opportunities are everywhere !!!

I'm one to always stress about finding success and what it takes for you to find your goal, what people don't understand is that no matter what industry your in there are opportunities everywhere it just takes you to open your eyes and grab them. Sometimes it happens on chance sometimes it happens with time, it just depends. e.g. when I started my clothing thing I didn't think I'd get even one buyer but turns out when I was wearing it in the gym and to events people were interested. When something illustration related pops up and is positive it always makes my day, another thing is just having the opportunity to be on  an illustration course for you to find your strong point and where it is where you will do well, that alone is a head start and some people don't see that. to even land on that avenue it took awhile. education is something I had to be patient with because I feel I am quite practical rather then just being in one space for awhile I feel and I need to up, awake and active doing something.I feel there are quite a few opportunities in university because the project briefs bring development and some involve competitions and that gives you a chance to get your work out there. And if you've crossed that bridge allot more opportunities come along the way. dedication, patience and maturity are all key components that you need to await a good opportunity.

Fears !!

I fear allot of things and I try not to think about the negative side of my illustrations but to look on the brighter side. But to get straight to the point, the biggest fear I have is the repetitiveness I have with drawing and not breaking out of that pen style. I fear that what I have to bring to the industry may not be enough or is just limited, there's loads of things that pass through my mind that brings me doubt. I fear that context is so much of a weak point that it may bring stress for my degree. I know that's something I shouldn't reveal and is a bit close for comfort but its honesty and its truth. I fear that I don't listen enough and that when i'm being criticized and being given advice but to take it as advice and not as judgement, I can get emotional and think that people are getting at me rather then helping, I always seem to think I can do things on my own and that my individual abilities are all that I need. But the truth is that if you get all the help you can you may even reveal a side of your talent that you didn't know about and then things change, so I'm just going to listen more rather then pointing a fingure and not listening.

My Hopes

I wish to finish university with a degree and graduate with opportunities passing my feet, university has been a struggle as what I brought to the table was very limited but for every time I forwarded a design to my tutor the advice created development but to avoid 'the bighead' I think I have came far. As I've started this clothing line I hope it maintains and one day blows up and just turns into a huge success. I'm one to live small but that top floor of confidence was hard to reach but with the help of my friends, family and tutors I feel as though I have crossed that bridge. I have allot of hopes but I don't want to 'jump the gun' and expect something that wont happen. I'm more for the encounter and the experience it brings along the journey, the course has brought me happiness and it has been fun watching my work grow and myself as a pupil, there's allot of competition out there within the design industry and everybody is unique. The best advice I can give myself is not to lose the joy of drawing because I love putting pen to paper and creating things I didn't think I could create and just having that master ability to put down an idea when the moment comes. I think of it like this, in a sense you are a god because if you have that gift you can create what ever it is you want, creativity comes in different forms, its a power that we've been given. And I'm happy I've got it. So as for my hopes, as I said, I have allot of them, I'm just ready for whatever it is that's about to pop up !!

website opinion. www.thebearhug.com

I've always been a big fan of high profile illustrator 'Luke Dixon' and his clothing brand 'The Bear Hug', when he starting printed onto fabric all I could think about was 'when is it he will get them published ?' because I always wanted one and was always influenced by his work. But his site is another thing, as I've kicked off my own clothing line and the due launch soon to crack my Facebook page in mid January, his site is also an inspiration but I don't know how or what company he's done it through as I want and need this form of layout for my homepage. His site looks very professional and you can see that he has sat down and thought about what he wants on his page not just the t-shirts, jumpers and prints he's selling but what it is that comes with websites and the things you need. I've tracked Luke for awhile now and I've noticed how he has changed his website twice but on each round he has worked it correctly, the first time round was very good but he blew with his renewal and new layout. Because he has done this I think this has created a new line of exposure and because he has his designs/t-shirts timed on when to put up a new seller it creates a wider audience and the height of his market then becomes reachable !!! Hes a fantastic illustrator and what hes doing will last for years, not allot of people can do what he can do with only just one uni-fine-liner and a piece of paper. His ideas are phenomenal.

A soft opportunity and a portfolio visit with a retailer/provider of the carhartt store.

