pp: presentation

pp: updated portfolio

pp: creative presence boards

pp: business cards!

pp: CV

pp: considering changing my portrait?

in relation to my realised branding colours i feel like my portrait colours don't fit anymore.

i feel like they fit together more now and look more like a set of branding rather than being totally different.

pp: my branding colours

pp: job application - retail at manchester art gallery

pp: e-portfolio proposal

so here is a little portfolio that i have put together. i decided to show a wide range of my skills, that are still relevant to my project. these include character design, children's illustration, narrative and typography/logo branding. i think that i have showcased a good range of skills and i could be used for a lot of different briefs.

pp: final self portrait

Here we are! My final self portrait which is going to be showcased at the exhibition. I have tried to tie in everything that I have learned from doing my past self portraits & the projects that I have been working on. Finding new skills using halftones and colour (which i used to be quite scared of) and I really like how it's turned out. I think it really talks about my time at university, as throughtout these three years here i have been known to wrap myself in a blanket, literally & figuratively and have made jokes/drawn onto it many times. Here's a look at some of the past blanket Beths:

Here's a little gem that my flatmate found from second year, new blanket new me.

And the originals:

It feels good to go full circle and go back to my roots, and i think this is the true representation of me as an artist. I just love to be cosy and comfortable (and i also have blanket breakdowns sometimes) even though sometimes they are me stressed, it's nice to look back on because i always overcome the stress in the end and it pushes me forward.

pp: job application - artworker

Whilst looking on LinkedIn Jobs, i saw that there was a job for an Artworker at Manchester City Council. Before I had sent off the application I decided to do some research into the role of an Artworker. This is what I found:

it sounds like something that i could be interested in so I decided to just give it a go and see what happens, as you don't get anywhere in life unless you give it a try.

pp: my linked in profile

I've had LinkedIn for a couple of months now, and it is a really interesting website. I have been able to connect with hundreds of people who I think will help my practice to grow and possibly pass my work forward to a peer of theirs. I have also been able to connect with illustrators who i really admire, for example Linzie Hunter, which is really exciting to me. I have also looked at the jobs available on Linked In as they have a more creative range of jobs which is a lot different to if i just googled it and used Job Search websites. 

I think having Linked In makes me look really professional! I feel like I'm beginning to become ready for the real world. I have added a long list of my skills, which a few people have endorsed which is really nice, it feels like recognition. 

pp: the dots profile

pp: postcard for the exhibition

For my exhibition postcard i wasn't sure which piece of work i wanted on there so i decided to put a selection of some of my favourite ones as well as my self portait! it looks busy and colourful and i quite like that because hopefully that will say something about my practice and be more eyecatching so people will want to look at it.

pp: thoughts whilst looking for jobs

i have always thought that i wanted to work for a studio or a company, however when looking for jobs using LinkedIn i found that a lot of the jobs for studios were looking for graphic designers and animators and that is something that i am not totally well versed in. obviously i have some graphic design knowledge as someone who takes composition and typography into account, but i don't think i have enough skill in that area to be called a graphic designer.

whilst looking for these jobs, i came to realise how much i would really enjoy to own a studio with fellow creatives, much like Mama Wolf, and work together in an environment in which we could give eachother feedback and have fun whilst working. i would hate to work cooped up in my flat and not having any interaction, i don't think my practice would blossom that way as i am someone who strives on peer feedback.

for this reason i decided to look at some studio spaces to rent in manchester, figure out the pricing and costs and maybe i can find some creative friends to join me on the journey.

pp: email - ella okstad

after the confidence of being able to email plum pudding i decided whilst i had this new found pride under my belt i would go ahead and send a few other emails. 

this whole year i have been really scared at the prospect of emailing people and i need to get myself out of that hole. if i want to become a professional illustrator i need to get myself out there and make some friends, so to speak!

i wanted to email Ella Okstad because her website was really welcoming and friendly and i really love her children's illustration. i wanted to keep my tone of voice conversational and not too formal because i didn't want to come across as rigid.

i decided to use the same 'HELLO :-)' that i used for the Plum Pudding email because i just really want to catch someone's attention.

pp: email - plum pudding

i decided to go ahead with emailing plum pudding agency and see if they reply to me! it's worth a shot, even if the prospect of it is very scary. 

