professional practice 7

the biggest problem i've had with this unite, apart from the fact i had to send away my (nice portfolio so i''ll probably get marked down) is the fact that ive done so much animation as of late, I dont really have much current work for my portfolio, at least not 8-related images that work well together.
in the end I made some new stuff to go with stuff I already had that I liked, at least they have a good continuity in terms of style.

major project 17

time for some radical re-thinking and editing if im going to have something to hand in on time.
the flash animating is just taking too long some im going to glue together what ive done in a new composition

not what I wanted but im just out if time and ive still got some P,P to do. really regretting changing my project a month in, if I had that time I could be finished by now

major project 16

I think i may have underestimated just how long this animation is going to take, this is about two seconds of film and it took me a day to get the frames right

th

major project 15

god it takes ages to get animations to look right

         

major project 14

time is running out now so im starting to feel the panic.
animated all the cutouts but it took way longer than I would have liked

all the gifs are too big for here so ill have to upload them as movies to youtube

major project 13

today has been a very tedious day of going around my character sheets, cutting out, and separating each part out into a different layer ready for export into after effects. with that and the general sprucing up of the colours and fixing any errors in the ink finish, today has just been a lot of busy work.

Major Project 12

you have no idea how long this took to figure out.
firs I had to figure out how to make a page move in a stop frame animation, easy enough

then I had to figure out how to import a gif so it played in another animation, this presented a problem, although everything played fine in the flash preview renders, as soon as I exported the files the gif stopped playing.

after an entire bloody day of looking up online articles and experimenting I finally got it to work, you need to first import the gif into a symbol, but it has to be a graphic symbol not a movie symbol. It makes no sense what so ever but at least that stress is now over

seriously, go to hell Flash

Major Project 11

GIF tests

Major project 10

rest of the character sheets

Professional practice 6

starting to build my potential client database, made a nice Excel document to make everything a bit easier, god it's been years since I last had to use Excel, like not since I was in secondary school. good old internet, you wonderful source of tutorials.

a few sources of potential clients for the database:

AOI CLIENT DIRECTORIES - http://www.theaoi.com/shop/staging/index.php/theshop/products/client-directories
alas you need to be a member to buy the collection for cheap (which im not buying until the last possible minute) but £54.00 discounted is pretty reasonable.

I know we have a couple of company databases in the Uni library and possibly some client ones, so i'm going to have to drop in and use up the remainder of my print credit.

literally any company with a Creative Director or an Art Director will need an illustrator at some point or another so those are the guys to find send the promotional material to. they can be found within any company that has Copywriters on staff.

local magazines and newspapers

enterprise centers and yellow pages (if they still exist?)

past clients (may want repeat business)

another nice little resorce for general Professional practice stuff

https://advertise.directoryofillustration.com/marketing-program-for-illustrators/#online 

whilst we are on the subject of promotional material, let's talk about the specific things I could to get made to promote myself.

• business card (we've covered that already)
• Artist CV
• promotional mailer
• customized letter effects (envelopes and what not) 
• Postcards / Broadsheets
• self published book
• novelty items (who doesn't love a freebie) 
• newsletter template 

update*

Future Plan:

So what’s next for yours truly?

First lets review, I have my business cards and  on order, the money for the AOI is saved, ive been ive got a good looking portfolio all ready to be eyed by prospective clients, . all in all I am ready to take my first tentative steps into the world of freelance illustration.

There are of course other considerations, like how I am going to support myself whilst I build up a client base, therefore the next thing I need to do is get a part time job, something in the arts industry would be good, but anything with a paycheck will be welcome, ive decided to base myself in my home town of sidmouth for a while as I get truly set up but then it is on to the big wide world.

My diary so far has nothing until September when im off to Japan for a few months on my artist pilgrimage. Its somewhere Ive always wanted to go and this may be my last chance before I get embedded somewhere.

Whilst I was making my artist CV I did notice that I am somewhat lacking in experience, apart from the odd commission and a few jobs in art industries I haven’t really got much I can brag about, ergo I will be first taking any job I can get my hands on so that I can build an impressive résumé and work my way up.

The ideal for me is a steady job, lots of commissions to do, and projects that interest me. Unfortunately Im a realist, I know that I still have room to improve and that the likelihood of me slipping into one comfy commission after another is very slim. My name is out there now and soon it will be time to make my big debut into the dog eat dog world that is professional artistry. Knowing this I plan to go in with an impact, exactly how im going to do this is still being worked out but its coming, you only get one first impression and I plan to make a big one. That and some good old fashioned elbow grease. I have a list of upcoming exhibitions where I can get some good networking done, followed by a few potential venues for myself.

I am part of a coalition of artists from around my local town and we are planning to do our first gallery show early next year.

Although the best laid plans of mice and men often do go awry, I am the most prepared possible to face the challenges that lay ahead. I will be keeping this blog up to date right up until I graduate, but I will be posting my new domain name as soon as it looks good enough to publish.

Major project 9

Finished the first character sheet today, loving these new inks, very nice crisp colours, don't have to be too careful about staying in the lines as they will all be digitally cut out anyway.