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As I mentioned it felt like fate when I was approached about creating artwork for this placement so I graciously accepted. Doing my research at the beginning of this project was vital, as otherwise I would’ve been trying to create 8-bit style artwork in procreate and then I would’ve got frustrated if it didn’t look right. I also think my abilities to use this programme grew every day of this project as I was pushing myself further and further out of my comfort zone. This placement different to my political one in terms of communication, there was less regular communication from the boys however they had mentioned they were very open minded and their only requirement was the style of an arcade game. Even though there was less communication I still found I felt comfortable completing this brief, as we had met and talked through their requirements and specifics. This placement has taught me that you can teach an old dog (me) new tricks, I still can learn to do new things and I don’t have to be set in styles. I can be fluid, I can use different programmes which is something I thought I previously wouldn’t have been very successful at. It was glaringly obvious that my typography was weak at the beginning of this placement, but as I said research and practise often helps. I think I needed a deeper understanding of typography, and how effective it can be especially when used for advertising and marketing. I’m really glad I’ve experimented with typography and if given the chance I’d love to do it again. If I were to redo this placement I’d probably give myself a little more time for the character sets and have done five or six characters. Just as I had really good feedback from these, they mentioned how they were really unique. As I said I really enjoyed this placement and it gave me some really valuable skills that I’ll definitely be using in the future. The ability to use a new programme has already been added to my creative CV, and soon I hope I’ll be able to write that I’m great at making gifs on there too. I think this project has taught me that often my preconceived ideas of something aren’t always right, and that it’s good to step outside of your comfort zone and try something new – especially if you’ve been doing the same thing for a while. Art is about exploring, thinking outside of the box, breaking the barriers. I hope to do more of this. The new skill this placement has given me will be used in the future, I’m planning on combining this new skill with the ones I received from my political placement in order to create 8-bit style concept art for a political video game.

At first the most difficult thing about this placement was learning a new skill, I learnt how to create 8-bit artworks and whilst it may seem easy it can be difficult. Especially when trying to create text in that style, I had to create a couple of test logos before I successfully made a logo I was happy with. I’ve never previously created any typography so this was really refreshing to make lettering that was concise in style, colour and size. Like I said this hurdle was overcome by educating myself and practicing, that’s often how any new skill is obtained. I really enjoyed this placement once I became comfortable with the programmes and had a clear goal of what kind of visuals I wanted to achieve. I think this placement built on my skills, I added another programme and another style to my list of abilities which felt really refreshing. I had a lot of freedom in this placement which was very different to my other, in my political placement I knew what recommendation I was illustrating so I knew what kind of visuals would work. With this placement I tried a couple of different things, I created a gif in Pixaki which was amazing – I really enjoyed this process. It’s really simple but I think it’s effective. Along with a couple of logos, and some visuals – character sets. The organisation was really happy with my artwork, they mentioned it was on-brand and they’d be eager to work with me again when their popularity grows. I felt proud of myself during this project, I created more work than was expected of me – but I think that’s also because I was really enjoying trying new styles and learning new ways of working.

I was approached for my second placement by some friends of mine who are currently setting up a clothing company called BRSTL Clothing. The owners of the company, Tom, Ali and Joe were looking for a logo and some graphics to be used to enhance the experience of their online store. They approached me about a week after the brief was set by university, so it was perfect timing whilst I was waiting to hear back from Abby. On my very first meeting with them we had an introductory session where I showed them my portfolio, so they could select the styles they most liked the look of. I had already created my portfolio as I’ve mentioned. They also told me about the store, their target market and their aspirations for the future. I imagined that during this placement I would be creating typographical logos, which is definitely one of my weaknesses. I’m not great with type, I never have been so I did some research into retro arcade style typefaces, as the boys had mentioned they wanted an 8-bit style logo which referenced back to 80’s arcade games. They wanted bold colours, and above everything they wanted eye catching visuals to be used on their Instagram and online store. I created some mind maps to bring together all the ideas the boys had mentioned, clothing store, arcade imagery, and typeface. I also downloaded a new app called Pixaki, an 8-bit app made for creating artwork. I then read up on the app and watched some YouTube videos in order to educate myself into how to most effectively use this app, and get the most out of it.

This experience has been wonderful and I’ve learnt so much in a short and unexpected amount of time. Previously I had been worried about my future in my illustration world, this is mainly because social media dominates our everyday lives and for me this is detrimental to my mental health. I feared because of my restraint to be open on conventional media platforms such as Instagram and twitter,I would be limited in the future in my options and my success. However this placement has taught me that your skill does shine through. I needed to create a portfolio and creative CV in order to gain this placement, however I didn’t need to have millions of followers on social media. My online portfolio was enough, I also think my personal love for politics had a big part to play in my success in this placement. Whilst I won’t be able to chose the work I am assigned in the future, looking for a project that suits you and your own personal interests will always be better. I’m glad I prepared for a placement by identifying who I was and what I really wanted to achieve. I’ve learnt that when communicating with external organisations you always need to be professional, regardless of how easy it is to actually talk to your placement supervisor. It’s a given but their feedback is important and you should always implement what they’d like to see, if you really disagree with what they want then discuss it with them, maybe you can find a way to compromise. I’ve learnt that I can often feel limited by my own ability and my fears make me believe that I cannot complete something to a very high standard, however this placement has helped me learn that sometimes these fears are irrational. I think I need to aid my confidence growth in general, I’m not sure how it can be done but I think if I continue to work in similar roles and illustrate for people more often I will eventually become comfortable with all aspects of my work – including the flaws. I think this experience may have shown me a future career path that I would be really eager to explore, I would love it if I could work in both art and politics.. mixing two of my passions. For my Final Major Project I have been influenced by this placement to create a political series of artworks, they are sort of. A social commentary and also editorial pieces. But they will be created in an 8-bit style as concept art for a video game. Like Mortal Kombat, but with politicians instead.

