Wb1

WB1 Reflective Journal

Experience:  What I did, skills I used/developed (inc. transferable skills)

In these past few months, I have especially made an effort to experiment with colour and I feel this is going really well and am now quite happy with using colour  in my work. I keep all of my notes on my laptop and am just starting to transfer then over to an a5 sketchbook so I can easily see what colours work well together and what colours mean. I managed to incorporate this really well into my ghost project for college where I researched the colour meanings and specifically chose colours to give mu work specific feelings. I have also been trying to increase my drawing skill, and mastery over media and have been posting this onto my blog, this blog is also helping me identify area’s that I need to improve on such as drawing hands.

What I did well, goals I achieved

One of my goals was to become better acquainted with programs Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and, even though I did not get that much practice in I now have a graphic tab (xmas present) and both programs on my computer. I did try to use photoshop for my ghost project but mastering this will take longer than I expected, and I shall probably use it more to do cartoons first that anything else. I also managed to understand the male form more and an quite please with my third illustration for the ghost project where I drew the statue of the prince.

What I would like to improve, changes to SWOT analysis or personal goals

I most definitely wish to improve what basic skills I have with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (and perhaps a bit of InDesign as well although it’s very weird).  And to improve my oil paintings.

Why

A lot of things done now are shown through the internet and I would miss out on a market if I didn’t learn how use these two programs, besides that I am drawn to digital artwork because I can’t do it. I would love to be able to create amazing images on photoshop and illustrator although at the moment I sem to be limited to cartoons or impressionist/ expressionist artwork.

How can I do this?

I have always believed that you learn by doing, so I just have to play around with the programs―both in terms of work and in my free time. However learning like this will only get me so far so I will have to look at some online tutorials and luckily my photoshop tutor has put some tutorials online.

Additional reflections for developing myself professionally in the future

Despite that I would love to do conceptual illustrations I doubt my skill in this area and wonder if I should just stick to children’s illustrations/books. There are also the long term issues with jobs and money with the first and I’m now fairly active in a writers group. I will continue to push myself and develop my skills as for my long term plan – I think it should be to explore and experiment as much as possible in college and to have lots of fun doing so.

Wb2

WB2 FORM

Part A

Research

Complete the following to evidence progression
Part C 

Task	By when	Completed?
Collect career and occupational profiles to develop knowledge in chosen industry	January 17, 2011	Yes
Identify career opportunities in chosen industry	January 17, 2011	Yes
Identify suitable job vacancies	January 17, 2011	yes
Assemble personal contacts and job leads	January 17, 2011	job leads - yes
Produce a curriculum vitae	January 17, 2011	yes
Practice completing a job application and/or write a covering letter	January 17, 2011	yes
Complete Personal and Professional SWOT analysis and development plan	January 17, 2011	Yes

Part B 
SWOT analysis – where are you now?
Qualifications, Skills (Employability, Subject Specific and Transferable), Knowledge and Achievements

Description

I believe I am a highly adaptive and motivated person; when I am given a brief I immediately sort out what I need to do, research and identify artist’s work which could help. I love to research and find out new things whether it be facts about the artists, situation (dealing with the brief) or a new way to use the material, I even keep a (sketch)book to archive new ways of drawing. This allows me to be able to use a wide variety of materials, and therefore I have a greater range and knowledge of what to use for a project. I have an excellent work ethic, and if I even feel like I’m falling behind I will work for 24 hours to catch up. I strive to achieve perfection and push myself in whatever I do. Nothing comes out of wasted time but I do believe in taking regular brakes because I will and do tire myself out. And on more than one occasion my play (I like video games) will lead me to find something out and inform my work. I have good organizational skills and time management that can be both applied to everyday life and work, I am able to get a good balance between the two allowing me to do everything I want to do in the day/week. I keep both a long term plan and a day to day plan, which help me to see upcoming deadlines and plan things out more efficiently. I consider myself a patient person and am able to deal with tricky situations in a reliable and level headed manner. I would also consider myself a good listener even with criticism. This helps me when working in a group, as I can take in everyone’s input and it also helps me develop my work further and more effectively do it next time. I also have a positive and motivating attitude and am good at negotiating which I often find myself leading the team to achieve the goals we have been set and having the final say in the decisions. I don’t mind this or the extra responsibilities this entails, I get bored just following others, but am able to take the back seat when told or in a work place where I am not able to do this. I am also a ‘eco friendly’ person and I do like to use recycled materials/ found objects or hand made things in my work. I believe this gives me a slight edge over other artist/ students as I look at a lot of things differently. There are some employers now that are asking for this or specifically require this ie. Fashion label roots asks for everyone to be ‘down to earth’ or ‘eco friendly’ because that’s what there label is trying to promote. And I believe with people focusing on the ‘global climate change’ this will be a good thing for me to continue to develop into the future.

