Pres dialogue

Hello! I’m Tom (as you hopefully know at this point), and I work under the Illustration name of Zoom. I’m going to be telling you about my practise over the past few years and where its going in the future. But before I begin I’d like to briefly discuss my branding. For those of you who don't know the name Zoom comes from a children’s TV show called Tommy Zoom. My friend referred to me as Tommy Zoom to her kid and soon enough everyone else started calling me Zoom.

Now you know why I have such a random branding name, hopefully I won’t regret using it. Anyway, lets properly begin. I want to start by discussing my journey thus far - thats me two years ago, all fresh faced and free of trouble. Notice I’m pulling a ridiculous face, expressing how lacking in worry I am. Looking back Level 4 was fantastic wasn’t it? I really enjoyed the modules in that year Visual Narratives, Visual Language and CoP are the three that stick out for me, and they are probably the three that have moulded my practise thus far. I really wish I’d have taken greater advantage of Visual Language during that year, but unfortunately I didn’t and I feel that I’m still not taking full advantage of what I learnt during those sessions. But more on that later. We were also introduced to CoP a module that I really struggled with at first, but have since learnt to love, but again - I’ll be discussing CoP later.

Moving on to Level 5. That was a pretty intense one. Our workload was pretty hectic to point where I felt like I was almost having a breakdown at some points. Level 5 felt like a trial by fire but it was worth it. There was a lot of work involved but through it my process evolved and so did I professionally. I began to forward think more often, realising that preparation is key to a good practise. Colours May Vary also took place last year and it was the first real moment of my work being in the outside world and it felt great. This feeling would be capitalised on in Level 6 but we’ll go into that in a moment. First I want to go back and discuss my process a bit, which changed drastically throughout Level 5. I was struggling to make work at a fast rate, which kind of needed to happen last year, and I ended up drawing some pieces digitally. I found that I could sit for longer in front of a computer than I could a sketchbook. However I felt like less of an illustrator when using a computer.

That all changed during a Big Heads chat with Matt Taylor. He too is a prolific digital illustrator who finds images and renders them using a digital pen aka tracing. My process took on this nature and I found that I was creating more, specifically over the summer between Level’s 5 and 6. My process consisted of finding imagery on the internet and creating a digital collage. This collage would then be drawn over and edited to suit my work. However there were limitations to this process. For example, should I want an image of a person in a specific pose I’d have to spend sometimes hours searching for it online. In certain cases I was altering my work to suit images I could find. Ultimately I found this was hampering my creativity and limiting my visual freedom.

So I decided to have a bit more faith in my own ability and changed my process somewhat. Using myself as the subject I could put myself in what ever pose I needed. I would then trace over the image digitally to create a skeletal figure. From here I would print this out and draw over that in pencil. Finally the pencil work is scanned in and inked digitally using Kyle Webster Brushes. Initially I was inking using dip pens, but I found that my skill with them is severely lacking, and the cost of ink is crazy. This process is much more time consuming than what I was doing in Level 5 but I am much happier with the results.

Now then, moving onto Level 6. This is the year where I really begun to feel like I’m in control of my own career. With more autonomy I’ve been able to take on projects and develop ideas more suited to my own avenue of illustration - namely Narrative. Throughout my time here, I’ve learn that narrative illustration is more than just stereotypical comic books. Over last summer I spent several weeks working on a comic, thoroughly enjoyed making it and knew I wanted narrative to be the focal point of my final year. Level 6 was also the final year of CoP. Now I know many people wont agree with me here, but I’m going to be sad to leave CoP behind.

What I loved about that module is that it allowed time for massively in depth research into a topic.

This in turn allowed for an informed discussion to take place and the chance to illustrated that

discussion in some form. Somewhat amusingly the illustration aspect was the weakest part of that module and really dragged my grade down. The reason for this being that I spent so much time writing and not enough time in my sketchbook. However despite this I did do quite well and I want to find a way to incorporate the ideology of CoP into my practise further.

