Tag: Independent Artist

Input-Output – Illustrated Diagram

As a task, the class was asked to reflect on themselves and their workflow, thinking in terms of an input and output system. We had to think of what goes into our work, i.e skills, research, experience etc. And then think about what all these elements allow me to create within my work, so this relates to my business, creating a product, selling that product, branding, socialising, promoting myself and so on.

Once we had thought about this, we then had to create a diagram. As of the Illustration we were to think about imagery that worked in a similar way, meaning that it would have an input and output system. When I got told about this theory, my first thought was of Cat in the Hat, how they had the ‘KUPKAKE-INATOR!’ in which you could make cupcakes out of anything!

“Anything?”

“Yes anything!”

“Anyythiing?”

“I’ll get you and it’ll look like a bloody accident!”

(Cat in the Hat, 2003)

So, in my head, I imagined the input going all into a machine, then the output becomes the amazing cupcakes in the process.

This idea had developed through the drawing phase, but the concept was still the same, the ingredients are all the elements in which go into my input, then the final cake is my output, each layer dedicated to a specific area in which my workflow leads to.

inputinge=redoutputsovenoutput

For the input, the main influences within my work process I believe come from my skills, knowledge and experience. Each of these elements can link back to one another, like how my knowledge can grow from the experience, more experience can help improve on skills, etc. From each of these elements, however, I have expanded on them, showing more detail of what factors go into my work.

With the output, I have categorised things that are produced from my work, and have separated them into layers of cake, the bottom is my small business that I wish to expand on, which includes all of the elements that would go into that, such as branding, selling, packaging, promoting myself, and actually creating the product I would sell. The next is based on freelancing, which I would associate more as a commercial side of my work, as I would be working more one to one with a client/brief. The third layer is based on a global context, i.e. where I could potentially show/sell my work, but it would also mean connecting more with other artists and businesses on more of a global scale. This could be done either through social media or travelling around the world to events like pictoplasma, or even going to conventions like Designer Con, which a few of the artists I follow attended last year.  The final layer is Self Development, as I do always try to improve on my work with every piece, whether its trying new techniques, playing around with colour pallets, or experimenting with current trends. I have actually tried to do that with this diagram, as I believe the colour halftone effect is quite popular at this moment in time due to the release of ‘Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse’, so have tried to incorporate the pattern within the shading.

 

Bibliography

Cat in the Hat. (2003). [film] Directed by B. Welch. Universal Pictures.

 

Evolution of the Cat

2016 – Arya and Tilly

chriiiiiiistmas

2017 – Percy

tk2

2018 – Labyrinth

labyrinth4

2019 – Trixie and Mia (COMING SOON)

Over the past 3 years, I have created a cat portrait per year, and have already planned another which will be a commisioned piece at the start of next year, for my boyfriend or his family.

As the pieces have had some time between one another, I feel you can somewhat see the growth of my style from piece to piece, so I wanted to show that within my blog. In the first, I was starting to use a cel-shading method a lot in my work and this piece was quite experimental, as I still wanted to use the style, but did not want the cats to look flat, so decided to play around with some textured brushes. In the second piece, I have used a similar method to colour, but I feel it does look a lot softer, and I have built up separate layers of colour as to give the cat a fluffier appearance.

Now, looking at the illustration I have recently created, I feel as I have been experimenting more with digital painting, and I have been inspired by artists such as Ana Godis, following her process etc, in this design, I have moved away from the cel-shading style, creating a more blended and somewhat more realistic illustration. By doing this technique, I don’t want my work to become too airbrushed which is how I feel a lot of digital paintings can look, so to try battle this, I tried to use brushes that would give the design texture and could give it a more realistic look, as opposed to looking too smooth and somewhat flat.

I like being able to see all of these illustrations together as I feel they do show my progression within my work. I feel since they are all cats, you are able to see my skill development better, but since they are different types of cats, some with shorter hair, some with long and each with their own individual patterns, you can somewhat see my thought process, what methods I may have used to give the impression of the length of their fur as I have made each of them unique in themselves, I have not just stuck to one formula of ‘THIS IS THE METHOD YOU HAVE TO USE’ I have experimented with each of the cats/designs.

