Good & Bad Student - BAIL104

I created two posters that illustrated a 'prefect' student, and a 'bad' student. I chose to represent the student as a panda, as it's my favourite animal, so I felt like it would be a relevant link to myself.

The good student is named Earl as it makes a 'nod' to a highly respected title. He is also surrounded by attributes that make him a role model to others, and also by some bees to show that he is very busy and always on the go.

The bad student named Nigel is asleep & surrounded by qualities that make him less successful. He also has some drawings of footballers, which is a link to the ones students in our class have to draw as a punishment for being late. There is also a snail, which symbolises his laziness and slow-paced motivation.

The Life Snake - BAIL104

The next part of our task was to create a 'life snake', which was a timeline of our life with indications to certain life events & skills that we acquired along the way:

Soft & Hard Skills - BAIL104

Soft Skills:

• Write well
• Construct an argument 
• Good communication
• Able to work a till
• Able to understand and discuss complex topics e.g philosophy
• Patience
• Determination 
• Counting
• Persistence
• Good geographical knowledge
• Can use tools such as a pencil, scalpel, computer
• Timekeeping
• Quick thinking 
• Can send an email
• Able to follow instructions
• Dependable
• Trustworthy
• Reliable
• Willingness to help others
• Talk confidently on the phone

Hard Skills:

• Able to work a laser cutter
• Can work Illustrator and Photoshop
• Good observation skills
• Work experience in the creative industry
• An eye for design and composition
• Able to mix and use colours effectively
• Passion for different fonts
• Experienced with computers & the web
• Organisation
• Good presentation skills
• Perfectionism
• Book binding 
• Experience with different printing methods
• Able to work independently and in a team
• Thinking outside the box
• Able to work quickly & to a deadline
• To be adaptable 
• To produce work to a high standard
• To write, explain, and give relevant context about my work
• Ambitions and motivated

Illustrator Top Trumps - BAIL104

Illustration Portfolios - BAIL104

Holly Exley
Her website on first impressions, is very clean, clear and organised. It is made using 'Cargo', which specialises in online portfolios, which has allowed Exley to create a professional site to display and organise her work:

When you click on one of the categories it allows you to view her illustrations up close, and then click through to see her other work in the same album: 

It also has links to her other social media accounts, which help to distribute interest onto all platforms, including her Etsy shop and YouTube channel. 

Guillaume Kurkdjian

This website is full of beautiful moving images that are all presented in a grid, and all play in a loop:

All of the tabs are coloured to match his colour palette, so his website stays consistent throughout. All of his images are big enough to see the detail, but not too big as you can still view 2 side-by-side.

The website appears to have been created from scratch, rather than on a website building platform.

Chervelle Fryer

Fryer's website instantly makes a direct connection to the style of her work. The coloured, patterned background and illustrated banner all link together to give the website a really professional appearance:

Images can be viewed up close, and are also supplied with a small piece of writing, which gives them context. However the website itself doesn't function as well as it could, but it does serve its basic purpose. 

Lorna Scobie

Scobie's website is instantly colourful, clean and easy to navigate. The home page is full of her work, which makes it attractive and easy to get a feel of the artist's style and process:

The website allows you to click on the squares to bring the images up closer, and to read a bit about them. You can also find links to her other social media accounts in the top navigation bar. This website was also made on Cargo Collective. 

Steven Lenton

His website takes a more interactive approach, as it asks you to click on each of the characters to read more about that project:

Although instantly fun and captivating, it does become a little tricky to easily find the information you're looking for. The website was created using Cargo.

Somang Lee

Her website is beautiful in the way that it instantly draws your eye & shows you an instant idea on the work that Lee does. The clean white background add emphasis to the coloured illustrations, and the website functions perfectly, allowing you to view her projects in more detail:

Gemma Corell

I love how Corell's website perfectly reflects her style of work, as when your mouse hovers over the images on the home page, they turn red:

The style of the website is consistent throughout, easy to navigate, and it has a very professional feel to it. The website was designed by 'pensandpencilsandpens'.

Sandra Dieckmann

This website has a beautiful layout, with moving displays of work, and clear information of the artist:

Illustrations can be read about with context and information on the brief, which gives it a very personal touch. 

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My Favourite Illustration Portfolio

Choosing a favourite out of the 8 illustration portfolios that I researched is very hard, as I like each one for different reasons. Perhaps if I had to choose an absolute favourite, I think that it would have to be Somang Lee's website, because it is so beautiful, simple, clean & functional. Instantly you are greeted by a bright and colourful full page illustration, which immediately gives you a feel of the artist. The backgrounds and tabs are minimalistic, yet function perfectly when navigating through the site. The fading transitions and smooth scrolling gives you a very satisfying user experience, which as a whole leaves you with a very good impression Lee's work ethic, personality and perfectionism.  The website appears to have been made professionally, rather than on a website building platform, which is why I think her portfolio stands out from the rest.

