A comic by John Allison
On the first day the two most interesting talks that I were attended were from John Allison a illustrator who makes a living from web comics and Karen Chueng another illustrator who had also had some success with her animation skills as well.
John Allison host a selection of web comics on his site scarygoround.com. He showed us he set his site and how he approach his community. Over the years his work gained more of a following until eventually he could afford to quit his day job. His illustration skills have greatly increased as well as his ability to write his comics. It's always good to see somebodies hard work pay off with a projects like these. I really think John's driving message for this talk was stick with what you to achieve. There will always be some kind of payoff.
illustration by Karen Chueng
Karen Chueng's talk was quite as inspiring just because she came off as too shy. Her work was superb however, showing great attention to detail as well as a great sense of humour. Karen has had some great successes with one her animations as it gained a lot of attention at some film festivals. But I felt she could have been more successful with her illustration as that was her real strong point. She told us about one particular job that she had let pass. It was sad to hear something like this but at the same time a useful reminder to stay focused. Karen couldn't stress enough how useful here agent was in supplying her with work. I think for someone as shy as Karen an agent definitely wasn't a bad idea but for me, if I worked independently I would like to have complete control over my client base.
Characters designed by Jonathan Edwards
The next day only really one talk appealed me greatly. Jonathan Edwards an illustrator who has had some really exciting success with his characters. This includes getting one of his characters getting made into a toy and being mass produced. He had also had great success with his partner in producing and presenting felt sculptures that John had designed. This included trips to places such as London and Japan. The works would either be presented alongside fashion or with other peoples creations. As time went on they started to get more exhibits dedicated to them. It was really impressive to see something that started as something so small grow like it did. Jonathan claimed that social networking was strongly to thank for his success with clients. He said people are generally happy to approach you through sites like this. I find this is true as I gotten work Twitter as well. I'm just glad that this is an approach I can take with my networking. As I generally prefer when work is informal. I always feel that a casual relationship with a client helps produce more creative, soulful work.
One of the many animations Ian whittle helped create at Second Home Sketchbook
The next day I focused on presenting a range of my work to Ian Whittle a freelance animator who was currently working for Red door Studios. He mainly focused on doing stop motion, were as I'm more focused on 2D and 3D based animation. This made my interview with him more a point of reference and just generally just some good feedback rather than anything professional. He was pretty happy with my work (which was pretty faltering). He told me that I needed to focus my attention more on the animation side of my work as of recently I have been doing a lot different kinds of work, ranging from illustration, music videos and web design. I tend to agree I do need to focus more animation but at the same time I shouldn't stop doing everything else but instead do less. As currently my portfolio is lacking in animation which is a bit worrying as I title myself as an animator.
I found creative futures week a lot more useful this year, last year I didn't feel like all the talks were that relevant to me. This time round there were a better selection of talks. A lot of them were really inspiring and I have helped me develop my own professional development. I been feeling more confident outputting my work either with clients that I've had or just in producing my own merchandise. Talks like the ones we had during creative futures week really help point me in the right direction.
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