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!