Portfolio Visit- Tim Clear

So on the friday in London, I had a portoflio visit with Tim Clear, who is the group Art Editor for John Brown Media.
So walking down this long road and looking for the numbers of the houses etc, I was thinking, are we going the right way? I wasn't sure at all, but the building was hidden away slightly around a corner, the building was quite big which made me nervous, but as the portfolio visit the day before went so well, I wasn't as bad and felt a little more confident.
So I went in and signed in and even got a little badge, I waited for Tim to come down to meet me.
He was a lovely chap and made me feel very comfortable, he had loads of papers and magazines in his hand aswell, so lots of things to show me.
We went into the canteen and got a drink and sat and had a little chat about what I'd been up to in London so far, I didn't feel as nervous anymore as he was a very nice guy, felt like i'd known him so a while.
He explained that he thought I was very professional in my email to him and he liked that I got off my backside and made arrangements with him myself instead of through tutors etc. He told me that if Tutors had emailed him asking if students could arrange a group visit with him he would have declined as he feels that student need to do these things for themselves as the tutors are not always going to be there for them, So I was quite pleased with that.
He had had a look through my website before meeting with me, and he said he really enjoyed looking at my work.
So I took him through my portfolio, and he some of my characters made him smile and he thought I wokred really well with them, but we spoke about my difficultly with human characters which he said to just keep practicing as in Children's illustration, alot of the time is to do with human characters, so it would be good to start working with them.
He seemed to like my portfolio, thought I had a nice range of work and some different things than just having children's illustrations. He loved my shark as he felt the hand made shapes work slightly better than the digital ones, which is why I am glad that I have started to go back to cutting out my own shapes instead of digitally mastering them.
After I took him through my portfolio he showed me a few things that they do at John Brown Media, including airplane magazines for children, which have puzzles and games in them. They work alot with lisenced characters, like Dora the Explorer and Sponge Bob, so they have to work around these characters. He also gave me two of the magazines which was lovely of him.

Again this was a fab portfolio visit, Tim was a lovely guy and had some nice things to say about my work, I will be hopefully keeping intouch with him and hopefully if they have any projects suitable for my style of work he might contact me :) I left once again feeling very confident and proud of myself and my work.

Portfolio Visit- Aurea Carpenter

So, in London, I have a group portfolio visit with Aurea Carpenter, Short Books publishing. Quite a small publishing group.
This was my first portfolio visit in London so I was very very nervous, and after walking up a few flights of stairs in the heat, I became even more nervous. Even though I was with both Chloe and Philippa my hands were still shaking. The area was nice and quiet compared to where we were staying (Kings Cross travelodge) but it was not too far, about a 20 minute walk.
We buzzed in and a nice lady showed us where to go etc, it was quite an old building, with old floorboards and things everywhere! (mostly books of course) but it was very calming and cosy.
So Aurea took us to a small meeting room and spoke to us a little about what they do, then she took a look through our portfolios, I was sat next to her so she automatically went for me first! eek, I was so nervous, even Chloe said she could see my hands shaking! But once I got into go through my portfolio I felt a little more calm, and it helped that Aurea seemed to like my work alot which was great.
She liked my use of colour, shape and texture and could tell that I am interested in Children's illustration.
My twinkle project is at the beginning of my portfolio, which most people I have been to see haven't really had much to say about it, which has made my confidence about it drop a little, but Aurea seemed to really like my characters and she liked the outlines aswell which alot of people have not been keen on, but I think it works well for those particular images. But like most people she also mentioned that I need to work on bringing my text in with my images, making them work together and not separatly.
She loved the colours and patterns of my Dia de los Muertos work, very bright and eye catching with a fun topic to work with.

I also put what I am currently working with in my portfolio, my Grimm's fairy tales book cover, which I thought I had finished, but Gary suggested a few changes, but I had already put what I thought was finished into my portfolio before the changes, but Aurea loved it. She told me not to change anything as she thought the idea was great and she pointed out certain things that I hadn't even thought about before and hadn't noticed untill she said. I had used very sharp pointed shapes for trees which my characters were made around, gary felt that these shapes were making my characters strange looking and not as good as they could be, but Aurea pointed out that these shapes give the cover a sense of jeopardy and they also looked like teeth, making the image dark and scary, which was my main aim of the cover. So i stuck with my image as Aurea suggested and I am very pleased with it. She said she could see it working very well as a jacket on a book.
She liked my rapunzel book cover, mostly the castle which I had created, which lead me to think of things to do with the castle, so I have started to screen print the castle and make some pillows and other bits out of them :)
She seemed to like all of my work and didn't really have any negative things to say which was great and made me feel alot more confident about my work.
After she looked through all of our portfolio, she showed us a project she was working on atm.
She was trying to find an illustrator to illustrate a book cover mostly with typography and she was showing us some good roughs and bad ones. The stage she was at, she had 3 similar roughs from one illustrator, and she asked for our opinions on each ones, the good parts and the bad, after explaining the story we got a better sense of what the cover should feel like, but we gave her our opinions and she agreed with all of us and said she was going to go with what we thought, which made us feel great, having someone professional take our opinions into perspective.

