Face Painting and Illustration and my Own Practice

Ultimately running this business has given me the confidence to get out there with my artwork in whatever form it may take and show it to the people that matter and I know that no one person holds the world's opinion and that I will make a success of anything I choose to pursue, whether it be writing, children's book illustration, animation or body art, or a combination of all these art forms...

Making a Career out of Face and Body Art

There are several competitions around the world and I would certainly like to enter one of these in the near future. I have just found a Bodypainting Day in New York City 18th July 2015 (just missed this one) and another in Amsterdam which is on Saturday 15th August 2015...I am looking at flights, very tempted to go!!

Does my face painting influence my illustration and vice versa?

The practice of face painting influences my illustration work technically more than creatively. My line-work is more confident and fluid. The experience of running a creative business is especially useful from the administration and accounting to the client facing, that with face painting is actually very intimate as you are working so close and touching a strangers face. Also you are working to an extreme deadline and the client then goes walking around advertising your work for all the world to see, so you have to get it right as it will be on Facebook and Instagram etc. No pressure then....!? So ultimately it has given me confidence in my art and I have had to learn to view my work through other peoples eyes and see the beauty and the skill involved and not see the errors which none else does!

Are there other artists who work in several different ways? 

Bella Volen is the one that stands out for me...

Bella Volen

http://www.bella-volen.com


Bella has a great article about the history of body painting on her website: here.

I adore Bella's work and it continues to be a great inspiration for me, something to aspire too. The colours and compositions are just stunning and her use of modelling balloons which she half dresses her models in and paints the model and the balloons. She is also very skilled at camouflage body painting, where the model is hidden in a backdrop. Bella calls herself a fine artist.

Bella Volen

Bella Volen

What other careers would I be able to consider with these skills?

• I would rather like to have a go at theatre makeup, I am considering approaching local amateur dramatic societies to volunteer my services to get my name out there. Addy, who works with me at larger events has some experience of this too, so it would also be another opportunity for us to work together.
• Film and television. I am intending to make an animated film using the body as a canvas in the near future. I would like to learn about prosthetics and latex too.
• Tattoo artist - my brother does this and is very talented and successful. The thought of making permanent makes on someones body terrifies me, what if I made a mistake!!?? You can't wipe it off with a wet wipe!
• Temporary tattoos - I have thought about including this on my stall at festivals, the inks are very expensive, but probably worth the investment, something for next season I think.
• Magazines and other periodicals, advertising
• Makeup artistry
• Fine art - I would like to combine a back drop with painted figures. I have an idea about an animated film using body painting that I may work on for my Masters degree.

How do other people make a living from creative makeup and face painting?

Craig Tracy

http://craigtracy.com/the-gallery

Craig Tracy has a gallery in New Orleans, he paints commissions and works commercially. He also participates in body painting events around the world.

Craig Tracy - from the Full Bodypainting gallery

Craig Tracy - Durex Season 2

The London Body Painting Co

Carolyn Roper

Vanessa Wayne

Trina Merry

Trina Merry

Evaluation & Skills audit

Evaluation

Lectures

Fumio Obata

Fumio's lecture about his own education and career was especially interesting for me because of his experience working in animation. The point that he made about communication within your team during the production of a film was the one thing that really stayed with me. I was also relevant for me to hear about his recent experiences with UK, international book publishing and contracts as this is another area of importance for my career intentions.

As well as talking about his own career, he was able to demonstrate connections with our prospects and gave good general advice.

Work experience - Pauline Ashcroft

Although this lecture was not relevant for me for my chosen work experience, as I am self-employed and had elected to expand and develop my existing face painting business for my work experience, I found it informative none-the-less. I am currently reading Darrel Rees'  How to be an Illustrator (2008) and most of what was discussed was consistent with the first four chapters in Rees' book, about approaching art directors and publishers. I do intend to write and illustrate children's books and hopefully getting out there with my portfolio to meet some art directors for editorial work too.

Developing a creative CV - Pauline Ashcroft

I found this rather fascinating as I have written many a conventional CV in the past; something which I do pride myself on as I did always get an interview and most of the jobs too. But the idea of making a CV completely differently with the only limit being your imagination, whilst keeping the traditional information was an exciting notion. It was also important to note that one should only have 5-6 pieces in a portfolio, perhaps up to 10. I would have put in far more than this! So very helpful.