Although I plan to start working on the next illustration on the 15th of January, the day after my deadline, and that is not too far off the time that I have created my most recent piece, I am excited to experiment with the new cats, seeing how best to create their fur, patterns and feature etc.

If you are reading this blog, and like my work, and you do have your own pets or know someone who might want an illustration of theirs, feel free to comment down below, or contact me through Instagram @Melon.r. My college timetable may be an issue, but I would be willing to work with you, to figure out a timeslot, if you were to commision me.  

I Opened up my Own Store!

Using Depop, I have created an account so that I can have a platform that I can sell my work from. If you want to know why I chose this platform you can click here to read my opinions on different selling sites.

As of yet, I have not made a sale through the app, but I have made a sale by working solely through PayPal and messaging the buyer. I was only confident enough to do this because I knew the person, but even then I felt I was being very awkward, as I’m not very business savvy and I am new to this world. But this may improve over time.

So working this way, I still charged the same amount for the product and p&p but in this case, Depop did not take their 10% cut of the payment, but I believe PayPal does still have a charge of 20p per transaction.

Anyways back to the exciting part, this buyer had wanted 2 of my zines, a multicoloured one and a black and white one, and when I had mentioned that I was also selling some riso prints, she had also wanted a wave print. From this buyer, I have made a total of £14.50 (p&p excluded) so I am so happy with this experience.

As I had stated in my previous post, one of the reasons I had chosen to use Depop was because I would be able to have control over the whole process, packaging the products myself and adding little personal touches where I could. So as shown below, are three photos, one of the contents of the order, then the other two are of the envelope. Although I would say the content is pretty standard as to what you would expect when purchasing prints etc, I wanted to personalise the envelope, adding in little drawings of flowers, which would relate back to the zine. I had also added a little ‘thank you’ on the back so that she would see it when opening. These are small personalisations, however, when I had received a personalised envelope from an artist, I felt that they had actually put love into their packaging, an indication that they actually cared about their clients and appreciation in a way.

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I have now sent off the order, hoping that she gets it soon, and hoping that she is happy with her purchase. I also hope that more people will purchase my work, although I was a bit anxious with this one sale, I hope that the more I get, the more my confidence will grow with the process.

This being said, if you would like to have a look at the products I have for sale, you can click here for my Depop account, or you could send me a message on Instagram @Melon.R if you have PayPal and don’t wish to work through Depop.

Vistaprint Review

In May/June of this year, for my end of year exhibition, through Vistaprint, I had created a portfolio book and a set of business cards.

Although I have had a change of heart with the design/pattern of the original business cards and the cover of the portfolio book, I do not believe that was the fault of Vistaprint, as I actually loved the quality of my products, and the time in which it took to deliver the items was quite efficient. Vistaprint are specific on their website about their delivery times and for me, the estimated delivery dates were spot on.

It was from my experience with this company, (and the enticing black Friday sales) that I had wanted to use the site again, as to order new business cards. I had also checked out a company called ‘Moo’, as suggested by one of my tutors, but when comparing prices, at that current time, Vistaprint was cheaper for the quantity of product I was getting. I believe with Moo, I could get 50 for the price of £15, whereas on Vistaprint I could get 100 for the same price, this including the extra price for the design on both sides. 

If anything, when designing the product on the layout of the website, I wish you could zoom in to see for yourself if the quality of your image is good or not, rather than the site just saying ‘this image is good quality’. I believe if I was able to do this, I would have been able to see that the original business cards I had created in May/June, were a bit blurry in the text, and I may have been able to make changes at that time, as opposed to ordering them then noticing the problem after it was too late. However, I probably still would have fallen out of love with the overall design, so it’s all good.

Review of the product.

My business cards have arrived, 3 business days after ordering them; I had ordered them on Friday night, the 23rd, and the delivery date was estimated to be for the 30th, but they have come today on Wednesday the 28th, so I have had good experiences with their deliveries, both with this order and my previous. I believe the delivery times do change depending on the item you’re expecting, for instance with my last order, I had ordered both my cards and book at the same time, but the cards had arrived well before my book, but I do feel they are good with their estimated times, if not better as shown by my early delivery today.