i wanted to keep my email short and interesting to look at, using different texts. i wanted my email to stand out so i decided to go with a rather bold 'HELLO :-)' for the subject header. i don't want my email just to get lost in the wind. i hope i hear back from them!

pp: research - plum pudding agency

after having the skype call with chloe from plum pudding children's illustration agency i decided to do some research into the types of work that they make and produce because it could be something that i am interested in for the future.

plum pudding represent a lot of illustrators, and basically what they do is find work for them and represent them creatively. this is something that i am very interested in as the prospect of working alone and trying to figure everything out sounds very scary. I think i will email them (they are very open to emails) and see what it's all about!

questions to ask:

if i wanted to publish a children's book, would you be the ones to help with that?

how does the agency work? is it all online?

i live quite far away in manchester, if i wanted to do a small placement or internship would that be possible?

what's the best way for an artist to stand out amongst the crazy amount of emails you get?

i dont want to ask them too much, as they have stated that they do get a lot of emails. so i wanted to keep it short and sweet and to the point.

pp: chloe from plum pudding

today we had a skype interview with chloe from the children's illustration agency plum pudding.

it was really interesting to hear her talk about what it's like to have an agent and what they do there. there are some tips that i picked up from the talk, for instance, having an online portfolio (website) is important for showing clients easily the work that you have, this should also include character design sheets for animals as well as people. i think that my work fits into this and it was interesting to hear her reaffirm what i already thought. she also talked about having sketches in your portfolio as well as finished pieces of work, which i thought was interesting. it makes sense though, so that the client can see how you produce your work from the beginning stages and if i wanted to go into storyboarding or character designing they would want rough sketches as well as finished pieces so it makes sense.

i think this was one of the skype interviews at university where i felt like it was really geared towards me and i will try and take all of her suggestions into consideration!

pp: business card tests

pp: online illustrating children's books course

so i found an online course for illustrating children's books. i think this is an interesting idea as i have only began to realise that i'd like to specialise in this area recently and have not researched and learned much about the area. the course is all online so i wouldn't have to go to london for it, there is a tutor Maggy who is there to talk about our work and give feedback and support and as someone who really depends on that i think it might be a good opportunity for me to look into. 

pp: possible business card design

After looking at some inspiration from other artists, I want to go with something quite simple and not too extravagant. I think I really like the idea of having it more handwritten, because then it feels more like an Illustrator's business card. I couldn't find a mockup for a square business card so i'll have to try and work that out myself but this was just a little tester to see what it would be like!

pp: helping a photographer

for my extended practice, i was commissioned by a photographer to help with her branding. i have decided to also post it here to my pp blog because i think helping someone else with their branding really helped me to realise things that i want for my own branding that i didn't realise. 

it was also really fun to try out Illustrator again as someone who does not use the programme very often. it was a really useful tool.

pp: some sketchbook works

me playing around with typography and seeing what works and what doesn't. working on my little butterfly signature which i think i really like.

self portraits - what do i want it to look like?

pp: website

After going through many different looks and trying to figure out how to use Wix, I think i am finally happy with how my website looks. It's not as in depth as I would like, but that's simply because I'm a bit dim when it comes to trying to figure out how to put things in certain places.

Here it is!

I really wanted to keep the colours simple other than for my work, so I just kept the top part more monochrome, using only black and pink for the about section. At first I had multiple pages, for example having my about page in a different link, but I quite like the idea of just keeping it at the bottom.

pp: trying out different website builders

squarespace was easy enough to use, but OH MAN it is expensive to keep running. i don't have that kind of money to shell out on a website unfortunately, so i think i'll have to pass on this one. although it looks really cool and professional.

I really tried to use wordpress but i didn't know what the heck was going on. for someone who thinks they're pretty okay with computers this website is super confusing. it took me like 30 minutes to even figure out how to get my images on the front page and they still didn't look the way i wanted them to. 

The final website designer that I tried out was wix and I found it a lot easier than the other ones, everything was fitting the way i wanted it. the only thing is i would like to try and work out how to link my work to other pages with little descriptions about the work but i will figure that out later on. for now i'm happy with how it looks.

pp: logo/signature testings

trying to play around with ideas for a signature/logo for my brand. i want it to be cute and try to show my brand without any imagery. I think that the 'ef' in the shape of a butterfly is perfect for my practice as I want to specialise in children's illustration, and butterflies are cute, obviously. I think that the letters work really well together and it's quite memorable.