PPP: Summative Position Statement

Where I am now,

At the moment I am comfortable with illustrating for others as well as contributing to products where my work will not be in the final outcome but will contribute strongly to the outcome. Confidence wise, I do not feel confident in sending my portfolio out to clients. I feel that it currently represents my professional side, projects that I have been paid or required to do, but it doesn’t show anything with heart in it.

Where I want to be,

I want to have a portfolio that shows personal projects, things that are important to me as an illustrator because I think it’s important to show to people that you make more than what you are paid to do. I want to continue posting to my Instagram but more frequently, more than once a day to create a bigger following. I also want to continue to make things to sell, I have enjoyed the aspect of collaborating and having things sold, so I plan to make a small set of badges, stickers and comics as part of my practice.

Goals for this coming year

Exhibit at more print shows

More reportage

More work that I want to make, something similar to illustration Friday, something I am constantly making and constantly working on.

Finding a medium and sticking to it

Talking to more professionals, I did this but I need to do more of this to strengthen my connections

Sending my portfolio to potential clients

Printing out a promo pack,postcards and stickers to send to potential clients.

but most importantly to believe and love the work I am making, just lately I have lost that but I am hoping with the end of extended practice I will be able to bring that back into my life. 

PPP: Summative Evaluation

Learning Outcome	Evidenced where? Blog, Sketchbook, Roughs Final Illustrations, development sheets etc.  (No more than 75 words)	Your grade Using words: > poor, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent
6A3 Demonstrate specific knowledge and specialist understanding of the professional and contextual location of their practice. Knowledge and Understanding - RESEARCH	Blog, numerous times – mike mignola, ben cox, sam alden, tom haugomat etc. Investigating into how they run their practices and why I like them.	Good/ Satisfactory.
6B2 Undertake research to identify and evaluate their personal and professional skills and the career or progression opportunities available to them. (Cognitive Skills - EVALUATION & REFLECTION	Blog, I reflect constantly throughout my blog about my decisions, my purchases of materials to further my practice as well as successes and failures. Lots of blogging of sessions relevant to future practice, how to write a cheque, how to work in a collaborative etc.	Good/ very good
6C2 Develop and implement a personal promotion strategy to communicate to relevant organisations. Practical & Professional Skills - VISUAL QUALITY)	Blog, occasionally emailed professionals about their workplace using mostly twitter but sometimes emails as well. Strong when emailing others for out of order but weaker when for myself.	Satisfactory
6D2 Use a range of appropriate communication methods to present themselves as a professional practitioner to a relevant audience. Key Transferable Skills - PROFESSIONALISM & COMMUNICATION	Blog, lots of posts about how to develop myself as a professional both through confidence and through marketing myself as such through my social media and wesbites.	Good/ very good

This module went okay, it slowly got better as I went along and felt more confident talking to people and having conversations with professionals and future employers. By the end of the module, I do feel like I’m ready to start sending out portfolio pieces, I know that I should have started earlier this year but in all honesty I do not feel ready to do so just yet, however through this module I have been given (and have taken) the opportunities to have my work appraised by professionals and now feel more confident in my work and where my practice itself is going.

The most important thing I learned is that an artist is only as good as their tools, you can’t make good work if you have poor tools. Investing in a macbook, photoshop brushes and ImagineFx magazine (as well as looking into artists I like practices) has allowed me to develop very fast in a short space of time. Learning from other artists how to use photoshop has been really useful, recommendations of brushes have been made to me as well as competitions they felt my work was most likely to do well in.

Things that went well were personal development of my professional practice, I now run over 3 different social media websites when at the beginning of the module I only had one (that wasn’t very professional at that). Through this developed portfolio and professionalism I have been able to secure myself jobs as my work now has an online portfolio to back up the social media. Having the blog to reflect on was very useful, writing down what I liked and didn’t like really did help define in what way I want my practice to move, in particular talking about Peter De Seve and how his practice transends through editorial AND character development was good for me because I was worried about having to pick just one. Also other practicioners like Nina Cosford and how she has success through her flexibility as she is a reportage, product, editorial and narrative illustrator.

If anything I just wish I had had more time with this module, it would have been nice to keep extending it and seeing how my final major project has developed alongside it (as I already know it has). I think it is something that I might keep doing for myself, keeping track of artists I like and more importantly WHY I like them and how they pull in the clients. In the future, I hope to gain more confidence as, it is clear when reading my blog, confidence in my work is something I am lacking and has been pointed out to me multiple times as holding back my work and development as an artist. I am hoping to continue becoming a professional and add more personal projects to my online portfolio as and when I make them as well as opening an etsy shop this august as well. I know feel confident in my ability to be a professional illustrator as I understand the branding behind it.