Sunday, December 9, 2007

Post 26





































Spent half day Fri and Sat in the studio. I've had the good fortune of the loan of a desk which has proved to be a beneficial addition for my studio practice. I've been acquiring a useful collection of collage materials since commencing the course. The images produced have been created in response to the brief to produce 3 posters...one for each conversation between Stillman and Quinn in chapter 9 of The City Of Glass...the first story forming part of The New York Trilogy.
I've been trying to think less about the dialogue and more about the use of materials. The latest selection of images have been produced on lining paper. There is something quite liberating on a material that has a less precious feel as opposed to that of the sketchbook. I think it is probably more to do with working in the liberating studio environment. There is less of a fear for the potential of making 'mistakes.' There is the practical issue of having all materials at hand. No fear off ink, pens, torn paper, spray paint turning my home into a disordered chaotic maze. The studio is my haven of creativity, the space that facilitates free flowing intuition.
I've also had an opportunity to begin to collage some computer printed typefaces onto the posters. I've somehow felt a reluctance to do this, usually using my own handwriting. I've the contrast between the collage typefaces and my drawing a liberating process. I think it seems to add something to the work, although I would like to continue using my own handwriting in conjunction with others.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Post 25



I'm still really wanting to try screen printing! Ideally, I would have liked to produce on of the posters as a print, but time and practicalities seem to be working against me...I wish I was living in one of those 3rd year houses so I'd be closer to the college for a year...on second thoughts!

I think I've shown the image to the left as part of an earlier post in its simplest form...pen on paper. I found myself talking to my partner in a state of irritation...how am I going to portray these passages as images? As I was talking, I was drawing on a scrap piece of paper, intended for the purpose of writing a shopping list.

Why do I choose the pens that I use? Is it because I like the feeling of the nib on the paper? Ellie introduced me to 'The Mitsubishi pen about 6 years ago. prior to that I would use the artist fine tip pens most of the time. Why not choose a different drawing tool? I've tried countless pens...others run out quicker, damaged nibs etc. Is it wrong of me to say that they are cost effective?

Why did I choose the drawing tool above? was it because it was close to hand? I could have used a brush tipped ink pen.

The figure hovers over what appears to be a liquid shadow, on the verge of jumping into itself?

The paper...was there a reason why, at that moment I felt a need to draw? was I using the pen as an external way in which to think through a problem? Is it valid as an illustrator to allow what seemed to be an unconscious doodle and turn it into a figure? Is it OK to transform the squiggle into a shape that resembles a person? Does this relate to the text in a legitimate way?

The colours....I'd like to try and produce some images via other means but this one has been rendered in photoshop. Why have I chosen them? I don't think a photoshop image does the book justice. Perhaps it looks a bit humorous? Is this the way that I want to put the book across to a wider audience? What would engage the types of people who would buy The New York Trilogy? Is this it? Would someone really commission this? Would I commission this if I were the owner of Bookers in Oxford?

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Post 24





Here comes 'Mr Everybody.'





'Have you heard of one Humpty Dumpty


How he fell with a roll and a rumble


And curled up like Lord Olofa Crumple


By the but of the magazine wall,


(Chorus) Of the magazine wall,


Hump helmet and all?...(The Ballad Of Perse O'Reilly, Finnegans Wake- James Joyce).

I made this on a recent paper rolling course held at my studio, Mr 'Humptyhillhead.' It seemed fitting that a gust of wind sent him falling from the wall of a disused petrol station on the outskirts of Caistor, Lincolnshire. He's the great Mr everybody and Mr nobody all at once.

I was stood at the bus stop before work the following Monday, reading Finnegans Wake. I couldn't help but notice people edging away from me as I was unable to suppress a display of mirth, I mean boomeringstroms......

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Post 23





...I've been feeling like I've come to a bit of a full stop in my poster design for the NYC trilogy. Why is this? It could perhaps be down to the lack of devoted studio time over the last couple of months.


The image to the left was also produced when I went to Barcelona back in March. I sometimes feel that my more 'successful' work tends to be produced on the spot and without a brief in mind. I feel that my latest work lacks a certain degree of spontaneity...welcome to the world of illustration Mr Renshaw?


I've been collecting illustrations from the Guardian as a suggestion in a recent tutorial...to see what kind of work is being commissioned. I've kind of given up on The Independent...probably not such a bad thing anyway as there doesn't seen to be much illustration on the pages. I'm nearly at the end of the 2 week collection and have found our recycling stack has increased rapidly as a result.



