'Daylight to Night' Brief!

My current project I am working on is to create 3 large canvasses based on an surreal exploration which my client wishes to hang on the wall in her home. It is important I do lots of research and experimental work for me to achieve the best of my abilities for my clients tastes.
The theme I am working on is daylight transforming into night, which may sound easy in itself but is not as I am blending different features to one another to create in a way, 'like an illusion'.
I will be painting all my compositions onto the canvases.

I will start by researching features that have been discussed such as autumn leaves dropping and floating in the sky which then turn into beautiful butterflies as they fly higher into the sky then turn into twinkling stars.

So here are a few images I have been looking at;

Autumn Leaves

Exploring the different shapes and sizes of the leaves

Autumn Butterflies

Stars

I will now from researching these features, create some of my own compositions which I will show later on, with my own ideas and reflection.  

Childcare Course!

Today I am starting a 6 week Plato Training UK Childcare course at the Beckwith House in Stockport. This is to improve my knowledge and understanding as well as experience with working with children. At the end of this course I will achieve my:
BTEC Level 1 in Caring for children
BTEC Level 1 in Customer Service
Level 1 Work Skills
And will have basic training in Emergency First Aid

Having these qualifications will improve my CV especially as these units include; understanding roles within childcare, protection and safeguarding, communication, activities with children, respecting children and teamwork. Having more experience in all these aspects will help me more, in looking for a secure job at the moment so I can do what I love best, in wanting to create illustrative story books for young children.I am also looking forward in making new friends. I am very excited!

Degree Show At Stockport!

My Degree show was amazing, seeing everyones work come together for the show was brilliant, everyones work looked fantastic. It was a lovely atmosphere and I Loved making my family proud. What I displayed for the show was a Children's Hopscotch, a Children's Giraffe Measurer, My Portfolio, a Giraffe Cushion, Flower Coasters, My Children's Counting Book and My Children's Wallpaper That I have designed. Overall all I can say is that I have had a wonderful experience at Stockport College exploring this Illustration Course. The Tutors have been fantastic helping me out whenever I needed them. Thanks for this great opportunity throughout my degree, especially My loving  supporting Family,  you all mean the world to me!

Here are some pics from the show and my loving supporting Family;

My Show

My Children's Book

Blue Giraffe Measurer

My Wonderful, Amazing, Loving, Supporting Family

Me and Gary Spicer

Me, Crystal and Jo Spicer

Me, Ian Murray and his Daughter

THANKS EVERYONE!

Final Major Project Animated Gif

I have also made a small animated gif of a Sea Turtle swimming.

Counting With Animals

The name of my children's book is called 'counting with animals' as I wanted the title to be simple and straight to the point. I must admit I have come across some challenges and problems, trying to figure out whether I wanted my book to be landscape or portrait, working with merging my compositions together some were jelling others were not. But in the end I decided to have my book portrait and without trying not to panic so much, my characters and features started to merge together to create the double page spread I wanted. I have worked hard and came across some technical problems with the computer, but it all seem to work out in the end.

Here are some double page spreads of what the inside of my book will look like;

Two Giraffes

Three Armadillos

Four Frogs

Ten Butterflies

Furthermore I feel I have broadened my skills on the process of photoshop, learning different techniques in cutting shapes out, adding images in different sizes inverting the colours, also most importantly learning how to structure my pages so they actually coinside with one another. I have throughly enjoyed this project, I just hope my book turns out well after being sent to the printers. 

Hopes, Fears and Opportunities Part 2

Throughout Part 1 of my hopes, fears and opportunities I touched upon each area discussing my feelings and aspirations for the future. I feel my views haven't changed, except for being more determined to succeed throughout my degree, staying open-minded and optimistic.
I have reflected a lot throughout my influences and how they have impacted on the progression of  my work, for example a strong influence  has greatly impacted my journey, 'Carnival of Animals' is children's author and illustrator, Eric Carle. He uses a similar style to myself, working with different materials, as well as being free and playful throughout his collages, which make up his children's stories i.e. 'The Hungry Caterpillar', 'Mister Seahorse', etc.
I feel I have come a long way throughout the progression of my work, as I came to terms with my inner child and the style I represent.

A quote that always gets me in the mood to create and succeed is;

"Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional"  - by James Johnson

This means I will always have my inner child which helps me to succeed in life no matter what age I am for example; including my childlike features and sophistication into my work and everything else I do. I don't want to grow old I wish I could stay young forever, but in a way I guess I am just doing that throughout my imagination.