As I was walking through town just to collect some comics I was walking past the carhartt store and couldn't help myself but I walked in just to browse and nothing more and I had noticed that they had some screen printed designs on a few of their t-shirts and I ended up getting caught and locked in conversion with one of the retailers and of course I mentioned that I was a post graduate and how I was studying illustration and she asked to see some designs and I shown her a few and she asked for my email and she said it could be a possibility that the head office maybe interested so I wrote down my email and its still in process as we speak, nothings confirmed but I do have my fingers crossed. I revisited with my portfolio early hours of the morning and just got some advice on what she thought and she was convinced with what she saw but she also said the same as what fitness instructor mark Ellis was saying. Just to break habit and try some new techniques, I've took this advice on board and I have noticed myself that I am quite repetitive in some ways but this can be handled with some thorough development and study. She also pointed out that the the black and white theme that I have 'going on' is quite strong is relevant with in the design industry in this day and age which I appreciated also.

portfolio visit with fitness instructor mark ellis !!

As I've mentioned I did some commission work with the owner and head manager of "The Body Sculptor" wanting several t-shirt designs and some personal jumper designs alongside. But whilst this was going on I got Mark Ellis to review my portfolio with me and he gave me some good feedback, he mentioned that I just need to use a wider variety of media and to try some new techniques and just to see if i have any strong points. So I took his advice on board and I have tried what he had said. However I'm forever drawing in black uni-fineliners straight onto white cartridge paper and breaking the habit wasn't easy, I nearly gave up on the first couple of tries but that didn't stop me. I tried some water color methods and a couple of others and things started to brighten. Whilst we were working together on this project he also mentioned how good my customer services were and that when he got his first order he was pleased. He also notified that when I gave him his first order that when the first t-shirt I gave him was slightly small soon as he required an exchange it came straight back to him. He was pleased with my portfolio and also my services !!

brand new business cards !!

advertisement on behalf of northwest clothing co ltd

northwest apparel UK LTD

A new design I've added to my range

how the experimentation went.

As you can see below the image looks miles better just through creating bolder lines and giving it a contemporary edge, sometimes I'm not always able to get gather an image together from scratch so if theres something I've done in the past and it could be enhanced or its just not finished I will the n use it to my advantage and see where it ends up and now this piece looks like it will be put towards my business plans.

the result was a success

the drawing below.

the illustration below is actually an old drawing I did round 2011, I was recently running through a few illustrations because my imagination was pritty cloudy due to lack of imagination. So i picked this piece of work up and looked at it and I tried to find a way of making it looking stronger and alot more attractive. So I copied to have a backup piece and copied another to work into.

experimentation

the imagery below

The piece of artwork below has also been put towards the t-shirt collect for northwest apparel uk ltd, I've also organised and attended a shoot for the homepage of my website when its due.

another piece of artwork that sits well on a t-shirt.

Live Book Brief

This drawing is in fact a small spec of the bigger picture, I've managed to knockout several drawings while I've had the free time, the book cover brief requires you to design seven book jackets relating to josie dews bike journey like japan, wales, new Zealand and a few others. And I've just been illustrating sections of each city that represents there sector.

mixed collaberation

The image below is a part of a brief that was set for a line of creative writers and a selection of illustrators that could respond to what was being asked, after everything was saiad and done a small event was organised me and my peers of my course had attended. The end result was phenominal and evrybody did well !!

8 by 8 brief

design work for a make-up artist

Someone I knew needed a hand with advertising they're freelance relating to being a make-up artist and as I had a few illustrations that were highly relevant and were not getting used I decided to take part and this is where this imagery came into play.

commission work

This is relevant to a personal trainer that trains within a gym I go to and he asked personally if I could design a range of t-shirts alongside promotional imagery, designs and any form of advertisement that will help his company. And this is where this image comes in. The name of his company is 'The Body Sculptor' which branches out in the fitness industry to those who want to get into shape whether its to do with putting on muscle, gaining, losing, mass, tone and many others.

another product from my clothing line

a product from the Northwest apparels collection

behind the scenes of nw apparel

nw apparel uk

Northwest Apparel uk is a clothing brand I have put together holding a line of designs that are screen printed onto t-shirts, the imagery below is a form of promotion advertising the product on my behalf. In my first and second year of university I had sampled a t-shirt business without really taking it serious not knowing how well it was going and now that I have seen clearly I am taking it more seriously and doing everything in my power to get it to its peak.