We left her some business cards which she thought was very professional of us and left her some chocolates to say thank you. Overall It was a great portfolio visit, we all left with huge smiles on our faces and felt really good about ourselves and our work. We were very proud and thankful for Philippa for arranging the visit.

Portfolio Visit with Nicola Slater

So yesterday (21st feb) I went to see Nicola Slater with my portfolio, I emailed her to arrange a quick get together at the college, she emailed me back pretty quickly and said she looked at my work online and she loved it which made me feel confident about showing her my portfolio!

So flicking through my portfolio, she gave me a few pointers and told me what she prefered and what she thought my strongest pieces were.
Firstly she loved my little bear logo, thinking it was very cute and childlike, she is a children's illustrator so I thought she might like it!
She thought my Twinkle character was very strong and unique, but like everyone has mentioned, I need to work with my type, either just putting it plainly onto my images, or making it work with my images more, blending them together. Also she said my work looked stronger without the outlines, which I have stoped doing now anyway as I feel more comfortable without them.
She liked my colourful candy skulls and the patterns within them, very eye catching and fun.
She thought my 8x8 work from second year was very strong, but gave me a pointer on my bandit machine image to make it better, she said the type on the buttons needed to fit in better and they don't look like they belong with the image, so that is something I will hopefully work on in time. I told her that I struggle a little with typography and I love the typography used in her work and she said to just look at fonts already on the computer/photoshop and work with them, either just finding one that fits in well or try and copy it in my own style, which sounds like a good idea!
Like the other illustrators that have looked through my portfolio, she loves my james and the giant peach shark, she like that she could tell that it was not completely digital, so I have started to make shapes my hand again instead of making them completely digital, as it makes them stand out at little more as sometimes when everything is digital it becomes a little flat.
She also loved my gun, (everyone seems to!) she said she could pretty much tell what the article was about just from looking at it! so yay.
With my scorpion piece, she liked that I took some kind of insect/animal that doesn't really have a noticable face and something scary and turn it into something cute and friendly.
And she could tell that my portrait image off bradd pitt was him! I was a little worried about this peice, I really do love it but I wasn't sure if people could tell who it was without me telling them first, but she said it deffinatly looks like him, she liked the useage of shapes (the dots for hair) and she gave me and illustrator to look at aswell, which will help me with my portraits and human characters.

Overall it was a great visit, she gave some really good pointers about going to interviews, saying never to say anything bad about your work and people don't want to hear it, they want to see confidence and believe that you can do jobs they give you and just to keep doing what you love. She was so lovely to talk to and made me feel very comfortable, I will hopefully be keeping intouch with her and can hopefully show her some of my newer works in the future.

Thanks Nicola!

Julia Woolf: Portfolio Visit via Email

Hi Rebecca

I have finally finished my heavy work load and have had a good look at your on-line portfolio.

I think you have a very strong graphic look to your work. I particularly like your decorative skulls which you designed for Salford Zine Library. Great colours and shapes. Also very commercial which is a good thing, especially for getting work.

I think they are the most successful in your portfolio.

Next I like the image for 'Killer Fashion', a good strong graphic image. I think your work lends itself to editorial illustration.

I don't find your character work as strong as your more graphic images. I think characters can still be of a graphic nature, but you have to make sure that they are not too cartoony.

And if you are interested in picture books I think you will have to develop your style more.

Also if you are into writing and illustrating that is a very positive thing. Publishers are always interested in that combination.

Your story of the cat is going in the right direction but I think you need to look at whats in the book shops and see how they are layed out etc. The connection between text and illustration. There are some good books out there on how to make a picture book.

I hope this has been of some help, and good luck with your illustration. Great graphic quality to your work. I like that.

