Job Roles

Illustration Job Roles

Concept Artist:

Concept art is a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for use in films, video games, animation, or comic books before it is put into the final product. Concept art is also referred to as visual development and/or concept design.

Pros:

· This is my dream job and so I would be very enthusiastic about it.

· Has potential to give very good pay.

· Is a good way to get work seen by many people.

Cons:

· Hard job to get into. Have to work your way to the top.

· Very time consuming job.

Children’s Book Illustrator:

Pros:

· A good way to get your work seen

· Has potential to give very good pay.

Cons:

· It’s quite a specific area of illustration, which could mean there would not be much variation or experimentation in your work.

· Very competitive area of illustration.

Editorial Illustration:

Pros:

· An excellent way of getting your work seen by many people

· If you are successful you could earn a lot of money.

Cons:

· Potentially you could have some very short periods of time to compete work. Good time management will be needed.

· Very competitive industry to get into.

5 years time

Where will I be in 5 years time?

Well unfortunately I do not have position of a time machine so am unable to answer this question with 100% accuracy. Maybe I will attempt to go straight into a career in illustration. I have never been travelling before and I would love to see the wonders of the world. So in 5 years time I may be on the other side of the world. I do have a strong passion for music and play a few instruments ranging from African drums to didgeridoos. Who knows, in 5 years time I could possibly be in a small band, travelling the county, playing in pubs and small venues, meeting lots of people and living of the money earned from our music. My dream job would be as a concept artist, designing and sketching ideas for films and computer games. Maybe as soon as I leave PCA ill look into securing a job in this industry.

These are only a few possible outcomes of many. I really don’t know where I’ll be in 5 years time.

why I chose illustration

Why I chose Illustration

From a young age we discovered that I had dyslexia and though out all my school life I found most academic lessons very challenge. My dyslexia meant I found reading and writing very difficult, resulting in me not enjoying the academic side of my school life. I quickly discovered that I could express myself though drawing and painting. There rapidly became a huge barrier between my struggle with academic studies and my love for art studies. One id hate and the other id enjoy.

From a young age id spend most of my time making models from the small arsenal of Art Attack books I had. Id clear myself a nice big space on the kitchen table and start to bring the book to life, slashing glue and paint all over the kitchen to which my mother did not appreciate. I’d often find myself getting interested in over models in the book and start to make them before finishing the last. Leaving a huge collection of part finished part unfinished models.

As I progressed from my primary school to my middle school I began to explore and experiment with my art work. This was a time for exploring media and colour combinations. At this school I was introduced to new media I had never seen or used before, such as mod roc and basic forms of printing such as lino. This was a good time to me to experiment with all sorts of different media and begin to have an idea on what types of media I enjoyed and didn’t enjoys.

I then moved on to secondary school where I started my G.C.S.E’s. It was clear to me that I would defiantly choose Art as one of my options. This was my 1^st chance to really excel and should them that I was keen and passionate about art. Thought out my G.C.S.E.’s I worked hard on developing my drawing and acrylic painting skills. I worked hard and came out with an A*. Pleased with my work and final grade I was very enthusiastic to get stuck into my A.S. Level studies. I chose a very creative and expressive three choice’s which were art, design technology and photography. I was very excited about started photography as I have never done it before. I instantly fell in love with it and spent my time wisely exploring various techniques. Although I enjoyed photography and it made an interesting change from my art studies, I knew my passion lay with art. Though out my second year of A level art I began to really become inspired my artist work and for the first time I began to build my own style and structure of work. For my course work I studied H. R. Giger and more or less became obsessed with his work. As to this point all my art work had been ‘clean’ and easy to the eye. Giger completely changed my way of thinking and I realised just how dark art can be. I was fascinated by the strong underlined message of sin and dark evil beings. I found his work hugely powerfully and disturbing, yet you get the urge to look at it no matter how evil it looks. I find dark, evil pieces of art work much like Giger’s are often some of the most powerfully types of imagery. Discovering H.R.Giger’s work was defiantly a strong turning point in my artist life. From that day on my art work began to get progressively darker and more powerful. This, including my strong passion for Science Fiction, became the back bone for most of my work, in school and out. Although I had experimented a fair amount with different medias thought out my A levels, it became clear to me that I had a strong interest in sketching and illustrating. Combined with the Photoshop element of photography I was able to apply elements of digital work to my art work as well.