Northwest Apparel Clothing UK

One of the Discussion forums

From what I can remember there was  discussion forum on how slight animation shots were taking over and put in newspapers to how technology and new media is going to be a lot bigger in the future to what it is now and how illustrators wont have a say  but I think that we will always have a say when it comes to any type of animating to illustrating. Technology does have that slight help of creating something that makes your work stand out but all I think technology is there is for us to 'tweek' bits of our work. Technology and computers we use don't have the imagination we come up with so with out us the media wouldn't where it is now.

"I wish I'd Done that " and pieces of advice

If I was to go back and change up on things I did it would have to come down to how I organized my timing, my time management and organizational skills were very weak and I’m always known for leaving "work until the last minute". There were the odd few times where I would sit back a few weeks before the deadline and get everything done but thinking back I predominantly messed up my timing with a few pieces of important work, for the times for when I’d got pieces done earlier with the given research and image development it seemed a lot healthier then panicking and rushing to get everything done in one day. I had a tendency to think that I’d have enough time to it 'do it the next day' which never happened which put me in a position to be always fallen behind, there was never a time I worked past the deadline but just never used the timing to where the brief was given to when that certain project finished. Another weakness is trying other things in my work, I wish I just gone back and tried different things with mark making and even with media, that slight change in your work can give you that better mark, I always stuck to that same consistent style which did started to get annoying, if you can change up your style now and again, it makes your work exciting and other people are going to want know what your getting up to rather then just people knowing what your doing all the time. Having a decent style is good but it needs to cover all types of drawing and you should combine it with other ideas you have. I also wish I had a broader imagination because I had a fixation with drawing out portraits and just faces which also started to get a bit boring but if you look through my posts to where I started you can see that my work starts to get a bit "samey" to where it awakens and I try new things. My DNAD project took a leap onto my work because my tutor said that the DNAD competition brief was ideal for me and she also had an inspirational artist to look up and work towards and he is now a favorite in my inspirational artists column at uni !! Heath Robinson who is an amazing illustrator is capable of almost anything when it comes to drawing but his sense if creating busy images caught my eye and I started to want to do work just like it but in my own style. The leaf I took out of his book made a turnover in my grades and also made my work look a lot stronger, 'Mcbess' another illustrator made a small turn in the way I work also because of his way of putting the dark areas in the right places. But Heathes illustrations had me gazing at his work most nights, he would put together a small group of people in his illustrations and make it look like their doing some 'crazy activities' because he'd have string lifting something up like a wardrobe or a bridge or just something you wouldn't think of and it almost looks like some sort of crazy experimentation. So looking at other illustrators can be inspiring and can tackle out the boring stuff and awaken a style in your work. I used to be one that wouldn’t use any reference for when I would illustrate but things can get a bit bland when not using anything, I was doing this for a while and I couldn’t see that repetitive streak everybody was telling me about. And then everything changed just because I had to act go and look at other people’s work and how they would always change it up and not have the same portraying image. Also I think that I would always go off in a tangent and always restrict myself to work and doodle all the time which would come to a point where I would be doing my work I’d just doing bits of my own personal work, its good have personal work but to an extent where you have enough time to get your own work done as well. Also not sticking with the same idea, I’m not going over what I’m saying its just when I do figure out something I don’t run with it just stays the same and it never continues. So if you follow up on my errors you'll see where your work goes to how it improves, everyone has there own mistakes so it takes getting them done for you to realize what you shouldn’t do so that you learn for next time.