However, there are so many other things about the other illustrator portfolios that I looked at that are equally as successful. For example there are 3 other websites that come in very close second place: *in no particular order*

- Lorna Scobie - The thing I love about her website is how her work is presented, and how the bright colours that she uses in her work are carried throughout the site. Also she gives you more in depth information about each piece when it is clicked on, which is very informative and useful. The images are all excellent quality and well presented, so the details of her work can be appreciated. All of her social media outlets are also linked on the site, which allows for her to spread the following of people across all platforms. This website was made using Cargo Collective.

- Gemma Corell - The thing that stood out to me was her 'mouse responsive' front page, which was really effective & also echoed the theme of her work. I do think her site is also successful in the way that it is jam packed with loads of information about her, and her practice. Although her site was made professionally, I think the way that her work itself is presented is less successful than the ones made on Cargo. I feel like the images could have been presented bigger, and perhaps with some more context. 

- Sandra Dieckmann - Her site has a really personal feel to it, as you are instantly greeted with a picture of the artist, adorned with text about her, and her work. Dieckmann's illustrations are on a slide bar on the top, which automatically plays on loop, allowing for viewers to preview some of her work while browsing her site. Although I think some of the pages are a bit unfinished, I would argue that it is maybe more successful than Gemma Corell's, as her illustrations can be viewed up close, and are written about in full. I also love her different tabs which categorise the nature of her work, which also link to her other social media accounts. This site looks like it was also made professionally. 

Illustration Role Model - BAIL104

My illustration role model is Holly Exley, as she is the perfect example of being able to earn a living from her work without having an agent. She also highlights the importance and effectiveness of social media, and how it is the key to becoming a successful and well known illustrator.

Exley has only been doing illustration for 6-7 years after graduating from university, but in this short amount of time she has already gained a very impressive client list that includes: The Wall Street Journal, Universal Music, Marks and Spencers, Tesco Magazine, Westfields, and many more well known businesses. She has achieved all of this without the help of an agency, as she feels like such a partnership caused a hindrance for communication between her and the client. Exley discussed this topic on her blog, as she was represented by the AOI for 2 months, but noticed that she lost the power and one-to-one communication between her and the company commissioning her work, and so decided to leave. Instead she has found it more effective to self-promote her work on social media, which has proved to be very successful. Therefore she is he perfect role model for upcoming inspiring illustrators, as she demonstrates how effective and essential social media is when wanting to do illustration full time.

Exley works from home, and in between completing work for clients, she sells a few items on her Etsy store & uploads regular videos on her YouTube channel. It was her videos that she posted online which led me to discovering her work, and from there I followed her on Instagram, and then researched into her further. This shows how effective having many social media accounts can be, as one leads to the other, and they all add up to more publicity & sales at the end.

Her work inspires me as I feel like Exley has been able to make herself stand out from the crowd. It is very easy to start doing work just like other artists and illustrators, and in her situation, there are loads of people creating watercolour illustrations. However, Exley's style adds a modern twist, and contemporary feel to the traditional watercolour paintings that you normally see. In order to be successful, you need to stand out, be different & to bring something new and exciting to the illustration world - this will ultimately attract the attention of potential clients. Not only this, but it is perhaps as important to promote yourself, and the best way to do this (as demonstrated by Exley), is to be active on a variety of social media sites. This will help gain a following of all types of people, and the links between the sites will ultimately bring you more interest and sales on your online shop, and more commissions from big named companies.

Illustrator Comparisons - Carle vs Klassen - BAIL104

When comparing the work of Jon Klassen to Eric Carle, it is clear to see that they are in fact both quite similar. Both of their illustrative styles try to include high levels of texture and mark making into their images, but they do this by using different techniques. Carle has been working in children's book illustration for much longer, and so uses processes that are very 'hands on' and somewhat traditional in comparison to Klassen's digital work. They both use materials such as paint and pencils, and also both have a lovely 'transparency' to their work. Carle uses pieces of painted tissue paper, which he cuts and assembles by hand. Whereas Klassen works by hand, but then scans the textures onto his computer so that he can re-work, tidy, and compose them together. This digital element to Klassen's work just comes naturally with doing illustration in the modern world. The ease of the assistance of programmes such as Photoshop, enable Klassen to have much more flexibility when playing around with different colours, compositions, and materials. It could be argued therefore that Klassen's work is a more modern take on the traditional illustrations of Carle's.

The most obvious difference between the two illustrators work is the use of colour. Carle uses a very bright & bold colour palette, which works perfectly with his fun and cheerful stories. Klassen on the other hand uses more muted tones, which are more earthy and natural. This more 'true to life' representation of the world could be likened to his raw sense of humour when it comes to certain characters being killed or eaten at the end of his stories. So although the themes of their stories are quite different (one is very cheerful and fun, and the other has a more 'sinister', humorous tone), Carle and Klassen do share many similarities when it comes to the use of texture & plain negative space in their illustrations.

Eric Carle

Jon Klassen