Harry and Zanna of Papio Press

It was illuminating to hear from people selling applied arts online and succeeding. To hear about the pitfalls and the triumphs. I particularly enjoyed following up their lecture researching Harry and Zanna's website, third-party online shops and the social media connections that they subscribe to and seeing how they make use of these tools to promote themselves. The outsourcing of the product printing was noteworthy too.

A-Z all the things you can possibly think of to do with the experience of being an illustrator

This was an exciting project for several reasons, it was a live brief with the final outcome being an actual publication, it was going to be produced entirely by us, the students from conception to dispatch and we would be working in teams and having to rely on each other to meet deadlines and show up for presentations, meaning communication was tantamount. I have to admit that I was looking forward to this experience, but I think I let down my group (due to personal issues beyond my control). There were all sort of other hold ups along the way; printing problems, and deadlines not being met (not just by me...). However, in the end we made a book and all of us had an illustration in it and it is something to be proud of.

Talks by John McNaught, Paul Farrell and Alys Jones

The things that struck me about McNaught's work were the compositions, colour palettes and the comparison I was able to draw with the work of Ravillious, one of my favourite artists.

Paul Farell's beautifully simplified screen printed images are bold and brave and I know from my own experience of screen printing and attempted simplification how difficult this actually is.

Alys Jones' work was unexpected and powerful. I particularly liked her cutaways inspired by her visit to the Imperial War Museum and the Dickens illustrations for the interactive website she was commissioned to do.

Work experience - Kitty Bliss Face Painting

I decided to use the opportunity of work experience to expand my own very small face painting business. I had reached a point where I was getting more work than I could handle and was considering expansion, so I went ahead and did it, and was pleased with the results. It meant I had to register with HMRC and complete my first Tax Return, do my own bookkeeping, employ and pay contractors, advertise my business and make a financial investment, which did pay off. In fact in the first quarter of this financial year Kitty Bliss Face Painting earned more than the entire previous year and is continuing to flourish, to the extent of having to employ and train further staff. I have learned so much from this experience, and it does differ quite significantly from a business I ran in the past (a restaurant). Perhaps it is because it is doing something creative that I love and getting to work with other creative minded souls. It was not a career path I had ever intended but I am now considering combining the art form with animation. 

Skills Audit

Things I have learned from running my own business and from this year as a whole, well actually, from the first two years of my degree course:

Bibliography

DAVIES, Jo & BRAZELL, Derek, (2013), Becoming  a Successful Illustrator, Bloomsbury 
On my bookshelf awaiting the summer holidays

HELLER, Steven & ARISMAN, Marshall, (2004) Inside the Business of Illustration, Allworth Press 
Next to the one above on the shelf

KLEON, Austin, (2014), Show Your Work!: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Getting Discovered, Workman Books 
This is a lovely little book about getting your work and yourself out there! Online, exhibitions it covers just about everything and in Layman's terms (woohoo!) and the layout and design is rather snazzy too.

MOROSS, Kate, (2014), Make Your Own Luck: A DIY Attitude to Graphic Design and Illustration, Prestel 
Kate began her career with hand drawn text and did so well she has written book all about her journey. Beginning with gig flyers and posters her work can now be seen on skateboards, walls and who windows and at the Olympics. Proof that talent + determination will get your work published and seen. Very inspiring, thank you for making this book Kate!

REES, Darrel, (2008) How to be an Illustrator, Laurence King 

My current bedtime reading alongside Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. 

Slow reading this one, mainly because I want every bit of very important information engraved permanently on my grey matter.

STERN, Simon, (2008) The Illustrator’s Guide to Law and Business Practice (AOI), Gardners Books, 2008 
I have used the contract and will join the AOI once I have established whether or not our Illustration degree course is not already a member (anybody know this?? I did post this very question on Facebook, but none answered...). Still trying to get my head around how the licensing of artwork "works". Might need discussion with tutors to fully understand this. It seems to me that even the art directors and publishers are a bit woolly on the rules here...a bit of a worry.


TAYLOR, Fig, (2013), How to Create a Portfolio & Get Hired: A Guide for Graphic Designers & Illustrators, Laurence King 
I'm saving this one to read in September as we will be putting together our own portfolios! Its on the shelf next to the others.

