My Practice.... Major Project.... Inspiration... Getting out there.... Career Plan... Curriculum Vitae... AOI Acceptance of Commisson form... Bibliography
My Practice It has been a very long journey since the start of my degree to where I am now. My work at the beginning of this course, now that I look back at it, was safe. I would only ever pick up a pencil or a fine-liner, never wanting to use any other media. Colour wasn’t something I would use either as I had defined myself as someone who wasn’t good with colours and so, my work only consisted of black and white. As I look back at my work of my first year, illustrations that I was once proud of, I no longer am. I see what I lacked back then and I can see how much I have improved since then. My observational skills had been poor and static, no energy at all and I have come to realise that alot of my work had been like that because I hadn’t enjoyed drawing them, I was drawing because I had to, not because I wanted to, and because of this negative emotion I had then, had obviously shown through my work.
It was at the beginning of my second year that I had realised, despite still using fine-liner, that I enjoyed spending hours on an image and getting as much detail as I could properly. I enjoyed drawing like this as I felt like I was watching my illustration slowly come to life. However, I never continued this style despite enjoying it highly because others hadn't liked it as much as I had, it was around this time that I tried to work to what others liked. Despite losing focus of myself during this year, I had somewhat come out of my comfort zone as well, as I had began to pick up other media and begin to incorporate colours into my work. I had come to realise that colour actually complemented my work and brought energy to it which my work lacked.
I wouldn't define myself as a risk taker, in fact I'm not. I think too much that it has a heavy affect on my work. It was a miracle that I had even taken a few steps out of my comfort zone, however I was forced toward the end of my second year to not use fine-liner or pencil, in fact I was banned from using it. This had completely thrown me out of my comfort zone but it had been best for me because if my tutors hadn't, I don't think I would have used charcoal at all. Charcoal is somewhat similar to the media that was my comfort zone, however at the same time it wasn't. It was messy, it went everywhere and if I made a mistake, I had to go with it, erasing charcoal isn't easy, but I enjoyed every minute of using it. I enjoyed drawing my illustrations, I enjoyed that unit and I'm glad I threw caution to the wind and had completely stepped out of my comfort zone.
During my second year, before my last project, Sharon's words had helped me find myself of which I had lost in worrying what others would think of my work and in trying to please them. She had told me to do what I want to do, not what others want me to do, to do what I like, not what others like and to not try and please the tutors but to just enjoy myself and draw with enjoyment. This had helped me, and is what led to my drawings prior to third year.
I listened to Sharon's words and did what I wanted to do, I drew for myself and only myself and I enjoyed every moment of it. However I only took half of that thought process with me into the third year. I somewhat fell back into being worried what my tutors would say about my work, what their opinion would be and whether they would like it or not. I had also fallen back into my comfort zone as my first project of my third year had been pencils, however, I stuck to detailing and shading, similar to my charcoal work in which I had enjoyed, but because my thought process had fallen into worrying what my tutors would say my confidence had fallen and it could be seen within my work.
Major Project
For my third year final project, I decided to focus on making a picture book of a traveller in Japan who explores the foriegn country. I had been to Japan prior to this project as I went on holiday there over the christmas and new years period. I'm the type to overthink, alot, and that is what I did in this project. I had over thought what I was doing, what I wanted to do. The pressure of it being my final project had gotten to me and I kept thinking that his unit had to be the best, that it needed to be good. I kept changing the storyline, the characters, their designs and the storyboards. I was unable to settle on what I wanted. I would draw illustration after illustration, scene after scene and I would try to place them together, to make something of it that I would like, but it wouldn't. I was stressing over trying to impress others and myself, I had fallen back into thinking what others would think about it. It was half way through the unit that I gave up, I gave up just trying to make it perfect, I gave up thinking and I just drew. I drew what I wanted to draw, I tossed out a storyline, I tossed out the words and I went for a full on picture sequence book, how I wanted to do. I may have ignored others opinions, I may have not done it to how others would have liked it, I did it to what I wanted to do and it allowed me to enjoy what was left of my unit instead of stressing about it. I didn't fall back to full on black and white images, despite contemplating it, I decided to conquer watercolouring. It had been something I had tried to do in the second year but it hadn't been good because I worried too much on the colours and how I didn't want the colours to blend in with each other. Or that the colours had to be perfectly in the lines and not messy, but this time, I didn't worry. I just painted without worry and with only enjoyment.
I don't know if my tutors will like my style, nor my choice, but I like it. In fact, I'm happy with it and how it all turned out, even if theres no words within it, nor how I originally imagined my final project would turn out to be when the unit started I'm proud with what I have produced. I made the story for the viewer to just have to look at the images with no words, to take it all in, some of the panels I created so you can't see the character but just the view, as if to make it like the reader is the character who is exploring the sights.
