Study Task 2 - Ten questions I want to answer as part of my degree

1. How can I manage my time well? I want to find the balance between getting all my work done, having a social life and sleeping. I've not been great at it in the past and I hope that over the next three years I can figure out what works for me.
2. What's the best way to get my work out there? I don't know if there is 'one way' to showcase your work, be it Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr or whatever else, but I know I do need to present my work on various platforms to get it out to various potential clients, but I'm not entirely sure what the best way to do that is, or how to even set up a professional looking website.
3. Can I improve my confidence? I need to get out of my own head sometimes and just get pen to paper without worrying too much about the perfect line, especially in sketchbook work. I also need to appreciate my own work and stop comparing myself to others whose work I admire.
4. How can I use Photoshop? I want to learn to do so much with Photoshop but there's so much to learn and I'm not sure I can manage to teach myself or be taught everything I want to know! It's also quite daunting, having been used to analogue media for so long now. I've only ever used Photoshop a handful of times.
5. Do I keep a wide range in my portfolio? After Kyle T Webster's talk and looking at his online portfolio, I saw what a huge range of visual signatures and media he uses to complete work for clients, and I often find myself not sticking to a particular style. I don't know if it would be better to continue to produce a wide range of styles so that a wide range of clients come to me, or if I should try and keep my visual signature slightly more narrow so that people can tell it's my work and know if they want to commission me.
6. Will I succeed with live briefs? I don't know if I have the time management skills to cope with live briefs and uni work on top, but equally I want to get my name out there by doing live briefs for actual clients. But will they even like my work? Do I need to widen the range of what I draw?
7. What will I do after university? I don't know how many options are open to me as to what I can do once I get my degree; if I'll just go straight into being a freelance illustrator or become part of an agency or just be stuck and not know what to do! I don't even know how to go about approaching clients for work.
8. How will I cope with competition? Will I be able to cope if I lose out a brief to someone else? I don't know if I will be motivated by competition or intimidated by it, and I want to come out of my shell a bit more and improve my confidence.
9. Can I learn to draw comics professionally? I don't even know what exactly I want to do or what drawing comics 'professionally' even means anymore, as all indie comic and graphic novelists have different visual signatures and different ways of setting out a comic, but they all have shortcuts with Photoshop or know what they're doing. 
10. How can I improve my drawing in general? Keep drawing all day every day! Take sketchbooks out with me and draw wherever I am. I'm interested in people and poses and there are people everywhere, so the only way to improve is to just keep drawing, and not just from pictures I find on the internet.

OUIL402 Study Task 1

5 reasons why I chose to study illustration:

• I love drawing.
• I'm interested in the world around me and want to respond to it.
• I love writing stories and making up narratives, especially accompanied by drawings.
• Illustration is more specialist and less vague than fine art, and really encourages you to think about the world.
• I want to improve my drawing skills and how I translate the world around me.

5 reasons why I chose this programme:

•  Coming to Thought Bubble 2014 and listening to Matt's talk about the comic artist's education.
•  The information available on the website about course structure, things the course offered like Big Heads, and students' work.
•  Having visited Leeds previously (because I have family here), I know the city a little bit and I really like how easy everything is to get to, the friendly vibe and how many things there are to do.
•  Seeing how passionate staff and students were during my interview, and the way the interview was structured compared to other courses I applied for.
• I can't really explain it, but it just felt 'right' for me.

5 skills that are my strengths:

•  Observational drawing
•  Drawing people, whether from observation or imagination; it's what I enjoy most.
•  Creating narratives.
•  Line drawing.
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5 things I want to improve:

• Confidence - especially drawing without sketching first and just putting pen straight to paper.
• Digital drawing - Wacom and Photoshop etc.
• Developmental work - quite often, as soon as I get an idea into my head I'll go straight for the final piece and work backwards.
• Being comfortable making mistakes! Not throwing away work I don't like.
• Drawing objects and landscapes as well as I draw people.

5 images that demonstrate my interest in illustration:

 This image is by Becky Cloonan, a comic artist I really like. This is the cover for The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. I love her drawing style and she was one of the first comic artists I got into.

 This image is by Boneface, an illustrator from Liverpool. He did the album cover and some music video animations for Like Clockwork by Queens of the Stone Age, and I love how much detail he puts into pieces and the narrative that goes behind each individual image he does.

 This image is by Jamie Hewlett, who does all the promotional artwork for the virtual band, Gorillaz. I love his drawing style as well, and the narrative and emotions he manages to get into his work.

I created this image as a cover for the comic I did for my final major project in foundation year. I was inspired by a cover Becky Cloonan did for a comic called The Kitchen, and used some of her work as a reference to inspire mine. I really loved drawing this cover as it was one of the first times I used Photoshop properly. I was also proud of the composition and the narrative the image shows, without really having any clues to the actual comic.

 This image from observational drawing for OUIL404 I think shows my interest in illustration because in the end I just want to make people laugh, even if it's just myself!