Artist CV influences and Drafts

With this part of my professional practice, I was looking up was to create an artist CV of my own. I want an artist CV, so when I go into the business of been an illustrator I can give clients my artist CV which visual shows my art style and tells them the necessary details of been an artist.


Before I started my artist CV I looked up examples of others, so that I can gather what I need to put on CV and what I can do to develop my visual ideas of what the CV should look like as well as how can I make it individual.

Example one

Example two

Example three

Example four

Example Five

Example Six

Example Seven

Example Eight

Example Nine

Example Ten

With these examples I tried to take bits that I found the best aspects. So with example one I was looking how you can a normal formatted CV into an artistic one. So what they have done with this CV is add a tea staining effect on the background and then layered it on top with drawings of their own. With the text they have turned them onto a angle. They have used also used photography skills and edited them in Photoshop into grayscale. My opinion on this CV is that it is very bland and does not show a lot of the artists actual skills. Overall this CV to my is something that I do not want to create because it seems very basic in design and I want to go for something that sticks out more.

The second CV example is more interesting because it shows a drawing of themselves in their own style thus giving the idea of what art style they have. Another thing that I have to mention is they clever scale of her digital skills and scores it out of weak to strong. This would be a good idea to use but I need to develop it more by maybe adding a number scale which gives the client more of an idea of what I am like with certain techniques.  I also like that the layout and text because it is simple which makes it easier for client to get straight to point. But I think when it comes to my CV I want to add more information.

With the third CV I only chose it as an example because of his skill chart because it does not use a number chart but instead using a image display of the display instead which to me looks visual pleasing and also it was a good idea to do a range of different colours for different skills. I want to use this idea for my final outcome.  

With the fourth CV I am using it as an example because I like the idea of having a text box coloured because then it brings it out. With the layout again it simple format and it gets straight to the point which is generally used in all these CV. I think it would be a good idea to get to the point. Again this example use the range scale which again is a popular chose. So if I do decide to go for it, it would seem generic but what I have noticed that each person give their own take on it. So with mine I need to think what I could possible do.     

With example five the thing that I like about it was the idea that it folds up into something small because then it easy to carry and also you could fit in more information on each side of the paper. With the layout of this CV which is more graphic design but it does include a photo of the person, which I think is a good idea to include because then the client will remember what I look like.   

Now moving on to example six, which is a CV which I really like because it is step up as a RPG character sheet which I really like because it very creative but my own issue with this idea is that he could of something more useful with the HP and MP like maybe include an artistic meaning to them but then again it keeping with the theme. One of the thing that I find interesting is the idea of putting artists skills as little icons which I think is a good idea because then it brings your attention to that section. I may plan to do something like that in my CV. The rest of the CV, I would say is generally very vague about this person which is off putting. So I now to generally add more information into mine.

With sample seven I just got it because I may want to try a pop out CV because like example five it would be easy to store and it would catch the client attention when it pops out. The only difference that I would make would be to make the text pop out as well so that it would be the first thing you see for maybe include it on top of the pop scenery instead.

With example eight it only being used for the same reasons as example one, to understand what a basic artist CV look like.

Now with sample nine this ideal what I want to create for my CV, a comic layout. I want to do this so that I can relate to what I want to do as a career.  I think with layout I may produce it as double sided pages of two but I might think different when designing the outcome. I also think it clever how the title has a QR code which is a good idea to add because it gives the client the address to the website straight away. The layout of the panels and text work together because they work together the images interest while the text inform you.

For the final example I like the idea of focus on a simple black and white colour scheme because it a plain colours but because it so bold that it stands out. The layout of this CV is designed like a Dungeon and Dragons character sheet. But with this CV I would change the font to something readable and the chart I would of added something that relates to theme of CV overall. One of things I want to try and add to my CV is pattern idea so that it is visual appealing but I would mostly add colours instead of black and white so that it eye-catching.         

With my artist CV I have tried to go for something that is a mixture of all of these examples that I found. So first I did some drafts of what I planned overall. My first idea was to create a pop up CV but I did not go for this idea because it was not relating to what I want to do as career. My second idea was to create a comic CV which is relate to what I want to do as a career and the final draft was a fold set of crayons which I do like because it could be simple but effective. Overall I decided to go the comic layout CV but I do also like the crayon one so I will design both and decide when it comes to the final outcomes.

With the comic CV I first drafted in what I wanted to do for it such as laying out the panels, name of the title, font and image display. After deciding on which font I wanted to use I then went onto designing the outcome. Overall with the draft I have made I am pleased but I do need to tweak it a bit but I did also go for the pencil idea, which I am generally pleased with and want to make. I will be improve the designs over the summer, so that they become a standard that I am pleased by. For my development of these artist CV, look below.       

