Look Who's Back

Wow. My last post was over three years ago. A hell of a lot has happened to me in that time, highs and lows, all moulding me into the man I am today. Notable highlights have been moving into my own place in Manchester city centre, working a season in Ibiza and holding down 2 jobs, one of which I’m about to be promoted to team leader.

Over the past few years, since leaving university, I’ve always said I’d get back into the creative world eventually. But as is the case with most things, the longer you leave it the harder it is to reconnect. So by jump-starting this blog I aim to slowly re-establish what I have lost in my time away from creativity. Only time will tell if this experiment works out, but I feel like the time is right to stop procrastinating (I’m forever telling people I need a scanner before I start any pieces) and make time for myself (just because I work 50+ hours a week doesn’t mean I cant find a few hours while I’m watching TV or something to add a bit to this blog.

Now, when I was in Uni this blog was used to record what we’d been doing in terms of research and personal development. But mostly research. I think that by instead using it to include simple ideas I have in everyday life as well as looking at artists I will cover a wider spectrum of creativity, and building on it every day (alongside my sketchbook) I might just be able to get back into the mindset I’m looking for.

I’m about to start full time work on top of another job (excuses already) so for the first few weeks I will be doing 3/4 posts a week, but when we hit August my aim is for a post a day, whatever size that may be.

My posts will be quite varied, but I’ll keep them to certain categories (more for my own peace of mind, little boxes in my head and all that), which will include:

•       Research (artists I like)
•      Personal (things going on in my everyday life that may or may not be relevant to art but is a factor about me that is worth mentioning – for example, I’m trying to quit dairy)
•      Creative Review (for when I watch a film, see a show etc. and want to analyse it)
•     Development (this may not come for a while but will be about the transformation of my own work, something I am excited to start but nervous at the same time)
•      Work (these will be finished pieces I want to evaluate)
•      Body Paint (I am now also a body painter so will share my experience of that on here as its something I love doing and want to extend into a business eventually)
•      Crit (A periodic look at what I have achieved, what I did right, what I would change, what to look for in the future. This will be, like the whole blog, more for my own benefit but might be a fun read)

By sticking to a formula like this I hope to get back into this world that I loved and lost, by being more motivated, by being the yes man I’ve always wanted to be, by not just thinking, but by doing.

Wish me luck!

Personal Development

Doing a degree at university for me is all about development, as a creator but also as a person. I feel that while I have shown my skills in Illustration and design in the classroom, maybe not always to the top of my potential, a lot of people have yet to see how I have developed over the last few years, especially in my final year. It is also something that I need to evaluate myself.

The third year of the course has really tested me in many ways. I think this is the year that I’ve changed the most, and I have learned a lot about myself and the people around me. I know that this is going to be an ongoing thing, because as the environment changes, and as I change, I will inject this into my work.

My FMP was about dreams, and I chose this subject matter because it was an attempt to communicate my subconscious to the world. Since I have trouble communicating with people I thought that it would be a good starting point for me to show an audience what I’m like.

I’m finally finished with burning the candle at both ends, so to speak, where my social life hinders my working life. It has come a little later than it might for most, but I guess it just took me a little longer to realize that I can’t do everything I want at the same time. I need to rest sometimes.

I’ve been through a lot of low points this year as well. My best friend died right at the beginning of the year, and I dealt with that in a bad way, and then when I started battling with my depression, it took a long time for me to ask for help. I should have used the negativity in this in a creative way but I used it destructively. However, this has been the year I’ve been broken and learning to rebuild, something I’ve never had to do before.

I’m using this post to basically highlight the fact that a great many factors are involved in assessing yourself whatever you go through, but there comes a time when you need to use your experiences in the past for the better, and channel yourself into being a stronger person.

Networking and Self-Promorion

After listening to a few veterans of the design world, and from what I’ve been working out myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that self-promotion and networking are two important factors of this lifestyle. After all, how are you going to generate a fan base or get commissioned if nobody out there knows that you even exist?

This theory has been proven to me in recent weeks. I have a twitter account that I now mainly use for Illustration-based posts, and I follow a lot of other Illustrators and designers on there. I’ve also made a facebook page, showcasing some of my work, and currently have over 120 “likes,” but I’m aiming on improving this over the next year.

What I like about these methods of networking is that you can find out what people like about your work, and it helps not only what you can improve upon, but it boosts your confidence as well. I’ve also has other designers asking for collaborations, which I was surprised about, but it’s something I’m planning on doing more of after uni finishes, so I’m flattered to have been asked.