When the time came to fill out the UCAS information it was obvious I was going to choose the Artistic path way, but as to which one I wasn’t one hundred percent sure. I decided the best way to help me with my decision would be to do a one year foundation course in art and design to help me decide what my strongest and most enjoyed aspect was. Thought this year we experimented with all different types of media, some of which I hated and some I really enjoyed. Rather quickly I came to the conclusion that my passion lay with illustration and visual communication, and so applied for an illustration course at PCA.

evaluation of three websites

http://www.ryanchurch.com/

Ryan Church (Digital Illustrator)

This website is clear, and easy to use. As you enter the home page u are met with a large image of Church’s work with a plain grey background and a list on the left and side. The grey background helps to make the image stand out. As there is no detail in the background there is no real urge to draw your eyes away from the main image. This immediately involves you in the artist work and makes you interested. He has his name at the top of the page so it’s easy to tell who the work belongs to. The list on the left hand side is very simply laid out which lowers the risk of people getting confused or lost. In the list there is a biography, gallery, shop and a contact option. Under that gallery section there is a list of films and games that he has done illustrations for. You can click on each title and it will change the ‘home’ image to an image from that film or game. Above this picture will be a row of all the other images in that category. You can view each one by clicking on it. While you are going this the original list is still there on the left and side. So you can travel around the website without having to keep going back to the home page. This really is a very simple and easy to use website.

http://www.geraldscarfe.com/

Gerald Scarfe (Cartoonist and Journalist Illustrator)

The home page to Gerald Scarfe’s website is very interesting and eye catching. This page displays several examples for Scarfe’s work which shows a high skill in expression and use of vibrant colours. At the top of this screen are several options such as ‘gallery’, ‘shop’, ‘news’ and ‘contacts’. Though these can be quite easily seen, they could be bolder to make it easier and clearer to use. As you enter the gallery a large selection of his politics illustrations pop up and you can click on each one to enlarge it and get a better view. At the top of each image it says its title and there is an option to click on to get more information on politics. Next to these images there is a list of Scarfe’s of fields of art work. You can click on these to bring up a selection of images related to that topic. On each picture in each category, the name is listed above with the option of finding out more information on that topic. This website has been very well thought out and contains a lot of information. It certainly has a lot more information the Ryan Church’s website, but is this necessarily a good thing. Less written information can make a clearer and easier website, and certainly a less complicated one.

http://www.simongoodway.com/?devon&gclid=CJKRg-epvacCFQEY4Qod5mRP_A##main

Simon Goodway (Children’s Illustrator)

This website is poorly designed and quite hard to use. From the home page you can see a brief description of the artist and what they do. To me it sounds like this writing was a bit rushed and not well thought out. On the top right hand side there is a list of options which allow you to see some of his work and find out information on how he studies and information on contacting him. As u hover over these options with your mouse the option block turns a bright colour and makes it hard to read. As you click on a field of work, the relating artwork pops up in a row at the top of the page. You are able to click on an image to enlarge it. With each image there is a very brief and poor description of what the work was for. I think the design and layout of this website has not been well considered or thought out. There is far too much happening and the colours are too bright which courses a sense of confusion.

Summary:

The layout of a website is very important. If you are wanting to get your name well known, one good way to go about this is to set up our own website. It is vitally important that you spend time of the layout and design of you website to ensure you have an easy to use, and aesthetic website. People are far more likely to spend more time on your website if it’s easy to use and looks interesting.