       

My Comic CV draft

My Pencil CV draft layout

Group Activity

We were given the task into becoming a group and I was given task with this team. My team contained Mel, Jess Porter, Janica, Amy, Stephen. The tasks that we were given were two categories.

Task one was to create five typography posters which we could be based on anything. With task two was to create a Power point presentation with the idea of us being an illustrator group and selling our group products.

The list of the group with task one with their section of the poster design

With task one we decide on the idea of student life but we thought that this was too open as a subject, so we narrowed down the idea to the drink side of student life. We decide on this theme because there have been case in the past, in which students have serious injured themselves while drink too much. So, most these posters were for drink awareness. With the idea of drink we decide that we should go for five words and give one word to person to design a poster. The words that we went for were Drink, Drunk, Forget, Remember and regret. We decide on these words because we wanted it to relate to the process of drink and that it does not sound formal like the other posters. I designed some roughs (see below) and when deciding on what I wanted to do. I then designed the final outcome of what I wanted but when it came to it, it was just to illustrated, it need to be typography. Also with the group we decided that we need to change the theme because it just did not send the message across that we wanted.  With the group we changed the theme to imagination quotes, so that it related to what we are, which are illustrators that use our imaginations. I original wanted to digital to practice my skills but when redesigning the poster, I decided to use my brush pen technique. I decided to use this because I think this technique has become one with my style and I think it would work great for creating typography. First I researched quotes that I wanted to use on google, with this I found one that instantly caught my attention and that was the quote was "The man with no imagination has no wings" By Muhammad Ali. With this quotes I did many experiments until I found one that I liked. The one that liked was a man falling and have the text from the pattern of his fall. With the first outcome the text was spiralling down and had little texts saying wings but with this outcome the text just looked untidy and the wings made it look to busy. So know the faults, I took the words wings out and I straightened the main text up. The next problem was the size of the man, with this I did different size and have created a range to chose from. (See below for range and for final outcome). The next thing that we had to take in was relating the posters between the group, we decide to go for a grey background because we were going to include the use of rainbow in the post. We decide on this as a group because we all through that rainbow links to imagination because of range of colours mean endless possibilities. The original colour scheme that we wanted for the drinking poster was yellow, green and red because we wanted warm colours that would catch the audience attention. We also decide that it would have been a range of alcohol drink if we stayed with this theme, but alas we did not.

Influences for my poster design

First idea of a poster

 

Font types

First poster designs

Redesign of the poster drafts

Final Outcomes of redesigned poster

Task two was our group activity, We first had to create our illustration group. With this we had a range of idea but the one that we preferred overall was The ink Cabinet, we decided on this name because we also use ink as a form of art materials. When we decided on the idea of logo most of us had a hard time to come up with a logo design, but Janica found a perfect way to make the logo and one that we preferred overall out of her range of logos. So then we had to decide what we want to sell as a product and where at. With this we thought of London comic convention that happens in August because it would give us time to prepare in what we want to sell. We decided on this convention because it give a lot of publicity because of the large crowd. The product that we decided to sell as a group was a fantasy book was we all like and work around the theme fantasy. But with subject we need to short that theme down to something overall that we all like and something that continuous through out the book, so we decided on monsters because we all liked that idea. We also decided on the name Mosterpedia for the name of the book. With the book design, we also created a website to go with it (below is the link). The last thing that we did was creating a powerpoint presentation of what we planned to do if we did the convention, look below to see the slides.

Rough logo design

Ideas for monster book

Overall this task showed that I am able to work and in a team and express my opinion across. We also talked about continuing as a group, which I would like to do in the future.

Our group website: http://japorter3.wix.com/theinkcabinet

Our powerpoint presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CjGCrDzdoMaT7ygKJvn7wh57CyWZ1s_2zhFuMbIDCcU/edit

 

            



Work experience london book fair

This work experience took place on the 14th of April


With this work experience it was mostly gaining knowledge of what it would be like to work in the book industry as an illustrator. With fellow the third years into the room in which they had to present their portfolio to them and talk to them for five minutes while exampling their process of work, themselves and what they can do as whole as a illustrator and what is expected of us next year, After listen and watching some of the interview. I decided to go around the fair to gather some more knowledge of what expected of me and to hand out the Olli 10 books provided to us at the beginning of the day to companies. We first talked to video game company called Sync. we asked them what is expected of us if we wanted to get into the video game industry. Their response was that we need to be flexible, adaptable and can work in a team. They also said that they do like artists coming to them instead of them going to artists. This info is very useful if I ever want to try working the concept art industry.


The next company that we talked to were Advocate art which was a book company that focus on the illustrators. They said the same advice as Sync.  We also found out to book and present you work to companies you need to book appointments in advance.


So overall this work experience told and showed me what is expected of me next year such as having a portfolio that shows a range of visual styles to show that you are flexible in artwork and to be prepared when present you portfolio so I would have to look up the companies and see what the do as a company and to be straight to the point when presenting my work.
  

