make the cv a little book, i think it well represent s my practice as I make comic books and i like to hand bind. I created the pattern out of one of the idioms I was using to represent experience in the creative field. I wanted to try and keep it simple as i have a habit of over designing and creating busy unbalanced work.
On the skills section i showed both digital and analogue skills, this is because although i mainly work in digital, a lot of analogue work goes into making the final product and i think i should present that as a strong factor of my practice.

Finally I think my presentation was a big strength of this module. I didn't think it was going to be because i was under the impression that i was terrible at presenting. But once i got up there it just kind of flowed out. I had a lot of fun with it and i think my use of gifs really boosts the comedic factor, which makes the presentation more enjoyable to view. I think that is something i can take into the future, when presenting to clients i should play to my strengths and real them in with silly gifs and jokes along the way.

Weaknesses

A big weakness in my submission is my spelling mistakes. I will have to reprint my creative cv and amend it. I need to spend time putting my writing into a spell check engine because i know that my spelling isn't great and by not checking it i have made myself look unprofessional. I would have reprinted for this submission but I can't afford to print it again
I left my contacting until the last minute and i think that has worked against me because now we are finishing the year and i have much less contacts than others. But this is something i will continue to do forever so soon this will improve.
My promo pack is quite thin on the ground, i spent a long time trying to get the dimensions of my paper toy right so that it would work and therefore i didn't spend any time actually creating a full bodied promo pack. My promo pack is something i am going to expand post deadline.
My presentation boards looked messy this year. I was trying to make them look uniform and linked to my practice but i think the image i chose was too big and took up too much space. When presenting myself in the future I will have much cleaner boards, like my portfolio boards.
My presentation notes could have been better because i made them all writing so immediately after i started my presentation i could no longer read them as thy looked like egyptian. I know i have trouble reading under pressure and i should have planned for that. Like last year i had drawn pictures so i would get lost in the words. I just feel like i could have prepared a bit more.

What i've learnt

1. How to make a complete range around my brand
2. I can present well
3. My animations add to my presentation and set me apart
4. I can sell my work
5. I can use social media
6. Social media can lead to jobs
7. Contacting people isn't so hard
8. I know what i want to do in the future now

PRESENTATION

And here is the video that goes with the slide 'Professional'

BIG WEEN: THE VIDEO from Rowena Sharp on Vimeo.

PRESENTATION

Gifs don't work in issue so here are the gifs i made for the presentation

PRESENTATION BOARDS

FINAL PORTFOLIO

Creative CV

This box is a mock up and obviously not the final product. Time constraints meant i had to leave the box. But it is something i will create so that i can send off my cv with it looking a complete professional package. When i make it for real it will be made from thick stock gloss card. I want gloss, which is something i normally never use because the touch of it makes me cringe. But glossy is the most appropriate for the packaging was it is a creative norm for packaging to be gloss. Its normally only matt if they are specifically pushing the 'green' 'eco' side of the business/product. I used the wrapping paper i made for thought bubble because it is light, playful and fun and i think it is very representative of my practice.

The whole pack: box, creative cv, business card, examples of work with contact  info on reverse, paper yo yo toy.

The paper yo yo is also at a mock up level for this hand in. When done properly the wound paper would be attached to a plain wooden dowel approx 1cm diameter and about 15cm long. I haven't had time to go to a hardware store to get the wooden dowels i need so i have made do with an old paintbrush. 

The pocket within the cv is stitched at the bottom to match the book binding stitches holding the whole thing together. It leaves a wide window so that it is immediately obvious that these are things to be taken out and looked at.

The eight final chosen pieces.

I put my contact details onto the back of the images because they come out of the pack, therefore its relatively likely that someone might loose them, or they fall out. This way they still present all the useful information for my practice to benefit from.

Creative CV

I've been making my cv! finally. I made a board on pinterest

https://uk.pinterest.com/rs108841/creative-cv/

its filled with other examples of cvs. I most liked the ones that folded up and i think they are appropriate to me as one of my skills is book binding and i think i'd really be missing out if i didn't find a way to include that in my cv. I came up with a folding technique so that i could easily print it on A3. I need to be economical, i think part of considering your practice is understanding your budget and what you can afford. It kind of sucks to put money limits on my creativity but i am most definitely not a person with a bank balance positive enough to make whimsical decisions on printing cost.
I think my budget has been a big part of my practice all year because it effects the work i make, how i make it and how ambitious i am with my project. I try to avoid really large scale things because i know i can't afford to print it. I get very little loan and that has made me extremely stingy.
I think this is a big reason i'm just excited to get out there and start working because once i'm earning i don't have to worry about money (or at least not as much as i do now).

