6 Months in the Future...

Wow what a thought! 6 months from now... I had originally wanted to go travelling but after this year I feel like I am ready to hit the start button on my, hopefully, successful career as an illustrator.. Plus My Grand Parents have just had their 60th Anniversary and returned from a World wide Cruise. Crazy! This fills me with the hope that I have plenty of time to experience the World but I just want to do it in my own time and not rush it. So instead I shall be officially on my own (well not completely alone of course!) and hopefully settled down in Bristol!

But let's backtrack a bit to straight after graduation... I had some pretty exciting news which every time I think about, makes me want to scream! It may not be that big of a deal but I feel it is and I am so happy with myself that I've grabbed the opportunity! Anyway, I applied for the Solent Showcase Graduate Artist Residency a few months ago, had my interview just over a week ago and received an email today confirming I had got a place! 

There will be 4 - 6 of us (illustrators, artists, graphic designers etc.) all working over the summer towards an exhibition of our work! i love the thought that in just three months I will have finished another project and met a few new people, and, of course, had some professional experience!

I will receive 500 pounds, which I want to spend on printing materials, so that even if I am unsuccessful in the future, I still have a small printing set-up to continue my hobby (ideally this will keep expanding and I will be really successful of course!)

I will still have my invigilator job but I will get a second evening job to support me and a Summer of couch surfing! I think It will be a good Summer this year.

I feel I have really perfected my lino cutting so I would really like to use this time to start experimenting in the printroom - i still have so much to learn - collaging different printing methods e.g mono prints, lino cuts and screen printing etc. I couldn't be happier with this opportunity!

So now fast forward again to 6 months -

I have already starting doing some work with a friend, 'Fry', a graduate from Winchester school or Art. We call ourselves 'The Biscuit Collective'. ( www.biscuitcollective.tumblr.com ) We have already done some designs for a baby bag (through the uni) but she wanted us to change it too much by creating babies in costumes almost and we started to struggle so decided to end the project. We are also currently chatting to Orange Rooms in the centre of Southampton about redecorating their bar. We have also created an 'e-sting' for the channel 'E4' which is a short animation they have in between commercials created by members of the public. Alongside this we have created an alphabet book and a number book, puzzles, posters, badges/stickers and some games for children. We plan to set up an etsy account online once I finish, we'll see how it goes!

We plan to move to Bristol and set up a base there where we will do our own work as well as collaborating to create combined images. Just working together has improved both our skills as we are giving each other tips without even meaning to. We both enjoy creating illustrative work so I think that stands for a strong basis of a collective (we hope to build it up).

So what are we going to do in Bristol?

Well... find a place to live to start with - cheap flat where we convert the living room into a studio, get a job on Gloucester Road or Stokes Croft (I fell in love with this area when I visited for Negotiated Study) for some extra money. Then I will start hitting craft shops, design company's, newspapers, pubs and bars etc. with both my work and biscuit collective work.

What am I going to ensure I do in Bristol?

• Go back to Gloucester road with my box of goodies! I got told to come back with what I had come up with by a few shops and I am keeping my word! Plus you never know, might start something, I've got my fingers crossed for the fish shop recipe cards! they were my favourite.
• I AM GOING TO JOIN SPIKE ISLAND if it kills me. George, one of the visiting tutors, was really nice and told me of a 24/7 print studio for only 60 pounds a month!!! Incredible! Have to have a tutorial but should get through ok! Also how great would it be to continue to be surrounded by printmakers!
• Up my online presence! Make a website! I already started growing with instagram (veeeeery sloooowly, but its a start!) but would like to get a presence on most social media sites (as much as I don't enjoy them) cause I WANT TO SUCCEED in any way possible - jumping for every opportunity.

Hopefully by shameless self promotion, determination and hard work, I will eventually become a successful freelance illustrator/part of the biscuit collective. I am going to have to do a lot after leaving uni but I'm going to take it step by step like I always have and hope that I am one of those lucky few people who can make it doing the thing they are passionate about.

Quickly to end, a few photos of the the books, we only got these printed and started making them a week ago so I'm still very excited by them and want to share!

every book is a different colour so when stacked up it's a rainbow effect. We have a total of 9 books to make for each number and letter book. So hopefully all 9 together will look appealing.

Our original drawings were black biro pen on white paper so we wanted our front over to reflect this. The covers also have foam between the paper and mount board so it is spongey to touch.

We were hoping to get these finished to sell at a fair, my uni has a stall at this saturday but unfortunately we just have not had enough time (he has a full time job/i have FMP/uni) but I feel like they will look really nice and high quality once they are finished.

We draw by passing the image over to the other every few lines. It started in big free posters but we've started to refine these drawings to become objects and forms. I like the effect because it is different to both our styles and it is enjoyable - casual drawing with a challenging twist.

So that's 6 Months from now covered... don't even get me started on a year, 2 years or even 5!