Peter Higgs Editorial

This is a piece I created recently for an editorial brief for the Edinburgh University staff magazine based around the Higgs Boson particle. Physics in general confuses and stirs my inner curiosity, but I liked the idea of having Peter Higgs celebrating over his discovery and the idea of the universe relating to his personal journey.

New York Cares

Yet another post which has been long overdue! But it is cold and wet outside, a typical Monday morning in lovely Edinburgh. I'm stepping out today and going to put some more focus onto my personal journal. Summer has come and gone so fast. I've been given a new brief today which is to do twelve drawings over the next few months and write up something (vaguely) interesting about it.

I was in New York City in August on my internship at the joint illustration agency - Gerald and Cullen Rapp and Mendola Artists. It is a very small hard working team who were all very lovely to meet and taught me quite a lot about the illustration industry itself. They have been established for over twenty five years covering a very wide range of illustration in all aspects from editorial to commercial. Gerald and Cullen Rapp are primarily editorial based and Mendola Artists are mainly commercial illustration ranging from projects in advertising to packaging and more. It was extraordinary to see the vast amount of artists and how broad the styles were and it gave me an insight to see that there is a market for most types of illustration but also keeping up with trends and style were important too. 

My role was helping Lydia with social media and administration by maintaining a variety of artists portfolios to increase potential business for the company. In some ways my job was looking at illustration all day which was great, but also daunting at how far I need to come along before my portfolio is anywhere near the same professionalism.

It was interesting to see which artists are doing quite successfully in terms of publications and the entire process from brief to the printed illustration in context. For example, Michael Crampton's poster which was shown for the U.S. Open 2012 which I then saw on the 'Museum Mile'. They also have a sister company based in the UK and became aware of a lot of illustrators names who have done work for major companies such as McDonalds, Santander, etc which made me realise there is definitely work out there for illustrators. I think I'd been feeling pretty dismal about the future but I think my internship has made me feel a lot more positive about the future.

Overall, my entire trip was a great experience in itself and got to visit and stay with my friend Cindy (who has Cuban/Colombian descent) and try interesting South American/Spanish style food and also visited some of the best art galleries/museums I've ever been to - the MOMA, the Guggenheim, the American Folk Art Museum, Natural History Museum, the New Museum, the Met, the Whitney, Neue Galerie (one of my favourites) whilst also walking the high line, Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Grand Central Library, Grand Central Library, and Central Park Zoo. It was really inspiring and hopefully I'll have the chance to go again in the future. 

New Blank Document.

Photo: Cerny Laun

Yes, I’ve been hiding away, and truth to be told, I have been thinking about all the things I should be doing (and haven’t). This being one of them which I really need to get into the habit of doing again. I just can’t seem to find the motivation. Also I have been looking after my lovely friend Maggie’s pug, Rupert who I am now missing terribly. 

Apart from surrounding myself with cute but expensive animals to distract myself, I can’t believe New York is just a little over a month away before I go to do my internship at Gerald Cullen and Rapp agency. I’m nervous, broke and it doesn’t feel I’m going to the States just yet. I’m also doing a volunteer placement at Dundee Contemporary Arts in their print studio and in return I should get some time to do some printmaking which I hope will make me feel a bit more motivated to do some more illustration work again.

On the topic of lasercut… I also have a secret which I've been working on - which is my new upcoming series of laser cut brooches that I made at the Edinburgh Laser Cut Studio. They will be for sale soon in my Etsy store. I am undergoing a bit of a revamp and hopefully this will all be underway soon! I did a photoshoot yesterday to create a promotional portfolio of all my new work with photographer, Cerny Laun and my lovely fellow illustrator classmate Eilidh as the face of my new line. Here's a sneak peek of one of the photos we did the other day... More to come!

if i ever feel better.

Amelia's Magazine - Sara Harnett Modern Love

You know the saying, sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some.

To pre-warn you - this may possibly turn into a rant as I have had quite a rubbish week.

This is a true reflection of my own personal experience of being an illustration student. I have fluctuated from the last few weeks to extremely productive to completely unproductive. I haven't really done anything university related this week as I have gone through range of disappointments and felt unsupported by my university degree so far which has therefore killed my motivation entirely.