To make my final outcome, I scanned in my images and placed it into an application called 'Bookwright' which is an application that is needed to make a book which then can be sent to a printing company called Blurb. With blurb, I can pick the size I want, the paper I want and the kind of cover I want such as hard cover or soft cover. The application is pretty simple in making the pages and the layouts, similar to indesign. You can choose the layout with the help of their templates, however, in trying to place an image on a page is pretty limited. Even if you place an image to fill the whole page it will crop off the image, but if I didn't want my image cropped I would have to change the size of my image but it wouldn't fill the page and would have a border. I choose to order and print the book anyway despite having some difficulty in placing my images within their layouts. I planned to use it as my final piece if it turned out to be how I imagine it to be and that I like it, however I decided to make a back up book for my final piece as I am uncertain when my book from blurb will arrive and if the book will even turn out how I expect it to, for all I know the quality of my images may come out differently to what I wanted and expected, the cover may be wrong, or maybe theres too many unexpected and unwanted pages that weren't needed. I decided to go to uniprint and print my book there as well, many of my peers have said it's a good place to print my book from for a small cost in comparison to blurb. However, upon getting it, I found out that they had added two more blank pages to it and the quality of my textures for the outer pages were horrible. It was painful to the eyes. I was unhappy with it and despite others saying it wasn't too bad I just wasn't satisfied with it, it wasn't something I could hand in.
I re-did the file on Indesign, added on two more pages like how Uniprint had done, sorted out my textures so the quality wouldn't go wrong again and asked them to re-print it for me. This time, I was happy with the end product and how the images came out. You could still see the texture of the watercolour. My book is made with Matt Paper, 160gsm. It is A5 size and has saddle stitching.
Inspiration When I think about what inspires me as an illustrator, I can easily say that my answer is my experiences. This can be from the people I meet, the places I travel to or events that happen to me or others around me. Every experience I have has inspired me, and any more that are yet to come will continue to do so as they are forever changing. I have only come to accept that a lot of my work comes from my experiences and that it is what inspires and fuels my imagination, however before that I had always been determined to find something more fascinating and it affected my work, as well as myself. I tried to work to what my tutors liked, to what I thought others would like, I had tossed aside my own style, my love for detail and colour in search for work that slowly became something that didn’t feel like mine but something I forced myself to do. However, I’ve stopped trying to work to what others like, but to illustrate for myself, which has certainly been seen in my work in comparison from my first year. I am inspired by other illustrators, the illustrator that inspires me the most is Shaun Tan. I never knew of his work until the second year of my degree where I had accidently came across his work in the libary. I had come across his book called 'The arrival'. His work is so detailed and absolutely beautiful, it needs no words to follow what his pictures tell. I am also inspired by David Hockney, I saw his work when I was in secondary school and since then it inspires me and continues to do so, both his photographic montages and his landscape paintings. Katie Green is another illustrator and comic artist whom inpires me, she continues to inspire me that our experiences can be used within our stories or images
Getting out There Online Presence
In this digital age, having an online existence of ourselves has become a second nature to everyone.
Many people, young and old have an online presence these days, whether it is just a personal blog, a Facebook account or a youtube page, it’s there on the web for everyone to see or social through, but the internet can be more than that. It can be the place a business starts and expands through and so, for an illustrator, having an online presence is far more important, especially because it is an invaluable self promotional tool in promoting a business in todays economy. Most people of my generation use multiple sites such as Facebook, Twitter and blogger each day thus why social networking is an effective tool in promoting my work. I have created all these media pages, however I have yet to grow them. I have a tumblr, a main website and a shop all under construction but is slowly expanding and will continue to grow with each passing day. Another way to get myself out there is advertising, the most important is making business cards with details on as it is an easy promotional tool to hand out or leave in places for people to take and carry around.
Career Plan
Once I receive my degree, I plan to get a full time job so I can earn some money to pay the bills, to buy the food and clothes and the roof over my head, it will also be the job that will continue to fund money towards making my illustrations which I plan to sell online.
