My portfolio review with Greg from Bic Active and the executive producer from Blink Ink was very successful. Greg gave me his email and was excited for me to keep in touch and show him more of my work as it developed. “You’ve got it” “I love the colour palette”. Blink Ink told me I had to mix up my source material. To look back in order to look forward. I want to start building contacts in the industry so I can invite them to our final degree show. He gave me some very good constructive feedback on my films and animations. He said I needed to learn how to slowly reveal the narrative. Tease the viewer and slowly reveal.

I was glad I went along to the portfolio review as it gave me a lot of confidence that I am on the right path.

I want to marry the glossy abstract digital world with the organic, the handrawn. I have been upgrading my equipment so I am able to work faster across different programmes.

To find new collaborators. To write a manifesto. What is the emotion? Narratives. Building an environment. What is it you are trying to say? How can different mediums/forms inform my artwork (Hannah Waldron w textiles) incorporating textile textures into her work. Short 5/10 second sequences.

 

Blink Ink is a production and talent company. They work across advertising, animation and create a lot of content for music videos. They mix up different film making styles with animation. I find this method so inspiring – it is a new artwork in its own right. I want to experiment like this with my own work by combining photography, footage and animation. Bart Yaters led the talk:

• Look for new opportunities – through opportunities your art grows.
• Look at other directors work
• People have an emotional connection to craft – they love to see it.
• Make sure you combine digital and hand craft skills.
• Strike up relationships with people in companies that you like
• Always think abut the emotion in your work – what is the emotion?
• Bring people together to work on bigger projects.

The portfolio review was constructive I learnt a lot. Bart emphasised working on my narratives and streamlining my workflow to make it look less messy. He suggested I look at vintage Vogue magazines for reference. Look back to look forwards. When displaying my work on instagram or in a portfolio I need to show it in sets, as opposed to a random sequence of images. “It helps people to read your work”.

BIG ACTIVE is an artist management and content creation company. They represent leading image makers. This talk was an eye opener into the business. I prepared a portfolio of work to show to them in order to get some feedback. He said he is always looking for someone who is doing things differently. He made some very interesting points about the medium of ‘instagram’ effecting how artists worked: There is less money because artists need to work faster and quicker to make short sequences that are going to capture peoples attention on such a saturated platform of moving image like instagram.

Advice:

• You don’t need an agent – you can market yourself through your instagram page. Brands contact the artist directly.
• Be true to yourself. Occupy your own space. Total individual.
• Don’t compare yourself to other artists.
• Mix up your references – look for new things before they become trendy.
• Work as hard as you can – put in the hours. Success will come!

Below are some artists that BIG ACTIVE represent that are worth mentioning as they are very innovative:

Erik Winkowski

– A video artist who combines abstract paint, drawing and found footage. He treats video like collage: cutting up, drawing over and remixing scenes from every day life to create short compelling narratives. They have the spontaneity and vitality of painting. I love the way he mixes different media together to create these moving collages – this is something I need to explore with my own work. Combining photography, film and hand drawing.

 

Mat Maitland

Works with a lot of fashion houses to come up with promotional material for their collections. He creates surrealist pop images from stock photos. He didn’t have space or means to take photographs of the models so he uses stock imagery to collage with. This is a great example of how having limitations helps you to create new work. His highly textured collages and films are saturated with colour. These are perfect for fashion as they immediately capture your attention.

 

Robert Beatty

Robert Beatty is an artist and musician. He makes glowing artwork for record labels and designers. I really like his use of colour and the way he creates this surreal landscapes. Dries Van Noten asked Robert Beatty to design 3 motifs to be applied to AW 18/19 menswear. The result grew to include social media films and designs for 3D window sets. It’s important to create the objects in real life not just on the computer so can understand the world you are trying to inhabit or in this case the dream you are trying to sell.

I loved this talk with Hannah Waldron. She is an artist and designer based in the UK. Graphic and narrative led image making. She highlighted the importance of experimenting with different forms because they will feed into one another. She took up weaving and that led her to creating new ways of drawing. Incorporating textile textures into her work. She is interested in communicating something about a place through the use of textures. I can draw links here with my own work as I take a lot of inspiration from collecting vintage costume jewellery. The textures and materials feed into my drawings. How can new methods inform my artwork?

Advice:

• Think Global
• Apply for funding and awards – you never know who can help you with a project!
• Submit to zines and exhibitions. They are always crying out for content!
• Art directors are like cheerleaders – they will push you to do your best work.
• Write Manifestos – think about – what are your values? what do you want to achieve?
• Design nice PDF’s for your applications.

I attended a coding workshop hosted by Rifke Sadleir. She is a designer and developer and works @ Our Place. We were taught how to move objects across a screen and how to follow a pathway using different commands. Was really interesting and although I can’t see myself becoming a coder it opened up discussions about 3D digital art which I am very keen to experiment with. Coding is like learning a new language… learning some functions using the p5 language will help with after effects as the commands are quite similar.

Tips on learning to Code:

• Processing – flexible software sketchbook and an easy language for learning how to code
• Code Academy & Code School.

            

Poster I came up with for the future selves Talks and workshop week. I was thinking about how we need to have hope and belief that are future isn’t something to be scared of. The super 8 ball is a fun symbol to illustrate this. How can we tell the future? Future selves week can help us shape our future.