Lecture Notes

Professional practice
9 October 2014
Fumio Obata - Sequential Artist

http://www.fumioobata.co.uk

Sequential design and pictorial storytelling

•   Illustration

•   Animation

•   Books

Background

• Tokyo born
• Comic books in Japan - Manga
• Glasgow School of Art 1991 BA Hons Graphic Design, Illustration and Photography
• They didn't know what to make of his comic book influenced works, directed him to children's books but his heart wasn't in it, trying to please tutors, stopped drawing! Began experimenting with skip raiding and collage, returned to sequencing (important factor) - character based, portraying characters with emotion, Japanese aesthetics & European.

• Explored finding a strong voice
• Restricted by controlled figure drawing, began working in charcoal from his imagination
• Concept and background design
• Illustration for magazines and book covers
• Trying to survive and earn a living
• Worked in concept art field, very cinematic, for animation, good with manga background and BA
• Emphasis on movement
• Composition is important in illustration
• Looks at himself in the mirror for gesture, movement poses
• Make your own individual methods and applications organic and digital
• Most important to build your own market, get your own followers, sell products, people like to handle beautifully printed things
• Duran Duran animated stage projection Anime style, timescale 2 weeks for 3 minute digital, learned software on the fly
• Channel 4 artist in residence in Bradford Media Museum in an open studio with visitors
• Animation complex team work
• Don't have time to do all the stages yourself
• Team work very very tantamount
• Never assume you can make a change without telling anyone.
• 5-6 years animation
• Worked on Denice the Menace
• Outsource animation work abroad for cheaper foreign production
• Likes storyboarding, now does live action storyboarding

Books

• 2008 left animation
• Went to France wanting to pursue comic industry
• Big market in France
• Huge following abroad, Bande Desineé - Angoulême has a state funded comic book school!
• The arts are state funded in France
• Fumio published a book in French that he wrote
• The Guardian run a competition started in 2006 for graphic novels, Fumio entered and won runner up in fourth year. Got a publishing contract with Jonathan Cape, French, Italian, U.S. and Taiwan publications too.

Global Market

• Get payment for book from publishers + royalties
• Edinburgh league of Comics - started it before coming to University of Gloucestershire, it is still running.
• Fumio worked with NHS drug addiction - attempting to make a book about it.

Book Making - Advice

• Research own materials/stories
• Your market?
• Internet/entrepreneurial approach
• Work with publishers as well as individually
• Gain an audience - can generate profit this way through your fan base
• Online comic - has to be regularly to keep interest, mobile access is key, pressure on quality/content

23 October 2014
Work experience Lecture - Pauline Ascroft

How to contact employers

•   Research place/person you are going to contact

•   Phone first

•   Email and link to portfolio

•   Name of contact

•   Why you are contacting them

•   Who are you?

•   What you want

•   What you can offer

•   Be brief

•   Don't ask questions you should already know the answers to

•   Specific email heading including your name (easier to find when you follow up)

•   Follow up 1-2 weeks later, "Just ringing to see how we can take this forward?"

•   Keep a diary

•   Socialise on placement

•   Buy the biscuits! Don't just eat them!

•   Make 20-30 contacts, keep organised

•   Make a list: family & friend's contacts - do they know anyone?

•   Stay in contact, keep notes, keep them informed

•   LinkedIn is a good networking site for professionals

•   Facebook

•   Twitter

•   Have you googled your name? Your employer will

•   Set up a Pinterest page & CV

30 October 2014 - Live brief Picota Cherries

Absent

06 November 2014 - Seminar Developing a Creative CV - Pauline Ashcroft

Developing a Creative CV

Dare to be different

CV Cover Letter

Letter ought to contain:

• Dear "name" - good idea to call first and enquire about person it should be sent to 
• Why you are writing to them
• Next step i.e. "I will contact you in the next week..."
• Thank you 
• Goodbye

CV

Target CV, Visual Impact, Showcase portfolio

• Biography:
• about me
• inspiration
• how you work
• Written in third person
• Examples on "my degree plus" website
• Book: "Creative CV Guide" 
• Portfolio:
• Be selective
• Make accessible
• Quality counts
• Explain clearly
• Strike a balance
• Ask for feedback
• 5-6 pieces - up to 10