All the best and good luck

Julia

ps

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Portfolio Visit! Taylor O'Brien

So today I had a portfolio visit with Helen from Taylor O'Brien, was feeling very nervous and tired after walking to the top floor as I was not getting in that lift on my own.
So we got started pretty quickly, I went through my portfolio explaining what each piece was and why I did it, etc etc.
She seemed to like alot of my work which was great! The pieces she seemed most interested in were the Editorial (Killer Fashion), My James and the Giant Peach Shark character and my Dia de los Muertos skulls. She felt that some of these pieces were very graphicy which is why she liked them, she is a designer not an illustrator so i could understand why she liked these better.
She said from looking at these pieces she knew what they were about, or could atleast guess what they were about and not be far off!
My textures and shapes apparently work very well together and give off a good feel, even though I had lots of different things in my portfolio, childrens book, editorials etc, she could tell that they had been done by the same illustrator, which made me feel great as I was not sure if some of my work looked samey or completely different!
She liked my childrens book, thought the characters were very cute and friendly, though she felt that I needed to work on involving my text into the images more as the text just seems a little seperate from the imagery, which she understands as I am an illustrator and my main focus is the imagery. She also mentioned that I should possibly pick 2 pages from my book which I like and really move them on and make them stronger and put them in my portfolio and if i carry on bringing my book with me then I don't need to have loads of the same images popping up in my portfolio.
My junctures pieces are nicely done, she prefered the fruit machine one which Is unusual as people tent to like the roulette wheel better. Though she suggested a couple of changes just to make the image stronger.
She also said it was nice for me to have put something personal into my logo.
She loved the simplicity and the graphicy ness of both my shark and gun, very effective.
My skulls she seemed to love, especially the title page skull, she loved the contrast of the colours, textures and the white teeth and spaces. She felt the other skull in my portfolio was not as strong as the title page, so she suggested changing some colours to give more contrast.
She also loved the black outlines! (yayy!) she said they really amde the skull stand out. She liked the text and suggested me using it in the background of my other skulls.
She gave me lots of advice about my portfolio and how to talk to professionals and how to stay confident. Overall I think the visit went really well, she said I had a nice variety of things in my portfolio and is looking forward to seeing what else I can do in the future!

Portfolio Visit! Craig Oldham

So, I had an appointment booked in with Craig from design by Music for 2:30, I was very nervous and ended up getting to the place 20 mins early, so I ended up wondering around before I actually buzzed in. I was sat up on the 1st floor while waiting for Craig and I got to see Matt Bray's work on the glass office, which look pretty cool, especially as I was sat infront of his KISS illustrations, (being a big KISS fan this made me smile).
There were a few meetings going on around me so I just sat quietly and waited.
So I waited for Craig to come down and get me and he took me to the ground floor which he called "the Dungeon". I was very nervous but Craig made me feel calm and comfortable, started off witht the usual small talk.
So I started flicking through my portfolio explaining what each piece was about and why I did them etc etc, I also showed him the books I had printed (Twinkle Twinkle little cat, and dia de los muertos, I'll get them up on a seperate post).
So after he looked at my work he said he was very impressed (thank god!) Out of everything I put in my portfolio his favourites were my 'Killer Fashion' and my shark from the James and the giant peach brief and the roulette wheel from the 8x8 brief, he said he can see that I'm good with soming up with Ideas and answering a brief, and responding to them, he said this could possibly be because he is a designer and that is how he usually works.
He thought that my textures were great and worked very well, he said in the past hes seen people work with texture and It sometimes never works too greatly or just fails completely, but he thought mine worked brillianly and clicks with the shapes and white backgrounds.

With my Twinkle story, he loved the characters (espeically the dog) he thought that the pages worked better with a white background, which most of them have, he thought some of the pages needed to be boiled down as the characters worked better with simpler backgrounds.
Also, he thought with putting pieces from a story in a portfolio that things look better without the type, which I fair enough considering i am an illustrator and people want to be more focus on my illustrations than writing.

My roulette wheel is apparently instant and craig felt he knew the story behind it straight away just by looking at it, he felt this was stronger than the main piece I did for the 8x8 brief, which I tihnk everyone agrees with!
My textures used for my shark are apparently spot on, as they are aggressive which is what the personality of a shark would most probably be.

Overall Craigs main points were that it seems like a I have a 'Creative Head' good at problem solving, he said he could see that by looking at my editoral piece mostly, All my textures are spot on and apparently Craig wants to try and touch the textures in my work, haha. He also thought from looking at my work that I work abit better with briefs given to me, instead of things being so 'open' and thought it was a good idea for me to possibly play with some more editorials, which I may do as I did enjoy doing the editorial in second year.