The design of the cv leaves a little pocket, i did this so that i can put work in there to give away. but also so that the work i put in can keep evolving and be put into the same pack without changing the original design. At the moment there are eight square post cards within which i chose because i thought that they gave a good breadth of my practice.

It includes work that is old like last years cop book work but it also has stuff that i only completed last week (say no to crack). I wanted there to be a big range. And although i think my practice comes along in leaps and bounds there is still a certain consistency in my style that makes them work as a set.

I used some current reference for my colour scheme when i was first trying to colour in my newest work. I think i got carried away with thinking it had to look amazing like work already out there. I didn't trust myself to colour it. Which is stupid because  i ended up picking the colours anyway in the end as i can't get my head around other peoples colour schemes. I guess i found this mildly reassuring that maybe its not my choices that are making me struggle but just the fact that i don't consider colour during the drawing process. I think i need to do some drawing where i do roughs first and only use colour so i am forced to make pallets.

these are the main pages. I chose a limited colour scheme which i think works best for me. At first i was working in orange and blue but it was all getting a bit too gaudy and i needed to reduce. I think sometimes i spend too long trying to find the perfect complimentary colour when i should just use a very dark or light monotone next to out to draw out the vibrancy and just get the best from my images.

Presentation thoughts

So i think my presentation went ok. I had made notes on little flash cards. I chose flash cards because i thought it would encourage me to look at the page less and it also forced me to make my notes very short and concise. And then i got up in front of everyone and my cards immediately looked as though they were written in ancient egyptian. So i went off cards. I think it went well off the cards, i had only made my notes the night before. This was a specific decision because i felt like the earlier i wrote out my actual notes the earlier i start to freak out about them and get them confused in my mind. Whereas i figured if i did them the night before they would still be fresh in my mind the next day.
Luckily they were fresh in my mind, but also once i got up there i realised i have things to say about my work. I kind of know what direction i am heading in which is not something i am normally certain of. But putting it all out there and saying it out loud made it seem more real. And suddenly i have twice as many plans as i did before the presentation.

Things that are clear: (now that the rain has gone)
1. I want to work in cartoons and do my illustration in comics on the side
2. i have a much higher interest in cartoon and animation although i still don't think i am an animator.
3. I want to become a story board artist or a back ground artist for a cartoon company.
4. I want to be a ghost scout at ghost shrimp.
5. I want to use and improve my animation skills because it sets me out from other illustrators
6. I want to consider advertising as a venue for my work
7. I can explain intangible things best through short comedic gifs
8. Never underestimate the value of a gif
9. I am better at presenting in front of people than i thought
10. Ripping my shirt open and throwing confetti was my best idea this year.

AOI

The association of illustrators is something i plan to join once i leave uni. I think i could really benefit from their advice. There are still many areas of the business side i am unclear on and i don't want to be taken advantage of by companies. It would really help to understand taxing and declaring yourself a business. 

Things i want to find out from AOI

1. How much tax do i pay on my earnings

2. how to write a successful contract.

3. At what point do i have to declare my practice a business

4. Is it a business?

5. Agents, getting advice on them and what makes a good one.

6. How to send out my work to the right people in the right manner.

My tee is up for sale

So Sam got back to me and has chosen the deer lord print and it is now up for sale. I took out another Facebook advert to coincide with this. I posted about my teeshirt being on sale and that post seemed to be the most obvious one to use to advertise. Because i want to draw in more clients to mister dress up so that i sell my tee shirt and also so he sees work with me as a valuable asset that can generate new customers.

I chose an advert that would run for one week, mainly because the options wet one day or a week and you pay £3 for 1 day and yet just £7 for the week. So the choice was clear, more value for money. I think a week is good because i want the advert to stay up as long as i can afford while my tee is up on the site. If i generate more customers for mister dress up then i am only improving my chances of selling my tee.

Heres my design looking mega professional and cool.