Consider applying for Tenders

• Past employment
• Academic qualifications
• BA Hons Illustration - perhaps include module titles?
• GCSEs A Levels + dates
• Omit irrelevant qualifications
• Work experience - can be placements, even if just half a day
• (Include my teaching of Life Class)
• Contact details - include website address, online portfolio, blog @ the top of CV
• Digital CV with links
• Animated CV
• Tidy up email address and phone message - make them professional
• Profile - @ the top of CV
• 3/4 very focused selling points - attention grabbing - Employer reads in 30 seconds!!
• "looking for an opportunity..."
• Skills: Mention here what you are good at (Counselling skills listening certificate)projects
• Experience - projects/freelance
• Additional information - published work,  awards, prizes, languages, sales, shortlisted for anything, commissions
• Interests - here you can show another side of yourself
• References
• If you email the CV, put your name in the subject header/title so that when you call to check it was received they can search and find it easily

Style

• Conventional
• 2 page max
• plain paper
• few visuals
• standard typeface
• branding is OK
• Creative
• 1-2 pages/3D
• Poster
• Use of colour
• Focus on creative skills and experiences
• Info can be graphic
• Flow is not an issue, can be graphic
• Includes visuals/link to portfolio
• More than one typeface
• Alternative
• Web page
• Youtube CV
• Meet the real me
• Check privacy levels - phone/address
• Concept cupboard - website 
• Photo of me at work
• Just email is fine
• Make a CV i.e. screen printed

06 November 2014 - Harry and Zanna of Papio Press

Zanna and Harry have launched a company selling applied arts to very saleable, useful and ideal gift items such as mugs, mobile phone covers, pocket mirrors, "alphabet"
bags, prints, tea towels, greetings cards and stationary.

• Zanna and Harry are currently studying their third year of a BA Hons Illustration at the University of Gloucestershire. They shared with us tips, insights and pitfalls of setting up a business of this nature and selling online.

• They have their own website: http://www.papiopress.co.uk and they also sell via Etsy and Not on the High Street.
• Not on the High Street rejects around 80% of applicant businesses, have a £200 joining fee and take 25% commission and stipulate that postage must be "free". So they have accounted for this in their pricing structure, along with packaging costs. 

• The prints are are printed on 250gm recycled card, sold unframed and posted in a card backed envelope. The A4 sized prints are more popular than the A3 sized ones. They still print these themselves but are looking into outsourcing. Most of their other products are produced in the UK. They did research and try out some Chinese producers, however there were issues with colours.

Papio Press on Not on the High Street

• Social Media: Zanna says that she dedicates serious regular time promoting Papio Press on social media. They use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest. Zanna says that Tumblr is "the one" for illustrators to be on, it is the site that all illustrators make sure they are linked to. Twitter has had the best response rate and Instagram can link to all the others.

Papio Press on Pinterest

Papio Press Search on Twitter

• "Liking" other peoples/businesses generates "Likes" for their on posts and pages.
• Regular stock takes 
• Make sure all your artwork on the web is 72dpi so that it cannot be ripped off!!
• Clean up illustrations in Photoshop before having printed onto products
• Cellophane bags from eBay for packaging

13 November 2014 - Georgina Hounsome Career and Promotion

Absent

20 November 2014 Formulating Interview Questions

We worked together to come up with a comprehensive list of everything we could possibly want to know about being a real living illustrator...I don't think we missed anything!! I was fortunate to be able to use all the questions with my interview with Sean Fear. When I interviewed Helen Ward we had only around 20 minutes and so I picked out a handful of things I really wanted to know that I thought would benefit my own developing working practice.

Edited by me...

Illustrator Interview Questions

In the beginning:

How did you get started with Illustration?

What is your background?

Where did you study?

What was the most important thing you learned at school/college/university?

Why do you do what you do?

What has been a seminal (innovative) experience?

What was your first publication and how did it come about?

How long since you left education did it take for your first illustration to be published?

Professional practice:

How often do you update your portfolio?

How do you promote your work?

How did you initially promote yourself when you first started out?

How many projects do you tend to work on at any one time?

