3rd year snail: Professional practice

Showing posts with label Professional practice. Show all posts

Wednesday, 27 April 2016

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.

Saturday, 2 April 2016

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.

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

professional practice 5

had a workshop on biographies and what/how to write them, here's what I came up with

''Well recognised in the field of Illustration, Lawrence Matthews grew up in the small town of Sidmouth in England. This was where he first discovered his passion and aptitude for drawing. Educated at the Exeter college of Art and Design, then later graduating from the Arts University Bournemouth, he showed a great amount of skill in illustration, later choosing to make a career out of his passion as a professional illustrator.

Personally identifying as a “Super Geek”. His love of pop culture, Japanese illustrations and Anime, works of science fiction and fantasy have obviously influenced his work.

The themes of his practice has helps him deal with personal experiences with past illness both mental and physical. these experiences have lead to his mantra of learning as much as he can. he has a great love of learning new skills and techniques and has always said that there is so much to learn and we get so little time to learn it. This varied approach in the way he creates and utilizes this diverse way of making, which is then refined depending of the brief.

Proficient in Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Flash, Toon Boom, and all manner of traditional mediums, he has always credited caffeine as his greatest resource due to his nocturnal nature and somewhat vampire like feelings in regards to the sun.

His personal work gravitates towards character design and story boarding for his current self initiated project of picture book making, experimenting with graphic novel and manga styles.

His work personifies the juxtaposition between comedy and tragedy with his favorite subjects being dystopian in nature.

Most recently he has developed an interest in model making and casting, exploring how 3D can be used to present marketable illustration and design."

Also a first person statement:

""""

bonus drawing:

Saturday, 27 February 2016

professional practice 4

i've been doing research into business cards and promotional material today, found this great image of examples of cool business cards. problem being obviously they are more expensive to make and you need a specialist site to make them if you cant do it yourself. still it's a bit of fun to look at from an artist point of view

general

Artist

for myself i've come up with a few designs for interesting business cards and a few plain design ones for bulk ordering from a site like vistaprint. the artwork to go on them will be something new and specified rather than from my current imagebase, this ensures that the work is on my current level of skill and that potential clients see the sort of work they can expect.

obviously the website and such would need to be established first to go on them as contact information.

ive also been looking at potential artist nicknames (sudanim, persona like thing) Lawrence Matthews is a bit of a mouthful and an odd spelling. for the sake of professionalism 'snailorgy' doesnt quite send out the right message, and you never know what sort of work you may do to pay the bills and sometimes its a good idea to have a different name to go under without abandoning your integrity as an artist.

I do like the snail part of my current online persona, snails have always been a sort of spirit animal to me.

possible new names, in spider diagram for because that's what i like to do

Friday, 26 February 2016

professional practice 3

forms for commissions

artist contract modified from the official AO1 form

invoice for completed works

sign off signature logos (artist signature)

watermark

(is translucent when applied)

Monday, 22 February 2016

professional practice 2

a little update as to what ive been looking into for the PP

i've generated a list of art publishing websites, the more I have with the same username and description the more online presence my art has, theoretically I may even get my own google biography if they are all optimized and have the same data.
to this end here is my list, i'll update it whenever I find a new one
good places to build a fanbase

the big ones

lesser known -

obscure -

errr niche (18+) -

blogs

shops-

lots of good ones here-

not mentioned-

there is also a list of promotional blogs that you can submit artworks to:
http://nonsensesociety.com/2012/07/self-promotion-blogs/

*it is my personal opinion that with the rising popularity of VR soon we will have virtual gallery sites to visit so be sure to keep an eye out and jump on any new sites that pop up.

like this one from second life but good

my favorite advice from my research

If you light a candle in front of a mirror and repeat "Ruan Jia" three times, the god of renders will appear and give you supreme chinese rendering powers in exchange for your soul.

Thursday, 4 February 2016

Professional practice 1

as the Professional practice is a project that i'll be doing slowly along side the major project, I have created a list of all the things I have to do in preparation for my life as a professional artist, I made this list with the help of some very good books
1. The Illustrator's guide to law and business - Simon Stern
2. Illustration 101 - Max Scratchmann
3. How to create a portfolio and get hired - Fig Taylor
By also looking at already established illustrators and seeing how they have marketed and promoted themselves to get idea on how to do it myself. this list is in no particular order in terms of how pressing or how important the task is, it's just how the order i came up with things in my brain storming session.

identify potential clients or positions for future work (get a list of contact details and start creating database)
join AOI
create a main website (buy domain name)
create secondary websites i.e blogs and community pages to help promote work

create list of potential site Deviantart, hitrecord, ect.

8-10 work Portfolio to show potential clients (they are going to give us a nice one)
digital portfolio / showreel
business cards
business postcards / samples / newsletter
Artist CV
finalise logo
license for commission's (consider letterhead and type)
receipt for commissions
500 word career plan
exhibition locations
list free and paid possible advertising space
research search engine optimisation for websites
commission email
research book publishing as it something I've always wanted to do and would be great advertising
look up potential agents pros/cons

whilst this looks like a lot of things to do, a lot of it will be using the same logo and stationery design so that will be my first task, things like joining the AOI will be the very last thing as it costs money and is on a timer, I wont be doing it until the last minute (during uni time as we get a discount)

I may or may not make the main website at this point as again it cost money and is on a timer so it will be another last minute one, just before I start contacting clients.