I was so nervous to receive these cards after my previous experience, but when opening the box, the quality is SOOOO much better than my last business cards! This just proves to me that it was just a problem on my side, with the quality of the image within my last set of business cards, as opposed to the problem coming from the companies end.

Now looking over the card, if I can nitpick at anything, I would say that the black and grey tones have come out a bit warmer than I had intended, but its not a huge problem in my eyes, it would have been more annoying if it had only happened in a specific area, or only on one side, however as it is the same throughout and on both sides, there is more cohesion to it so it is less noticeable.

Personal opinions (Not concerning the company)

I am absolutely IN LOVE with the results of these prints! I feel in comparison to my previous business cards, it is much more simple, minimal and professional, but still shows my work and what a potential client can expect from me. I feel with my old business cards, they were a bit too overpowering and did not really show my work within the design. Although yes, I did create the pattern, I do not feel it was visible enough for someone to say ‘ooh yes, I like this person’s work’, so I do like these new cards, as it is almost like a product in itself.

In the past, I have collected other artists business cards, as it is still a piece of their artwork, so I feel in a similar way, if someone were to take my business card, they could potentially want to keep it, as it is a piece of my artwork in itself, even if it is smaller than my average print.

I feel I will be much more confident to give people my business cards now, as I am more happy with the design and quality of the imagery, whereas I was a bit more embarrassed to give away my cards previously, as I was less proud of the design and the text did have a slight blur, so I did not feel as if it were the best representation of myself.

 

Online Stores

In this blog post, as I have recently been in the search for places online where I could potentially open my own shop and sell any product I make over the year, I thought others could potentially benefit from what I have learnt and my opinions on certain cites. I plan to keep these descriptions fairly brief, but knowing myself, I may babble, so we shall see!

If you are following along with this blog for your own research into online stores, I would recommend that you do your own research as well, as this information is just from what I have heard or found, and have formed my own opinions on, so they might not be exactly accurate as I have not worked with any forms of an online store before. For me, this will just be a learning process, hopefully learning, developing and expanding my business as I go. 

Redbubble

This is a site in which I know one of my friends has used in the past (I’m not exactly sure if he still uses it though), it is a company which allows you to create your own products through their facilities. I believe you submit your design, then choose the products that you would want it printed on, then through redbubble’s marketplace, they are able to sell your work. The company does everything for you, from printing the product to shipping it out to the customer.  For its services, I believe they do take a small cut from each of the purchases you make.

I believe I would have considered this as an option, however, I feel it does lose some of the personal factors by the company doing everything for you. One time, I had ordered a couple of Zines from an artist named Nil, or @Badwitches on Instagram, and I did love the pieces I had ordered, but I looooved the personal touches she had added within her packaging. The way she had written the address in pink, and had written ‘Thank you’ on the back, and inside there was a lot of loose heart confetti (which was a bit messy, but such a cute addition), I have even kept the envelope because of how cute I thought these additions were.

It is things like this that I feel I want to do when sending out my own work in my own packaging, adding in little details that could feel more personal for the buyer. I feel that by solely working through the company, it would feel cold in a sense, as I would not be connecting with my buyer in any way, other than them owning a piece of my work, but something that I have not personally put time into creating (yes I would have put time into creating the design, but I would not have spent the time working with the product itself.)

Etsy

From multiple artists I follow on social media, who had sold their work on Etsy, they have ended up moving and using other platforms to sell their work, in places such as Big Cartel, or with their own personalised online stores. I believe this was due to the percentage cut in which Etsy was taking from them. Although yes, I do understand that the company want to be paid a certain percentage, as they are allowing you to sell your through their site, however, I feel for smaller businesses, this cut would have a bigger dint to them as opposed to a company that is getting a lot of regular business.

As I myself will be starting up a small business, with quite a small following, I don’t think this is necessarily the best option for myself.

Big Cartel

This site can potentially cost, but it offers a tier like system, offering more for more money or less for none. If you did not want to spend money on this site, you would only be able to sell 5 products, with one image per item. However I believe through this site, you would still be able to have full control of production, posting and packing etc, making the item as personal as you desired for your buyer.