I have researched into various sites on which I can start selling my work on. There is many different sites on which I can use, and many of them are rather popular. One of the sites I have heard quite about about, is a site called ‘Etsy’ which is rather popular for selling hand made work from illustration to jewellery. I believe I can potentially list my work upon this site to sell it there, especially as the site is very popular and has a large committee. The site has fees of course, and so if I make a sale, Etsy’s commission is 3.5% which is low in comparison to ebay’s commission fee of 10%. Ebay is another potential site to sell my illustrations on, which like many others have turned towards, however Ebay happens to have a lot of fees depending on the subscription and payment method. Depending on how much I want to list upon Ebay differs the cost, if I list up to 65 but no more, the subscription is free, but each listing costs £0.26. If I list more than 65 items but no more than 600 the subscription fee is £17.38 a month with 200 free listings but any more than 200, each listing is £0.09. Although, that is not to say that Etsy doesn’t have cons either, Etsy’s listing fee is £0.14 and is active for 4 months or until they sell and has a 3.5% transaction fee and a 4% payment processing fee with an additional £0.20. Still cheaper than Ebay, however, the two both have a large con and that is the risk of my work not selling at all, however that is negative thinking and I believe can be worked around due to my online presence I plan to develop and expand. Other sites I have turned to look at to sell my work online, are sites called 'Society 6' and 'redbubble'. These sites are hugely different to that of Etsy and Ebay.
On Redbubble and Society 6, they offer your artwork and illustrations to be made onto various different things, from phone cases and bags to notebooks and coffee cups. They make it all for you and post it to the buyer, however if you were to make a sale, for example, if a T-shirt with your illustration sells for £19.99 you will receieve 20% of it and the site receives the rest of the payment. I prefer these websites than that that of Etsy and Ebay for now, it offers your work in more ways than one and you don't have to do much, allowing you to focus on making more illustrations, it is a good way to start small before working your way up.
Outside of creating and expanding my online presence as well as selling my work online, I have also planned to study abroad in a year or two in Japan. I have looked into various study programs and courses in which I can apply through as to study abroad. I have looked at ‘EF’ which costs £17,000 for 11 months including tuition and accommodation fees, I have also looked at ‘Go Nihon’ which costs £9229, which includes tuition, enrolment and application fee, however accomodation is not included unlike 'EF'. Lastly, I have also looked at an Japanese art course through 'CIEE' which is taught entirely in English on the campus of Niigata college of Art and Design. The program includes two courses with a total of 6 credits. The cost is £11,612.55, not including accomodation. Accomodation is £3274.42 and a application fee of £1164.54 as well as insurance 80.83. Total cost is £16,132.35 for five months . 'CIEE' offers grants and scholarships, I also plan to use savings to fund my study abroad.
Nerissa Andrews Address : 4 Ivamy Place Wallisdown Bournemouth Dorset BH11 8QX Mobile : 07939697765 Email : andrews.n@icloud.com
Personal Statement I am a passionate, friendly, hard-working individual with a creative flair highly capable of individual work or working within a team. I am versitile, keen to learn new skills and highly adaptable to new methods.
Skills
Education Arts Univery Bournemouth (AUB), Poole, Dorset 2013-2016 BA (Hons) Illustration Degree - Results Pending
Photoshop Indesign
Arts Univery Bournemouth (AUB), Poole, Dorset 2011-2013 EDEXCEL BTEC LEVEL 3 extended Diploma in Art and Design Triple Grade Pass EDEXCEL ICT functional skills Pass
Illustrator Animate cc Time Management
The Bourne Academy, Bournemouth, Dorset 2007-2011 8 GCSEs A-C
Problem Solving Office Applications Photography
Volunteering Date : June 2015 Employer: Infinity Sports Job: Face Painter Responsibilities: • Face painting faces • Maintainingg cleanliness and neatness • Provide a comfortable and courteous experience • Carry out other duties as may be requested Date : May 2015 Employer: Infinity Sports Job: Sports Assistant Responsibilities: • Supervising the Children • Keeping order and calm • Setting up sports equipment • Participating in sport games
Date : April 2013 Employer: The Bourne Academy Job: Art and Design teachers Assistant Responsibilities: • Setting up tables and art equipment • Supervising the students • Helping students with their work • Maintainingg cleanliness and neatness of work areas • Cleaning up art equipment ready for another class Date : July 5th 2011 Employer: Kingsleigh Primary School Job: Art and Design teachers Assistant Responsibilities: • Supervising the students • Helping students with their work • Maintainingg cleanliness and neatness of work areas • Cleaning up art equipment ready for another class
Work Experience
Date: November 2015 Employer: The Co-operative Job: Customer Team Member Responsibilities • Serving Customers on tills • Handling cash • Packing customers purchases • Recording lottery and calculating the worth • Facing the store and Stock rotation • Back stocking • Showing customers where items are • Cleaning shop floor • Counting and sending back newspapers
Date: April 1st 2015 Employer: The Bourne Academy Job: Exam Invigilator Responsibilities • Supervising the students. • Handing out and collecting Exam Papers. • Securing the exam papers. • Setting up equipment. • Packing up equipment. • Pointing students to their designated rows. • Maintaining calm and order • Explaining exam regulations • Transporting Exam paper from room and safe
Date: September 2012 Employer: Argos Retail Job: Weekend Customer Advisor Responsibilities • Serving Customers on tills • Handling cash • Serving Customers at the collection bench • Packing customers purchases • Checking stock • Reporting if any stock numbers are incorrect • Retrieving purchases • Answering customer inquires • Showing customers products before buying • Cleaning shop floor
Date : July 5th 2010 Employer: Priory View Pre-school Job: Childcare Assistant Responsibilities: • Prepare the tables and games in the morning • Interact with the children • Wipe and clean tables • Prepare and carry snack trays for each table • Hand out the snacks and supervise the children • Wash up the snack trays • Clearing plates • Wiping tables and any other mess occurred. • Talking to parents and their enquirys • Making sure all children leave with their parents.
