Overview/Summary

This project was a very daunting one from my perspective, the question of 'who am I as an artist' is one I struggle with. I chose to do art and design at University because when it come to choosing a career path I was stuck and a bit lost. Like most young lads I thought my dream of becoming a professional footballer would come true. I was always told do something you enjoy doing as a job and you'll never work a day in your life, meaning you'll never consider a job you love as work. Following this I decided if football wasn't an option drawing and sketching was another hobby I enjoyed and I could see myself pursuing. 

In my two years at college doing art and design I only drew and focused on improving my drawing technique and ability. This didn't help me understand art just allowed me to impress people on the imagery of my work not the context or meaning. I would create work to look like a celebrity/famous face because that was my understanding of art. It had to be super realistic to impress people they had to know who the person was for them to like the artwork. This mind set changed when I researched art and got introduced to artists like Banksy. His work showed me that art can have a purpose and a function. He creates thought provoking imagery which conveys a political statement or clever and humorous take on life as we know it . I feel he illustrates a view on reality we don't necessarily see or think exists. The art industry is much more than a realistic picture of a face, there is such a variety of work to gather inspiration from. I've seen sculptures, street art, artwork made from food, all forms of illustration that have influenced my work to date. I still create realistic artwork but I care about context and creating an image with a purpose. 

After speaking to artists that are currently working in the art industry and researching specific fields, I feel I'm more confident in where I see myself in the future. At this moment in time I plan to pursue freelance illustration as a career path. I do think this will mean I need a change of mind set. At the minute this seems so intimidating, the idea of self directing project after project meeting clients standards and not my own, seeing different perspectives and being open to harsh constructive criticism, if its not what the client wants they will tell you. It's going to be a challenge one I can say I'm looking forward to. 

Talking to Jessica Lennox helped me understand the route of Pet Portraiture, because I've experienced this field I wanted to contact an artist that looks like they know what their doing. Lennox explaining how just her online presence gets her work was a good thing to hear. She also informed me on running an online shop and how her personal projects are sold on there making her income as well. Her advice has made me want to improve my following on social media, this was something I was looking into. I've illustrated famous faces and youtubers who have a large following, by them seeing my work and liking it or sharing it, their followers would see it too and I would gain recognition from this. Vince Okerman was another freelance illustrator I manage to contact, his experience has been a lot different to Lennox's. Okerman has worked for a variety of company's and two music artists. One is very popular in the UK, Stromzy. He created the cover artwork  for Stromzy's song 'Birthday Girl' this gave him a huge amount of publicity and followers. He also runs a Big Cartel store online where he sells prints of his artwork and original pieces. 

This module has definitely helped me gain an insight into where I want to go and how I can get there. The primary research of artists and the overall research of freelance illustration, has presented me with a clear direction of what it entails to be a freelancer.

Final Outcome

This is my final piece for the Cheltenham brief. My drawing is trying to portray the reality of big corporate brands, the reality of child labour, the reality of a child's life from a third world country. The imagery is of a child wearing baggy, dirty clothes making an athletes trainer whilst the athlete has them on. The design is drawn so that the young boy looks sketchy and not finished to depict him as not being seen, because we forget he exists, we only see the trainers stacked on shelves, we see and admire the athlete. The trainers and legs in the image are outlined in bold etching, illustrating the contrast of media and person in the portrait.

I feel the drawing leaves enough space for the viewer to interpret each aspect without me, the artist,  forcing them to understand it like this or think like this. It allows their subconscious to translate my artwork.

I tried to make the composition and form suggest that the boy wants to be seen to be noticed, he is staring right at the viewer. Then the composition leads back to the focus point, the brand illustrated in the middle of the piece. The Nike logo is the part the viewer will immediately recognise. Less is more.

Illustrating Reality

These drawings illustrate how we’re too busy to care about the sad reality of things like war and child labour. How the struggles of our everyday lives mean we don’t have time to question things, we have to settle with what the news and media tell us.

The Process of a Project

The process of projects vary, but most contain the same structure. The project begins with a discussion and design brief. Getting to know what the client wants and needs is crucial as time will be saved if you can get it right first time. Good communication is very important. Project brief, sketches ideas/concepts, first draft, second draft, final design, final edits.  Each step usually needs to meet the clients approval before moving on, although not every client works this way.

For Jessica Lennox, who mainly creates animal portraiture for her clients, she would be sent an image/photograph of high quality, which she specifies on her website, by the client and give them a time scale of when it would be finished. She would sketch out the image then spend roughly 10 hours work on each portrait she illustrates. Using coloured pencils Jessica layers texture and tone creating beautiful realistic pieces of art.

I have worked with clients creating pet portraits also, so I understand the challenge and the communication with the costumer. When I accepted work in this manner I enjoyed it at first, but I then managed to get overloaded with commission requests and started to not enjoy doing the same work over and over. I don’t know if this sort of mind set will mean that I will struggle with being a freelancer illustrator.