SWOT analysis – where do you want to be?

Using your research, complete your short and long-term goals (Be SMART)

Short term	-Understand animal anatomy to draw them better -Work on backgrounds and  overall feelings of the illustrations -To familurise myself with more artist and there work -To develope a better understanding of adobe illustrator and Photoshop -To be able to draw the male form as quickly and as acuratly as I can with the female.
Long term	-Be able to sketch people and backgrounds more masterfully and efficiently -Be able to tell an interesting story through my images -Become familiar with different publishing companies and what sort of work they produce -To have published a childrens book -To work for Disney as a freelance or in house artist doing onseptual artwork

Part D  

SWOT analysis

Do a SWOT analysis of your goals based on your research

Strengths -Adaptability -Time management -Organization skills -Negotiation/Delegation -Listening -Patience -Attitude/Enthusiasm -Numeracy -Ability to use different media	Weaknesses -Distracted by to much research -Dyslexic - occasional communication problems, verbal and written -Over work to the point of being fed up with it -Nervousness when talking about my work in a professional environment ie presentations -Occasional bouts of depression
Opportunities -Exhibitions at museums -Competitions -Live briefs -Simulations -Student newspapers -Commissions via art-sharing websites -Internships/Apprenticeships -Bidding for jobs via websites such as peopleperhour.com -Start a blogger to showcase your work -Study abroad -Careers fairs -Post-graduate classes -Starting own business (sole trader, partnership, etc.)	Threats -Economic climate -Repetitive strain injuries -Fellow graduate students -Family -Distance -Social life -Exploitation by employers -Depression

Part E  

SWOT analysis 

Work-based learning action plan (Be SMART)

Based on your completed SWOT analysis  

Write a personal statement about your goal

I love to inspire others to pick up a pen and draw, my all time goal would be to become like my ‘hero’ Glen Keane, who inspired me to draw when I was 4. His work in Disney’s Pocahontas has forever made me want to work making movies and more recently I have become really interested in doing the concept illustrations for the Disney movies. This means that I would be illustrating particular scenes that stand out to help the other artist progress and also means I would be doing the pulmonary drawings for the characters.  To be able to achieve this goal I need a mastery over human and animal anatomy, to be able to convey emotions and story line and a mastery over colour. It is my goal to achieve all of these and already have set ways to achieve this. One of my ways is that I have started up a blog  blog-monster-lexy.blogspot.com/ to help me identify what areas of illustration and materials I need to work on and this will also work as showcasing my work and its development. In all of my college work I have tried to bear my long term goals in mind and have set myself ‘mini’ goals such as appealing to specific age ranged or developing specific media. Therefor a am developing both my own work and my college work into the style that I like and would be perfect for achieving my goal.

Write a personal statement about your immediate goals and how you intend to achieve these  Include:  Action needed, deadline dates and how you will know you have achieved these

For the continuation of our book project we are expected to, in our own time, be working from a brief of our own design—and have it finished by the 25^th of May, 2012. I struggled to figure out what to do for such a big project but have decided to use it to developed one of my own characters and to explore different media and artists. For this I will need to use a different range of media – even the ones I dislike and actively seek out new artists to draw inspiration from. I want it to look like concept artwork, which will help with my long term goals. I am hoping this will also help develop more of an understanding on some of my short term goals such as understanding colour develop my understanding of different media and its uses and applications. If I do this then I should end up with an interesting and inspiring artist book on one of my characters.

Write a personal statement about your goals for the next 18 months and how you intend to achieve these  Include:  Action needed, deadline dates and how you will know you have achieved these

I have 3 goals that I would like to achieve, number one is to be able to use colour properly, to create emotion and settings for my illustrations – colour in my illustrations is a relatively new thing for me and I have already began to buy books on colour and looking at colour theories and wheels. I shall be keeping these theories ect. down in a small A5 sketchbook that I can carry with me. My blog www.blog-monster-lexy.blogspot.com is also helping me to develop this as well as my Me, myself and I project due on the 25^th of May. I know I will be on my way to achieving this if my Me, Myself and I book goes well but I am prepared to admit that I shall probably be learning about his for a lot longer.

