Emma Reynolds pt.1

Emma bought my zine at Thoughtbubble in Nov - t'was also really nice of her to contact me afterwards about it! I sent an email to her on Monday to ask her about the projects that she's done at Kilogramme Animation and how she got involved etc. but then I found out that I sent it to the wrong address, which explains for the lack of response! it's all fixed now though hahaha! I'm quite excited for her reply! she seems like a really nice person and hopefully she might somehow maybe introduce me to the Kilogramme crew! BAM NETWORKING!

 email I sent her (to the right address this time):

The AOI Student Membership

Teresa and I ended up talking about the work commission email that I received from the publishing company in Dubai in my CoP tutorial yesterday. She also recommended I join theaoi.com (where i would get info on pricing and things like this) - because I'm still a student, the membership price would be cheaper than if I joined after. I think it would also help me to get noticed earlier (hopefully) - the earlier I get myself out there, the better I think. I'm not sure if I heard right, but I think Fred once told us that our College is an affiliate of the AOI, so price would even be discounted! I'm going to ask just to make sure! and also ask if it's worth it to go for the membership+portfolio instead of just membership.

I Was Here

please refer to this post for more info.

Answering questions about myself and my work (although, it felt really weird at first) was surprisingly very interesting. It reminded me why I'm here, doing this - being on this course - in the first place. I think it's very important that you never lose sight of what it is that you love do to, because it's basically what makes you, you!

 Having someone so much younger asking me all these questions also reminded me of my own experience in high school, when I was still deciding what I wanted to do in life! I kinda felt nostalgic and so very motivated when I was writing this out - like I wanted this person to do well in life. It makes me happy to know that my work can inspire someone! Beyoncé's 'I Was Here' was playing in my head all the while I was writing this out hahaha. *clicks tongue and rolls eyes* Me and my motivational songs/quotes, eh?

my responses:

Roll Up Banners

This Spring break, I will be making my way to Dubai for MEFCC's 5th Year Anniversary! I will have a booth again to exhibit and sell my work like I did last April. I have decided to invest in a roll up banner this time, for a couple of reasons actually - firstly, so I won't have to put so many stuff up on the walls of my booth (because this was a pain to put up and take down last year). Secondly, I can reuse it again and again. Third, it's quite eye catching because its fairly big!

I don't really have time to create something specifically for this, so I decided to just use work that I've already produced - I thought about using my underwater illustration again, but its getting boring now! time to give the people something fresh to look at! I haven't decided which one of the 3 designs (above) I'd like printed out though - but I am leaning towards the purple one because its just so much simpler and clearer. Though it's probably more ideal to have the logo/website at the top. I asked other people and most said the purple one as well, so I will print this one! (But I might also print the others as business/postcards). 

I adjusted the chosen design a little bit (made the character a tiny bit smaller) - and also added my instagram on there! Then I decided to play around with it some more and came up with 2 others. I wanted to see what it would look like to have my contacts at the top because I do think that it would be easier to see - so I tried doing that but found that there was just too much empty spaces - I added another character to it, but felt that this made it too crowded. So I decided to stick with the one character but added my name at the top as well so that even if the website gets covered up for some reason (tables/stands or something), people will still be able to see my name - and they can google me or something to get my website and Instagram. 

OMG CUTE!

I am so overwhelmed right now. just with everything. everything is happening so fast. but I am so eternally grateful for every opportunity that I've been given in my career so far! Mix this overwhelming feeling and gratefulness with emails like this and this:

.. and I am seconds from bursting with happiness. I can't believe that someone actually wants to use me as reference! hahaha. I thought I would still have a few years until I'd get to this stage! It's made me realise how much putting yourself out there is really important - NETWORKING IS SO IMPORTANT GUYS! I must continue to make myself known out there - need to open all those doors of opportunities! That is my goal.

Children's Book Commission! pt.1

 I met the manager of a publishing company in Dubai last April - he approached me whilst I was exhibiting at MEFCC. Today I received this email from them and I am so SO excited! My drawings could be used in a published book in the UAE! omg! This is really weird because I just finished a children's book for CoP3 and here I am getting commissioned to work on another children's book! Also, I wonder if I could make this an Extended Practice project? hmmm.. I must ask.

I haven't agreed on anything yet because I feel like I would also need to come up with a contract or something - I once heard John go through this process for Alice and now I regret not joining their conversation! I want to talk to John or maybe ask alice what he said to her about it. I think John mentioned something about making sure that you always ask a deposit of 50% before you start working? - I want to ask him how I should layout a contract, or if I need to come up with a contract even..

In the meantime, I'll reply back just to make sure they know that I've received their email!

I hope I've replied back appropriately.. 

Paper Sculptures

For extended practice, I am making a paper cut "yearbook" - I wanted to practice my character design skill and also improve on my paper illustration skill that I came to love after completing my YCN Alice. So I thought illustrating my classmates in this way would allow me to do that!

