Friday 18 March 2011

Gemma Correll




Gemma Correll

Gemma Correll is a Norwich soon to be Berlin based Illustrator who was kind enough to answer some questions for me on her work and professional practice.

What are the key influences and inspirations behind your work?

I can be inspired by anything really, but it's a mixture of my
imagination and observation. So I can be inspired by people or animals
that I meet, conversations that I overhear, movies, music or books. My
Pug, Mr Pickles, is an endless source of inspiration and my friends
are a funny bunch who are always providing me with material. The rest
just comes from somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of my mind.

What types of skills do you think as an Illustrator do you need to
showcase your work effectively?

Beyond the ability to illustrate, I think it's important to have a
good sense of design (for creating your portfolio and website) and
also a good idea of how to market yourself. You need to be able to use
social media to your advantage and to connect with other people in the
industry. I think it also helps to show your personality- the most
effective blogs are the ones where you get to see a bit more of the
illustrator's life beyond their work. You need to update as often as
possible, with new work, new photos and updates.

What makes yourself different from others in your field?

I'm not sure that I'm all that different but I think that my style is
fairly individual. What made me different from the other graduates in
my year who are not working as illustrators was not talent (there were
people who were a lot more talented than me) but perseverance. It took
me 5 years of hard work and part/full time jobs and not having a
social life to get to where I am now.

Who are your audience, customers or clients that you are seeking to
reach? Are you local or global?

I work with clients all over the world and my blog is read by people
in various countries. It's all down to the internet, it's really
amazing how easy it is to connect with other people, internationally.

Where would you show your work? Real or virtual space? Public or
private venue? Is there one type of outlet or a variety?

I'm happy to show my work anywhere really. It's nice to exhibit in a
real space, beyond the confines of the internet. I'm always a little
nervous about displaying my work publicly, which is silly really
because I do exactly that online.

How do you earn your income? Do you offer a product, service or
mixture of both?

It's a mixture of commissioned Illustration work and products for
sale. I sell things like greetings cards, tote bags and zines
featuring my designs- both myself (in an online shop) and through
retail outlets around the world. It's probably about 50/50 in terms of
where my income comes from.

Thursday 17 March 2011

sorry for the neglect.


At the moment I have been overwhelmed with ECA work, but I will try and tend to my journal needs as soon as I have some free time. At the moment I have been doing some print making, experimenting with a piece of 20 cm x 80 cm bit of linoleum, etching with caustic soda and deer collage dedicated to my love of Sorley MacLean's poetry. I am also in the process of illustrating a book cover for one my Illustration projects, inspired by Roald Dahl's The Visitor. It is a bit of a dark adult story written as cleverly as his children's books. The story is based on the main characters receiving a box of his curious uncle's memoirs. These contain 28 volumes of his uncle's writings on his luxurious adventurous lifestyle and his insatiable appetite for wooing ladies and prominent hypocondriac tendencies.

In my other goings on, I will be moving into a rather lovely flat complete with fellow illustrator and DJ Fifi Eclair and lovely little kitty Squid in May. I also went to see Norwegian Wood and to the Craig Murray Orr exhibition at the Ingleby of his beautiful water colour landscapes. In terms of process and trying out new mediums, I experimented making my first ever laser cut brooch and here are the results complete with cake of course!

Thursday 10 March 2011

Interview with Alice Melvin



Alice Melvin

Alice Melvin is an Edinburgh based illustrator who creates lovely illustrations of birds, vintage crockery, and lovely kitsch patterns.

What are the key influences and inspirations behind your work?

I love decorative arts and find places such as the Victoria and Albert museum amazingly inspiring. I could wander their ceramic and textile galleries for hours, sketchbook in hand! I find inspiration from being out and about and a tea cup that I’ve drunk from in a cafĂ© or a beautiful lightshade can often find it’s way into my work at a later date. I follow a range of design blogs, buy a lot of books and read magazines all of which help fuel my work.

What types of skills do you think as an Illustrator do you need to showcase your work effectively?
Good presentation skills and good business skills, as well as having selected work that is worth looking at in the first place of course.

What makes yourself different from others in your field?
Everybody (who doesn’t set out to deliberately emulate another person’s practice) will differentiate themselves from others in their field through their personal illustrative style and their working methods. Everybody is different and all customers and clients have different tastes and ideas, which is what makes illustration such a varied field.

Who are your audience, customers or clients that you are seeking to reach? Are you local or global?

I work with a range of clients, predominantly UK based. Some like Tate have established international links such as the co-publication deals for my children’s books, which means that aspects of my work get global exposure. Sales from my online shop are shipped internationally and I wholesale to both UK stores and to Europe.

Where would you show your work? Real or virtual space? Public or private venue? Is there one type of outlet or a variety?

People mainly find my work either through my website, through exposure in other people’s blogs, or by seeing a product that I have designed.

How do you earn your income? Do you offer a product, service or mixture of both?

Both. I offer a service in that I produce illustrations that answer a client’s brief, but I also design and print my own merchandise which I retail direct to the customer and to trade.

1.

Friday 4 March 2011

Interview with Lizzy Stewart


Lizzy Stewart

Lizzy Stewart is a lovely illustrator from Edinburgh who I also had the opportunity to interview about her work and professional practice. It's been quite interesting to compare illustrators, so here is yet another interview I felt I could share!

What are the key influences and inspirations behind your work?