By the end of my degree I aim to produce a children's counting book for young children, which will help them learn how to count using animal images. As well as this, I also aim to produce a children's wallpaper, as I would love to produce interior patterns for a children's bedroom. as an added extra for my degree show I would like to create a small animated Gif for my website. Some ideas include a sea turtle swimming across the page or a swan flapping its wings or maybe even just a frog waving its arm; something that's interesting that will keep my audience intrigued.

My plans on Graduation are to prepare for the big wide world by getting a stable job, as we all need money in this life. However, I will continue with my passion for art, taking up the role of a freelance illustrator, entering lots of competitions for children's books or in any other areas. Researching into more opportunities in meeting children's authors, illustrators and designers, keeping my eyes open for lectures or exhibitions by people that may be of interest to me.
Current work I am doing is helping a school produce pictures to help dyslexic children during class. A teacher at a well known school asked me to illustrate some images for children with dyslexia to help them understand the emotions they maybe going through, as well as to help them with any problems they are experiencing during the classroom environment. I am looking forward to helping these children after my degree, and see where life takes me from there. I am also thinking of doing some more work for 'Teenage Market' as I enjoyed the experience last time and I want to get as much experience as I can selling my work and getting the audience's advice on what they think. I also think this will help boost my confidence when it comes to talking to people within the industry. I do still fear I won't achieve what I aim for, but life is all about fear, and the only way to get over it is to face it. I'm going to keep working hard and stay positive for the future, because my work is all about making people happy and sharing the joy I feel when I produce see or feel a piece of work that I can stand back at and think, wow! Like everyone in this business I wish to produce work that will be worth something and mean something to people one day, because once this happens I know that I've shared a part of me with this world, and although this sounds cheesy, its a lot better than leaving this world without leaving anything behind.

Hopefully I'll  make my family proud  and make children happy with the books I publish, bringing more life and enjoyment to the power of a child's imagination. A power that I can only learn from, and I suppose the best place to look is my younger sister, Crystal and hopefully one day in the future, from my own children to.

Taking life as it comes, living it to the full, and grabbing every opportunity I can, can only lead to good, maybe someone will notice me at my degree show, maybe not, but either way we have to cease the day and cease the moment or as they say in Latin, 'Carpe Diem.'

Talk with Fig Taylor and Portfolio Review!

Fig Taylor is a graphic designer and an agent, she came into Stockport college and gave a brilliant talk on portfolios and what to expect at interviews presenting us with great advice and tips to improve our portfolios.
She told us to be prepared and confident and dress smartly for the part as you will want to make a good impression for an interview.

After a lovely funny talk with the class, we then spoke to her in smaller groups where she actually had the chance to speak with us individually in more depth about our portfolios observing our work, which I found enjoyable and intriguing learning more from an agent.
When It was my turn and I explained who I was and that I would like to create children's books and maybe a children's interior designer, she advised me to research magazines for children and parents whom are expecting to receive a different perspective connecting to a more wide spread audience. She also told me to enter as many competitions as possible as this may help you to get noticed throughout the industry. I explained to Fig Taylor that I am not very good at drawing or creating people my strongest feature is unknown creatures and animals, in response she advised me to try and draw children anyway and to add them into my portfolio as children will relate to them more as they will be interpretations of characters there own age, I especially need children represented throughout portfolio as my work is aimed at children.

Here is an example of Fig Taylor talking to someone about there portfolio;

I also explained to Fig Taylor that I would love to write and illustrate my own children's stories to hopefully publish my own book. She expressed that to write and publish your own story can take a long time, I have to make sure I create a storyboard/roughs a synopsis and the main characters. Will they be based on animals, myths, folk-tales, fairy-tales etc. What do I want to do with my story? What age range is my story aimed at for instance 5-7 year old's. If my story is aimed for an audience of young children will it be too sophisticated? or too grotesque?.

A key factor I mostly took on board was to be open minded to not dis-regard the ideas of packaging and advertising, she told me to explore other areas as my work could be used for a developing life style such as; food and drink. If this was to happen I could then add this subject matter into my portfolio.
Another tip she advised is to always make sure that my printouts are not too dark in my portfolio and to make sure I have the best quality as I would want to make an impression.

Fig Taylor advised to have a look at this book if you can as it is useful throughout your journey of creating a portfolio.

Listen to Five top tips by Fig Taylor!