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I always find short term goals easier to start with, long term goals I struggle with cause I never really know what could happen (such as coronavirus) in a years time. I would have really liked to have to goals like finding places to put work on display/sell but these kind of things aren’t fully possible in the current climate. So I am looking at illustration competitions and personal development at the moment for goals. Also there is the project for next year which we get to set our own brief, which for me is something to look forward too as I enjoy being able to come up with my own ideas! Short Term GoalsGoals to achieve by the end of this year. General University Goals Complete Illustration Application module :
Medium Term GoalsGoals to be achieved by around this time next year. General University Goals Complete Professional Practice module:
Complete Illustration Practice module:
Graduate!! Personal/ Professional Goals
Long Term GoalsThese are lifelong goals or goals that may or may not happen at some point When I think of what would be the perfect way for my life to go without any limitations it would be this:
With that out of the way I now need to think realistically, because money doesn’t grow on trees and it is needed to live. It hard for me to know what will happen and I have never been good about planning for long term goals, because life changes all the time and I have learnt it is not one path to one destination, it is so many that can come to a dead end. Yet with saying that I will put some goals that I think I could achieve by the end of 5-10 years from now. Goals For The Future
How am I going to achieve these goals? Through time and persistence, using this blog to learn and find sources that can help me achieve my goals. Constantly striving to improve and growing from any ‘failures’ or let downs that will hopefully not happen too much.
So now I have completed the questionnaires, where do I think I need improvement? To start I know my knowledge of Adobe programmes isn’t exactly the best, but for me it is the fact I have no access to them at home at the moment and I haven’t had a real need for them in my art practice so far. Yet I know I can definitely use Photoshop with some understanding, and to an extent InDesign and After Effects. I think the challenge of using After Effects last year proved to myself that I can learn quickly with more technical programmes so I don’t worry that much that I can’t use Adobe, I just don’t have the practice or immediate access to it. Typography. Well for a start I don’t have the best hand writing in the world and my spelling hasn’t always been that great! So these preconceived ideas I have with words, type and font don’t exactly help. Yet through doing projects on the course I have started to understand it better and try to not worry about it like how I used too. For now it is just continuing to experiment and learn to get better at using them within or alongside my illustrations.
Being more ‘professional’, i.e working on my website, Instagram. I want to be able to put my own ‘style’ into my website and make it more engaging for the viewer. I have been working on it recently and still have stuff to add such as a page on sketchbook drawings, but I am slowly getting there with it! With Instagram I try to post there, but I do feel pressure to make it look cohesive and honestly just confidence in general with putting my illustrations out there without feeling that they look not good enough. Again it is something I am trying to not worry about too much, as I like Instagram to find other illustrators and creatives, as well as finding creative opportunities.
In general I can always be improving as illustrator, it is a lifelong experience, but for now I hope to just enjoy where I am with it and keep drawing and creating!
Since leaving school five years ago I have taken a path that I didn’t think I would. I went straight into college from school and during my two years there I learnt so much by experimenting with so many techniques. Digital/ traditional, installation art, ceramics and printmaking. I found myself drawn to printmaking because of the whole process of it, having to prepare a plate, roll the plate through the press, etc. I would constantly be in that printmaking room than anywhere else! Then college came to an end and I had no clue what to do with myself, all I had known was education to give me something to do, now I was on my own. I had hoped to go to Edinburgh College of Art to study illustration but even though I got positive feedback it seemed not possible for me to get in after two attempts of applying. Honestly I am glad I ended up not being offered a place at Edinburgh because it made me go out of comfort zone by getting a job, learning to drive, getting to be part of Uplands Modern Maker programme and having time to develop my artwork. I knew I wanted to study illustration still but wanted to stay at home so ended up applying for the course I am on now!
I have always known choosing to go down the art path in life wasn’t going to be the easiest way to get a full time job, yet there is nothing else that I would rather do than be creative. Before looking into illustration jobs, what am I aware of? I know there are agencies for children book publishing, graphic design based jobs and being freelance/ self-employed with no full guarantee of getting work. At this moment in time I need figure out where I sit in terms of what path I could take. What strengths do I have? Knowledge of printmaking techniques, use of Procreate, sketchbook drawing, having experience of being part of group exhibitions, having some commissions (pet portraits, card making), producing work for deadlines, taking inspiration from a whole ranges of sources (art history, places I visit, films, music) What are my ambitions? At the moment I have a whole range of thoughts about what I want to do. I want to be able to illustrate books, so covers, children’s picture books, history/ nature related informational books maybe? Freelance/ self employment is something I consider, the internet connections with clients are more accessible meaning it would make working from home an option, though it is no guarantee of work. Then there are options of looking at agencies that have branches for illustrators. I also want to maybe write/research and illustrate my own books based on historical people/ places or traditional folktales. Concept art is something I am interested in but not thought about as much, it was what I wanted to do about eight years ago but faded away over time and now I might look back into it! To begin with I am going have a general look at illustrators, videos, blogs, agencies, mentoring and podcasts that inspire me/ what I aspire to achieve in terms of working as an illustrator. Illustrators
Articles/Blogs
Agencies/ Mentoring
Videos
Podcasts
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