Jeffrey Brown

I found Jeffrey's blog spot and he has just given his email. This has got to be one of the easiest to find. It's like he does want you to contact him, unlike others i've searched for where it seems they are actively avoiding contact with strangers. Little do they know i am no stranger but their future best friend. Or at least thats my aim. 

I contacted Jeffrey Brown because i really admire his comic book work, especially his biographical comic because the stories he tells strengthens his illustration ten fold. His drawing style is kind of naive and wobbly but this combined with the subjects make it all seem a very personal account. reading his books feels like being in a little club that know about his life. His work is so raw and honest i think that makes his work really work. It has all the lumps and bumps of real life and it is enjoyable and relatable. 

Hi 

I'm a third year illustrator at Leeds College of Art and i was wondering if i could pick your brain for a bit of advice.

I saw your talk at Thought Bubble the year before last and i really enjoyed it,i also queued up to have my copy of every girl is the end of the world signed by you. I probably wasn't very memorable i just kind of stared at you intensely and smiled. It probably came off as mildly creepy. Hopefully if i was to speak to you again I would be much more composed.

I really enjoy your work, especially your biographical work, did you always make comics about your own life? How do you know what's interesting and have you ever had someone angry at your portrayal of them in your work?

Any advice you could part with me would be immensely appreciated 

If you would like to look at some of my work my site is bigweenillustratio.wix.com/bigween

and my Facebook page is Facebook.com/bigween

Thanks in advance for any feedback you could give and hope you are having a wonderful day

Rowena

i wished him a wonderful day so i look mega friendly (which i am) i also talked about how I've met him before, i did this because then theres a bit of humour in this message rather than just asking for advice. I want my message to be that bit different and then maybe he will enjoy it and reply.

Keith Crofford

I've tried to connect to Keith Crofford as he is the main guy in charge of Adult Swim. I think it would be good to contact him because i enjoy a lot of the cartoons that his company produces and they are the kind of production that i could see myself working for. 

I found him! i could only find a Facebook page for him rather than other means of contact. Annoyingly a recent update to Facebook has made it so you cannot contact someone while acting as your page. So i had to contact him using my personal facebook but in my message i directed him to my Facebook page.

Hi Keith

I'm a third year illustrator studying at Leeds College of Art (uk) 

I really admire the cartoons adult swim produces. I'm currently in a deep love affair with mr. Pickle which is absolutely hilarious. Animation and storyboarding are lines of career i am considering following. I was wondering if you had any advice for an up and coming illustrator? Like what would I need to present to make you want to produce a cartoon of my own creation?

As always any feedback or advice you can give would be greatly appreciated, if you would like to check out some of my work my site is bigweenillustratio.wix.com/bigween alternatively my Facebook page is faebook.com/bigween

Thank you in advance if you have time to reply to this and if not have a lovely day anyway!

Rowena

(big ween illustration)

I tried to keep my message short and polite. I just wanted to know some advice and what i would have to do for them to produce my cartoon. After the presentations i'm realising that the cartoon industry is where i see my work most fitting in and its an area that excites me.

Linked in using

I've been expanding my profile so that there is more information about my practice and some examples for people/ potential clients to look at.

I made a summary that i think summarises my practice simply and gives an idea of the kind of work i do. I then uploaded my promotional video because i have put it up on all my online medias so that they are all linked and my practice is well represented.

I also put my king illustrator of the world image up with the description that it is my life goal and that i aim high. I think this was good to put in because it shows my aspirations but dip lays them with a degree of humour that i think suits my practice.

I put in my job with mister dress up. Once they have accepted my connection i will be able to add their profile to my publication. I think this is useful because it shows my most up to date and completed job. It also shows that i can work with/ for companies/ collectives.

Soooon mister dress up. Very soon.

Richard Meril

I got someone form cartoon network to connect with me on linked in! I've only just started figuring out how linked in works but i've just been telling everybody that i am their friend and thats why they should connect to me. 

Richard is a storyboard artist an that is something i discussed going into in my presentation because i think my idea tend to work better in motion but my animation skills aren't up to a professional level because i am not an animator but that doesn't mean that animation isn't where my drawings belong.

I a going to message Richard how he got into story boarding, was that what he always planned to do or did it just happen? i'm just really interested in the journey people have taken from being a nobody to getting a job for a high profile company like cartoon network.

my message: Hi Richard

I am a third year illustrator at Leeds college of Art. I wanted to pick your brain a bit. 

