Creativity is something you are born with. The simple principle of absorbing the world around you and outputting a new spin on things is not something you can teach. However, I believe talent is something you can be taught. All you need to start an illustration degree is unlimited ideas, unlimited potential and unlimited pencils, and the rest you learn from there. Now finishing said course, I consider myself an Illustrator & Stitch Artist. Whilst working towards my Illustration degree I have experimented in all that was offered to me. I discovered early on I like creating strong, bold imagery, which most recently has taken the form of stitch and textile based pieces. I thrive most under projects based on social commentary, whilst keeping a light hearted and easy image. I believe there is still a lot of ignorance in the
world towards subjects that need to be talked about, and this drives my practice. Although I have dealt with some serious topics in my work, I always try to keep the images witty and fresh. No one is going to respond to shout-y images, so a twist of humour is my way of making my point heard.
The unknown and controversial has always captivated me. The understanding and acceptance of human beings and how different we all are fuels my work. I take a process through my work, where I am learning about a subject, and translate that to my art. I consider my work as a way of being heard, and a way of expressing my opinions. So a subject I feel passionate about is where my best work develops. I like to challenge social ‘norms’. Pattern and colour really push my work, especially when it comes to my textile based illustration. A well thought out pattern or colour pallet is something I am continuing to perfect.
If you are not online in this generation, you don’t exist. It is such a great tool to use and get yourself out there and known, it would be stupid not to take advantage. So knowing this, I have created a website, showing not only my best work, but also more relaxed work that didn’t make it into my portfolio. My website is colourful, friendly and also quite casual because I feel this best reflects the nature of my work. You can visit my website at www.eloisebiddlecombe.co.uk
I also have a blog to show my progress through out my final project. I find having a blog is important because this is where I can talk about the more personal side of my work, and I can also document my working process. The photos are less refined and you can see problems I have stumbled upon and resolved. It’s essentially a more in depth and less shiny version of my website, and gives a better indication of what it would be like to work with me. You can visit my blog at fmp-ejb.tumblr.com
I think it is very important in this screen-based world, to have hard copies of my work for my portfolio. I wanted to include sample of my stitch and textiles work in my portfolio for people to pick up, play with and feel. I also included photo versions to show how my work would look like in print. I created some business cards to hand out also; they’re fun, colourful and neat.
Unless I have a really specific image I’m craving to create, my creative journey always starts with mind-maps, lists, doodles and sketches. I like explore strenuous links and see where I could push an idea. I always work in big sketchbooks; I need the space for my work to grow and think, and also physical space for my pencil to move across the page, I feel claustrophobic other wise. Once I’ve found an idea, I move onto drawing bold, onelined images, often tweaking it as I go, so they are clear for me to translate into fabric, stitched embroidery or mono-printing. Once I’m happy with an image, and I want to move onto stitching it, I’ll often use tracing paper to lightly copy the pencil design onto my fabric of choice. From here on I’ll stitch over the faint lines, or stitch patches of fabric in sections. One issue I came across when I first started embroidered illustration was gripping the fabric in the wrong place whilst stitching and rubbing off the faint pencil lines, and therefore loosing part of the original image. When that happened, I would have to free style stitch to make up the gaps. Learning from this, it happens rarely anymore, as I’ve altered my technique when stitching. I’m also a very keen cross stitcher, it’s what started my love for fabric based illustration. Although it’s not a primary example of my work, it has found its way as being a serious hobby of mine.
And that’s how it started, a hobby. It grew as I started to create my own images to cross-stitch by plotting out the crossed pixels on gridded paper. Cross-stitching taught me the basic fundamentals of creating an image through material and thread, and I ran with it from there. Because I create stitched images by hand, this has taught me to become very patient with my work. I can happily stitch the same piece for weeks and not get frustrated, because I know the outcome is always worth the effort. Once I’ve created a long slow piece, I sometimes like to create something fast and slightly out of control. This comes in the form of mono-printing and experimenting with new mediums in my sketchbook. I am definitely still growing as an illustrator and still very curious to discover new mediums to work in. I know I have come a long way in term of refining my technique and skills, but I still feel I have further to go, and that’s exciting to me.