Also he was very impressed that I had my books printed and brought them with me, He said I was the first student he has seen to have done this, and it was nice for him to see my work in some kind of context instead of every page being put in a portfolio.

Overall I think the visit on a whole went brilliantly, even though I was very nervous at first I soon felt confident and comfy, Craig is such a lovely guy I would suggest people to get intouch with him (though he is a very busy bee at the moment).

Portfolio Visits

Well, i've emailed soooo many agencies/illustrators and Only a few have got back to me.

I have an appointment with Craig Oldham from music on the 21st November at 2:30 (already very nervous!!)
I also emailed Helen at Taylor O'brien and she has asked me to email her again next week and we will then make a date, she was very busy that week so she couldn't see me.

A few illustrators and a book publishing company have asked me to send some work off via email which I have done, a few have got back to me (which I have posted already) and others haven't.

I have also Emailed agencies such as Love, MonkeyFeet, Chase and a few others, but nothing.
So hopefully I'll make arrange a date with Helen so I should have two appointments then!

Emailing Eric Carle

I know it was a long shot and I couldn't find a proper email address from Eric Carle, I decided to email the fan email, thinking I wouldn't get any kind of reply, but I did.

Dear Becca Hadfield,

Thank you for your e-mail message to Eric Carle and for all of your thoughtful comments.

To answer your question, Eric tends to refrain from commenting on other people's work and on the business of publishing because he entered the field so long ago when things were very different.

However, you might be interested in visiting Eric's web site at http://www.eric-carle.com/resources.html where he has listed resources on writing and publishing that we hope will be useful for you.

We wish you all the best with your own work and thank you for your interest in Eric and his books.

Best wishes,
Rachel Hass

Oh well, I tried!

Portfolio Visit 2 (email)

I emailed T.S spookytooth and a quick response was given asking me to send some JPEGs of my work, and heres the response!


Dear Rebecca,
Thanks for sending these over; I think they are good. I really like the Killer Fashion piece, it shows a strong visual solution to an editorial brief. If there's any advice I can give, it's to just keep drawing and experimenting.
In my third year of Uni I was nowhere near ready to begin getting commercial commissions. Don't feel rushed to be ready. I know there is a pressure to leave Uni and hit the streets looking for illustration work.
Remember you need to stand out from the crowd, so when you promote your children's book to publishers think of an imaginative way to give it to them so they stand up and take notice when it arrives on their desk.
Do some black and white work as well as many illustrators make a solid living from this area.
Keep producing work, the more you produce the better you'll become, it's that simple.

Good luck with it all.

Do you think you could send me some of the briefs that the university sets you?
It'd be good to get an idea of how these are presented to undergraduates.

All the best and keep in touch.
T.S

Portfolio Visit 1 (email)

After speaking to Tansy Myer, she agreed to taking a look at some of my work, though as she lives in America and I live here in England, obviously would be abit hard and alot of money to meet, especially just for a portfolio visit. So I sent her some of my works via email. I sent her, my Gun, Fruit Machine and Roulette wheel from last year, and some skulls and my twinkle character from the work I had done so far this year. This was her reply.

Hi Becca,

Nice work! I love your use of texture and color in your illustrations. It almost gives them a paper cut or wood block feel to them. The flat perspective also contributes to this wood cut feel.

I think you should go even further playing with texture. Maybe even try textures/patterns that relate to the subject matter. Create your own textures, photograph or scan them in. I can see this being something really cool for you. Would work especially nice for a fashion piece.

Your color palette is very bright and fresh - I really like the pinks/reds contrasted with the silver/grey in killer fashion. Different tones of the same color range give this piece a sophisticated look.

Don't forget that for editorial it needs to be eye-catching and pull you into the story- Junctures works really good for that. I love the color and look of Killer Fashion the most but I wish something a little more "killer" could have come into play besides the brass knuckles. My feeling is art directors can always pull back from what you've given them, so I'd rather go over the top and edit it down. Don't play it safe.

I would also suggest playing around with some layouts that use negative space. Maybe try to do this one with a piece that relates to an emotion or a feeling. Just a thought.

Again, great work Becca. Keep pushing yourself and pushing boundaries for yourself, trying new things and always do what you love. Challenge yourself, but don't force yourself to love something if you don't.

I hope this been helpful.

Cheers,

Tansy

She's given me some great tips and advice which I will deffinatly be taking on board, and I thank her so much for taking some time out to take a look at my work and get back to me, such a lovely women and a fab illustrator!