Interests Travelling - I take pleasure in organising trips abroad to various places, and researching in what to see and do during my time there. I enjoy travelling and experiencing new cultures and experiences. I have been lucky to have travelled to Cyprus, Majorca, Rome, Berlin, Barcelona Phillippines and Japan. Photography - I have had a keen interest in photography for many years, after joining a photographic club. My interest is in taking and developing photographs and the manipulation of these photographs. In recent years I have started to experiment with digital photography and picture manipulation. Chess - I enjoy playing chess in my spare time, it tests my patience, and challenges me everytime. It allows me to work my mind and create strategic moves and to visualize the end of the game from the beginning helps you win.
References Available on Request
Nerissa Andrews 4 Ivamy Place BH11 8QX 07939697765 andrews.n@icloud.com
ACCEPTANCE OF COMMISSION To: Laura Wilson, 290A Sandbanks Road Poole, Dorset
I am pleased to accept your commission for artwork as follows: Title/Subject: Our Wedding Day Commissioned By: Laura Wilson Delivery Dates Roughs: 1st July 2016 Artwork: 23rd January 2017 Fee: £545.00 Expenses: £21.00 Total: £566.00
TERMS OF COPYRIGHT LICENCE TO BE GRANTED Customer: Laura Wilson Use: Personal use, Illustrated soft book of 30 pages coloured, Area covered by Licence: United Kingdom Duration: Indefinite Exclusive/Non-Exclusive: Exclusive Credits- YES
A credit for non-editorial work is required if this box is checked (see Clause 23 overleaf) Special Terms (if any): Any uses outside of the terms and conditions require the illustrator's written permission. The illustrator retains the right to be credited whenever the artworks are used for any use. The Standard Terms and Conditions for this commission and for the later licencing of any rights are shown on the back of this page. Please review them together with the above and let me know immediately if you have any objection or queries. Otherwise it will be understood that you have accepted them. THIS COMMISSION IS SUBJECT TO ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS ON PAGES 2,3 AND 4. Signature of Illustrator: Date: Signature of Client: Date:
Bibliography Akin, Maxwell. (N/A). 10 Comics That Could Pass for Literature. wonderslist.com. [Online]. Available from: http://www.wonderslist.com/10-comics-that-could-pass-for-literature/ (Accessed 30 April 2016) Gerry In Art. (2012). David Hockney: My Yorkshire. gerryco23.wordpress.com. [Online]. Available from: https://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/david-hockney-my-yorkshire/ (Accessed 30 April 2016) Green, K. (2014). Lighter than My shadow. lighterthanmyshadow.files.wordpress.com. [Online]. Available from: https://lighterthanmyshadow.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/red-tree.jpg?w=550&h=646 (Accessed 30 April 2016) Gree, K. (2013). Lighter than My shadow. itunes.apple.com. [Online]. Available from: https://itunes.apple. com/gb/book/lighter-than-my-shadow/id721700275?mt=11 (Accessed 30 April 2016) Harris, R. (2012). David Hockney – Photography will never equal painting!. photomuserh.wordpress. com. [Online]. Available from: https://photomuserh.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/david-hockney-photography-will-never-equal-painting/ (Accessed 30 April 2016 Shootingfilm. (2013). "joiners" - Creative Polaroid Collages by David Hockney. shootingfilm.net. [Online]. Available from: http://www.shootingfilm.net/2013/01/joiners-polaroid-collages-by-david.html (Accessed 30 April 2016) Tan, S. (N/A). The Arrival. shauntan.net. [Online]. Available from: http://www.shauntan.net/books/the-arrival.html (Accessed 30 April 2016) Ciee. (