- Create a list of key words related to Illustration and Visual Media that are personally important to you.
Experience, narrative, emotion, expression, development,
- Can you identify clearly any recurrent themes or interests in your work to date?
Mental Health Issues, Mythology, Nature
- What are your strengths and weaknesses within your practice?
Portraits, Watercolours and Ink Paintings,
Print-making specifically letterpress, however also Screen-printing and Etching
(Hard-ground and Photopolymer).
In the more research side, I think I am strong in the development of ideas and
working out whether an idea can work, and then pushing it into a successful
idea. I feel like I am good at expressing emotion and making the
viewer/audience think, and I am not scared to put my own emotions and
experiences in my work.
I frequently struggle to come up with the initial idea after receiving the brief, I then can beat myself up and then get stuck on the fact I can’t come up with anything instead of then pushing forward to come up with an idea which could be successful. Sometimes I just have to either continue researching or sometimes even take a break and just wait until that spark of inspiration just hits me.
- What books, magazines, texts, artists/designers, resources etc. have you regularly referred to during your time studying at LCC?
Even though I am not a typographic artist, I keep referring to Jenny Holzer’s work, it’s something how strong her messages come across and really make the viewer think. Also as I have become more fascinated with letterpress and therefore typography and it has made me think about how to include my typography in my work in an effective way.
Candice Tripp is another Artist of late I have been referring to recently, her style, and how she screen-prints I find intriguing, because I have been trying to find a style of screen printing which worked for me, because of yet I have struggled to find a way to turn my images into screen prints.
- Which areas of art and design practice do you have ambitions of working within and why?
This isn’t something I have thought about. When applying for this course, I was not really applying for the idea of getting a career out of it, but it was doing something for myself. I always had the dream of studying art and/or design, and after a dark period of my life I decided giving applying a shot, as in the past I thought I would never be able to get into a university because I have no qualifications and never studying art in the past.
I picked illustration over fine art, because if I did decide to make art my career at some point, I knew it was more commercial and I would be more likely to make a career out of it.
Because food has been and still is a huge part of my life, I have considered going into recipe book design, however looking into the field there doesn’t seem many opportunities there, and still not sure it would fulfil me.
Printmaking has been such a big part of my time at LCC and I know I want my final major project to involve it. And it is something which interests me to study further. However, a career in printmaking does make me nervous, because it seems less commercial and is on the more fine art side. However, I can’t necessarily see myself in the future making work for clients, as I create images for myself and spreading an individual message.
Last year, as a self-initiated and independent project, I created a limited-edition hand printed book. I made 50 copies, 10 hardback and 10 softcovers, each of 80 pages, printed using letterpress, screen-printing and lino printing. Then each copy was hand bound and finished with a hand printed cover which was done using letterpress, which included using a metal plate I had made of one of my illustrations. The book told my story of Sexual Assault and the PTSD I suffered afterwards with all the money going to the charity Solace Women’s Aid, the charity who supported me from my journey after I went to police to only very recently. The book itself has only so far raised over £300, but I have raised in total over £3000.
This is a demonstration of work I want to do more of in the future. Work that means something, but also the huge amount of effort, and time to make something truly special.
Therefore I have thought about going into publishing, I have a passion for books and am intrigued by the design and creation of them.
I still am looking for where I situate in the Art and Design world.
- During your time studying Illustration and Visual Media, what has most pleasantly surprised you about the subject?
Print-making thoroughly surprised me in a great way, it brought a new fresh burst of light onto my work and the way I make and produce it. It made me consider new ways of working which made me think about how to create an image and not just what the image looks like.
- If you had to make a choice which stage of your practice you prefer a) Research or b) Production?
Please briefly explain why.
My favourite part is working out how I am going to take my research and produce it. I love being able to transform an idea, a story, a narrative in my head into an image. Producing that idea is what I love, I need to do the research to be able to achieve the result I want and the work I put in before hand and transforming that, even before I start production is what gives me the buzz to paint and create.