SWOT YOURSELF

Strength
I AM/MY WORK IS... Versatile, ambitious, innovative, original,
OOAK art dolls, competitively priced, posable, unique, handcrafted

Weakness
Lacking in experience (need to learn about and USE professional model making materials) AMATEUR
Too many fingers in too many pies (Damn Fine Cherry Pie) / might be better to have one solid skill
Dolls are cheap compared to others on the market, not charging enough. Selling myself cheap.

Opportunity
Animation/illustration - Growing market, more technology, more products, more consumers

Threat
Saturated area for talent
Market is growing but so are illustration courses/practitioners... Why pick me?

ROSIE ETSY DOLL ORDER

Rosie - £20.00 Art Doll

Brief:

21st Birthday present.

Curly strawberry blonde hair, rose accessories, sweatshirt, 

jeans and rose patterned Dr Martens. Maybe a little book? She loves reading.

Studying British Sign Language at Uni.

Problems Faced:

Finding the right colour hair! Don't want to offend the customer by giving the doll 

hair that is too red. Can't find a strawberry blonde, just ginger or blonde! Eventually

found some at Samuel Taylor's but still not natural colour... Stock up on hair colours and 

have them at home ready for orders. Almost ran out of time because I had to go 

looking for the wool!

Used old material I had in my stash but could have looked better with material specifically bought for this doll. I just used what I had - I could have found something to match her wardrobe. 

Need to keep an eye on profits and invest on supplies:

florist wire

polystyrene balls

mod podge dimensional magic (shoe liqueur)

fabric

wool

Feedback:

Loves the rose boots - little details! Recommended to Rosie's best friend Harriet whose 

birthday is also coming up.

LAIKA'S HEAD OF PUPPETRY

THIS IS THE DREAM.

Laika is a stop motion animation company in America. They've made films like The Boxtrolls, Paranorman and Kubo and the Two Strings. I've been thinking about working in puppet design / construction and I'd really like to work in a studio like this.

Being involved in a team, responsible for the aesthetics of the puppets, creating tiny worlds... Part of a bigger picture.

This video gives an interesting insight into one role within the company: Head of Puppetry. This artist is responsible for the running of the puppet department, which involves directing and overseeing decisions as well as organising and communicating between departments.

ELLA - ETSY DOLL ORDER

Ella - £20.00 Art Doll

Brief:

Fashion Student, enjoys sewing, loves Dr Martens Boots, 

wears black, bobble hat/beanie, loves moths.

Working on making my boxes more professional. An illustrated drawing on the front is charming but also a little messy? Need to clean it up digitally and add colour maybe. Need to find a good supplier for C5 size boxes. Ribbon is cute!

Feedback:

'Completely amazingly fantastic. I hope you're in for a busy time because I know you'll get more orders after I share it with everyone on her birthday.'

FACE PAINT SHOP AUSTRALIA - ETSY ORDER

Etsy order for two pixies to go to AUSTRALIA. I've never sent dolls overseas before and I'm really nervous but also so humbled... Kate found my dolls on Etsy when searching the keyword 'pixie doll' and CHOSE MINE.

Brief:

A boy and a girl pixie doll. Need to be sturdy enough to be posed and balanced on top of boxes. To be used in display next to her face paint products. Kate sends photos to her customers of the parcel all wrapped up before it is sent to get them excited about the order and wants some 'packing pixies' to pose with them in these photos. 'Quirky', 'Cheeky', 'Cute'.

Why Mine?

Price comparison - I'm probably a lot cheaper than most on the market.

CHARACTER - Kate said she was drawn to the character and personality of my pixies.

2 x Packing Pixies - £40.00

Shipping - £12.50

THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES - STUDY TASK 2

A really interesting and relevant discussion about where our practice sits in the creative industry and in the economy. I found today's session really thought-provoking and this discussion of where/how I want to work is something I need to figure out. 

I need to prepare myself and answer all these questions that I have and that people keep asking me. Stop burying my head in the sand and work this out.

How am I going to make a living out of this?

ONLY 31% OF UK CREATIVE BUSINESSES ARE BASED IN LONDON.

I have always assumed that London is where EVERYTHING HAPPENS and that if I wanted to work as an illustrator, I might have to move closer to the buzz of London. I knew that other things are happening all over the country, but it's reassuring to know that in the creative industries today 

YOU CAN WORK ANYWHERE AND BE CONNECTED GLOBALLY.

As a creative practitioner, the industry offers work in the form of:

Design Studios (usually small teams, like Studio Mama Wolf)

In-House Creative Teams (normally full-time job, designing for a company)

Freelance Practitioners (a huge risk that can pay off)

My work currently sits across a few of the different creative disciplines. I'm torn between trying to specialise my practice to one specific service or building a broader skillset with which I could apply my practice to many different creative challenges.