Overall looking back on this previous year, I have done two design theories which did not relate whatsoever to my course (Textiles and Interior Design), although I guess its good to learn about these things but I still feel I have constantly been picked the short straw. I also didn't get into either of my choices for international exchange to America because there is a lack of places and I haven't been given a clear reason why I wasn't chosen. There were a lot of reasons why I wanted to go to the states but I'm not going to go in to them now.

I have been chosen for Lucerne in Switzerland but I feel its' not worthwhile to myself in terms of being an 'older' student, leaving my job for only three months to go to a school I know nothing about, extremely expensive and not being able to speak Swiss-German with the weight of third year being quite important I feel its' probably best I stay in Edinburgh. I don't particularly want to discuss exchange worries on here as to say the least it's plummeted my confidence in my school, in myself and my work.

On the brighter side of life, I have done some work for Amelia's Magazine this week for Modern Love article which can be viewed here. I've been on the hunt for some internships doing any kind of creative work over the summer to boost my CV, and I'm going to Germany for a few days for Easter break to visit family. I'm creating some text and narrative artist books for my final project based around Guillaume Apollinaire's book of short poems 'The Bestiary'.

illustration spree.

Gummo - Harmony Korine

I have been extremely well behaved as of late! I managed to submit my 2000 word essay today for my design theory, which is a massive relief. I know it isn't a piece of literature genius, but at least its' done and hopefully enough to pass. It's strange how much I stress before essay deadlines, but once it's done I'm on cloud nine.

Böö Press Print

We are pretty much close to finishing up the Böö Press Print illustration collaboration. The boxes are laser etched with lovely screen prints inside. Here is a wee sneak peek of everyone's work but shall get some good photographs of the finished product before it goes on sale. I am surprised but I am actually starting to sell more and more work, which I'm really pleased about. Somedays, I just can't believe it! Yes, I know I am talking about the good side of being an illustrator and believe me, there can be weeks and weeks of absolute dread, being frantic and lots of pressure. Although this might just be me, personally. I've added new work to my Tumblr of the things I've been up to, so feel free to have a gander. I've been experimenting with hand made textured digital patterns which has been good fun, and I'm hopefully going to develop a few for our press print to put on trace paper in-between our prints. I also got some new walnut brooches made up, so I will hopefully have these on my Etsy store for sale soon.

Anyways, I feel I deserve an evening to relax and dine on scallops, pak choi, chillis, spring onions and soy sauce. I guess it doesn't get much better than this!

Shop Til You Drop

Yes, this is me - looking pretty tired!

Today has been quite a long day, with myself being in school from 8:30 today! As much as I love the art of Illustration, it definitely has it up and down days. I sometimes think being at art school has turned me into a slight schizophrenic – some days I’m manically happy, the next absolutely miserable. At the moment though, I’m happy to say the least even though there has been a few hiccups with projects I’ve been working on and juggling uni around with my part time job and a design theory essay deadline looming.

I was featured in Shop Til You Drop magazine in Australia as you can see - which I received in the post a few days ago from my lovely cousin. I feel I’ve been waiting so long to see it in print!

I’ve been working really hard with my group for our Press Print artist books’ project but it should be finished in the next couple of days, and is looking good from the Photoshop mock up. We’re going to screen print it in a black blue, salmon and light chestnut brown colour. I also did another project with Gylemuir primary school which was a nice change getting to work with children – although I don’t think I could do it as a full time job!

I’m going to postpone my images of the Press Print for now, as I’d rather wait till they’re printed and in their laser etched boxes! I’m doing laser cutting tomorrow (at a small fortune) and planning on doing my fox brooch in walnut so it should be up in my Etsy store soon.

There are a few exciting things coming up and my last project of the year is an eight week one, with the theme of “Character”. I haven’t had a chance to think what I’d like to do yet for it, but I’m planning on doing printmaking if I can!

Amelia's Magazine

I also contributed a quick piece for Amelia's Magazine's article on Charini Eco Lingerie Fashion. It took me a day so it wasn't as developed as I would have liked, but I'm happy with it for a one day project. I was inspired by the Sri Lankan deer and the phrase "airing out your dirty laundry in public" which isn't that appropriate, really(!)

You can view the article here.