Another big point for me in Level 6 was the Thought Bubble Comic Arts festival. It was my first year selling at the event and I have to say, it was quite exhilarating. Everyone was incredibly friendly and it was very enjoyable. I took a few of my self published zines and prints to the festival and I was quite surprised to find whilst my prints sold okay, my zines did not. Reflecting on that I’d have to say that the atmosphere didn’t allow for people to stand around reading something they have no attachment to whilst prints are quick visual fixes that people can make immediate choices with. I’ve since taken some of my zines to the Travelling Man store which I feel is a more appropriate place for them. Thought Bubble also allowed for a bit of networking, with Joe showing one of our collaborative efforts to people at Titan comics, and myself talking to a representative from the Birmingham ICE comic festival, which I have also applied for. After the event I felt a massive comedown, even somewhat sad (which is apparently normal for attendees of the festival). But this leads me onto my next point.

Depression. I was recently diagnosed with it. As some of you know during the winter I suffer from SAD (seasonal affective disorder). It consists of me always feeling a little bit low, a little bit tired, and a little bit grumpy. I don’t like being around people when I feel like this as I can be quite horrible. This Sadness didn’t seem to end as the days brightened up again and ultimately began to affect my work despite all my certainty that it wasn’t. So I went to the doctors and they diagnosed me with depression and recommended I begin a treatment of drugs to help me out. I’m not a fan of taking medication unless it is imperative so it was a big decision to start taking these tablets and the side effects almost made me stop within a week. I suffered panic attacks for the first time in my life and anxiety whenever I thought about leaving the house. However these side effects eventually eased off and I’m starting to feel good again.

This experience affected my practise and made me realise that something my work was lacking was that it didn’t really help anyone. It just existed. I want my work to have a purpose and helping people is a great one. With this in mind I took on the Crispin Orthotics Brief, a brief that I initially didn’t intend to take on. However I did and felt good vibes at the thought of helping people with my skills. I hope to find a place for this sort of work in the future.

Beyond Thought Bubble and Crispin Orthotics not all of my Level 6 practise has been positive. I’ve recently realised that I really need to start working in my sketchbook more (I’m aware of the irony that my presentation has been designed digitally). Whilst I can work quickly with good results via digital means, I find that I’m more experimental and questioning when I work in my sketchbook.

Whilst I’m on the subject of experimentation, I feel that something I haven’t done enough of during my time here was experiment with the different college resources. Part of my reason for this was the thinking that I didn’t want something that would be difficult to do outside of college to become intrinsic to my practise such as screen printing. That’s an incredibly naive way of thinking though and I feel it has hampered me somewhat. Finally, networking is probably my worst area. I’m terrible at talking to people I don’t know (and not to good at talking to some people I do know). I feel that may be the reason I haven’t done too well in this area - but there is a positive, which I will discuss shortly.

First I’d like to talk about the future of my practise somewhat, I know that I want my work to revolve around narrative based illustration. I have a few ideas in mind for the first few months post college that I am developing but I’m vary aware that I need to also pay my bills - thus I need a job. I’d began sending out CV’s but unfortunately not heard anything back. This ultimately is quiet disheartening, as some of you are probably also feeling. However there is a positive spin that came out of PPP networking.

I recently spoke to a friend who is a freelance web developer. He is looking to expand his business and start his own company in the next few months, which means he’ll need an in house illustrator and has offered me the opportunity to work with him. Now, because he’s just starting off he said he’d only be able to offer me part time work, maybe two/three days a week, which at the moment works out fine for me. He also said that he’d start to teach me the basics of web development so that I can become a better part of his team, or should I choose to, move on to a different company.

He’s really thrown me a bone, and I’ve got to make sure I don't let him down.

But anyway, I’m going to end by discussing my creative presence a bit more. For a few years I’ve had a Facebook, twitter and Instagram account for my work, but until the last year have only used them fleetingly. This year I took a proactive stance and made an effort to regularly update them with work, which has seen my numbers grow by about a third. I’ve also began using Tumblr where I’ve found there is a real love of my political satire and fan art work. These media sites are designed for immediate updates, on my work whilst my website has been designed to act somewhat like an online portfolio, with final pieces showing possible clients of my skill. Whist these are great ways to raise awareness of practise, for me a big part if it will be going to conventions and meeting people face to face and forcing them to interact with me. I’ll be attending Thought Bubble again this year and hopefully Birmingham ICE with more in the future. With a few avenues made available to me right now my practise could potentially go anywhere, and I have to say, I’m more excited than nervous to be leaving Leeds College of Art. Thank you, are there any questions.