The only types of promotion I have at the minute are my page, my site and my business cards, but I’m interested in other ways of making myself stand out from the crowd. I’m interested in creating a small-scale comic, or maybe a zine, to leave in places of interest. I also love the idea of using guerilla advertising as a form of self-promotion, and I’ve looked at how businesses come up with these ideas.

The one thing I still want to do though, and I haven’t yet, is to attend more social meetings with artists and talk about my work and theirs on a more personal level. It seems like a perfect way to meet new people and really get in there with the crowd, and this is definitely something I’m looking forward to doing in the future.

Website Development.

One professional aspect of becoming a designer/ illustrator is that you have to have people be able to find you and your work. The more obvious way of doing that in todays environment is via a website.

So I did a bit of research into what the best kind of website would be for me, and at first it baffled me so much! I’m not the best when it comes to the technical side of the internet, but eventually managed to sort myself out with a domain name for a couple of years. I toyed around with a few name ideas for a while, like “kylehartillustration” or kdjh-art” but inn the end I realized that this was defeating the function of my site. People want to be able to find me, if they have to look more than a couple of pages on Google they’d give up. So I went with the simple http://www.kylehart.co.uk, which opens me, up to be more than just an illustrator as well.

I also shopped around for what the best hosting site would be for my needs. I played around with a WIX site for a while before deciding that there wasn’t enough freedom, and when you click on my artwork it doesn’t show it to it’s full potential or size and I really thought it ruined the online viewing experience.

I also looked at 1and1.com to see if that would work, but I thought that with the templates it offered, every site looked more like a blog to me. I’d like a news section on my site but I didn’t want it looking like a blog, since I already have two!

The best site I found, as I’m sure many others would agree, was Cargo Collective. I settled on this one because it offered some good templates and I thought I’d find it easier to customize things after a little working out. I also thought that all an audience really wants when they go on a website is simplicity and easy usability, and you get that with cargo! 

Business Cards

I’ve been waiting quite a while do my business cards because I think that the business card should be a reflection of who I am as a person and an creative person, so I was waiting until I had a suitable style. This came really late on for me and it still needs a lot of refining so I had to improvise when I got my cards. It’s not too bad though because I can always update the cards with my style later on!

For the illustrative side of the card I felt that I hadn’t created a stand alone image that represented me and my work yet either, so thought it would be fitting, and more exciting to include five different designs that the client could choose. I decided to use a selection of images I’d made for my FMP because of three main reasons; they were my most current work, they were the most visually exciting because of their texture, and I felt that the roughness of them represented me a little more than my cleaner work.

Another decision I made when designing the illustrative side was that instead of giving the cards a whole image it would be more fun to only include a cropped version of my work, so the client would be able to see the style and work out what it was, but not get a whole narrative. This, I thought, was a good idea because it would get them enticed, and maybe be more inclined to check out the picture on my website.

The information side of my card looks a lot more business like; I used a smaller Helvetica font, and I made It a more subtle grey as black would be too striking. I wanted them to remain warm to the client. I also used my title as Kyle Hart: Visual Artist and Illustrator as to assure the client that I am capable of more creative duties than just illustration.

Graphic Guru- Portfolio and FMP

On Tuesday I had a quick meeting with Ben, my Graphic Guru, because I’d not seen him in quite a while. I showed him my portfolio; he’d seen most of the work before but not seen it in a portfolio style so thought it would be good to get his opinion on it’s presentation.

Overall I think he was quite positive about he layout of the portfolio. The main points he had to make that I should change were factors that I’d heard before in portfolio visits, so I’ll definitely take them on board. He liked the work that was presented in context and said he’d like to see a little more of that, and general layout was fine. A couple of other point’s he picked up on was that I should be careful when presenting landscape/ portrait mixes, because the presentation has to flow, and make sure that it’s clear what the project was for.

Then we moved on to my current work, for my final major project. I told him the idea of interpreting my own dreams and that I was a little confused with where I should go next with my work, and he cleared the air a bit. Ben agreed with the tutors in creating something that isn’t just a comic, but mixes elements, shapes and textures together, so some images might fade and others might stand out more. He liked the concept of some of the stories I’d come up with but thought that by keeping to a more non-linear path the book would look a lot more sophisticated.

