From the start of my final year at illustration I came in with a head full of ideas but at the same time confusion as i didn't feel like my illustrations could develop much further from the original line drawing. This meant at the start i needed to find my ground with developing my drawings, one element that i believe helped me take this step was my banner for the GROSS exhibition. This helped me work harder on the detail and texture of my characters as i knew it was going to be on a large scale. With this piece came development of colouring my pieces digitally while keeping an analogue texture to them through dry brush for tone and to add keep an analogue naive feel to the drawings.
This banner helped my confidence in my drawing grow and with this i attempted to take part in some live briefs. I found the image making for certain live briefs difficult, as within my practice the initial idea is very important to me however, i find it much more difficult to come up with an idea for a brief that's been set than a self initiated one. In terms of live briefs I didn't push myself with unfamiliar things instead i chose ones such as character design and t shirt designs both things i feel more comfortable with. This allowed me to develop a portfolio of specialised work and i'd leave the experimentation and risk for my self initiated briefs as i'd have a clearer idea of whether the experimentation is necessary.
My developed drawing style also really helped with the development of my print making , before this year i never made money from my illustrations as in the past i felt my prints where either to specific to a project or visually not strong enough. This really made me focus on looking at my work commercially and looking at jokes within my work that more people can get on board with. Since doing this with my prints i have made so much more money and felt more confident to sell my work to people.
One element of this year I feel really opened my creative mind and eyes was collaboration. I tried to collaborate as much as i could as i really wanted to see my illustrations have more context then just creating for my own amusement. Working on projects such as the Hostel world animation helped me see how an animator can bring your style to life while putting their own animation style within it. Whether it's just collaborating with ideas or on a whole project having someone to constantly be able to bounce ideas off really helps the creative process and is something that i am looking forward to doing in the real world.
One of my biggest struggles of this year was thinking of an effective self initiated project that would let me experiment and be as playful as i could possibly be. My tutor suggested football which triggered a lot of ideas. I have always been influenced by UK culture and humour in my work, Therefore this work fitted perfectly in my interests and ideas. This project really helped develop my character design again and my digital colouring also saw development through the use of paper texture to colour this helps compliment my scrappy analogue style line drawings. This project also helped me understand that i am better working on a project from scratch. Initially when i was working on it I was focusing on my home team Boro. However this end up feeling to personal and serious so i decided to start from scratch and make up everything allowing me to be as playful as possible.
Throughout this year I have been desperate to create 3D elements within my work I am disappointed i didn't explore this as further as i may of wanted however, making the football table for this project has been my funnest project on the course so far. It's sparked my interest in customising toys for art which is something i plan to develop further for the show and potentially my future practice.
Overall, I see this year as a very important step in my creativity I feel much more confident then ever on my image making and although ideas is my strongest element i must continue to see ways of developing an idea and being open to the idea of collaboration within the idea to help boost the design and project. My love of drawing may have dipped up and down throughout the year but my love for creating things and ideas will remain and hopefully help me through my creative career.
Side note:
One thing I believe has helped drive and develop my work but worried me from the start is that i am starting to realise more then ever the lack of originality in some illustrators and the heavy influences that trends can have. Since realising this I have aimed to keep most my inspiration in elements outside of illustration such as fine artists like Rod Grooms who constantly plays around with different image making elements to create 2D and 3D narratives. I also look heavily to humour for inspiration especially when it's done creatively. I could list many examples of these things but one this year that really helped me out was a Japanese film called big man Japan where the humour is at a perfect level of silliness, which is something that i am always working to balance. With this inspiration has made me want to constantly develop my practice more than ever and to remain totally open in where it may head in the future.
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