Publishing and Book Design:

Publishing and Book design is what I initially perceived an illustrator's job to be. I now know that illustrators can and do work in all sorts of formats, but I do still dream of this goal. Working as a children's book illustrator/author is what I want to do, I want to see my books in book shops and for children to recognise my characters.

Most illustrators/Authors work freelance and are aided by agents who help them to negotiate business with publishers. However, there are some full-time creative jobs in the publishing industry (mostly Designers) and there are a few publishers whose team I would love to join:

Nosy Crow

Nobrow

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvZMFZSIkkJx4IMRV5XW8h0EJMkW3K3dWc9E1-i_TE74Do_W47YNEHtOIcUuPmUK5_aJkbk2QFk8uhBZ_PywyS3YciQnGbhx5b_RLvgFfR-dd-7MFRscjhaLWaixPH7E6mzxUX47WpqK4H/s1600/Pic1_Shana_N-S_Flying+High+with+Flying+Eye_Title_17sep15.jpg

Character and Narrative:

My interest in performance, theatre, stop-motion animation, puppetry and doll-making taps into this discipline of character and narrative. 

Examples of corporations that use character and narrative design in the entertainment sector:

The Jim Henson Company

LAIKA

I really admire the films and products that both LAIKA and Jim Henson company creates, but there are many roles and professionals that work within these companies to produce the final product. It's not all done by one person, so I should stop fretting that illustration is the wrong course. I don't need to know how extensively how to mould/cast models if it's the designing and sculpting that I'm passionate about. I'm not interested in the digital production of animation, it is the character design and storytelling that suits what I do/aspire to do.

Job roles within LAIKA that I might work towards:

http://www.laika.com/people

Art Director

Puppet Fabricator

Puppet Painter

Model Maker

Sculptor

Set Designer

Scenic Artist

Character Designer

Storyboarder


Retail & Merchandise
My 3-Dimensional characters (art dolls and toys) are sold as commercial products. This business is going quite well through Etsy and selling in a shop window in Ripon, but I would like to push this to be even more professional and successful. I would like to devise some sturdy, attractive packaging for the dolls I make.

Rob Hodgson

BIG HEADS WITH ROB HODGSON

Didn't think I'd heard his name before but then when we saw his website I kept seeing images I'd pinned/reblogged online, so had without realising seen lots of his work before.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53dd4013e4b05d8340b1c32c/t/554cc2ede4b09d4b2220a564/1431094047063/rob-hodgson-little-boxes.gif?format=original

'Print making, gets sucked up into the computer'

something I've been thinking about with my current 504 Printed Pictures Project. Process is often digitised at some point, for ease/necessity/pleasure. Hodgson digitises his printed textures to archive them, to revisit them and to show them off (hence where they end up on my Pinterest feed)

Radio signals - the work he publishes either rings out forever, radio silence, or someone likes it and little responses ping back.

Likes to get hands-on

'Cool material, what could I use it for?' I find his approach to materials quite innovative and inventive in this way. Finding and re-purposing. Quite a Postmodern approach - recycling, taboo materials, use them as starting points.

Visiting Lecturer: LOUISE LOCKHART

http://bibelotmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Bibelot_Louise_Lockhart_Games.jpg

Louise Lockhart's practice centres around products, printing and application.
After graduating, she worked for a short while in a stationery shop in Canada, selling printed products and greetings cards that evidently inspired the work she makes now that sits in similar gift and stationery shops. I think that this was where Lockhart discovered how her work sits in the market and fits in commercial illustration.
She runs an online shop called 'The Printed Peanut' with all sorts of lovely goodies from prints to soap that are made to be sold as products.

I found myself drawn to her traditional toys and games, especially when she commented that she was fed up of modern toys being 'PLASTIC AND NAFF', a sentiment I've been fighting with handmade dolls/toys in my own practice.

http://www.soma.gallery/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/270x360/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/n/s/ns-circus_packet_web__67954.1459445018.1280.1280.jpg

Lockhart makes prints of her work using a Risograph machine. A hybrid screen printer/photocopier, it's designed for cheap, quick prints (for leaflets/flyers in the business industry) but have are much-loved by illustrators for the natural GRAIN/texture they produce. The quality of her prints therefore looks old-school and worn.

I love the textures that Risograph produces and would really like to have a go at making some Riso prints myself. There is a Riso print company in Leeds and it's super cheap.

Lockhart told us that she wants it to look handmade.
She uses photoshop as a tool to combine scanned printed textures/found papers and add text.

I appreciate that and much prefer handmade aesthetic to the digitally constructed image, but I also feel a little like I'm being cheated when an image is made to 'look' handmade. Similarly to how shops label new clothes with a grungey/distressed image as 'vintage', I find it a little inaccurate and in-genuine.