21.02.23

Portfolio Research Brief

Step 1 - What kind of practitioner are you? How important is your thinking and process? Which option makes most sense for you? ‘Showcase’ or ‘Telling the Story’?

I have been making work that is art but I want to add another layer of meaning and narrative to my work and enhance my concepts. After a meeting with illustrator Paul Davis, this is what he urged me to do. I am interested in working as an illustrator and being commissioned for package design, magazine publications and billboards, and so in order to practice for this there need to be briefs to follow in this context. My creative process is very important and I would love to share this on my website, while maintaining a showcase aesthetic.

Step 2 - Portfolio Research Brief Find 10 websites AND 10 books of illustrators, artists, designers, photographers, who you like and think their website or book REPRESENTS them and their work well. Write a short paragraph about each and why you think they work? Write a sentence about how you might use an element of this successful nature to help communicate your work?

Cici Suen's website is very clear and simple. I think this works well due to her highly detailed and visually complex work. This allows the attention to be focussed on the works she is showing very clearly. I do personally love the process of my work, so it is important that i am able to share this with the viewer. This can be done through having a sketchbook page which Suen has on her website. I think it can make the viewer connect more to the works as a sketchbook can be quite revealing and vulnerable and contain work that isn't 'perfect' and finished.

Laura Carlin has similar aspects to her website that I like as seen in Cici Suen's. I like the simplicity and clarity of where to find certain work. This makes it easy to navigate. I would like to make more zines of my work, so I can leave them with people at interviews etc, and these can then be put on my website for those who don't have one. I think this also allows the viewer and potential clients to see my work in book/ magazine format for future editorial commissions.

Nick White has a website that I really love. I think he encompasses the main elements of his work through the presentation of his website. The use of colour, font and composition of the works being displayed convey a very distinct style. I will research how he has made this website and attempt it myself. Elements such as composition, shape and colour are prevalent in my work and I would like to expand this to the presentation of my website too.

Ana Popescu's website is a lovely clear representation and easy one to navigate. I like how a series of illustrations are displayed one after the other. I would like to do this with mine and show the different variations of different illustrations. This can also be a way of showing process.

David Hockney has his different works such as digital drawings, graphics, paintings etc under a 'works' tab. I like this as I use different processes such as drawings in a sketchbook digital drawings, screen prints, collage and photography and I would like to display all of these in a clear way. This could be the method I choose.

Michael Craig Martin. What I like about his website is how the viewer is first greeted by a video of his work. I found this immediately engaging. Craig Martin has sectioned his website into exhibitions and projects. If I were to do this it would include all of my processes in each project as it is mostly the same for each one so this could be an alternative to segregating my work into processes. The advantage of sectioning the website into projects is the process to outcome can be clearly seen on each individual page, rather than separate ones.

Lucinda Rogers is another example of an illustrator who sections her work in projects. She has her drawings which are sectioned into places, and her illustrations that are sectioned into projects. This is something I aim to have int he future when I have done editorial work and have been commissioned. In the meantime, I can create my own commission works by re designing some packaging or billboards for example. This will allow me to showcase work to professionals when I leave university so they are able to imagine my work in different ways.

Marc David Spengler has a website that shows his versatile range of projects. Once I have enough projects, these will be displayed in a way like this. Each section depending on the project, and on one big page where they can all be seen next to each other. I think this can only work effectively when I have enough work to present as it could look too thin if shown like this with not enough work.

Wingshan Wong clearly takes the viewer through his research process of his fish market project. His project aims to understand the process of working at a fish market, and the display of his website definitely aids this. As I love reportage illustration, this is a really wonderful way to present the process. This highlights the process of the subject, and the process of illustrating them showing the viewer the market through the lense of a camera compared to the eyes of an illustrator. In a reportage illustration section I would like my work to be displayed this way.

Ashley Kinnard Studio. Their work is conceptual art and their website layout allows the work to do the talking. With little to no information on each image, this allows the viewer to think conceptually abut each one rather than reading titles and not interpreting them in their own way. When creating my website, I want my work to communicate everything without the need for words. At the moment it does need explaining, but with the development of my illustration skills and concepts I wont to explain.

Step 3 - Start gathering your work together + If you need to find opportunities to make more

For me to begin a project the best way for my process to begin is by drawing in my sketchbook and bringing it with me anywhere so I don't miss an opportunity to practice drawing. This also tends to strike up ideas in my head and gives me a good starting point. The outcomes from my sketchbook over the past few weeks can be seen on the right.

Step 4 - Start writing copy

Step 5 - Start thinking about platforms and processes

For the minor studio project I became familiar with screen printing and found it a great process for communicating the visual elements of my work such as colour, line, composition and shape. Feedback I received from this project hand in was the need to push conceptual ideas. At the moment I am creating pieces of art that are visually appealing and use a skill in screen printing, but don't communicate a deeper narrative. As I want to begin a career in advertising when I leave university, it will be important for me to learn to communicate ideas and narratives visually.

I also received feedback from a tutor advising I stick with screen printing for the project as I have just got the knack of it and can push it even further. I am very aware my process, the challenge for this project is for me to think more conceptually.

Major Studio Project

Confirm copying