Links

So I thought I might as well cram everything into one post otherwise I’ll never get round to it! Mainly due to laziness. Get yourself a cuppa and some biscuits because this one’s going to be a long one…….

Like everyone else I’ve been extremely moved with the tragic events in Japan. Even though it was about two weeks ago I remember seeing the horrendous images on the news; watching in horror and feeling helpless at the same time.

Well I’m very honored to be part of Illustration Rally’s Ganbare Nippon: Japan Tsunami Appeal which hopes to raise lots of money for their Japanese Tsunami Appeal on Just Giving. I did this illustration, titled ‘Sakura’, especially for this project. It’s A4 and only £10 as well! Bargain!!! And you can see more lovely things other artists have kindly donated here. Times like these it’s amazing to see artists collaborate and do their bit. The project also got a nice little mention at Papercut Magazine which featured my print.

Okay next up is another little mention over at Akeela. I designed a banner for Junkie Lovers (the talented Anouska Smith who’s behind the namw) and she dropped my name into the interview. Score! And I mean thanks Anouska! The banner should be up pretty soon too. Worth checking out her website, lots and lots of nice jewellery……..

Right I’m going to write up my visit to Pick Me Up sometime on the weekend. Overload blogging is doing my head in now.

Hello there!

I hope you all had an awesome Christmas! I seemed to have hibernated for a bit over the holidays and I have a bit of catching up to do. Well I had a break and didn’t do any work, more like stuffing my face with food!

This post ties in very well with self promotion and funnily enough I’ve been blogged twice about it this week. Firstly the lovely folks over at Tea & Crayons Illustration Collective have blogged about my postcards which I made during my second year at university. See here for the post.

It’s a really informative post and well worth reading too for some advice and inspiration. There’s lots of creative ways to make your work stand out and you can adapt these examples to suit yourself which is what I liked about the post. Big thanks by the way!

Next is Creaturemag an online art magazine. They’ve currently got an ongoing feature about “Tweeting Illustrators” which is about how Twitter and other social networking tools are used by artists to promote their own work. Check out the post here it also featured Amy Ng over at Pikaland and Gemma Correll.

I’d like to add that with some patience, confidence, lots of hard work and passion everything will all fall into place. Because the reality of illustrating and I guess working in the creative industry is that these things take time. Be patient! Don’t fall into the illusion it’s going to be easy to be a freelance illustrator.

There are obviously different ways to promote your work and to find inspiration. Since I’ve graduated I’ve been doing continuous projects like Illustration Friday and Illustration Rally for instance to keep the work going and also to expose yourself to readers. Of course paid work is better but right now I’m benefiting a lot from doing work that’ll reach a wider audience whether it’s for a short amount of time… but there is a line you have to draw as well. If any blogs are looking for submissions then I’ll do it as I know I can always add the new work to my website. And I think it can be really easy to fall back if you don’t have much motivation or if you’re uninspired to do work. I’d say to think positive (sure everyone has one of those bad days…..) and to carry on with making more work.

My next target is to put together a new portfolio and make more promotional material so I can send it out to specific agency’s.

I’d like to know what people think and any other suggestions are more than welcome.