If I were making more consistent money from my art, enough to pay a monthly fee, I would find that this would be a potential option. However, as I am just starting, and do not know how my work will sell on an online platform, this is not something I would want to spend too much money on right now until I have more information/knowledge of running a business.

Depop

This is typically an app which people sell clothing and accessories through, however over the years, I have seen that someone who I had known from my previous course had started selling her own artwork on it. After a little look, I had found that it almost works like Instagram, as you are able to add tags to the items that you are selling, making it easier for people with similar interests to find your work. You are also able to like items, which allows a person to come back to the post later on, possibly if they weren’t so sure, or if they didn’t have money at the time, etc. But the likes from an item may also boost your post so that it is higher in the search results, I do not know this for sure, but this is the way that Instagram has recently been working.

I do believe that the company takes a cut from your payment when someone purchases your item, but I believe it is small, so I could potentially counteract the cut by pushing up the price a little more. I feel my products are already a lower price within the market, so I believe by pushing it up by 30p or something, it would not make too much of a difference to the buyer.

Another reason why I like this option, again, is that I feel I can connect more with my audience/buyers. I can make the packaging more personal, adding little touches here and there, but the customers are also able to give their feedback as well, reviewing the products or delivery time etc.  Although I do think this common on all of the platforms I have mentioned, I feel people may check the reviews of sellers on depop more, as I feel the customer wants to know that they can trust the person they are buying from, so from the reviews, they can see what they can potentially expect from them, whether the quality was good or not, or whether the delivery had taken a long time or short. I believe as with other websites, the more good reviews you get, the more people will trust and want to buy from you too (only if they want too though, obviously).

Own Online Website

I have not done a lot of research into this field as of yet, as I feel there would be a lot of ways you could potentially go about doing it. You could essentially form your own site, which I assume you would have to pay a monthly fee for, then you would have to have a place that could take transactions, allowing your customer to pay and for you to get that money smoothly, but I’m not sure of the ways in which you could do this? I have recently seen advertisements for a site called Shopify, but I believe you have to pay a monthly fee for that too. I would definitely need to do much more research if I were to chose this option.

However, by selling your work through your own site, it would mean that you have full control over your business, the production, packaging, shipping, etc. It could potentially help in all of your business efficiently being in one place, for instance, as well as a shop, the site could have your portfolio of work, a creative cv, links to any of your other social platforms, and information about you.

 

Final thoughts.

Currently, I have chosen to create a shop through Depop, as it does seem the best option for me at this point in my career, as I am just a small business starting up. But hopefully, as I grow and expand my knowledge of business, one day, if I do gain a bigger following and do have a good regular income from my business, I do hope to run my own website, selling my products on my own, as opposed to working on a third parties platform, potentially paying them some of my profit. I believe by having my own website, my whole business will be accessible within one place, as it will contain my store for potential customers, my links to other social platforms, such as Instagram, or even my blog, both of which I am quite active on, and for any potential clients, I will include my portfolio of work, possibly categorised for easier access, a creative cv, general information about myself, and an enquiry page in which they can email me directly from the site.

 

Please, if you have any thoughts or your own experiences with these websites or apps, feel free to comment them. As I am only starting up myself and have not had a lot of experience selling my own work before, (no experience at all with any of the sites mentioned so far), I would love to hear from others who have and I will happily accept any advice I can get, thank you!

Selling Within a Store

My Aunty Dawn, not really my aunty but my mams closest friend who is basically my aunty, who I actually see more than my real relatives, has recently opened her own store in Stanley, which is called Purple Dragon, which sells unique gifts, which are quite gothic, spiritual and very fantasy inspired. This includes crystals, skulls, tarot cards, cushions, cups, journals, and there is even a section of her shop just dedicated to incense, which is another business she owns called House of Incense.

She recently came round and was talking with my mam about the shop, in which I inquired about the possibility of selling my work in her store. If this was anyone else, I probably would not have been as forward or as confident to even ask, but I showed her some of the prints I still had left from last years exhibition, and she said that she would take two and see how they would sell.

riso print

I then showed her some of my other work, and she has chosen a few other pieces that she would like me to print off, again she only asked for 2 of each, to see how they would sell, and she would let me know how it goes. The prints in which she wants are as shown below, and do give me a better understanding of what she would like to sell in her shop, and gives me a better idea of what else I could create for her if the prints do well and if she wants new designs. As you can see, she likes the colour green!