Finding Work as a Freelance Illustrator

Job sites - Behance jobs, Creative Opportunities, Creative Hotlist, Design Week, Arts Thread and Hubstaff. Social Media - Facebook and Instagram. Jessica Lennox is an artist from Staffordshire that I found on Instagram. She is a freelance artist who specialises in Wildlife and Canine drawings.  '99% of my clients have viewed my Instagram page and from there visited my website to then ask for a commission' Jessica Lennox.

She couldn't stress enough how important her online presence is in getting her work. Sometimes an illustrator will have to find work from an online ad, or the magic of networking. Applying for the possible need for your artwork to a potential client can result in a new source of revenue. It's important for a freelancer to promote themselves appropriately and not to spam or nag a client or company with links to portfolios or work, for the sack of networking. That approach could backfire and give yourself a bad name.

Stanley Chow

Chow is a freelance Illustrator whose iconic work has found worldwide acclaim. I looked into Stanley Chow because he shows that creating a unique style makes you stand out from the crowd and generates more client interest. He has created artwork for many footballing advertisements and huge sporting events.       

Pros & Cons of Freelancer

Unlike the life of an in-house artist, where you work with a specific company, freelancers need to manage their time, money and client base wisely in order to maintain a working system and financially stable one. A freelance illustrator is most often their own boss and have to play all roles, promoter, social media manager, accountant, artist agent, art director and more.

Pros:

•Being able to set your own hours choosing when you when you work.

•The variety of clients, creating work fro people from all walks of life.

•Choosing how much to charge 

•No travel expenses or commute time wasted 

•Maybe even tax rebates after paying too much tax 

•The excitement of different challenges on each project not the same 9 to 5 crap

Cons:

•Some people expect you to work 24/7 

•How do you decide pricing 

•People asking you to work for free •Not getting paid for time off 

•Being your Accountant 

•Work isn't always available and guaranteed 

•Pay can be unpredictable 

•Can be an emotional rollercoaster 

•Staying motivated •In some cases your competing for work  

Types of Freelance work

I found a blog about types of jobs you will experience as a Freelance Illustrator, its quite humorous but I'm guessing very true. Its an interesting post, although it being a jokey insight, its actually very informative on the topic.  

https://studioblog.envato.com/20-types-of-freelance-work-identified-and-explained/

Magazines & Publications

Advertisement 

Types of Freelance Work/Projects 

Book Covers

What is a Freelance Illustrator?

A freelance illustrator creates visual images that represent, enhance or explain concepts that can be abstract ideas or textual descriptions or writings. Freelance means that your not tied to one company and work either by seeking out individual projects from advertising or working through an agent who might be connected to a number of businesses.

This appeals to me because freelance artists I've looked at produce accurate, photo-realistic rendering of objects, locations or people for the purpose of advertising. For technical explanation, fully coloured blowout drawings of equipment and even medical illustrations are all common types of illustration projects. They have also created work for some forms of publishing for example a freelance illustrator can be hired to create the cover of a book, album or video game, or provide artwork for the inner pages of the publication. These things are definitely in my capability, I'm able to replicate any image or render any object when drawing. The work I've witnessed is all very unique and different, so I feel my work can easily stand out and be its own distinctive style.

Helen Green 

Helen has worked for many major companies and her work has been shown on TV quite a few times. She illustrates famous faces for clients in a realism/digital style. I have drew a few celebrities in a similar way without the digital colour aspect. She was lucky enough to be noticed by Lady Gaga, who she has drew many times, which lead to her become part of her design team and brand.

I think her work is awesome its such a similar approach I use in my practice thats probably why I like them so much. Some of the brands she has worked for like ESPN the GIF illustration of Paul Pogba is such an inspiring thing, an opportunity I would enjoy immensely. The time-lapse video of her constructing the Volkswagen cars GIF is a great concept and cool idea for a commission.

Workshop 3

I designed this character to link in with my message and narrative for the Cheltenham brief.

The character is a riot police officer but has branding all over his riot gear. For this imagery I've only illustrated the advertising on the shield.

The idea is to convey that big corporate brands have no morals they only think about money, so this imagery shows how they are willing to place their advertisements anywhere that’s going to be seen by a large audience.

Sacrilegious 

Advertisement gone to far ‘Todays Mass is sponsored by McDonalds’ these drawings look into to the notion of the Pope having to advertise, and being surrounded by different big corporate brands. 

Glorifying War/The Reality of War

The idea on the left is portraying the contrast between Roy Lichtenstein's comic humour of war and the cruel reality of war, a crying child lying next to her mother who has been killed.

This imagery would be realism and my imitation of Liechtenstein's comic strip style. The child and mother would be illustrated in pencil greyscale to create a dark and horrid mood, with the opposite of brightly coloured cartoon behind them. 

Roy Lichtenstein

Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced artwork that supposedly documented a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. He described pop art as "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting" 

Whaam! and Drowning Girl are generally regarded as Lichtenstein's most famous works. I personally don't understand what he was trying to achieve with Whaam!, Ive witnessed it written that this image glorifies war. I believe its trying to add humour onto the topic of war but for what effect, for who's benefit.