The overall book fair

Picture of the third years being interviewed

Interviews with Third years

Work experience Charity event

This event took place on the Saturday the 7th of March 2015

The Charity event poster

With this work experience it was me handing over some prints to charity event to raise money for Macmillan. For this I provide a nude drawing that I created in the extra life drawing classes and the extra left over prints from the Cheltenham comic convention. With the prints and the life drawing sketch I provide a business card with them each because if different people got them and the wanted a commission they can simple look at the business cards for contact details. My only complaint about this work experience itself  was that I could not be at the event myself because I was on a school trip in Antwerp.  The photos that have been provided on this blog are from the Macmillan  which was organised and photos taken by Amiee Sullivan. Overall this experience was great to get my name out there and to raise money for a good cause.

One the night artist prints table

The prints that I gave for the raffle

researching into what I can possible do for getting my name out

This was a session when we were present what the third years did as promotional products and I had to decide which promotional ideas I would possible use when it comes to creating my own. Here are the ones that I thought were ideal.     

Item one of promoting materials

This product was created by Kane Valentine, the idea for this product was very tactile because it an item that everyone use every day which is a pen. What she has done is, she got a company to print her name and email onto a pen. The pen design she has gone for is very formal, so it gives across the idea that she took effort into designing her promotional item. The colour of the pen is black and the ink that she has for gone for is silver, so when look at the pen it would be the first thing you would notice because of the ink colour.  The way that she probably had this product was mostly likely a printing company.  This promotional product is a pen which is something everyone would need at least once. I think with this idea I would like to use the pen idea but I would want to advance it more by adding my own pattern to the pen because then it would be one of a kind and it would be more eye catching, counting on the design I go for.

Pen with contact details

This is also another idea by Kane Valentine which was using a QR code on her artist products, this is great idea to get your name out there because you could provide this code instead of business card because it would take you straight to artist website by scanning the QR code with the customers smart phone, which most people have nowadays. The other good thing about this promotional product is that it can be made into a small size, as long as clear for the phone to read. The way that she had this one printed is by using a QR code generator, she may used this website:  http://www.qrstuff.com/. When it came to putting it on her products, she most likely used a printer and mass printed these and then sticking them on. With this idea I would most likely uses it because it would be an easy way for customers to access my website and to also contract me. But even with this idea I would still like to provide business cards just in case the QR code falls off and some people are not adjusted to today’s technology.

QR code

The next idea for a promotional item was produced by Hannah Beth Evans, who used the sweets love hearts and rewrapped them with her label. This is a good way of catching someone attention because of the bright wrapping paper of the love hearts. It would also be nice to give this to someone when they buy your artwork to say as thank you because it a free thing which everyone loves. They would also not want to open it up because of the time and effort given into wrapping it. The idea of using a black and white label was a brilliant idea because it does stand out but it is also not outstand by the bright colour of the love hearts.  The label is also so nice and crispy to read.   With the way this label was made I would say it was made digital because then it can be mass produced quickly and the way the text has been used it is too formal and neat to be handmade. I would like to apply this to my own practice because then I could give something besides a business card but it is also memorable because of what it is and how unusual it is.

Love hearts with contact details

 

The business card is always the way to go when promoting yourself but the thing to do is to make it interesting, such as Anna Coffey did with her design. She decided to go for a double sided business card which is a good way to go because then you could have one side being an illustration with the other is the information to contract you.  The way that Anna Coffey has designed hers is by making it into a Custard Cream biscuit which is a clever idea because she has made into a cream colour which bold and vibrate which makes it stick out but also she designed into her own design. It was not a replication of the Custard Cream but in her own style. It was also nice how clearly the card print came up and showed her line work on the biscuit. On the other side of the card was her information which was nice to see that she continued the theme of using her own line work in creation her name and little quote, to personalize the business card and she has include the contract information at the bottom.  The way that she has made the business card is the illustration and personalized font is created with ink. It is then scanned in and then with the image she then sent it to a printing company to produce it. The one that she has mostly like gone for is moo.com which is a business card website. With this product I have already created my own business card, but my goal for next time I want to create a range of business card designs.

Custard Cream business card

 The final promotional product that I want to take about is Amy Musgrave artist prints. With her artist prints she added the idea to include her name at the bottom of them. She has done them in a typewriter format and has done them mostly like on photoshop because of her illustration being digital. With this font it makes it stick out and it works with the white background. With the prints she may have got them print with a company or printed them with a printer. With this idea I want to apply with this idea but I want to add my website instead of my name to the prints but with this idea I would have to experiment to find the one that I want to use.                                   

Prints with email at the bottom

Overall this examination has taught and shown me what I can possible use when it comes to my promotional items and in way how to make them better.