I think I agree with this way of thinking and did from the start, but Ben managed to put the idea across a little clearer than the tutors for me (not that thy were explaining it wrong, more that it simply wasn’t sinking in for me). Next time I speak to him will be more fun because I’ll have a lot more work to be showing him.

Final Major Project: Initial Thoughts

So I’ve come to the end of an era, and with the start of the new year will come the start of a new project: the Final Major Project. This, as I understand, is where the majority of my end of year marks will come from (hence the name I guess) so it would be a good idea to get this one right.

I’ve been racking my brains when I have a spare minute or so, or when I’m drifting off to sleep, thinking about what I might be able to work on for the last part of my education. I’ve not come up with anything definitive at all, but I’ve decided that the only thing I can really do (with me being one of the people in the class with a less focused style) is get guidance from my tutors. In the meantime, however, I can explore my strengths and weaknesses in order to find some sort of theme.

One idea I’ve had for a while is to invent some of my own characters (say, a robot, a chicken and a talking lamp, for example) and incorporate them into my world of illustrations. I think that this would work best with one of my greatest influences: comics. So this is a strong way forward for me. I’d also be interested in doing some BIG work, like a mural, and I want to finally try my hand at getting some t-shirts made. So incorporating all of these aspects would make my year more enjoyable.

However, I’m sure the tutors have seen students come in with ideas all the time and still not have anywhere to put them to good use, and I do think that this could easily happen to me, so I’m looking forward to the time when these ideas take better shape.

Christmas Card Design

Our group has been beginning to think of ways that we can raise money so that we can have a stall at D&AD in London next year. Two great ideas came to mind at the meeting; since it was Christmas time, we could have a bake sale, and we could produce a set of Christmas cards to sell! So we split into two groups and set out to work.

Obviously, at this time of year though, we were all very busy and had deadlines approaching. So I got thinking, what might the audience want to see that would be easy for me to make, that they haven’t seen before (to generate a little more interest) and that I could do in a limited amount of colours so it could be screen printed?

I thought that my “Turk the Turtle” was quite a cute character that I’d used before in a previous project, so set about recycling him! I thought that there might be an audience for him, as animals are quite popular, and it’s not the typical animal you’d associate with Christmas. I “christmassed” it up by drawing a scene of him giving a present to a child turtle, and thought that to add colour, green would be perfect (relating to both of the themes) as a background so I could highlight the drawing.

Unfortunately, there were problems on the day of printing. We were supposed to start at ten, but we couldn’t get hold of the cards we were supposed to be printing on until half 12, by which time I was getting ready to go to a lecture! Then I had another prior arranged meeting, and work the next day, so there was no time for my idea to be produced! However, the other cards in my class did get made to a really high standard and they managed to get some sold, so our dreams of making it to D&AD aren’t over yet!

Hopes, Fears and Oppertunities

As I’m coming to the end of the first module in my final year of university, now is as good a time as any to reflect on my past, evaluate my present and look forward to the future. I have learned a lot of lessons in the past few months, and believe I’m growing into myself as an image-maker at a steady rate. However, there is still so much to be explored both in professional and practical terms, and many of these fall into the categories above.

I think that looking at what I’ve already taken from the course so far is a good way to look upon about my hopes, fears and opportunities, as I’m in the middle of a journey. I’m not going to say I’ve found my style yet, but since September I’ve began to develop a stronger visual language. With each project I’m becoming more confident with digital aspects of working, but I still have to find the balance between this and my hands-on approach. My strongest point of the year so far is most probably still the creative side; ideas generating is the part of the process where I’m most excited and motivated.

I have high hopes for the year ahead of me and beyond. People might assume that I’m lazy a lot of the time but I don’t think this is true; I do work quite hard when I get my head down. I’m hoping to show this in the future. This includes me “growing up” and proving to people that I’m not guy that likes to do the bare minimum in order to pass. I want to pass the course with higher than just a 3^rd and come out feeling good about the body of work that I’ve produced.

This leads me to my next point. I am hoping to leave university with a portfolio that I can proudly take around with me. At the moment there are some elements I like but I know things can be improved, so as the weeks go by I’d like to make sure I can be more confident with what I’m showing.

Another hope of mine is to finally nail all of this developing I’ve been doing recently by the end of uni. I understand that as illustrators we are constantly growing and changing according to current trends etc. but if I can move all my work in the same direction, give it all a more distinctive edge to it, this would make me feel like I’ve achieved something by the end of it all. I’d love for people to be able to recognize anything I do as a “Kyle-esque” piece!

