Rebecca Hollingsworth
These 3 Years •
Grown as a person and an illustrator
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Life skills
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Illustrative skills
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Felt unsure about my practice before
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Feel like my practice now has a bit of a direction
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Confidence
What the course has given me: •
Resources
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Connections
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Advice
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Branding and Professionalism
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Confidence
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Improvement in my ability
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Regular peer reviews and crits
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Gain ideas and honest advice from people I trust and respect
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Help my progression and aid thoughts
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Bank on good people to approach if/ when stuck
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Help that I’ll surely miss
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Improved on collaborative skills
Digital Skills •
Photoshop – foundation – little skill
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Speed and ability improved
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Confidence in using mixed media
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Ability to connect brief to my ideas and expand them to give wide scope to project
Importance of Research •
Dig in to the subject, get primary data, ask questions, get out there
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Supported year 2 and 3 COP
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Better at conveying ideas through writing - don’t feel stupid anymore
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Interviewing people helped inform work
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Gives work more validity / purpose
‘Does this sound smart enough?’ •
Massive turn around this year with my confidence in ability
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Gone from failing draft feedback, to getting a first
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Has proved that I can tackle anything
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Stepped out of comfort zone - meeting people, talking, researching, writing etc.
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Time management and organisation
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Will aid in a commercial setting when meeting clients
Defining Moment •
I don’t like drawing scenes
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Book illustration
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Struggle with character design
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Tried to be something I wasn’t
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Not preferred focus
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Pointed me in to the right direction
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Prefer objects and motifs
My practice: •
An exploration of colour, shape and texture.
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A mix of hand and digital
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Inspiration comes from food and nature
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Pattern
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Motifs
2 sides of my practice 1 – Merchandise •
Stationary, product range and packaging.
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Explored mostly last year
2 – Education aspect of my work •
Tackling societal issues
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Food Waste
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Animal habitat loss
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Love Food Hate Waste and RSPB
Link the two •
Merchandise to engage people in educational projects
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Feel like this comes through in my work
Food: •
Become a large part of my practice
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Something I enjoy to draw
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Different shapes, textures and colours
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Motifs
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Led to food waste project
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Something I’d like to take further
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Food organistatons
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Food magazines – editorial
Promotional Material •
Expanding from last years design
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Simplified
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Used my patterned work
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Communicates ‘me’ as an illustrator
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Promo pack and business cards work together = gives brand identity
Online presence •
Social media
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Website – Shows my best work
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Coincides with promo pack
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Instagram – Bit more personal
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Linkedin – Direct contact info
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Has led to opportunities
Importance of sketchbook •
Development process
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Inform me and my work, not to tick a box
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Use it to experiment, think and visually research and take part the brief
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Vital part of illustrative process
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Added section to my website
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Quality of my work is lost in finished work
Concrete Experience •
Live briefs
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Competitions
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Editorial skills
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Milk X = shown me I can tackle this type of work successfully
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Natural England and Leeds Uni
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Was contacted after they saw my nature pack
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Doing similar work
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Still on-going
RSA Student Design Awards •
‘Waste Not Want Not’ brief
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Entered my CoP3 work
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Been short-listed
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Interview and presentation in London
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Exactly the work I want to do
Building Connections: •
Ana Zaja Petrak
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Clair Rossiter
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Tom Woolley
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Lee Wildish
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Peter Donnelly
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Stephanie Cole
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Agencies
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Great feedback from Ana and Clair
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Feedback on website
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Contact Art Directors
Prodigar •
Artist agency and picture library
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Contacted on Linkedin
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Want to represent me
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Learnt a bit more about contracts
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Not fantastic but good to have something
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Gives me experience
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Have something in the pipeline
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Can cancel contract anytime
Future plans: •
Holiday
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Don’t want to lose this momentum
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Natural England – merchandise?
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Paid commission/project work to engage with
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May lead to a new bid generating more work in other geographical areas
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Present it as an idea they buy to help market their area
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Nottingham Comic Con - Table accepted – something to work towards
Long Term Ambitions •
Develop editorial experience
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Freelance
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Stationary brand
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Drawing food
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Looked at Hallmark, Paper Rose etc
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Try make connections with large card companies to get an idea of how a company works commercially
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Better Agency
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New connections through online presence