MEFCC Booth Space Confirmed!

YAAAS! now to get some stuff ready to sell! I still have left over prints from last year's comic con (below). I'm going to bring those along and sell again, but at a discounted price - I just really want to clear them out (and make money in the process)! Last year I sold them at 30 AED each, but this year I'm thinking to sell them all at 20 AED each, which is about £3.80 so it's still not too bad. 

Salaam Reads

Teresa emailed me about a new US publisher that might be of interest to me.

Salaam Reads is an imprint that aims to introduce readers of all faiths and backgrounds to a wide variety of Muslim children and families, and offer Muslim kids an opportunity to see themselves reflected positively in published works. 

She suggested I submit work to them! which I think is a really good idea and I'm definitely going to get in touch! This will be a good way to get my work noticed by a publisher and also to get feedback on it, which I think is most important for me at this stage. However, I've never submitted work to a publisher before and I'm just not sure how to go about doing it! What exactly do I submit? What format should my work be in? and how many pieces/pages do I submit? etc. Is there a general guideline for these things? - I'm going to ask for Teresa's help.

To do or not to do?

It feels so bizarre having people contact me. I really should start getting used to it, if this is really what I want to do for the rest of my life haha! I received this email asking if I could illustrate this journalist's children's book. I haven't agreed to anything yet because I am SO BUSY OMG and I need more info - deadline, no. of pages/illustrations etc. etc. I think I might have to pass this opportunity along to a fellow children's illustrator in the class, if I feel it might someway get in the way of the projects I have going on right at this moment.

After Graduation Plans

1. Children's book commission for HudHud Publishing, Dubai.

2. Holiday and Popcon Asia 2016 in Jakarta (August)

3. Visit studios in Indonesia if possible.

Collaborations:

1. Lauren still on the lookout for funding before we embark on what could be a really big project! - The grant she's talking about in her email is the International Women's Media Foundation's fund for women journalists.

2. Suhayl, the student who I made some work for, bless him, remembered me saying that I'd love to write my own children's books some day, but I'm not that great of a writer so he's proposed to collaborate with me after the both of us have graduated. Though a philosophy student, he's also got some interests in the artistic/educational field. He said he'll help with the writing and I'll illustrate. He's also got some contacts with people who might be interested in utilising my skills and it all sounds very exciting, we'll have to see what happens!

WHAAAAAAT?!

I'VE BEEN SPOTTED!

It's only been a day since I posted my #withmalala! The internet is flipping amazing, wow. I am crying buckets of tears of happiness right now!

I decided to google to see if he was legit lol (don't ask). He's legit. omgomgomgomg. I need to get another copy printed. 2 more copies in fact. 

#WithMalala

So I just found out about this challenge that the Malala Fund started. #withMalala is a global digital art project encouraging young people to speak out about why every girl should have a right to an education and to support Malala’s global campaign to guarantee 12 years of free, quality, and safe education to millions of girls worldwide.

I decided to submit a little illustration I did of Malala from my children's book for CoP! Check it out here! and maybe share?

Children's Book Publishers UK

Potential contacts/people to invite to end of year show:

HarperCollins UK
Bloomsbury
Barefoot Books
Abrams and Chronicle Books
Little Tiger Press
Flying Eye Books
Macmillan
Scholastic
Puffin/Penguin/Ladybird

POPCON ASIA 2016

Both David and Louis suggested I check out Popcon when I'm in Jakarta!

POPCON is the biggest pop culture convention in Asia that is dedicated to celebrate and appreciate the professionals, artists, and creators in the creative industry, focusing on comics, games, toys, films, and animations. Popcon Asia aims to encourage and support the creative industry ecosystem, as well as to become the platform for networking and collaboration among creators, brand, government, media and other stakeholders to grow the creative industries in Asia.

Last year, Popcon Asia was held on the 7th-9th August, Jakarta and was attended by visitors from various countries including Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, Japan, France, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, and the Philippines.

I'm definitely going to consider attending this con! This year it's happening on the 12th-14th August - which is absolutely perfect, because I will land in Jakarta on the 10th! I'm especially interested in the portfolio reviews that they do! Need to pull together an amazing portfolio that I can take with me hehehehe! BUT I'm also interested in meeting and greeting artists - broadening my network!) aaaaahhh exciting!

Contacting Louis!

Emailed Louis as planned in previous post!

