Awesome Steinberg.

Today there were two sessions by Anna Steinberg at my university; an illustrator, teacher and member of the editorial board of the AOI's varoom magazine. She gave a fantastic lecture this morning with some seriously useful information about the commissioning process, with lots of advice through real-life examples of her projects.

Particularly useful words:
- Ask someone who wants to commission you which work of yours they like and where they saw it. Shows you exactly what they have in mind and which of your means of promotion is working.
- Pricing is based on the image's intended usage, not the image itself. Copyright remains with you, you are just letting people use an image for a certain amount of time and in certain ways.
- Keep doing  interesting self-led work. If you only promote your conservative client work, you will get more conservative commissions.
- Be somewhere you find stimulating.
- Be ready for luck.

This was followed by a freelance workshop, where we completed a commission in a group in just over an hour. It was for an illustration to accompany an article about owners making their pets fat, and it was very enjoyable to discuss this through visual ideas with fellow illustrators, as well as highlighting problems with the client's contract and setting our fees.

Our final outcome was a drawn up version of these roughs, with a vet trying to communicate to the oblivious unhealthy owner that there is a problem.

Such a proactive and illuminating day.

Wish You Were Here.

Just before the dark Christmas nights really set in, there is an exhibition on Bournemouth seafront entitled 'Wish You Were Here'. Original postcards made under this title will be put up at Branksome Dene in a large beach hut, and my offering is about the moon. Below is the first & second attempts at drawing the moon onto tracing paper, and subsequent placing of the image on different surfaces such as a mousemat, envelope and job contract.

The thinking behind the image was my first boyfriend, and how when he split up with me when I was 17 I wanted to wish far him away somewhere. He was joining the RAF anyway, but that felt like a romanticism of him 'going to war' almost, when the truth was that he didn't want me anymore, near or far. The distance between us was so to be both spatial and emotional. I didn't want a chance to bump into him as I felt that would be really difficult, so in my head I wished he would be transported to the moon;
238,857 miles away, where all ex-boyfriends should be kept.

The exhibition is on the 16th December; the last day of term & the perfect opportunity for more mulled wine & mince pies than should be able to be fit into the human body.

Here is the final map layout, followed by the cover I made to house the printed folded copy and round off this latest project. The front is the oh-so-ordinary 'Welcome To Halesowen' sign, paired with a little added sign that tells people about the exciting features of the town- haha. The back is an escalator with nobody on it. Poigniant, but most people really do leave the town through the fairly depressing shopping centre in their cars.

And well, now that that's all handed in for scrutiny I can get back to the place itself for merry midlands Christmas times. Bostin.

Townie.

After a wonderfully fulfilling hand-in day this week, I have time to blog a little more about my 10 week project about the goings-on and life within my hometown of Halesowen in the West Midlands. Originally exploring the process of map-making, this idea stemmed as I took an interest in a psychogeographic approach and the notion of mapping a personal journey; a time as well as a place.

By acting as a map-maker I was able to select which information to draw; what stood out to me either for good or bad reasons on a route that I chose. Brand supermarkets were not chosen instinctively as to me they do not contribute to my town's character, when infact they are quite prevalent in its layout and function.

People are included alongside buildings as equally notable features, and both are transient. Even though the places are more permanent than the fleeting moments I have drawn of people's lives, in a sense they are never quite the same at any given time (different cars outside, open/closed), as well as shops becoming all the more redeveloped as time goes on.
Some images were done as reportage directly on site, but I also took a lot of photos to create 'snapshot' images of the day and the majority are drawn from those.

I feel a large connection to the drawings generated within this project as I feel they have a looseness that is sometimes lacking in my search to create a successful drawing. 

Another Escape.

Have to give this gem its own post:
Here is issue # 1 of Another Escape, a new zine by Rachel Taylor in which my compass piece of the previous post is included.

I think she has done an absolutely gorgeous job with this first issue; such a graceful and considered publication with lots of vibrancy. Lovely pieces in particular can be seen by Vicky Yates, Josh Whettingsteel & Jessica Durden, and I must say I am rather chuffed that she used a quote from me to round things off. I physically blushed.

Really happy to be part of such a high quality project, and to have such talented idiosyncratic peers.
Frankly, I can't wait for issue 2.

Modern-Day Adventure Kit Part I: Compass

I made this compass for a zine the lovely miss Rachel Taylor is putting together, on the subject of adventure, escapism and journeys. I would love to say that I whittled it out of redwood bark as I rafted down the Congo being chased by savages with gold teeth, but it was infact fashioned out of felt, stitch, pencil & paper. In my house.
I am happy with the result, and can't wait to see all the contributions bound together.

All Hail 'Sowen.

Here are some drawings from my university project this term. It is an authorial project about my hometown of Halesowen. Through mapping the little quirks that make it just so, the people there, & places that mean something to me (like the busstop where I used to meet and part with an old boyfriend, where I peed on New Years Eve, where my parents go for lunch every wednesday) I hope to explore the feeling of association and safety that can be found in the most mundane or seemingly tiresome objects and places.

< one week left on the project, so better get back to it.
The finished piece is to be a folded map-construct with these such drawings interconnecting and making paths to each other. Hope it swims.

A Very Stationary Christmas.

I knocked up this little Christmas image today as an idea for a card. It came about as the various real-life glues on my desk have all donned a hat.
The hats are from The Big Knit campaign. in which little hats are knitted for Innocent Smoothies in order to generate money for the charity Age UK, & having now accumulated 3 of these snugly-topped smoothies I have found they fit perfectly on top of my pritt sticks & PVA bottles. I extended this image's sweetness by imagining all inanimate stationary objects needing to keep warm, and how they might go about it.

It should be noted that in the bottom left hand corner of the original drawing I attempted to include a rubber in full jumper. Ironically, I thought it best be rubbed out, as he looked very upset lying there, with sleeves but no arms... Remember, rubbers are for life, not just for Christmas.

You Gotta Go There To Come Back.

Currently I have maps on the mind, as that is the direction in which my present uni unit is finding itself. I became really interested in a collaborative project by Oh Momma a while ago called What's Your Type? in which creatives were asked to recreate their favourite letter(s) however they wanted.
Here are my A & Z, the alpha & omega. Z is my favourite letter of the alphabet as it turns up last, but I like A as a new beginning; if you looped the alphabet they would be together, yet they seem so far apart.
To make my letters I recreated OS maps of John o' Groats and Land's End; the A & Z of the UK.

You can see all of the beautifully diverse entries here.

In-Flight Magazine.

My university magazine Slapdash emailed asking for art to include in the next issue. I sent these over; past works that have never been sent anywhere before. The top two reassure me that I can use coloured backgrounds, despite a lot of my drawings just existing on the paper they were made on (usually white). I am taking this post as a personal reminder to colour in my work as I try to colour in my life.
Liberally.