I’m so excited about this opportunity and do hope that the prints she has with her now do sell. If so, this will be my first experience with selling work outside of the college, and will potentially be the first steps in which I take to forming my own business and selling my own work. Aghhhh I’m excited about the future, I just need to print out the other illustrations she wants, and get them to her. I will keep you informed of how this venture goes.

Idea proposals 💍 Semester 2

Carrying on from the previous post, for the projects during semester two, I want to…

Produce chapter illustrations for ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’.

In this project, like with the Wizard of Oz project I have planned, I want to create work for a younger based audience, which I have not had a lot of experience working within the past. With this project, however, I want to create work for teens as opposed to children, working in what I believe to be more of a mature style, taking inspiration from John Tenniel’s illustrations in the original ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll.

As well as giving me more experience of working with a younger audience, (in a different approach to the Wizard of Oz project) I believe this project will allow me to play around and develop my skills with some printing techniques, such as screen printing, Linocut printing, etching, etc, I believe it will allow me to take full advantage of the facilities available to me within the college, such as the laser cutter, to create a plate in which I can print with.

 

Take part in the Association of Illustrators – World Illustration Awards.

In comparison to the other competitions I want to take part in, this one has multiple categories in which you can apply to. As well as children’s illustration, you also have the option of creating work for an editorial category, advertising, design, etc.

Like with the other projects, I believe the outcomes I create for this brief will help in expanding my portfolio of work throughout the year. At this moment in time, I am swaying more to the editorial category, as I feel it will allow me to work in more areas of the industry. For this category, I would potentially create an illustration for an article, trying to entice the viewer to read the article, but not give too much information so that the reader already feels like they know the story.

 

Create work for the Cheltenham Illustration Awards.

This is a competition that I will be taking part in for my third year in a row. The brief that they announce will have a specific theme in which I will have to work with, creating a narrative based illustration which will relate to or have been inspired by the specific theme.

In previous years, the themes have been ‘tales through others eyes’ and ‘tangled tales’. I believe the competition is pretty open in the sense that you are not limited to what you can potentially create. For instance, last year I had created my illustration using photography and embroidery, whereas in the year before I had created a surrealistic digital painting and a looped animation.

Because of the flexibility of this competition, being able to explore the theme and work in any possible medium, I am excited to take part again next year, but hopefully next time my work might actually be chosen. If not though, I will still enjoy the experience, and the work I create will still contribute to my portfolio.

 

The two projects which I want to do over the course of the year are…

Concentrating on branding and start to form a business, preparing for my career once I have left the comforts of college.

This project would include creating new business cards, forming a new set of portfolios, including a handheld a3 one, a website and a new portfolio book, these will also include all of the work that I have created over the year as well.

As of my potential business, I will be creating an online store (potentially in collaboration with one of the graphics students) and for this, I will be creating content that would be sold their, ie prints, pins, clothing, mugs, zines, stickers etc.

In the final month, I also plan to set time aside so that I can get ready for a final show, with this, I will possibly create new content to be put up in the exhibition, and this will also be the time in which I can start to order everything, so that it will come in time for the final show, such as the portfolio book, business cards, and any merchandise that I may have created with outside businesses.

 

And finally, I want to work on the weekly comics that both me and my partner had created together over the holidays, we named this collaboration Melon and Lime Comics.

Me and my partner have always been interested in mini-comics, most commonly from artists such as Ketnipz, Sarah Andersen and Catana Comics, sending their comics to each other saying ‘this is you’ or ‘me’, and we had even started to come up with our own ideas for potential comics, that we knew we would make someday, but had always kept pushing it off to the side, at least until summer had came. We had not really planned for this collaboration to go further than between the two of us, but one day, we decided to make our own Instagram and try posting the comics on there, to see if anyone else could possibly relate or find humour within our designs.

We have currently got a small following of 40ish people, however, I believe as we post more, our audience will eventually start to grow more. The problem is, as we are back at college, it is going to be more challenging to create content, as we are both going to struggle with time. So, this is why I wanted to incorporate this project into my year, so that I could allow myself the time to work on the comics, without feeling guilty because I am not going ‘college work’.

