Link to Digital Portfolio

Link to Website

Link to Client List - I have started to make a list of potential clients, and will continue to add to this list.

Link to Pecha Kucha - It’s very interesting to look back at this presentation that I made. My work has changed so much in the past few months. It’s very exciting to see.

The Penguin book jacket prize was my first ever competition. The brief was to design a book jacket from a choice of 3 books. I chose to design for the children's book titled, “City of Stolen Magic.” This was my first ever attempt at designing a book jacket and I was not very pleased with the end result. I felt that my personality didn’t come through in this image. My design was a little rigid and I was struggling with the colour palette. However it was great practice to work around large amounts of text, and I will continue to develop this in the future.

Bristol Short Story Prize was a competition in which the brief was to design a book jacket for a number of short stories. Themes of loss, sadness, death and motherhood were throughout the stories. I decided to focus on the theme of loss. I decided to experiment with paper cut outs for this cover and although I am fairly happy with the visual effect, I feel that my design did not hit the brief and I’m not sure that it is telling the story of loss.

The Macmillan Childrens Book Prize challenged creatives to make a story for children. The brief was to rough out the entire story and then create 4 finished spreads. My story is called, “Crocodile tears," and it is inspired by the fact that crocodiles are known to shed tears when eating their prey.

I am pleased with the story line I have created but am not satisfied with some of the spreads. I will be continuing to work on this project, creating different textures in the finished spreads and changing the layout/ design of some of the roughs.

Link to Crocodile Tears Submission

Dave Mcmillan’s Workshop challenged us to create an editorial illustration based on a piece of text. The text I chose was about how children are spending too much time on digital devices. I was quite happy with my roughs but the end result wasn’t what I had imaged. I could have gone a lot further with the shape of the slide and I wasn’t very happy with my figures. Overall it was a great opportunity to work within the strict deadlines that come with editorial illustration.

Markets have been a great way to showcase my work and engage with potential clients. Markets attract a diverse crowd of locals and tourists, which allows my work to reach a broader audience. It is also a great place to network, meeting fellow artists/creatives and learning from other sellers. I look forward to continuing selling my work at markets.

Before this university year began, I felt a that I had hit a plateau with my artwork. I felt stuck in my ways and scared to experiment. This year I have been much more open to trying new mediums and not only has this kept my practise fresh, it has also allowed me to discover my love for printmaking. I have found that printmaking has encouraged me to strip back my work. Whilst I am still a fan of work that is detailed/busy, printmaking has encouraged me to make better choices. For example, when screen printing, the colour palette is limited.

Competitions have been a great challenge for me. The first competition I entered was the Penguin Book Jacket Prize. I found this very difficult. I was concerned that when making work for somebody else, I felt slightly restrained and I felt like I didn’t know how to let my personality show. It was also difficult to work around large amounts of text, this is something I will continue to practise in the future.  I then entered the Bristol Short Story Prize, because I wasn’t very happy with my last competition entry, I wanted to experiment and have fun. Visually I was much more pleased with my ideas for this book jacket, although I didn’t think that it fit the brief. I was glad to have felt an improvement from the previous competition. The Macmillan Childrens Book Prize was the last competition I entered, and this was by far my favourite submission. I am still working to improve my artwork and the story that I created but overall, I am quite pleased with how this turned out. I could feel myself improving with every competition. I will continue to enter competitions and set myself briefs that have specific outcomes as it is great practise. The David Mcmillan workshop was also a great chance to work within the strict deadlines that come with editorial illustration.

Creating a website was very exciting as I’ve wanted to create a platform for my work outside of social media for quite some time. It was important for me to have a shop on my website. After selling at markets, potential buyers had asked if I had a website. Having an online shop will help create more buyers, as some people couldn’t purchase on the day of the market but may have wanted to in the future.

In September, I will be enrolling on the printmaking MA at UWE. This year, I have just started to discover the world of printmaking and I would like to learn about it in a lot more depth. Not only am I interested in becoming a technically great printmaker, I am also very interested in the community that comes with the world of printmaking. I have started an internship with Sarah Bodman, assisting in the organisation of The Bristol Artist Book Event. I will be helping in the organisation of the event, setting up and assisting on the day of the event. I am excited for this opportunity to network and meet fellow artists and printmakers. I have also applied for the Hovey Internship, which is an opportunity to work with the artist who illustrates for the Great British Bake off.

I think a combination of working part time remotely and part time in person, would work really well for me. In the summer, before the MA begins, I plan to work part time in a hospitality roll (or something in person), and outside of this I would like to get my first free lance job. I will continue putting my work into the world through competitions, markets and I would like to start contacting potential clients.

In the future I would love to get my prints into galleries and create prints for exhibitions. I can also see myself being a print-based illustrator. I like how being a print-based illustrator combines artistic creativity with technical proficiency. I also like the idea of teaching printmaking. Whether that be through workshops, or as a technician. I love the idea of helping people bring their ideas to life through print. I have concluded that at this time in my life, full time freelance illustration does not appeal to me.