One day whilst I was working on one of my paper cuts, Fred showed me this book (can't remember what its called now) but it is a collection of work by people who use paper to create their artwork but actually in 3D. Fred told me this should be my next endeavour haha! to keep pushing and challenging myself. and I'm pretty interested actually, I would like to try this out but maybe not now since I have soooo much work to do! maybe after graduation..

Today, one of my fave people (Brittney Lee) finally revealed something she's been working on of a while - she's actually created something similar! she already does paper cut illustrations (my inspiration for my own work) but now she has pushed herself and created something at a larger scale and also in 3D! I absolutely adore her new work! look at the detail and in that dress! I think projects like this not only challenges your art/design skill, but also tests your patience - she must have a lot of patience and perseverance to create something as detailed as this! those little squares on her dress would've made me crazy! view her post here.

I am definitely going to try this out in the future!

LCA website story!

oooh I just got emailed about this! full post here. I'm kind of overwhelmed with all the coverage I'm getting for this particular project, but I'm really thankful for them! so very thankful! hopefully it'll reach people far and wide. I'm determined to do better on the next transplant book and also on other projects in the future - I'm really excited for whatever is going to come my way! (hopefully there will be something) I just feel so pumped right now!

LCA Art Market

This was posted months ago but I just came across it! I love hearing comments from satisfied customers - it motivates me! So nice of her to mention my other social medias too! the photography section on my tumblr is very outdated though! that was before university when I thought I was good, but to be quite honest, I'm not really hahaha. My Tumblr is kind of a mess to be honest! I just use it to collect things I like now, like an inspiration type thing.

I am definitely going to participate again if the college is doing another art market at the end of the year. It's very good exposure indeed! Read Hayley's full blog post here. I also feel like creating a blog for personal use now because I actually enjoy blogging on this uni blog hahaha (so sad).. but I'll think about it. when I don't have so much uni work to worry about!

Congrats!

Graduation is coming up in a few days for the MA students of Leeds Uni and I was asked to create these black and white designs by the Leeds Indonesian Student Association. I think they're going to frame these - I wasn't really informed what they were going to do with them after. But this was a good little task to wind down from dissertation writing!

Edit 16/12/15: I've just been tagged! I was also informed yesterday that these were printed and framed and given to the respective graduates.

LinkedIn first update!

In the feedback John gave me on my PPP so far, he suggested that I should use LinkedIn more and 'get a great profile'. I was advised to write 'a post re the ‘Kidney Book’ and how proud you are and this potentially can be seen by more than 2.5 million people already on Linkedin… a great experiment to try and see what happens?? It may be another ‘Holy guacamole..’ moment or moments. Try to make your posts a little longer and explanatory so we can all share in the ‘magic’' 

After reading John's feedback, I've decided that I'm going to be more active on LinkedIn! - hopefully this way I can build on my profile and get more people interested in what I do. At the moment most of my connections are people I already know, but I'm hoping it'll grow soon. I've decided that I'm going to make a post on LinkedIn for every noteworthy/interesting experiences/things happening in my career (like being commended by YCN Student Awards, and the Kidney Book project) from now on. But until then, I'm going to make smaller updates on projects I'm working on (like my first ever update below). After the completion of a project, maybe I will make a bigger post with a bit more explanation so we can all share in the 'magic' haha.

Edit: I've published my first post on LinkedIn! My first experiment! I'm interested to see if anything will happen as John said. ooooh.

Article!

ooooh, I only just seen this now!

check it yo! click here.

Drake Brodahl!

Drake Brodahl, background painter at Walt Disney TV Animation started following me!! Is this real life?! first it was Jamey, now its Drake. Am I in their 'circle' yet? I feel so unbelievably motivated to improve and up the standard of my work tonight! I WILL get that job at Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks/etc. even if it will take me a long time! I am on it! YES! I will continue to network in the meantime.

What's amazing about Drake's work, like Stephanie Buscema who I've talked about before, is that he works primarily in traditional mediums (gouache & cel-vinyl acrylic) but his works look so digital! He has such control of his brush and paint, I'm truly amazed! I don't understand how he can get such vibrant lighting in his work - it's so hard to achieve this with traditional paints, I have tried with my own plein air paintings! I guess I need more practice! This is where understanding of colour and lighting also becomes important. I must improve!

(left: gouache, right: cel-vinyl acrylic, bottom: photoshop)

Hallmark Freelance Directory

Exactly last week I emailed Hallmark about placement opportunities and today I was forwarded this Freelance Directory Profile by them. I feel like I should talk to John or Patrick first before filling anything out though because I'm not quite sure how this works haha.. I thought I would get an interview like how Zatul was offered one. hmm..

Jamey Christoph!

YES YES YES YES YES!

Jamey Christoph is following me on Instagram! He likes my posts/work! I'm so happy!

It's so weird because not long ago I made a post about him and his work on my CoP blog and here he is following me and I feel like my work has just been Jamey approved! I feel accepted haha I must talk to him now!

Some of Jamey's work below (I love love love love his work. very much. I'm trying to improve my background paintings and using his work as motivation and inspiration! I want to be as good as this!):