PPP: Artist Discovery: Peter De Seve

Peter De Seve is someone that Teresa suggested I look at, mostly because he does both editoral and character design work. He's been in the New Yorker multiple times, his work has a very classical illustration style (which isn't something I'm personally any good at) but what I do like about it is the small details within the illustrations he produces (like the small mouse commuter, and the vegetarian animals outside the lion's cafe).



He also character designs for various films. His practice is one that I think is really varied and sums up really what I'd like to be doing in the future. Peter has won many awards for his work, including an emmy on his work for outstanding character design on ICE AGE. 

Being introduced to Peter De Seve's work really did fill me with confidence as I have previously thought in the past that character design for films had to be hyper realistic and also thought that character based work didn't have much of a place in editorial (being proved wrong sometimes is nice eh?) 

I have decided to tweet Peter De Seve as he uses twitter regularly and comes across as someone who does like to reply to admirers of his work and fellow illustrators. I decided to do this rather than clog up his business contact page (although I will do if he doesn't tweet back.. maybe..) 

I dont actually have an illustrator account on my twitter as it's normally just for my personal amusement, however there's nothing on my personal twitter that would offend an industry profesional so I feel like it's a relatively safe bet. 

PPP: Being part of the promo team

E m a i l i n g   O t h e r   C r e a t i v e s 



Here is a screenshot of one of many emails I sent out as part of the promo team. We split the promo team up so rather than have everyone trying to do the same thing, we could get it covered faster. I opted to email clients and other creatives purely because I wanted to get an address book of people and spend some time getting to know what creatives in Leeds were like. 
I tried to highlight important bits in colour that matched our promo sleeve. I did get some replies from companies, but out of 20 I think around 5 replied. This was helpful though because now I know when it comes to asking for work, Im definitely going to be sending postcards just because emails alone aren't enough to get attention in this day and age. 

S u c c e s s ? 

The exhibition was a success, it was very crowded (maybe.. too crowded) but our promo materials did work. Where we hadn't emailed, we had flyered (some clients had been double whammed with both) and I think this really helped. I spoke to 3 different professionals who had been walking past and wanted to know what the commotion was about, and although they weren't in our target audience of creatives or future employers, it was still nice to know we had captured general public as well. I think the promo team did really well here, our choices were all made as a team and it was fast work for 2 weeks. If I could change one thing it would have been that we sent postcards out to places with potential employers, but this is something to bear in mind especially for our final show. 

PPP: No business like show business

These are the first set of business cards I have actually produced. I had a go at some paper prototypes back in November for thought bubble but I couldn't get the tone of voice right. Im not sure if these do it much better but at least I can explain where I'm going with it. 

Red is my power colour, it's something I wear a lot of and it's also very warm. I tried to keep the back simple, with my name and website (which is only just up and running.. still a few hiccups there) and also adding in a little bit of humour (I love garlic bread and it's one of the main things I'm known for). 

I think I'd have liked to change the "creative thinker" bit on the card. I am very good at thinking of creative strategies and I have a really strong imagination for projects and that's something I consider a main strength. But I'm not sure how to advertise that other than creative thinker? Is it too generic or is it just being honest? 

As these were made with the intention of being used at CMV only, I thought it was appropriate to keep pictures of the work on the back. Just so if someone was struggling to remember what I had made/ who I was, they could turn the card over and there I am. 

I'm currently looking into MOO and other large scale business card companies. Just because this isn't exactly the look I want. 
I'd like something hand stamped-esque (but actually doing it yourself takes A LOT of time) or a stock with a bit of texture to it. Just because I want my cards to be something nice to look at (I have a small collection blue tacked to my wall just because they have such lovely pictures). One of the hardest parts in making cards, and perhaps why I've left it so long, is that I haven't produced any work that was eligible to stick on the back of a card. It's all been client work or projected work and neither looked great on the back. I'm hoping that this coming week will give me a chance to make some more for Thursday Print Drop in, so by the Print fair Saturday I will have something a little more relevant to match the prints I am selling. 

PPP: A stitch in time

 

F I N A L S 

These are the finals for my Colours May Vary submission, the thing I struggled with most on these, wasn't the embroidery or the stitch colour or the fabric, it was the pricing. 
Etsy sells a lot of embroideries year on year, at a quick glance Etsy has over 50,000 different embroideries for offer (I put in a picture here to show how varied it is even with a basic search). 