For my Final Major Project I wanted something fresh and new to work on, whilst continuing on what I had learnt with my textiles and techniques from previous projects. I decided to look into the theme of Obsession and how it can affect the art world. I focused in from this concept into Outsider Art. I wanted this project to look into the drive inside every artist to be creative. It felt very fitting for my last project at university to be self aware. I started with researching into Outsider Art, and how for these artists they are not creating their work for galleries, or art dealers, not for money or even fame. Their need to create comes from within, to complete a personal need. This surely makes their art
the purest form of art, because it has no ulterior motives. Continuing with this concept, I wanted my work to reflect the idea and image of obsession. I started this by creating obsessive and repeating patterns mostly in my sketchbook, using mediums from watercolour to electrical tape. These patterns developed into fabric based images, and after reading ‘It’s Kind Of A Funny Story’ (about how a young boy becomes creatively obsessed with creating head maps), the imagery from this pushed me to making fabric heads. I’ve created these heads with patches of material inside them, demonstrating the different areas of the brain. I then stitched little black crosses spreading through the sections to represent obsessions growing in the mind.
Moving onwards with the drive to make almost biological/scientific images out of fabric, I started creating a set of brains. Each brain is stitched the same way, same colour threads, materials and size, yet I stitched different beads or sequins in different areas on each brain. These areas represent the brain activity of a mind whilst acting obsessively. I chose three ob-
sessions to work with, OCD, Hoarding and Obsessive Art. On the back of each of the brains is a representation of each obsession through fabric and stitch. I feel my pieces of work are self-aware because of the time and dedication it has taken to make them, where I am almost at the point of obsession over my work, which in turn are representing obsession.
This Is Crowd is a creative communications agency, and they hosted a competition where they offered 5 words to work with; International, Partnership, Awards, Education and Data. It was up to us to interpret these words into a design to sit on the back of a skateboard. These skateboards would then be hung in their offices for wall art, displayed on their website where many industry professionals circulate and the winners would also be paid for their efforts. It was a very big opportunity, and I chose to work with the word Data. My first thought was how my cross-stitch designs would fit perfectly with the word Data, as they are by nature very pixel based. I had touched upon cross-stitched robots in my first year and had a positive reaction from them, so I thought this was the perfect time to go back to that. So after brain storming a lot of ideas, I tweaked my final design and sent off my prototype. I found through a video Crowd had posted on Facebook that I had won! It was a great feeling, and I then started preparations to create the real thing. I decided I didn’t want to transfer my crossstitch design onto a sticker to apply to the skateboard, (although it would be easier) I decided I wanted to stitch the whole thing and stick the material to the back of the skateboard. It took about 9 days in total from starting stitch to sticking it on the back of the board, and I was incredibly proud of the result. You can see my skateboard on their website at www.thisiscrowd.com/our-life/onboard-with-ba-illustration/
This was an exhibition created and hosted by a group of peers from illustration level 6, who all worked with hand made craft. The idea of the exhibition was to celebrate the variety of hand made crafts, and how they could all be considered illustration. It was also a brilliant example of how far you could push illustration, and how we have all developed into very different crafts as illustrators. The variety stretched from paper craft and sculpture to textiles and detailed hand rendered pencil drawings. It was a great and real experience to prepare myself for my outside adventure as an illustrator, because this was completely self-initiated. I got amazing feedback for my work as well; the experience was completely invaluable.
To raise money for our Graduate Show, High Noon, I’ve helped with many events. As a group, we have put on Silent Auctions, where we all donate work to sell. All proceeds went to High Noon. I donated some of my mono-print originals, and some cross-stitched robots people seem to love. Everything I donated sold, which is a great feeling. We also contacted other illustrators to donate work to our cause. Another event I was involved greatly in was Hullabaloo. This was a tropical disco night we organised at a local club called The Winchester. The owner of The Winchester, Mark, would let us have the venue for free if we organised everything, and if he took
all the bar sales. This was a great deal, because we could then make money from tickets, face painting, polaroid photos, and shot we had previously made and brought in. I created many decorations for the nights, and I also took shifts with my other helper friends on the door, or face painting, or selling shots. It was so much fun, and over 3 separate Hullabaloo’s, we raised £2500. It was a huge chunk for our funding and I feel great in knowing I had a part in raising that.
My plan for when I leave university is to move straight to Bristol. I wouldn’t consider going back home because there is not a single creative job to be had in my small home village and I would struggle to find work. I’m prepared to chase the work, and that means moving to where it is. There are many creative circles in Bristol and many opportunities to make the most of. I plan to open an online shop to sell one off pieces as well as printed posters of my work.. Even though I am moving to Bristol where there is more creative work to be had, I am not naive to think I’ll get a job straight away. I will work somewhere part time, whilst still creating self initiated projects in my own time, keeping my blog, website and shop updated, and entering competitions. I also know several illustrators, who are heading to Bristol also, so to keep them in my creative life in important, and maybe form a collective with them. We plan to open a pop up christmas shop this December, which we are begining to make work for already.