I love story-telling and I guess thats what really drives me. I like that you can build entire worlds in a single image and tell impossible stories with just a pencil. I'm influenced by all sorts of things and it changes constantly. At the moment I'm really getting stuck into renaissance art, british history and the films of James Stewart (those have less sway on my work though!). I'm constantly inspired by music and literature and try to embed both in my work. I also enjoy all things eastern european and am a secret fan on pre-raphealite painting (although I know its sickly and naff). I try to avoid spending too much time looking at the work of other illustrators. Its important to find your own visual language without getting caught up in other peoples.

What types of skills do you think as an Illustrator do you need to showcase your work effectively?

Now i think its vital to be proficient with technology! You need to be able to show your work off to its best advantage so on a basic level its important to know how to scan and clean up your work so that it looks good on screen. Using the internet for self promotion is incredibly useful so to have a grasp of things like blogging and twitter is advisable.

What makes yourself different from others in your field?

I'm not sure that I'm that different really! I just draw what comes to me and hope for the best. I think that's what most people do! I don't feel like I'm blazing a trail or setting trends or anything. I want to be a good illustrator and artist and thats all I focus on.

Who are your audience, customers or clients that you are seeking to reach? Are you local or global?

I am mostly local with flashes of global. I've worked for a handful of UK publishers and magazines and a few in the US. I sell my prints all over the world so I guess the self-directed portion of my work is a global business! My audience is me! I try and make work that makes me happy rather than try and please other people. The minute you start second guessing what people want to see it all goes wrong!
I enjoy working for publishers and drawing for texts and those are the clients I seek out with self promotion. Hopefully I'll get more of that kind of work in the future.

Where would you show your work? Real or virtual space? Public or private venue? Is there one type of outlet or a variety?
I guess most people come across my work online; on my website or blog but the place I most enjoy showing my work is in exhibitions. I like when people are able to get in close to my drawings and see how they're made. Seeing work in the flesh is the most inspiring and involving thing so in an ideal world i'd like people to see my work for real rather than on a website.

How do you earn your income? Do you offer a product, service or mixture of both?

Illustration is my only income. A mix of commissioned work and selling prints and cards online and in small gallery shops. So I suppose I offer both a product and a service. I think thats the best way to go. When I'm only working on commissions I feel a bit helpless, like I don't have a say in what i'm drawing. For me its important to juggle an equal amount of drawing for myself and drawing for clients!

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Interview with Julia Pott

Julia Pott

For one of my projects at Edinburgh College of Art, I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to approach and interview one of my favourite illustrators, Julia Pott who does lovely little animations and illustrations of anthropomorphic animals. I thought I'd share as I feel entirely selfish keeping it to myself and thank you again so much, Julia!


What are the key influences and inspirations behind your work?

As my work stems a lot from personal experience, I draw inspiration from things I enjoy in everyday life. Guilty pleasures like rom coms and kids tv shows influence my work. I was recently able to charge my 'When Harry Met Sally' DVD as a business expense, which made me realise how lucky I was to have a job that allows me to get away with that! As a short film maker I find short stories a great source of inspiration, especially the work of Haruki Murakami, JD Sallinger and Dave Eggers. It can become quite common for your work to slip into a rut, producing work you know will be well received but doesn't necessarily bring anything new to your portfolio, so I am always looking for new sources of inspiration to get me excited about making work again. This can come from socialising with other people in your field who often direct you to good exhibitions, artists or resources, or going to a bookshop, on a trip, having a new experience. I recently met a photographer who ended up being the source of inspiration behind my new short film. If I hadn't gone out and met them, who knows what I would be making now instead.

What types of skills do you think as an Illustrator do you need to showcase your work effectively?

I think it's important to put yourself in the public eye as much as you can. I use a lot of social networking sites such as facebook, flickr, blogger and twitter to get the word out about new projects I am working on. It can take time out from the main reason you became an illustrator in the first place but it will secure future work for you as so many people look to the internet now for new talent. You cannot cut corners in terms of presentation. Taking a beautiful photograph of your work rather than a rushed one on your phone will make all the difference and make you look professional. You should showcase yourself with the same dedication with which you create your work, otherwise you will let your work down.

What makes yourself different from others in your field?

As art is so much an expression of yourself I think it is natural for all artists to be different from other in their field. My work is incredible selfish and deals primarily with issues I am struggling with in my own little world. I think it is important to primarily make work that you like, that you feel connected to, and the public will respond to this. If you go out into the world copying what is already 'fashionable' and taking too much influence from others your work will look forced and people will be able to tell. Go with your instincts when creating your work and your talent will come through with whatever you make.

Who are your audience, customers or clients that you are seeking to reach? Are you local or global?

I tend to make work that deals with relationships, whether they be romantic, friendly or hateful
ones! So I do not work for a specific audience, just people who might see my work and relate their own experiences back to it.

Where would you show your work? Real or virtual space? Public or private venue? Is there one type of outlet or a variety?

I have a lot of my work online, on a website, flickr, my blog etc but I also show in exhibitions on occasion. Organising a show really makes you think about your work in a new way and allows you to deal more with scale and materials because people can see you work in the flesh rather than flat on a screen. As an animator my film work shows a lot in festivals, and my recent work for the decemberists and bat for lashes screened behind the performers, which was an incredible experience and brought a new dimension to the work.

How do you earn your income? Do you offer a product, service or mixture of both?

I am both a freelance animator and illustrator so I make my income from both.
A lot of my constant income comes from selling my work online and in shops. Things like screenprints, tshirts, tote bags etc. With freelance work being quite inconsistent it's good to know there is one source which you can rely on to keep you afloat! However the bulk of my income comes from freelance animation and illustration jobs. Though they can be few and far between when the do come around they tend to pay quite highly and you can make most of your income for the year in a few months.