Process: I began to cut out skyscraper shapes out of the newspaper. I read the text...'itten an apparentl...y letter to Abraham...he arrangement be...to distance other...om the crisis, Mend...d no one in the part use Watt had assun...was awful....'

The other side of the paper 'skyscraper' is a picture of 'Ghost moisturiser.' I had originally thought that cutting up some of the text from my Guardian collection was a bit random, thinking that the potential buyer of a book wouldn't see a connection with the text in the book. Perhaps I could photocopy some pages from the actual dialogue in chapter 9, or anywhere else in the trilogy for that matter? I must remind myself to 'post the ghost.'

I was stood at the bus stop in my village the other morning reading The Humpty Dumpty extract of Finnegans Wake before the joyous trip to my place of work. I'm thinking of it now...the verse, although I can't remember the words, gave the sense of being pushed backwards and forwards, to and fro,' almost a feeling of seasickness. The great landlord...the egg of the village.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Post 22


I've just received my own copy of The New YorkTrilogy by post. Upon completion of the novel, I'll produce a 4th poster which I hope will give a sense of the 3 stories that it contains.
I've also been buying the Guardian and Independent every day for what I hope will be 2 weeks as suggested during a recent tutorial. I'm now starting to doubt whether I've been buying the right paper in the Independent as I can't find too many illustrations in its pages, was it the Telegraph...? I should make more notes....
The illustration to the left was inspired by a visit to Barcelona back in March. I remember Ellie and I trying to find the summit of the 'hill' that overlooks the city but we kept walking around in circles with that 'lost' feeling.
The drawing wasn't inspired by the trip at all come to think of it. Perhaps I was thinking of the 3rd passage in chapter 9 where Stillman and Quinn have their 3rd meeting on Mount Tom? Perhaps it references my time in Lincoln walking from the library to Chad in an eternal state of flux?
I hope to create one of the posters as a screen print. Photoshop certainly has its uses, but I would really like to get my teeth into making some good work whilst learning a new skill.
Right, back to Humpty Dumpty....

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Post 21


Studio practice today. The Ropewalk had a Christmas craft fayre today which meant that the good and great public had access beyond the gallery and could stroll down the the artist studio corridor offering pearls of wisdom. I'm actually torn about these events, part of me likes to hide but the other loves the snapshots and bits of feedback given.



A chap came into my space and commented upon a piece of text on one of my large scale cityscape's, picking up on the word 'wot.' He made reference to the image of 'Kilroy woz ere,' perhaps I could make some sort of Humpty Dumpty link with this? The image came to represent American presence throughout the world, wherever the American military went this piece of graffiti seemed to follow during the 2nd world war.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Post 20

The set of images are taken directly from my sketchbook drawings which refer to the 3 passages between Stillman ans Quinn. I've left them as they are in the hope that it gives a better sense of my thought processes without the intervention of manipulation via computer, ink, print etc.

It could be useful to continue working through the process and discover a way to find a way of allowing my illustration to exist alongside the text. I could start off with one of my many images and write my own peice of flash fiction, which will no doubt make reference to the trilogy and depict it through a selection of textless narratives.

Books and artists that I need to look at in more detail are:

> Frans Masereel.

> Las Arrhenius.

> Andrzeq Klimowski.

> The screenplay ( can't find in library) Shortcuts - Robert Altman.

Max Ernst...on of a list of artsts to do textless narratives.

interesting artists from Kramers Ergot,...Souther Salazar and Marc Bell.








I feel that it makes 'sense' for me to use drawing as a starting point, and then attempt to be 'less literal' or find ways to give an impression/illuminate the text. Am I thinking too 'literally' when seeing the text as construct/deconstruct/reconstruct?

The brief is to design 3 posters- one from each conversation in chapter 9 of The City Of Glass between Stillman and Quinn. I've been thinking more about Mr Humpty Dumpty: the fractured scribble. The larger Humpty image below, has perhaps found some loose connection with that of the 'Pop Surrealist' movement. Is it too literal...too close to the written word?

I feel that it reads like some kind of iceberg facade to a world that is broken, disconnected from itself, with multiple meaning and then perhaps without a centre. The story is essentially about nothing much really, perhaps hidden truth/layers, gives the impression of leading nowhere...Russian dolls? I might need to read the next 2 stories....



























Sunday, November 18, 2007

Post 19




'life is a bowl of cherries...'


Tutorial feedback on (6th Nov) from my work so far ...