What are the most projects you’ve had to do simultaneously?

What is the shortest deadline that you’ve had to work to?

Have you ever missed a deadline?

Besides the actual illustrating, what other things do you have to do as a freelance illustrator?

Do you have an agent?

What are the most useful things that the agent does for you?

Have you ever had to deal with difficult clients?

Do you ever collaborate with other artists?

How do you find new people to work with?

What area of illustration have you had the most commissions for?

How do you price your commissions?

Do you live solely from the income from your illustration work?

Generating ideas and inspiration

Who or what is your inspiration?

What is your favourite or most inspirational place?

How do you generate ideas?

Do you work from references or from the imagination?

How do you overcome artist’s block?

Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?

What work do you most enjoying doing?

Are there any themes you pursue?

What is your favourite artwork?

What food, drink, music inspires you?

What research do you do?

Name something you love, and why.

Name something you don’t love, and why.

What is your dream project?

Name three artists you’d like to be compared to.

Working practice:

How do you work?

How many hours do you work a day?

What is your typical day as an Illustrator?

What materials do you use the most?

Which brand of watercolours/brushes/inks/pens/pencils etc.?

Do you use a computer when developing your images and if so, how?

Do you keep a sketchbook? What sort of things do you tend to draw in it?

Do you practice life drawing?

How has your practice changed over time?

Do you find the artistic life lonely? If so how do you do to counteract it?

General:

What are the best and worst things about your job?

In your opinion, what is integral to the work of an artist?

What role does the artist have in society?

What art do you most identify with?

What memorable responses have you had to your work?

What do you dislike about the art world?

What jobs have you done other than being an artist?

What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Professionally, what’s your goal?

What wouldn’t you do without?

What do you dislike about your work?

What do you like about your work?

What superpower would you have and why?

27 November 2014 - Group Project/Tutorials

Brief: A-Z all the things you can possibly think of to do with the experience of being an illustrator.

Work in groups

A risograph printed publication/book

200x200mm +5mm bleed

Black and White print with hand spot colouring (traditionally a tiny area)

Hand stitched & trimmed

Deadline Thursday 15th January
Schedule:
4 Dec Group work ideas
11 Dec Thumbnail ideas presentation
8 Jan Present refined scaled up ideas
15 Jan Hand in
29 Jan Hand spot colouring
4 Feb Folding, sewing, trimming, packing

My group: Tara, Guy, Miles, Phoebe, Corrinne, Keira & me Kitty

Our section: Health

We explore our chapter and came up with:

• Ergonomics - practical workspace
• Time management - relative to stress
• Health and Safety - fire risk, chemicals - risk assessment
• Mental health - timeout
• The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron - creative self discovery
• Healthy eating
• Exercise

Final drawing for publication - by Kitty Skye

"No matter what your age of your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity" Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way: A spiritual path to higher creativity

29 January 2015 - Seminar - Copyright

Absent - however, have read The Illustrator's Guide to Law and Business - Simon Stern 2008, published by The Association of Illustrators (AOI), which covers every legal everything an budding artist such as myself needs to know. And I have used the contract template included in the book and am considering joining the AOI with a student membership. I found the chapter about ownership of artwork and writing a licence particularly informative, useful and interesting.

I have also bought HELLER, Steven & ARISMAN, Marshall, (2004) Inside the Business of Illustration, Allworth Press, which I will read when I have finished REES, Darrel, (2008) How to be an Illustrator, Laurence King. 

05 February 2015 - Seminar - Fees and Pricing

Absent - The Heller and Marshall book has a section on Fees too - to stay up to date with this information, one really does have to hook up with the AOI who have up to the minute pricing structures and contract laws always available to its members.

12 - 26 February 2015 - Group Project - Typographical posters

See this post, click on this link

Absent for workshops, however I did meet up with Dan Sucena and we formed our own absentee group and tackled the project together, see the relevant blog bit here and here.

12 March 2015 - Seminar - Designer makers, Art Fairs, merchandise and selling/pricing your own work.

Absent

19-26 March 2015 - Seminar - Evaluating your placement/work experience

Lecture Notes - John McNaught

Lecture Notes - Paul Farrell

Lecture Notes - Alys Jones Page 1

Lecture Notes Alys Jones Page 2