Andrew Pavitt

Also at the British Library we got a chance to speak to illustrator and tutor Andrew Pavitt who was a very nice bloke and gave us some very useful and relevant advice both on our work and how it was presented, it was great to get another opinion on our work and again a great confidence boost to receive positive comments. Also to hear another persons comment on the industry and what is necessary to succeed was extremely useful and appreciated.

you can see Andrew's great work here

http://www.andrewpavitt.com/e1.html

Gillian Blease

While in London we met up with Gillian Blease who is a prolific illustrator and a very nice lady to boot. We met as a group in the British Library and she talked to us in groups of threes, and went through our portfolio’s one at a time. She gave us some really great advice both on the work and the presentation of our portfolios and it was a great confidence boost also to have such a well-known illustrator say really kind things about your work. Also it was great to hear about her work and to have her talk us through it and explain the ins and outs of the different commissions, and the problems faced and how they were overcome, it was a great insight into the industry.

You can see Gillian's brilliant work here

http://gillianblease.co.uk/illustrations.php

Edward Bawden

Also during my research I have looked at Edward Bawden. He has done some fantastic prints and some are used on the London Underground stations as tile motifs. This is something I would love to explore the possibilities of, with regards to my own work being displayed on walls (whether legally or illegally remains to be seen).

His prints are really great and his use of negative and positive space really brings them to life and makes them great to spend a while looking at.

Eric Ravilious

As part of my research I looked up the brilliant Eric Ravilious. Obviously his work here are engravings so not exactly what I am doing but brilliant none the less. His black and white work is the stunning and very balanced, and his use of composition and the marks he uses to create texture are fantastic. I think one of the things I need to explore is using different marks in my lino cuts to express texture.

Ben Jones Interview

Recently I posted about illustrator Ben Jones, and even more recently I emailed him with some questions to which he very kindly replied with some great comments and advice. A huge thank you to Ben for taking the time to share his thoughts!

Here are his comments:

What are the main influences to your work at the moment, both personal and commissioned?

My main influences are Mythology and fairy tales it is the main drive in my personal work. When it comes to commissions its very hard to convey your interests and influences as art directors normally have something in mind before hand. I also love Polish illustration which I am sure you have seen many many times! Oh and also print is a very important influence of mine.

How important do you find “networking” with other people in the industry to be?

In a word, very! Its important when getting commissions to build a relationship with art directors and to do a good, professional job. I still talk to a few people that have commissioned me in the past.

How much do you concentrate on self promotion and have you ever gained a commission from an unexpected or untraditional source?

I have been shit with self promotion over the last year or so. It is the most important thing to do baaaaaaaaa!!!! have no more than 100 places you would like to work for and send emails 3 times a year telling them what your up to and a link to a simple website with no more than 30 images. Also it is a good idea to send out cards a few times a year just don't pester people is the main thing. check out this. I did get a unexpected commission from TFL when showing work at an AOI show I would just say get involved with cool things. But don't do commissions for free from big publications its killing the industry.

Do you think there has been a shift back to hand made imagery and print techniques due to the abundance of digital imagery being produced?

Hand made has always been around even when digital was the be all and end all check out Jeff fisher and Paul Davis. I think there has been a change in astetics there are great illustrators using photoshop to create work that looks like its been done by hand like Stuart Kolakovic. for me it is because I get board on photoshop and like to make allot of mess.

How do you find working to strict deadlines using more time-consuming methods such as printmaking?

I never really spend more than a day or 2 on a peace of work so its fine for me. Once you finnish Uni you start to make work quicker and quicker. When I was a Stockport the idea of having a day to do an illustration was shit scary.

Again a massive thank you to Ben for spending his time answering the questions and supplying some great advice, it is VERY much appreciated!

Check out his work here:

http://illustrationbenjones.blogspot.com/

Jake Blanchard Interview

I recently came across an Illustrator named Jake Blanchard when I saw a video regarding his latest exhibition "Hylozoism". I thought Jake's work was grand and was particularly interested as he talks about using lino cut in the video, and also some thoughts on freelancing in general. So, I sent him an email and he very graciously replied! Here are his answers to my qusetions:

What are the main influences to your work, both personal and commisioned?

I guess the most obvious influences on my work are nature, tribal society, mythology etc etc, I grew up in the Peak District so that had a big impact. But I'm also hugely interested in music, particularly experimental stuff, drone, free jazz etc, and Biology and theoretical physics are often on my mind even if that doesn't necessarily show all too often in my work.

How important do you find “networking” with other people in the industry to be?

I think I'm pretty active in terms of keeping in touch with other illustrators, collaborating and commissioning. For me it's a really important part of my life, and I get a real kick out of promoting the work of other illustrators that I love. Thats why I run Tor Press, as a way of working with other illustrators and musicians that I love.

How much do you concentrate on self promotion and have you ever gained a commission from an unexpected or untraditional source?

I used to do a huge amount of self promotion, more than anyone else I know, I have posted out in the region of 2000 hand printed postcards in the past 3 years (although a lot of those were in packs of 3-5). I've been a little less active with mailouts recently although I do plan on doing more soon. It's a great way to get the attention on potential new clients and I have always really enjoyed a bit of post.

I first became aware of you when I saw the video for your current exhibition “Hylozoism”, where you talked about printmaking and lino cut in particular. In a time when so much illustration is produced with the click of a mouse, do you think that hand-made imagery has seen a resurgence in popularity?

Hand made imagery will always be around, even a lot of computer based works begins or directly comes from hand drawn works. All of my work for example. (although most of it goes through a computer at some stage) is hand drawn. I don't think it's a good thing to draw a comparison between the two. The computer is just another tool, I love working in different mediums, screen print, lino, painting, drawing, digital and wood carving, there's always more to learn and new things to try, it keeps it fresh.

I can't thank Jake enough for this brilliant reply, it is very much appreciated!

Check out his amazing work here

http://www.jakeblanchard.co.uk/

Major Project - update

While making the images for the first two Chinese fairy tales I am illustrating (The Bird With Nine Heads & The Cave Of Beasts) I became quite disillusioned and unhappy with the way I was working. I was making elements using different techniques and then arranging them on photoshop, the lino cut bird and sword from my recent post are an example of the lino cut elements, and then as you can see from the images in this post, they became part of a larger image using other elements such as illustrator shapes and linework.

For some reason, I would always be happy with the individual elements, but then when I arranged them in photoshop, I would never be happy with the image as a whole. I struggled to find out why, I thought it was because there was several different techniques included, but then upon reflection, I think the techniques sit fairly well together. There was several other things going round in my head as to why I wasn't happy with the images and I just couldn't put my finger on it. It was especially strange as I had really been proud of my paradise lost images that combined different techniques. Then it struck me that the Paradise Lost images were very simple in their creation, I would make a collograph, and then do some separate linework, and place it over the top in photoshop. However with the Chinese fairy tale images, I was using several different methods and I think it was just too much, I think they were competing for my attention and even though some elements sat nicely together, they were just not working as a whole.

So while I was watching a video on Lino cut illustrator Jake Blanchard, I decided to take on the challenge of doing all my images in Lino cut. This way, the most I would be doing digitally would be to drop some line work in (as with the PL images), and so hopefully I would regain what was making those images work both as illustrations, and work for me as a practitioner.

So as I said, included here are my first couple of illustrations and maybe you can see for yourself what I'm talking about, or maybe it wont make any sense!

Watch this space for upcoming posts regarding my recent visit to London with college and for new roughs for my Lino cut images!