Involvement in the process of illustration...Your journey.

Content
Extracting image from text
Using text to generate imagery
Responding to the text

form
Looking at ways to make images
Looking for 'things' that reflect the content (the subject).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Awareness of how language reflects your own experience.

You are the detective, also your observation 'am I just an idea.'

How much of an individual construct that can be changed- at will- by circumstance.

What do you discard/retain and why?


What is the work are you producing?

Detritus...the left over after you have undergone a process

A theatrical re-enactment of an idea or discovery

A precious artifact

A decorative object

A magical thing

A lecture

Something which illuminates the text

Something which describes the content



Are you aware of an audience? How would you like an audience to engage with your work? For instance...accompanied by sections of text?If sowould the layout of the text- the font- the size- the colour- be important to you, would it be better to have hand drawn letter forms?

This could happen....

Take an A3 sheet and using words and images produce a stand alone 'poster' (using any combinations of methods and materials) (so it only needs to be broadly reproducible) that could be used as a point of sale entertainment at Borders flagship bookstore in Oxford. (You could do 3, one for each conversation).





-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To design 3 posters...1 for each conversation in chapter 9 of the 'City Of Glass.'



1.Who am I aiming the poster at? What age group? etc.



. Having read the book it seems to me that 'The New York Trilogy is aimed at an audience in the age range of 21 +?



. Could be read by undergraduates/postgraduates...an academic audience?



. He's an American writer, possibly better known in NYC?


. Point of sale at Oxfords flagship bookstore 'Bookers.'

- location suggests that I would be aiming at Oxford students...possibly...
educated types.


2. What do I want to say about the novel...illuminate, lecture, describe the content, hint towards, use metaphor, a magical thing etc?

I would like to pick up on the detritus, the discarded for conversation 1.

Say something about the content for conversation 2...Humpty Dumpty...'the purest embodiment of the human condition.' Question literal meaning of words. Somehow, find way of representing this passage/conversation...

Conversation 3 : I'll use imagery 3 directly from the text and include some actual dialogue between Stillman and Quinn...so it goes...







.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Post 18


there is something about Cleethorpes...carpets, bits of rubble, trash, faded people, I catch myself in mirrors...no longer the small boy with candy floss reflecting back in the Isle Of Man with 'The Reflex' by Duran Duran and 'Paint It Black' by The Rolling Stones. I wander like the early Quinn. Plastic horses canee drive me away...I walk up to another Elvis machine.
'George Washington chopped down the tree, and then he threw away the money.'

Post 17


I am Peter Stillman...I'm the other Peter Stillman.




'Lowbrow or lowbrow art describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970's. Lowbrow ia a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other California subcultures. It is often known by the name pop surrealism.' (from wikipedia).








So I take a stroll to Cleethorpes, North east Lincs to begin my quest to find the Lowbrow of this glorious seaside resort on a bright but chilly Friday afternoon...the end of October and the last day of holiday for the schoolkids.








I'm going to try and portray the 3rd and final conversation between Quinn and Stillman using Pop Surrealism as the influence. I've found the work of Tim Biskup to be very interesting and intend to research this artist further....

Post 16
















Post 15


Conversation 2. The 2nd scene takes place between Quinn and Stillman in Mayflower Cafe on a Sunday morning. Stillman doen't recognise Quinn from the day before. Stillman talks this time about 'Humpty Dumpty' as ...'the purest embodiment of the human condition.' '...man is a fallen creature- we know that from Genesis. humpty Dumpty is also a fallen creature. He falls from his wall, and no one can put him bachk together again- neither the kings, or his horses or his men. But that is what we must all strive to do. It is our duty as human beings: to put the egg back together again. For each of us, sir, is Humpty Dumpty. And to help him is to help ourselves.'

Post 14




Working with the first conversation in mind...a drawing produced in the condensation of a glass panel. I felt that this had been the most natural feeling piece of work that I'd produced in the 'style' of Basquiat.

I was on the train on the way to Lincoln. The carriage was packed like sardines, I was standing inches from the people in the foyer to the first carriage. where does one look? I felt most comfortable trying to glimpse out of the window, my eye catching abstract hints of the countryside. I started watching the drops of water racing down the window pane like the paint on a Basquiat.

The first conversation finds the characters of Quinn and Stillman on a bench in Riverside Park. Sitllman talks about the 'world being in fragments,' and it is his intention to put it back together...' He believes that 'words no longer correspond to the world.' It is his intention to create a new language and spends time wandering the city collecting bits of crushed, discarded junk in which to put the world back together again.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Post 13

early morn...5.35am


Chapter 9, Conversation 1...Basquiat Influence.