Finally, my hope for the coming year ad beyond is that people will enjoy my work, because, after all, it’s as much for them as it is for me. I do like to inject a little wit and humour into my more editorial pieces, as I think that it will help brighten up these dark, media-driven times. I’m hoping that by maybe inventing some crazy world (or rather inviting the real world into the more fun world that only I can see in my head) they can learn about me, have fun, and I can tie all my work up simultaneously!

Moving onto fears now. As much as I like to say that I laugh in the face of danger, I really don’t. I hide from it like a crying baby, and this is something I need to work on. In a way, my fears are pretty much the opposite of my hopes; I’m scared of not achieving them. I worry that my work isn’t good enough constantly, and as I look around my classroom to see all this beautiful work I am always left wondering where I am. This has a significant affect on the work itself, as I then put it off until I feel more confident about my ideas. It’s a hard thing to overcome but I’m beginning to face this fear already and am getting a little help in this department.

I guess there is an underlying fear of (and I bet everyone has this one) what to do after I finish the course? If I have a strong visual language and suddenly no way of putting all that I’ve learned to good use? What if no-one wants to commission me? I’m working part-time at the moment in a bar, and I’m a little worried that I might end up taking this on full time over the summer and then getting stuck there with no way of showing my work to potential clients because I’m too busy or tired. And then I’d have no new work cropping up and my portfolio will become dated. However, this is simple to resolve, it just takes guts to be poor for a while, not knowing if you can afford from one month to the next.

Looking to the future, I’m excited at the idea of all of these opportunities that the college has opened up for me. They’ve opened up the doors to get in contact with a lot of people and companies already in the field, and getting o know them will help my confidence greatly.

I’m also looking forward to having the opportunity to take on my own ideas a lot more in the final major project. Although I’m still unsure of what I want to do there are opportunities to learn so much in the last few months. I lean towards moving image a lot, and think it would be a great thing to learn, especially in this day and age where a lot of things that are designed are now online. The prospect of collaborating more is exciting as well, as I think I work better when bouncing work and ideas off other people. Finally, I’m eventually going to get the opportunity to have a real job in this field and see my work in the real world, and for people to enjoy mu illustration work, and what better reward can there be than that?

Graphic Guru

Today I had my first meeting with my Graphic Guru for the year, Ben Jones. His role is generally just to answer any questions I might have about direction with my work, what it’s like making the transition from the course to the real world and any other guidance I might need.

I found that it was very easy to talk to Ben, and the 20-30 minute session went really fluently. I thought it would be best to start with him looking at some of my recent work, so I showed him three recent projects I’ve been working on and my “Monkey” piece. He loved the fact that I’d put some of my finished, the book title pages, in context. I pretty much started the conversation by putting a downer on every piece I showed him, saying what I’d not considered, and trying to justify it. However, he didn’t think that way at all, and helped me look at the strengths in the work. He said that he liked my drawing, and could tell that I enjoyed it, and after going through my desk found some old planning pieces from an earlier project. He told me that it would be good to experiment with work like this more, and after I told him I was into comics he suggested how I could develop a style like that.

After looking at all that he showed me some illustrators that I’d be interested in as our works are similar, and told me it would be a good exercise to take their pieces, deconstruct them and see how its made again. He also showed me his work, which I thought was very good, and as his forte is widely print, I showed him some old print work, which he seemed impressed by.

He then gave me advice on my portfolio. He pretty much read me straight away though, and said that if I’m still not confident with my portfolio don’t bother finding people to show it to as they’ll see through it straight away and it wouldn’t sell very well. For now my advice is to continue my drawing until I’m at a stage where I can happily show it off!

I’m glad I got the chance to speak to Ben today because I feel that it was good to have someone from an outsiders point of view look at my work, and the fact that he was supportive throughout the session means that I wont be worried about asking him for advice in the future!


Click here to have a look at Ben's work!

Facebook

With the thought's that I'm starting to get a lot more serious about my work, which includes creativity, technique and professionalism, i've decided that it would be good to start a facebook page showcasing my work. I was going to do this later but I think it would be beneficial to do it now for a few reasons:

• Generate an early target audience for before i finish the course
• Get an insight into what other designers are doing with their work and pages
• Receive feedback from the world rather than just those in my class
• Motivation to please the audience by posting more things, therefore producing more.

I'm happy with the feedback i've had so far! If anyone would like to check it out in it's early stages click here!