I would like to know how you got into story boarding, was it a job that you wanted to do from the start or is it something that you have just found yourself in? I'd love to hear the story of getting your first jobs as a creative

Any advice for a young illustrator about to jump into the deep end would be much appreciated.

Hope to hear from you soon

Rowena Sharp

(Big Ween)

Richard is a story boarder for the amazing world of gum ball which is a cartoon i love. It used multiple different styles of animation all within the same cartoon. 

Will Carsola and Dave Stewart

I was trying to find a way to contact the makers of Mr. Pickles but i've found it near impossible to find any email addresses or anything. I eventually found that they did an 'ama' (ask me anything) on Reddit. That means they have accounts so i've created an illustrator account on reddit so that it is separate from my personal one. There is an option to private message on Reddit. It's not the best medium for contacting them but as it is all i have at this point i think it will have to do.

I enjoy Mr. Pickles because it entertains the darker side of humour. Their animation pushes the boundaries of what is allowed to be screened on tv. The cartoon is released under Adult Swim, i think if i was to make a cartoon the content would be most fitting to the kind of humour on Adult Swim. I think i should contact Adult Swim and ask what kind of information and work they would need to consider making a cartoon.

I have done a separate email to each of them and i am trying to make them different so that they see that i have tailored these messages to them personally. 

For Will Carsola

I gave it a silly subject line, i think i will use the same subject line for each because i think it works as it is related to their practice and it is a pun which is something that runs through my practice.

my message:

Hi i was trying to find an email outside of reddit but my web surfing skills have proved inadequate in that area.

I'm a 3rd year illustrator at university in Leeds (uk) i was wanting to ask how you came to make mr pickles, did you propose it to adult swim or did they approach you? do you have any advice for a newbie illustrator?

Would love to hear from you

thanks

Rowena

I wanted to explain why i'd used reddit as my form of communication because it is an odd way to do it. And hopefully by this they will see fit to provide me with an email address maybe?

For Dave Stewart

my message:

Hi 

I've been searching for a way to contact you and Will Carsola, this was the only medium i found.

I just wanted to express my pure love of your creation 'mr pickles'. I love the explosion of dark humour that asks no forgiveness. 

I was wondering how you came up with the concept of mr Pickles, were any of the characters based on people you know?

Also any advice you could gig to an up and coming illustrator would be greatly appreciated

If you want to check out my work my site it bigweenillustratio.wix.com/bigween

Thanks in advance

Rowena

I tried to use different questions on each, because as they created the cartoon together i assume they know and talk to each other so i don't want it to look like i've just sent out a generic email to them both.

Ghost Shrimp

So this is a company that i adore and made it my life goal to one day be a ghost scout and go hang out in the woods for a  month with them. I decided i wanted to do this back in foundation and i had almost forgot about it this year but now i've seen that the applications are up and due in June for this yeas ghost scouts. I intend to be one of the 8 this year.

You have to make a video with yourself in it that is specifically made for your ghost shrimp application. I think this is something that works in my favour as i can do a mix of real footage and animation. 

The question air looks like it is aiming to get fun and creative answers back so this is something i will add drawings to and make my whole response into an illustrated dream. I'm going to use all of my skills to try and make myself stand out in the crowd of applicants. Looking at the past ghost scouts they are majority male, i think this might be because there were more men willing to enjoy the survival outdoor aspect to the trip. So i'm going to push my survival skills. Like being able to stay outside in rain. Then maybe some silly ones like fighting a bear. My aim is to use as much of my humour as possible because i feel not only am i trying to sell my work here, i'm mainly trying to sell myself. I want them to look at my application and be like yeah she's cool i want her to come here because i want to get to know her. I aim to make them want to be my friend as much as i want to be theirs.

They have a little contact bit on their website and i know in a lot of sites this is something that you are very unlikely to get a response back but there is a sentence above specifically encouraging people to ask questions and that they love to reply so i think this is a good way to contact them.

It says on the application part off the ghost scout opportunity that it tends to be strong applications sent in early that get picked so i think i may actually apply next year but work on it all summer so that i am one of the early applicants and i'll have a mega strong application. And hopefully had a reply to my question via email so that i have their email address which i can then send images to as little gifts and thankyou's for replies.