This is the first meeting between Stillman and Quinn, at Riverside Park. mid afternoon, biycicles and dog walkers.

Quinn begins by staring directly at Stillman snr ('burns hole in Stillmans skull').


Picked up on Stillman seeing NYC being '...the most folorn of places, the most abject...brokeness everywhere...each day I go out with my bag and collect objects that seem worthy of investigation.'

I've been drawing objects onto the paper, half thoughts, Basquiat in mind.

I tore up the images/words out of the page and proceeded to put them into envelopes.

I cut up the envelopes and am thinking about creating ground level city maps.

NYC...home of Basquiat.

Envelopes used for categorising.

Teletext, muzac, tired eyes...it's 05.49

----------------------------

'they think of words as stones, as great immovable objects...'

Stillman aims to create a new language 'a language that will at last say what we have t6o say. For our words no longer correspond to the world. when things were whole, we felt confident that our words could express them. But little by little things have broken apart, shattered, collapsed into chaos. and yet our words have remained the same. They have not adapted themselves to the new reality. hence, every time we try to speak of what we see, we speak falsely, distorting the very thing we are trying to represent.'

Post 12


Chapter 9. Conversation 1. Stillman and Quinn.



> Painting on canvas in style of Basquiat, influenced by above conversation.


> The colours used so far...pink and brown. Why these colours? I feel that it alludes to Stillman senior, or Peter Stillman. I get the sense of something that seems ill...pink flesh with the white hair.


. Thinking about Basquiat...he uses lots of geometric forms, a framework on which to hang text, figures, scrawls amoungst other imagery.


> I've enjoyed the feeling of painting again. Its reminded me how different an experience it is compared to drawing.


> I've worked on the current work for about 2 hours and am now waiting for it to dry to move onto the next stage.


> shapes possibly ref buildings, human forms or entities...Stillman, Quinn or something else? I'm trying to work to more of a feel for the conversation...


Post 11


> Notes from supposing a space: The detecting subject in Paul Austers 'City Of Glass.'


.'Quinn himself seems to dissolve with the final words of his red notebook...'


'It was as if he were somehow living a posthumous life.'


. Role complicated by the "triad of selves that Quinn had become."


The centre is everywhere, and no circumstance can be drawn until the book has come to its end.


. "detective is the one who looks, listens, who comesw through this morass of objects and events in search of thought..."


. "The world is a text laid bare before the eyes of the master reader, the detective."



Project: Take chapter 9 of City of Glass + produce 3 peices of work....eg- sculpture, painting, print.


> Take 3 conversations in the text...interpret...


> Steal 3 artists...


> Choices...e.g: serious, whimsical, grim etc,,,


Deadline...16th of November.


1st choice artist: Basquiat.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Post 10


thinking about...different...different...things, toast...something on toast with indigestion tablet wrapper eyes...

Post 9


Thinking about chapter 1....New York is an 'inexhaustible space, a labyrinth of endless steps...'


Repetition, motion...thinking about ways that I'd interpret the novel with illustrations on the pages. Again finding it difficult, I'm finding that the images I'm producing are less 'natural' and 'flowing' than I'm used to working. I need to find a way of working that feels natural whilst at the same time adding something to the passages.

Post 8


I'm up to page 87 with my initial draft of a pictorial response to the 'City Of Glass.'




* 'The question is the story itself and whether or not it means something is not for the story to tell.'




I've decided that I will try to represent the complete story by storyboarding from one page to the next. It is a page by page instant response to the story. I've decided to stay committed to following this through from beginning to end, setting myself a definite agenda. On some pages I've drawn more images than others. I feel that I can get an essence of the narrative by meticulously documenting it and hope the images that I produce will give me a starting point to build upon.




A difficulty that I've found in working this way is somehow marrying the 'feel' of the book along with the narrative. It seems to operate on so many levels that I'm aware of the fact that I'll need to be experimental to find images that will work alongside the text.




Pages 3,4 and 5.




Why does Quinn claim to be Auster?




I've found that my characters have morphed into shadowy silhouettes, entities. Is this an intention of the author or my subjective response to the story so far? Is this my way of 'simplifying' the multi layered written narrative with less complex images...?




I'm interested in the idea that Quinn had a successful 'old life' as a writer with a wife and child. It puts across the sense of place, grounding. It suggests that there was once a time when the character of Quinn could have been placed, pinned down. Now, it seems, he lacks a real sense of place...