Creative Review

There’s a book I bought from amazon called 'Behind Illustrations' and it covers most of the top artists/painters/sculptors and also talks about what historical artists influences our contemporary illustrators of today. I know I've mentioned him a few times through out my study but before I came across his inspirational drawing style the book mentioned a guy called 'Luke Dixon',  It just talks about how he came across his style to why he draws like how he does. Most of his work relates to portraits and famous people, there are loads of illustrators trying to portray the same message with what Luke is trying to do but I think only Luke can do that. Meaning when he does a portrait his twist of getting the person looking just like how they are with his conjoining consistent thick line style is 'painfully' amazing, the reason I say painfully is because I've tried to cover a portrait but with how he combines the resemblance with his style but its not easy and I don't know any illustrators that can pull it off like how he can. When I carried on reading I was even more inspired with what he's come across as of today because from him starting from so little to where he is now is truly fantastic!! He now has his own international Clothing Line, he's done collaborations with Nike, and he’s collaborated with some of the biggest clothing companies and set up his own foundation. I find this very motivating and it motivates me to do well and I'm not saying I'm going to end up where he is now but if I at least get my imagery out there I might come across something like how he has. Making that connection with the outside world is difficult and reading this book reminds you how it can be done and how having that success is reachable. He mentions how these connections in his life were like a miracle coming true to how he didn't expect anything like this, he says from his own perspective that he just liked creating beautiful images but from where he was sat he didn't think that his work would go anywhere but from where I was reading and to how I viewed his work I think me and many others could see that his work was going to make a change in his life. After a few reads I could see that there was more to illustrating then just drawing a few detailed pictures, I could see that if you make the right choice and believe in yourself you may head down the direction you want to go down. It just takes dedication and for you to think about how your work could be relevant in the art industry, there’s a lot of competition out there and there’s loads of illustrators and I just see it as how your style and imagery differentiates from another illustrator. I don’t think you should be to competitive because I see that as a target for another illustrator to beat you, I’ve seen artists that don’t even take up the subject and their work is just phenomenal.

8 by 8

This is the chosen banner I created for "paid in full", the imagery is highly to do within the story from where he is in shape to here he puts the weight back on. "After and Before"

eight by eight (8 x 8)

This is my storyboard for my eight by eight, "paind in full", the selected images are the ones that mainly kick the story off to where it heats up!!!

w e l l s p r i n g

This wasnt selected from the wellspring because of the relevance, they liked the imagery bu didnt think it was hitting the point to 'Benefits'

w e l l s p r i n g

This was one that was choosen for the wellspring that they were more then greatful and were pleased with.

w e l l s p r i n g

This was one of the pieces the wellspring group chosen which i thought worked really well with what the they were asking or, some o the pieces i did were a bit contempary and the ones that werent chosen wernt neessarily bad images but just target at the wrong thing.. I'll show you some examples.

w e l l s p r i n g

This was another piece directed for the wellspring Center which was just a sampling piece to see how the logo would come out to how the imagery would fit with it, once I had hit what i wanted I then began to create the posters as told. 

w e l l s p r i n g

'Maths And English Advice' was a piece I did for the wellspring center which they were greatful for when I had shown them. Also i was happy that my imagery was used for something rather it just being another doodle I do on a day to day basis.

w e l l s p r i n g

This and a few other pieces I did alongside were asked by wellspring if I and a ew others could support them with some posters to do with drug advice, housing advice, domestic and many more. Unfortunatley I was that motivated I did it all myself (greedy me). I did ten images and they picked 5 out if the ten I did

gospel album over

The same piece but wih colour, the artistt asked for a few images with and without the love and vice versa with the colouring, so I sampled the colouring and sent him a few of the images i came up with. 

gospel album cover

This was a piece done from my 1st year of uni, it was put on facebook and was asked by a facebook friend gospel christian artist 'Luke Benjamin Nelson' if he could use it as his album cover, he just wanted the image, the type and sampling he will be doing himself. 

club promotion

The same night but just more promotion, 'Andy walker' the guy in charge of the night was amazed with what I came up with and has asked for me to come to future event meetings to also see where I can use my imagination

an outside piece.

This was a piece done for a night at entourage manchester (night club), the person in charge of the event told me to create something that will motivate people to come to the night club. This and another was created.  

another custom piece that will be put onto a tee shirt and sold :)

amazing training quote

i designed him a hoody n tee which he also wants more of haha

personal trainer/customer

i did a personal tee design for one of my personal trainers at my gym which also turned otu to be a success..

dnad proj

dnad proj

dnad proj

dnad proj

new tee release

DNAD proj

DNAD

for new uni brief/DNAD

recent doodle

uni piece

cross pathway

the queen was drawn for the relevance of being in debt for the project we were doing, it was the quickest idea i could think of haha

queen

one of my doodles

from the cross pathway project

the piece below is from a cross pathway project which ended successfully, my method of drawing and that consistent style of mine was choosen to be put on the leaflets we was working on. I did a range of drawings for that brief and with my team-mates help we were able to produce some beautiful work.

recent piece

inspired style put onto fabric

my santa clause illustration

And so the piece below was just an experimentation with my new current inspired style with a combo of my cartonic imagination, it filled out magnificently and because of the season (christmas) i tried to keep it relevant, this soon will reach fabric and then worn haha. trial and erorr :)

another recent illustration of mine.