Overall I really loved completing this placement, I really enjoyed working with Abby and her team. I found we had a lot in common, and illustrating a manifesto that features points that I agree with felt amazing. Future Generations Wales is independent organisation, and their manifesto supplies recommendations inspired by young people. It’s obvious to the reader that they have listened to the opinions of a younger audience which is really refreshing in the political sphere. That partly why I really loved doing this brief, I felt as a young person I was politically participating and contributing. It’s a shame that I haven’t been able to meet Abby and her team in person however I don’t think this has limited me or my artwork in anyway. I felt during this placement that I always knew what I was doing, I had a clear goal for each day. The internet is a wonderful thing, with teams meetings and email I always felt there was a clear line of connection between myself and the organisation. I think myself and Abby must have exchanged over a hundred emails now! I also really enjoyed finding a rhythm in creating illustrative work, for example – my process for creating each piece of artwork was quite similar. I’d start by creating three or four roughs, these were usually uncoloured and unshaded. Once Abby had decided what would look best, I’d start creating the coloured pieces using a colour palette mixed with Future Generations Wales’ brand colours and a couple of others that caught the eye. Abby had already stressed to me that whilst the brand colours were there for me to use, I didn’t have to solely stick to them. So I featured them in all the pieces of artwork, but in a subtle way. When I first began illustrating this manifesto I was worried that the work I created would appear sterile as illustrations can do when created for a business or organisation that deals with uncreative subjects. However, I think I overcame this hurdle by fully throwing myself into the placement and I found my passion towards this manifesto and organisation grew as I learnt more about them. I found new ways of thinking outside the box, and discovered new ways of making politics accessible to everyone. For example, take a complicated policy about the nature and climate emergency, to communicate this point to a wide audience could be via a popular figure, so illustrating Britains most loved nature expert Attenborough enabled me to link this policy with positive connotations. I feel like Abby and her team did utilise my talents, they recognised that I had my own political voice and was very opinionated and they encouraged me to use that voice – this is something I will cherish forever as finding my artistic, political voice is something I’ve been trying to do for a while. This placement really opened my eyes to my own ability, the skills I already had this placement definitely built on them in a really positive way. I’d like to think this placement has aided my professionalism, but also the quality of my work - because there was pressure, this work was going to be used by an organisation in public - it really lit a fire under me to create work better than I had ever created before. I didn’t want to rush anything, or half-complete things because I knew could be the causing factor in whether someone chooses to vote or not. Political participation is falling with every election, especially in the UK – this Welsh Assembly election is the first time ever in the UK people aged sixteen and seventeen will be able to cast their opinion, so everyone is eager for the voter turnout of younger people to be larger than ever. I really do hope that my illustrations can aid in this. I also think this placement has built on my time management, and it really pressed me to realise how much can be done in a day and how much should be done in a day when it comes to certain briefs. Once this placement ended Abby asked me to keep working with them, unpaid until the end of my studies where she mentioned we would negotiate a freelance fee. I’m so grateful to have this opportunity.

In order to decide what sort of placement/project to undertake, I began by looking at myself, my style, my strengths and weaknesses but most importantly what I enjoy. I have sustained an interest and actively participated in politics since I was fourteen, and with this in mind I decided it would be interesting to explore the world of political art more closely. It’s also important to note that the theme of the artwork is political, however political art can fall under different categories of illustration such as social commentary, editorial, even marketing and advertising. In order to achieve a placement, I created a portfolio on a portfolio site called Dribble and I spent some time creating a creative CV which had some flare and individuality. During this process I never wanted to appear boring, so whilst sharing my illustrative work often makes me uncomfortable, I realised I had to push myself in order to achieve the best possible outcome. So creating a public online portfolio was definitely a step in the right direction for me, not only in this process but for the rest of my career. I also sent my Creative CV and Portfolio to an external member of staff from the university named Dave, who gave me some amazing feedback which I implemented into both my CV and portfolio. Having somebody see the content you’ve created is scary at first, but in the end you often find people are more helpful and kind than you expect them to be! I intend to keep updating these! After consulting with numerous staff members I was put into contact with Abby from Future Generations Wales, who was really eager to start working with me after she had seen my portfolio and creative CV. Before I began working with her I also read through the manifesto and made a note of any recommendations I really enjoyed, I also created a couple of sample roughs to show possibly what I could do for them. She was really easy to get along with and I found we had so much in common after attending the first video meeting with her and her team which really eased the process along. Interestingly Abby graduated from USW only a couple of years previous with a journalism degree, she was a liberal and obviously very interested in politics. Going back to the video meetings, like everything these were nerve wracking to begin with – especially as it was one of the first opportunities I had to be professional, however I found after fifteen minutes of conversation it felt completely normal as if I had been working this way all my life. I had an idea going into this placement that I wanted to understand what it would be like to work as an illustrator in a professional sphere, I wanted to get a clear understanding of what would be expected of me in terms of workload, how often I would be expected to communicate, and in general how difficult I would find it to work on something that in one way is highly collaborative and in another way it feels like a solo mission.

Project completed in collaboration with FUTURE GENERATIONS WALES

https://www.instagram.com/futuregencymru/?hl=en

iguanamouth

ive been real sad the last bunch of days so i drew some dragons except i didnt want to draw the whole body so theyre just heads. theyre just the heads

iguanamouth

i made these three years ago but recently was commissioned by kit to make 2 more …! a whole swarm of em