 

I was going to ask him if he knew of any art events/cons happening in the summer, but I totally forgot to mention it in my email! It's a good thing he can read my mind! I've heard of Popcon Asia before, from other Indonesian/asian artists I follow on Instagram - so I'm definitely going to check that out next!

Emailing David!

David Lojaya is an Indonesian Visual development artist. We follow each other on Instagram - which shocked me and made me squeal like a fangirl, because that means he has already seen my work and hopefully like it? I decided to email him because one, I absolutely LOVE his work. I especially love the ones where he has incorporated a touch of Indonesian culture into them! so good! Two, because he is based in Jakarta and I am going there in the summer!

Jakarta Based Studios

This August I am going back to Indonesia for a month and 9 days! wahoooo! Mainly to relax to be quite honest, but if I have the time, I'd also like to visit some studios there - I'm interested to see whether there are any differences or similarities to the studios here. Below is a list of studios I'm thinking of reaching out to/emailing, soon.

Animation Studios:

Lumine Studio
Papiru Studio
Chromatics Productions


Multidisciplinary  Design Studios:

Heimlo - Heimlo is a multi-disciplinary design studio based in Indonesia. Initiated in 2013, Heimlo develops products focused on stationery and educational toys for children.

Wizmaya - Specializes in branding, illustrative logo design and mascot / character concept art. Founder, Louis Davilla Wiyono, is also an illustrator, graphic designer and character concept artist (who I shall email soon) - worked with local and international clients, including Disney and Cartoon Network. Had also been involved in illustrating several children's magazines and providing game graphic assets in the past.

Animated Logo

Working on the second half of the script for the Leeds Uni student today. Here is the credential for myself on the final slide haha!

Commission Work animation test

I was contacted by a Leeds Uni Philosophy student, who asked me if I could illustrate his paper about the ontology of architecture, which he will be presenting at an undergraduate conference known as the 'University of Leeds Undergraduate Research Experience'. He came across my work on the LCA website which he said he really liked and tweeted me haha!

The idea is to create a 5 minute visual representation of his paper. He wants something that'll keep people interested whilst he's speaking on stage - Something quite quirky that'll bring a visual element to an otherwise quite dense work. He showed me a few examples of things he already had in mind. But we also met a couple of days after and talked more about it. Initially he wanted to record me drawing live however, I suggested that me doing it digitally would be far more time efficient (and would look better) because the conference is next week! We agreed on a simple line drawing with a bit of animation. Here's an example based on the script he gave me (all done in Photoshop, because I don't have After Effects at home):

Sent him the animated images for the first half of the script just to see what he thinks - I think he likes them! wahoo! it's really been a while since I've animated anything, so this was kinda fun to do. good break from uni work + I'm getting paid for this so ya. killing two birds with one stone, as they say..

Talking to Lauren!

OH MY GOSH! LAUREN AND CO ACTUALLY WANTS TO PARTNER UP WITH ME!

Nothing is set in stone yet, but before we embark on this project she wants to make sure she can get funding from the UN Foundation or through another organisation to compensate me for the production of the book! She's going to Dubai tomorrow, where she'll have access to the CEO, Kathy Calvin. She also has a book agent, who she's going to have a talk with on potentially selling to a major publishing house in the United States - these are her specific words by the way, I recorded our convo haha - which would be absolutely amazing!

She also talked about making sure that I would get publicity as well, as another 'payment' I guess, since the portion of the proceeds from the book will go to Malawi to support the girls/school there (which I have no problems with, as the whole point is to raise money to help). For this she said she's going to talk to her news organisation (the ground truth project). AAAAH!

damn girl. how did I get here?

Contacting Lauren

(also posted on my studio practice blog)

I sent an email to Lauren this morning, to ask if she'd be willing to give me a helping hand with my children's book for my final major project. Hopefully, she'll reply - but if not, I may have to find some other stories because I don't feel 100% confident writing and illustrating about something that I don't have enough info/knowledge on. It was easier with my Malala one for CoP3 as she is well known so there is already a lot of info about her on the internet. What I want to do with my big project is a bit more challenging - it requires more rigorous research, so I would need all the help that I can get!

She's replied!

and oh my goodness! what a coincidence that making a children's book is on their 2016 list! As I've said before Lauren is the co-founder of SchoolCycle so this is great - seals the deal! this is what I want to do - help people, contribute to society, make my mark on the world. I'll make some time to call her for sure! maybe on Friday, if she's available.