My second goal is to is to be able to use adobe photoshop and illustrator, because I believe these two programs will be very useful in the industry and will inform my work quite a lot when I am able to use them. I will need to get a graphics tab and set aside some time to be able to find online tutorials and read/ watch them as I cannot completely teach myself them. I might even encorporate it into my work so I have to make it work. I think to achieve this properly I should at least do one photoshop and Illustrator image a month and post to my blog.  Then I will be able to see my improvement and it should be easy to tell when I have achieved this.

My last and final goal will be to be able to draw the human form perfectly – especially the male form which I have trouble with. I am going to tackle this by learning the anatomy, reference drawing both form and image and form life drawing. I will be putting this up on my blog to make sure that I do it and not forget about it and also so I can see my development. I will have to set some time aside for this or incorporate it into my college work.

Write a personal statement about your goals for the next 3 years and how you intend to achieve these  Include:  Action needed, deadline dates and how you will know you have achieved these


Given that three years is a long time I am not certain whether realistically I will have the money to move to where the Disney Company operates or whether I will be more interested in publishing my own illustrated books at that point. I would love to be employed by Disney and getting a year’s paid work experience in London straight after college before moving to California and working for them properly, but realistically there is money issues and family issues – I will be on my own and I’m already living in a flat so I know how expensive everything is and not to mention getting a visa. So I would be more accurate to speculate that I would be taking commissions and publishing my own children’s illustrated books. I will know when I have succeeded when I am being paid for my work.

First impressions

This was my firt imprassion of Zeb; Zeb is a quiet and polite student with a natural talent at drawing human figures and a wide range of knowlage on artistsand events that influence his work.

And he did one for me:

Lexy Tonge is a quiet yet confident young woman with a rapidly progressing talent for beautiful narrative imagery. She keeps to a strict schedule and very rarely deviates from what's been requested of her.

I'm not sure wether the last bit is a good thing or a bad thing???

I chose to do the illustration course so I could develop on my skills and learn new ones. To gain knowledge on the industry and what it expects of an artist and the type of work different publishing houses print. I also choose illustration because the artwork coming out of the illustration year 2 lasses always inspired me and made me happy. I believe art should be for fun. I want to as a concept artist for Disney or a gaming company (blizzard ect.) so I try to push myself in my work setting up my other blog (link on side of page) to find out my weaknesses and develop them and to build on my strengths.  I am also actively looking for artists that inspire me and keep a journal/archive of them so I can always refer back to them. The world of illustration is bigger than I imagined with lots more area’s than I thought but I’m exploring as many of them as possible and drawing form all areas of inspiration learning that I don’t just have to sick to one thing and that I can be as interdisciplinary as I want. By the end of my course I hope to have a wide range of knowledge on artists and the industry. Be able to use different types of media well and have the necessary skills to get me into the job I want. If I finished my course tomorrow I would promote myself on my blog, deviant art and I would source and go to craft fairs and galleries around Plymouth - to first get some networks before trying to go bigger.

Christmas cards

These are a few designs for christmas cards, they show the way I like to work the most.Although I like working in alot of ways I choose this way because its easier to repeate for xmas cards. I could have also used ilustrator and I would have had a nice slid colour and it would have looked more profesional, but I prefer the more hand crafted look.

Operttuneties

These are some opertunities in the Plymouth area...

College Christmas fair - 26th on november £10 for a stall, starts at 9am. Sell anything you want

Victorian Xmas event in saltash, 3rd december, £15 to pitch a stall, open all day, gifts and handmade crafts.

Loki's xmas party at white rabbit, 15th december 8pm - networking with grafitti artists and tattoists...

Lino Research

I found this blog http://illustratedlife.blogspot.com/2009/01/relief-printing.html of Jeanette Jobson. I really liked her way of printing onto coloured paper to get a two tone piece, seeing as I kind of struggle with layering colours this is a brillient way of cheating :)

I also found this one http://skulladay.blogspot.com/2010/03/lino-skulls.html that relates to my Ghost project, I particually like the use of lines and positive/negative space.

Print research - Dry point

My Artist research for this is Elizabeth Dagger, who talks about two pieces of work I like here http://electrofork.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/dry-point-printing/ . I like the high contrast in black and white, how she uses it well to draw your eye to a cirtain part of the image. As well as the simplicity of the print, I find I sometimes over complicate mine or the ink doesn't transfer over as I wish.

I also found Christine Willcock  http://www.capegallery.com.au/christinewillcocksexhibition/index.html  She does some good sillouets and I quite like the effect it has. It looks quite natural and fitting for her subject.