I F  T H E  P R I C E  I S  R I G H T  

The thing that made it hard to price them, is that there really wasn't anything similar. There was a lot of text based embroidery and simple floral but not many scenes. I found one instagrammer @UsedThreads who was anywhere close to what I make, but she makes them on a different level of quality to me, hers have special hoops and have far more thread in them. She prices from £42 upwards for her work which ranges from 5". (desert landscapes pictured here are hers) 

It really calls into question how much I value my work, I originally priced them at £15 for the 4", £25 for the "6 and £40 for the 8". After speaking to friends in class, everyone kept telling me that I had really underpriced. CMV takes 40% commission also, and everyone encouraged me to put the price up. I was really nervous doing this as I was worried I might not sell anything at CMV. The general response when I told people was that even if they don't sell there, they will sell on etsy. 

 

P R A C T I C E  M A K E S  P E R F E C T 

Apart from this I was pleased with what I made, it was custom made for CMV just because I wanted to make something that stood out in the exhibition amongst a sea of prints. I did get asked whether this is something I wanted to do for my practice and I wasn't sure what to say. There does seem to be a very negative feel towards embroidery in the illustration world, as if it isn't art. There are movements within bloggers who are making this kind of work and embracing its heritage. However for me, I think it's more of a hobby than part of my practice. I do enjoy embroidery and although I wouldn't rule it out of my practice, I think it's best kept as something I work on in my own time to make a little extra money as it is very time consuming. 

PPP: Does Embroidery have a home within illustration? EDUT

Just lately I've been really drawn to embroidery, after choosing it as my medium for CMV I became concerned when some tutors mentioned how it didn't fit within illustration as much as linocut or other traditionalist illustration does. 

Embroidery embraces many of the same considerations that illustration does; colour palette, background colour and composition as well as different stitches (instead of brushes in this case) yet by industry professionals it's seen as a hobby despite it taking just as long as some professional illustration (My largest hoop 8" took me 2 days to complete fully). 

As I was thinking this I wanted to see if there were people out there making a difference with their embroidery. Do people think embroidery is a hobby because it doesn't say anything??? 

One instagrammer @Hanecdote uses her embroidery to counter feminist issues and also uses it to ask the same question.. why is embroidery viewed as less than illustration? 

Hannah Hill (Hanecdote) uses her embroidery to make decorative illustration, their detail draws an audience (anywhere from 1-5,000 likes) that otherwise it might not have gained were it not for the fact her medium is embroidery. 

I have emailed Hannah to ask her about how she feels about embroidery as a medium in the art world and about her choice to use her embroidery to tackle feminist issues (was embroidery chosen because it is associated with being womens work?). Hopefully I will hear back and be able to relay her answer on my PPP blog. 

PPP: Contacting Gabriel Picolo

Normally I've been sending out emails to people about their work and what inspires them, but for less formal contact I've been using my twitter. 
Now my twitter isnt exactly what youd call professional, it's very personal and I don't use it to springboard my work. I've had it for a long time so have a fair few followers too, I have thought about starting a new one for my practice but for the time being I have kept it to myself. 

One of the people I contacted was @_Picolo, Gabriel Picolo who is a freelance illustrator. He is in my bookmark tab of artists that I like, although his practice isn't massively developed yet he still makes work that he loves and that is appreciated by a wide audience (instagram, deviantart and twitter). 

I love how he uses ink, especially now it's something I'm thinking of going back to using. He specialises in comic book drawing work, but in his free time does a lot of characterisation of popular characters (such as Raven and BeastBoy from Teen Titans or Harry Potter work). His work is actually 50/50 digital and manual. Sometimes he uses ink and sometimes he uses pens. On his instagram he expressed his excitement at getting a new photoshop brush pack. As I am personally interested in developing my comic book work it seemed like a good idea to contact him, as I haven't had a lot of luck in the past with emailing people (Out Of Order I emailed around 25 and got replies from 2 ) I thought contacting him over social media was the best bet. 

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His reply was quick (same day) and helpful as the clip studio brush set has a lot of different brushes in it, the ink ones were the ones I was interested in. Being able to contact someone about how good they were was helpful. They currently sit at $49 to buy, which sounds like a lot but I am looking for a good ink brush set. I currently have Kyles Ultimate Megaback Brushes (courtesy of a lovely friend who let me download them for free) which are good but I struggle with the inks as they are a little difficult to get my head around.