I do have high hopes for this collaboration as I feel we do have the potential to someday be at the level of the artists we admire, such as Ketnipz, Sarah Anderson and Catana Comics, but I feel it will only do well if we are to put the work and effort into it.  I do love working on these comics because they are personal to my relationship, but I believe the themes are open enough that a lot of other people or couples can also relate to them. This collaboration has also allowed me to expand my work, exploring outside of my comfort zones, such as working with characters, minimalism, creating narratives and I have also been able to incorporate humour into the designs, which is something that I don’t believe I have ever done in my work before, or have even attempted to do before. Because of these developments within my own type of work, I am excited to continue working on these comics, seeing where else they could take me and what else we could potentially create in the future.

 

As these two last projects will be worked on over the space of the whole year, (I believe on Fridays for the branding project and Tuesdays for the comics) I will be solely keeping the progression, development and any potential research used, all updated within my blog, so you can keep your eyes peeled for those updates in the future.

 

Bibliography

The Association of Illustrators. (2018). World Illustration Awards. [Online] Available from https://theaoi.com/world-illustration-awards/ [Accessed on 20 Sep. 2018]

Cheltenham Illustration Awards. (2018). Cheltenham Illustration Awards. [Online] Available from: http://www.cheltenham-illustration-awards.com/ [ Accessed on 20 Sep. 2018]

Welcome!

Hello there! Welcome to my new blog, my name is Melissa Russell, also known as Mel and Melon.R on Instagram! I am currently studying in my third and final year of Illustration, looking forward to graduating with an Honours degree next year.

I chose to do this course as I already enjoyed creating illustrations but wanted to develop my knowledge of the industry, learning how I could transform my hobby into a career, and I also wanted to learn new skills and refine my work/style to a professional standard.

In terms of career, my goal is to become a freelance illustrator, working with multiple clients, but also running my own shop, in which I can sell products such as prints, tote bags, clothing, and so on.

I believe my inspiration can come from a lot of things, such as movies, books, pop-culture, mythology, colours, etc. Recently, I have fallen in love with Wes Andersen movies, the colour schemes mixed with the composition of the characters, props and scenery, have been set out so beautifully, that the films are art in their own right. Another useful source for inspiration that I commonly use during projects, would be Pinterest. As well as finding new artists, styles and stories, I also find photos of people, which have often influenced my characters. I have created a board of ‘Model inspirations’ in which I save photos of beautiful and unique looking people, which I often look through at a later dates, and have helped give me inspiration for a lot of projects in the past, whether it be story-wise, with colour schemes or helped me form overall characters.

In previous years I have mostly worked digitally, however, I have wanted to slowly get back into working with traditional mediums. So in my current process,  I have started taking traditional elements, such as linework and painted textures, into photoshop where I will then colour the illustrations digitally. This to me is the perfect balance of traditional mediums and digital techniques, I am happy with the process at this moment in time but would enjoy exploring more ways in which I could further improve the method more.

My personal goals for this year is to not let stress get the better of me and to keep on track with my project work. Over the holidays, I discovered a good stress reliever for me, has been when I went to the gym for 1-2 hours three times per week. It helped me get out of the house, away from stresses at home, and out of my own head, at least for a couple of hours. Once I have gotten back into the routine and schedule of college, I do want to start going back to the gym, maybe on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, and possibly Thursdays after my lessons. Other than improvements in my basic health, I feel it will also help improve on my mental health as well, as I just feel it would give me a good break during the week, it gives me time to stop overthinking about work, almost resetting my mindset, then I’d feel re-energised to get back on with the projects as soon as I got home.

My more career-based goals/overall goals for this year is to become more of a well-rounded illustrator, covering more areas of the illustration industry, creating work that I might have hidden from in the past, and also getting the bases of my shop/website created, so that when I do leave college, I will hopefully have a career doing what I love, whether as a freelance illustrator, self-employed and selling my work online, or a good mixture of both.

I will be posting at least once per week on this blog, if not more, however, if you want to find me on other social media platforms, you can find me at:

Melon.R on Instagram

Melon628 on Pinterest