Hopes, Fears and Opportunities

Getting ready to turn professional is a scary thought, but if i want to draw for a living i need to prepare for the future. Thinking about and acknowledging my fears then transforms them into aims and gives me something to focus on and hopefully i’ll feel more confident and ready to go
Hopes
• To know what questions to ask so i can make the most of every meeting.
• To gain a thicker skin so i can take criticism better and not allow other people to upset me or lower my self esteem.
• To gain confidence in asking people for work or to look at my portfolio, the only way to get sufficient work is to put myself out there.
Fears
• That i end the course totally unprepared for the industry. One of the reasons i chose Stockport College was because of the emphasis on preparing us for the real world, many other courses simply focused on the production of images.
• That i graduate but either bottle out or just never have the drive to carry on and end up working at Tesco for the rest of my life. So many people go to university thenend up working in a completely different field and are unhappy for the rest of their career.
• That i finish college, take a break but then never pick up a pencil again; or i go back to drawing the way i used to before i learnt everything i have from Stockport.
Opportunities
• To start to find my way in the industry while still having a safety net to fall back on.
• Always having someone to bounce ideas off and to give advice.
• To work around and with other people rather than at home on my own.
Aims
• To build up a group of contacts that could help me when i set off on my own, including friends from college, visiting artists, gallery curators and anyone else.
• To feel confident showing people my work, there is no way i can be an illustrator if i don’t let people see my work. Some of this stems from being unhappy with the drawings which needs addressing separately.
• To have got the hang of development and finishing off which has let my work down in the past.
• To have a strong portfolio which aptly reflects me and the type of work i want to produce.
• To feel confident enough to say ‘I am an Illustrator’ and hand people my business card.
Reflections on my progress so far
For years i’ve drawn what people wanted to me to or how they wanted me to, bowing to their ‘be experimental’ wishes; but now i’m happy with the way i work and know what route i want to go down. When starting each brief i think more about my ideas and put more effort into the development stage. This results in a more interesting and successful image. I’m more confident and proactive than ever before, taking advantage of situations to show my work or ask a question. I feel like it’s becoming real now, it’s not just me scribbling in my living room anymore.

Final Semester Recommendations
Outcomes that i’m happy with are not consistent yet, I need to keep pushing my development until i’m totally happy with it, rather than stop simply because i’ve got to the bottom of the page. I also want to continue going to different galleries and find out rental costs to potentially have my own exhibition when i went to a little home grown church hall not long ago i met the artists, one has given me portfolio feedback and there is talk of me joining their April exhibition. Even when i’ve got my three portfolio visits i want to carry on showing it to as many people as possible. I need to keep going to galleries to keep my morale up and encourage me to work hard, this isn’t a good time to feel drained and de-motivated.

Final Major Project Ideas
It would be advantageous to take this opportunity to produce work to sell later, including paintings, screen prints, t-shirts, colouring books and anything i’d like to show my work on or area i’d like to get into. It will probably be nature orientated, maybe some cars and typography; a Yorkshire theme might work well while i’m so unknown and localised. I like the idea of doing my own screen printing onto t-shirts so that when i leave college i can do it myself without sending my work to an expensive printers. I would also like to try painting on wood and airbrushing. Airbrushing might have to take part in my spare time or after college.