The Book of Drawings. Final illustrations

After choosing a style to use for my illustrations I went ahead and made the whole set. I made them all using the same techniques and materials. This process took a long time and I’m not happy with all the results. I was finding some of the animals hard to illustrate in the way I wanted. One example of this was the Water Vole, I struggled because I didn’t know how I wanted the fur to look. I’m happy with the Newt because I could use a lot of different colours in its skin tones. I think this helps make the image more interesting. The fish also benefit from this as I could use a lot of greens, reds and purples. Despite all this I think they work as a set and I enjoyed making them.  Below are the final illustrations in the order they will appear in my book. I think the aging ink method used on the paper really stands out now and the fine pen gives a natural texture to the animals.

The truth is out there

As part of my professional study’s I was asked to research what career opportunities I will have with a BA (Hons). I was also asked to research some of the post graduate courses my degrees will allow me to do. When I graduate my current course I will receive a BA (Hons) Degree in illustration and I will have built up a portfolio of my own work. With the qualifications it’s possible to go into a lot of different lines of work. My university prospectus has a handy list of what work is available with this degree.

. Freelance illustrator or studio illustrator

. Book illustrator, including children’s books

. Fashion illustrator

. Greetings cards illustrator / designer

. Illustration for magazines, editorial and advertising

. Illustration for products, eg. Homeware, fashion, accessories, stationery

. Working in publishing

. Printmaking

. Styling

. Project management and community arts

. Postgraduate study. eg. MA illustration

. Postgraduate teaching qualifications

. Teaching and lecturing

There are some others which I can think about and have listed below. 

. Art therapy

. Gallery curator and tours

. Art director

. Studio technician

Out of the options I have listed there are about three which really interest me. I want to research them in more detail as I might want to progress on to them in the future. It’s also good to have a range of interests as it’s hard to stick with one type of job in the art industry. 

Book illustrator, including children’s books 

This is something I have been interested in for a long time as I think I would fit in to this more than the others. Book illustration links closely to publication as they both lead to releasing a book. I have found that some publisher’s websites have an info box about jobs for example Penguin. When I looked at this its basically a drop box of available jobs in penguin publishing. There was no illustration but there was a huge amount of different options including design and digital image.

Working in publishing

This links very closely to book illustration but working in publishing means that there are a lot of different opportunities for careers. Looking back at the job list on penguin gives a good idea of the range of work. Finance, editorial, licensing, marketing and technical development are all examples of jobs in publishing. 

Postgraduate study. eg. MA illustration 

There is always the chose of more studding when I graduate. The next level of execration is a master’s degree. There are many options to tacking a master’s curse and they are often a very independent way of studding. Although a masters degree in illustration isn’t necessary it would be a nice thing to own.

The Book of Drawings. Animal footers

Whilst working on my illustrations I had an idea and thought it would be fun to make simplistic versions of all the animals I was using. I thought it would be interesting to use the designs as page footers underneath the text. I began by doing some quick sketches to see how simple I could get the animals to look. I tried to make them all seem similar enough to appear as a matching set. When I was happy with the designs I then made coloured versions in my sketch book. I used watercolour to do this as it fit with the feel I wanted for my book. After playing with the designs I then hand painted them onto the actual pages I would use for my book. I used watercolour paper so this process wasn’t too difficult. I am happy the final drawings, although I think that they appear a bit too simple. Despite this they seem to have a nice contrast from the detailed illustrations on the opposite page. Below are my final designs.