Networking

At first networking was a stranger to me, my introverted self preferred to just reach people via private email correspondence. I have never had an obsession with social media and never wanted to present my own projects for the world to see. Being private and facing my own independence, was always something I wanted. However this was in the past. Currently I can now see myself building a successful network strategy, through a personal website and Facebook. Since I began my blog, I have gained a responsible understanding on how to appropriately network, especially from the lecturers I listened to this morning. The networking lecture was reasonable sound and clarified important details on contact information and securing job placements. The lecture has shaped my confidence regarding this and I hope it would strengthen my communication towards my aspirations and illustrations. There is still previous work, I still need to continually develop.

The first part of the lecture, we each had to make our own collages that corresponded with our own personality. It was extremely interesting to learn about other people’s personality. Here is an example of my collage below. I honestly do prefer printing and ink illustration, with according to my personal style.

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The second part of the lecture was a group project, where we discussed two illustrators and designers depending on the allocated continent we were assigned too. The illustrator we discussed as a group was Chaira Bautista. She is based in south America and examines different ways of working from painting to digital art. Chaira’s illustrations remind me of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Her use of colour and experimentation with different forms of medium contribute to her work uniqueness. It seems that she has interpreted her own past style of working within her artwork. Personally I would love to contact her and discuss the range of different ideas she has while presenting her work.

While researching Chaira Bautista, I found an interesting website interview regarding the illustrator. The Chaira Bautista, love songs on paper interview published by the beautiful bizarre.net is helpful with discussing her ways of working. This is quoted from Chaira in the response from the interview “ The characters and their ongoing stories are made as gifts for people I love. They are usually born from conversations, most of them from a single sentence said at the right time.” I find this completely significant within her work, and really helps us as illustrators understand her as a person.

The other graphic designer we discussed Eréndida Mancilla, her work is completely interesting and I love her experimentation with colour. Researching a graphic designer was an interesting experience, as in some ways graphic design and illustration interlink. I find it important to mention because she has previously done many company logos and other global illustrations. Manchilla’s use of the red and black is incredibly prominent throughout her work, especially in regards to logos and people. From examining her work, we could tell that her preferred style is working in a digital format. Do be honest, I have always admired illustrators working in a digital format, despite it not being a very strong strength of mine. For more information, regarding Erendida Mancilla, here is a link to an interview with a poster poster website. Her responses are remarkable and well thought out, the way she experiments with colours are a prominent feature within the work.

With accordance to the module, I am trying to contact illustrators on an international scale. I have recently contacted an illustration company in the UK in order to ask them of relevant experience and interests to the illustrators and graphic designers who have previously been involved. Hopefully after these virtual opportunities, it will help me grow continually as an illustrator and conclude my individual sense of style. As part of the illustration module we need to contact different illustrators from an international, local and global position. There are two illustrators who I have previously contacted, in regarding to asking questions as illustrators. In preparation, I have contacted two illustrators in advance, those being Owen Davey and John Coulthart. Both of these, are illustrators I have looked forward to speaking with and have recently admired there work for a while. Both responses were incredibly supporting and helpful in regards to my current research.

Currently I have received the answers to my questions from John Coulthart. I do look forward to write about him in future blogs and respond towards this correspondence. Personally John Coulthart was lovely to talk to and his answers were detailed and understanding to read. However, I will write this email correspondence in the beginning of March, as being assigned from my lecturers. I have had correspondence with Alex Foster, who I will mention in later blog posts. All illustrators I have spoken with have been very nice to communicate with and really helped me understand the world of illustration from an individual perspective.

Update – 18th February

Today I gave an online interview with Owen Davey, an Uk illustrator. Who was personally great to talk too and discuss. The interview is recorded by Owen Davey, as teams wasn’t working to well for me to record it. In future blogs I will discuss the interview and what questions were answered. Hopefully you will find it interesting to read. This of course is in relation to my module, where we needed to give an interview with illustrator.