'Motion is of the essence...'






Pages 3,4,5...






'because he did not consider to be the author of what he wrote, he did not feel responsible for it and therefore, was not compelled to defend it in his heart.' ( upon becoming Wilson).




Am I just an idea? Marc Renshaw? What would happen if I decided to change my name as an artist , the things that I wear, the way I act, the type of work that I produce? I could be 50 different artists all at once....




(Quinn)... seems tom be at some sort of crossroads, has something dramatic caused him to exist in a new way?




'he no longer existed for anyone but himself...'




'New York was an inexhaustible space, a labyrinth of endless steps, and no matter how far he walked, no matter how well he come to know it's neighbourhoods and streets, it always left him with the sense of being nowhere...'




'On his best walks he was able to feel he was nowhere and this was finally all he ever asked of things, to be nowhere...'




'New York was the nowhere he built around himself...'




At this point in the story it would appear he had a place in which to return, the 1 bed flat. He is able to get a feel of being nowhere on his walks but is still able to go home at the end of his day.




'The whole city is a junk heap.'




I was on the tube a few months back, on an above ground section on the way to Liverpool St and was taken by sections of debris mixed in with rusting metal pipes, wires, lagging, litter, paper, broken glass. Its like the city is an ocean washing up its debris to the edges of rail lines.




I'm compelled to visit new places, especially stumbling upon 'gems' close to home. like finding a new stretch of beach recently on the Lincolnshire coast, the anticipation of ascending the escalator at another tube station for the first time...something about the city...characters on the tube. 'Can't give too much eye contact...'




Back to the story....




Quinn gives himself a 'get out clause,' is he either Quinn, Wilson or Auster?








Who is Quinn? He seems to be a non person...a nothing. Does he exist? A figment?



Metaphysics: " Part of a philosophy which is concerned with the understanding of reality and developing theories about what exists and how we know it exists." Collins Corbuld dictionary.


As I'm reading the book I'm already pre conditioned to expect the unexpected...all is not what it seems. It almost sees inevitable that the end of this story will certainly leave more questions than answers.


Is Quinn lonely? does he long for the 'old life' ?



P94...Quinn enters the flat of Auster (the author) and notices the toys and hints to family life...a sense of place that Quinn seems to lose more and more as the story develops.
















Monday, October 22, 2007

Post 7


In my studio at long last....'The City Of Glass.'


I'm at the Peter Stillman monologue at the beginning of chapter 2.


'he entered the house at noon, and left in the darkness.' Interesting way in which the author plays with the notion of time.


Image of Peter Stillman is quite arresting, 'Dressed entirely in white, with the white blonde hair of a child...' Quinn thinks he sees his dead son moments later.


Interesting ref: 'The body acted almost exactly as the voice had: machine like, fitful...rigid yet expressive...'



'my name is Peter Stillman.'


'I say this of my own free will...'


I really love the musical sound of the monologue...


Wonderful description of Stillman...


'Everything about Peter Stillman was white...Shirt...pants...socks...shoes...flaxen thinness of his hair...one could see the blue veins beneath the skin of his face, the blue almost the same of the blueness of his eyes, milky blue seeming to dissolve in a mixture of sea and clouds.'
'The caca piles and the pipi lakes...'


Post 6


Meeting with BP...touched on objective and subjective in image making.




Subjective- list of ingredients, sky, hill, sea etc.

Objective- Having real existence outside a persons mind...


Asked why I chose the image of 'Bradda Head' in The Isle Of Man. Why did I chose this particular scene? Why did I choose this image over the 1000's of others to get to be in my current portfolio?


Is it to say 'hey look at this, I can draw one hell of a hill...?'




What about the colours? Do they represent something?
Am I trying to appeal to a certain type of person? Hey, I've picked the prettiest colours in my paintpot? Why digital?


I think I used the same approach that I use when painting...intuition.




The difference between fine art and illustration...what is it?




'One basic difference, however, is that illustration must answer the core questions of who, what, when, where and why for the viewer. Gallery art, and the so called "fine art"- doesn't necessarily have to do this at all.' Exploring illustration, Michael Fleishman, Thomson.
Look at Paul Auster and 'City Of Glass.'




Saturday, October 20, 2007

Post 5


I've been thinking a lot over the last week about whether or not I've done the right thing...I certainly hope so.


I've come across another artist who looks very interesting to me...'Raymond Pettibon.'