Also i don't think i'd be ready for this year as i have no passport and never have and i am perpetually poor. But by next year i will be earning a steady wage and in ownership of one passport.

My message:

Hi i'm a 3rd year illustrator at university in the uk. 

I just really admire the work you produce here, how do you choose your colour pallets? because they are always so well balanced. 

What kind of jobs did you do when you were first starting out? And did you find it hard to find work and make contacts? or are you just mega amazing at socialising? Any advice for an illustrator newbie would be much appreciated

If you fancy checking out any of my work my site is bigweenillustratio.wix.com/bigween 

Thanks for any time you spent reading this and have an awesome day!

at this point i think the things i will learn in preparation for my ghost scout application will be:

Fire building

Wood chopping 

Axe work

Animals in Vermont

Plants in Vermont - whats poisonous

I'm just going to do as much as i possible can to solidify my chances of being a ghost scout.

Koyama reply!

KOYAMA REPLIED
I AM EXCITE

Hello Rowena,

Thank you so much for the wonderful Kickass Annie. Unfortunately, we don't have enough time to do portfolio reviews or critiques. However, I recommend checking out the various interviews with Annie to get an idea of the small press comics community and industry: http://koyamapress.com/about-2/

Thanks again for the Annie and for sharing your work!

Have a most excellent day!

Ed

acceptably they didn't really answer anything for me, but he DID compliment my Annie. 

So I didn't really get to learn that much from this contact but it has given me a big confidence boost. And its my favourite publishing company so i'm sure to be contacting them on a regular basis from now until forever.

But i was directed to their catalogue of interviews with the staff. There are only 3 staff members as well so i think i can get a pretty good idea of them. I hope to see how they started up Koyama and how it has flourished over the years

Teeshirt Contacting

I finally messaged Sam back about the t shirt designs. I have sent along two design and told him that i have a third in the works. (which i do) I went on puns for this little project so my three top pick puns were 'Deer Lord', 'Look at all the fox i give' and 'Pizzanati' (like illuminati).

I went through a lot of colour pallets to reach this one because i feel my colouring always holds me back so i let myself colour it the way i wanted and then i just went mad changing all the colours. I reduced the amount of colours because that makes it easier on the eyes, which i think is important with this much line work.

I used a blurry brush and it looks ok. This never happens, i like this one a lot because its a bit of a naughty pun and to extend the cheekiness of it i made it lick its bits. 

I think these t shirt designs will be popular as they are humorous and i have used limited colour pallets to demand the best final aesthetic from my work.

DeForge

So i wrote to Michael Deforge, it was really easy to get his contact information which makes me think that there is probably a team that reads these emails and not Michael himself. But i tried to make my email as fun as possible because my aim with this initial contact is to try and get my address out of the junk box and into his contacts. I included a silly mini comic on the email itself because i wanted to make it clear that i don't really want anything much from him. I'm hoping this will make me some one he would want to make contact with. 

The mini comic style i got from some one i follow on instagram. They make short four panelled comics, usually very lo-fi work with the joke or pun driving the whole piece. I think this fitted with what i was trying t express which was just undying love and amazement. So humour was a good route otherwise i probably would have sounded very stalker and creepy. 

I asked him about his first jobs when beginning illustration because i think it would be both interesting and reassuring to see what the first paid work he managed to get was. And hopefully he'll share a little information about the experience.

I idd this frog for him. I thought a rhyme would be relevant because poetry has become a large part of my practice in the last year. Because Michael Deforge has glorious line work in his drawings and just the perfect amount of texture, i really wanted to push my line work. So i decided to d my first image without a single black line. I coloured all the lines on their own layer which was really awkward to do but i like the finished effect. I wish i'd left most of the texture off though so i could just draw it on digitally afterwards, i think this would both save time and make the coloured line work much smoother.

I did one of my favourite things in illustrating, which is to have a big cut out section so i can draw lots of gross things inside. This trope that i continue throughout my practice originated form my first reading of Deforege's Very casual where it shows the inside of the deer and how its reproductive system works. So it seemed right to display this in an email to the inspiration for it.

Nobrow email

I contacted! 

hopefully they will reply. I was again just looking for some advice. But i was more specific than i was with Koyama press. Also i'm not sure if this email actually exists so i'm hoping that i have got the no brow email format correct. Fingers crossed i don't get a mailer demon back.