What I like....


repetitive marks, gestural, uses ink, non-digital, mainly black and white.


- images appear to walk the fine line of having the appearance of control as well as the accidental.


- Hand drawn text, home made quality of his 'tripping corpse' magazine. (DIY).


- Some images have the look of a 'GCSE standard' drawing, a teenage angst seems to permeate his work.


- has a feel of the American loser child (beautiful loser art).


- appears to allude to various literature and philosophy.


- text has strength in its depth. I feel that is something I would like to develop within my own work- hopefully the contextual studies part of the MA with help...


Post 4


My first week of the MA has been about keeping my mind open to a world of opportunity. I've taken my first trip to the library and walked our with 4 books under my arm. The first book to catch my eye under the illustration section has been 'Illusive- Contemporary Illustration and it's Context.'


Although tempting as it may be read the book, I've decided to keep it simple and look at images, illustrators and consider what I like about certain works that I select and why I prefer one piece of work to another.


1. Petra Borner- 'Paper Cuts.'


I like her work because of it's precision and fine detail with the perfectly executed 'cuts.' These perfections give a sense of 'the perfect product.'


2. Dustin Summers- 'Wilco Covers.' I like the way he/she? combines found imagery within the screen print.


- the substitution for the blood vessels in the lungs for what seems to be a cannabis leaf.


- The distressed mono print 'accidents' remind me of the automated Royal Mail letter franking systems.


3. Kosuke Ikeda.


The images depict exteriors of buildings, streets etc.


- I'm interested in the way the illustrator is inspired by the inside of envelopes combined with methodical drawing processes.


- highly detailed with clarity is a consistency within the imagery.


4. 'Masca.'


- uses distressed paper with a worn appearance.


- the good old graph paper.


- democratic drawing marker pens have been used in the creation of the work.

Post 3



I've been asked to come up with a list of questions about the kinds of things that I wish to discuss in my next meeting with BP.




1. How does one decide upon a specific research subject in a world containing so much information?




2. How do you store information? What systems does the professional illustrator use?




3. What are the main rules when working to a brief?




4. How do you get into the position of working with clients?




5. How do you decide upon an agent and do I need one anyway?




6. How do you talk confidently about your work, ideas and philosophies?




7. I only use a PC...is it essential to use MAC packages?




8. How do I make a good website...any advice re. web designers? (Affordable?).




9. What kinds of work, presentation do I need in an eye catching portfolio?




10. I'm on the AOI portfolio's....just one string to the bow...is it worthwhile?




11. Ideally, I would like to approach clients and agents etc from an early stage, is this wise or in fact worthwhile?






BP asked me to consider which area of illustration would I be interested in doing...advertising, editorials etc. Although this is a very early stage, I would predict that my drawing would be suited to editorials. I get the feeling that some of my ideas will change over the duration of the course.


BP also suggested that i consider what it is that I want from my time at the University and the input from the lecturers and where I want to be...



1. To become a professional illustrator.


2. To develop skills in talking with confidence about my ideas, concepts and themes within my own practice.


3. To get advice and info regarding professional development...this is a career move.


4. To understand the context in which my artwork and thinking exists through practical and theoretical modes of study.


5. To explore different practical techniques that would open my mind to possibilities within such an exciting discipline.


6. To find (as HP mentioned) a place for my work in the industry and how I can be accommodated by developing my unique signature.


7. HP suggested that I think about what new skill I'd like to develop.


- Experiment with design based software such as illustrator, latest editions of photoshop etc.


- I would like to explore possibilities within animation...perhaps bringing to life some of my sketchbook drawings.


- Film and video.


- Printmaking.

Post 2





What inspired me to embark on an MA in Illustration?Over the last few years I've produced lots of work but have felt that there has been a bit of a gap....I want to try something new.
I've always wanted to try different things all my life, felt that there is always time for personal development through my art career.
I suppose its natural to feel a little apprehensive
at the prospect, I'm making a committment and worry about feeling out of my depth. I could just as easily not do the course. This is a dream to me and I intend to make the absolute most of the opportunity.
I would like to use facilities on offer at the univeristy and get a chance to be experimental, using different media in my exploration in the world of illustration.
I hope the couse equips me with the neccessary skills and aptitudes required in the professional field of illustration. I have began by joining the AOI and have a portfolio on their website and am also in the process of making a website.
I want to realise my potential, and see the MA as a way to look critically at the work I'm producing and the contexts in which it exists.