On 20/04/2016 I went to Cake and Doodle and asked if any of the illustrators there could take a look at my portfolio and give me a bit of feedback. Most of my feedback came from Luis Gainzarain who is a Graphic Designer and comic artist from spain and Marta Gonzalez
Luque who is a freelance photographer who also dabbles in illustration and animation.
Feedback from Luis Gainzarain
You should think a bit on the Why? What? and Where?
Why do you do the work you do? Is it self expressive? Does it have a message? Are you pursuing a stylistic ideal?
What are you going to do to convey what your work is about? What form will best convey what your work is about? What audience do you need to market your work to? (Who will appreciate what it is about).
Where can your artwork go? Where is your audience going to be? Where will your work be seen by the right people?
There isn't a right or wrong answer to these questions you just need to know what your answers are so you can take a step in the right direction.
Reflecting on the feedback
For why I create my work I would say it is primarily self expressive but I would also say I was pursuing a stylistic ideal but I have gotten to a place where I am happy with my style but I still like to play with different mediums it keeps my work fresh and exciting.
Not all my work has a message behind it and I've come to terms with that. I think in the illustration world right now creating decorative work is frowned upon and seen as fluff in a way. But maybe I just want to create bright and cheerful work sometimes that doesn't particularly have a hard hitting message behind it, I don't think it is wrong to do. There is a Japanese principle called "ma" and I think ma can explain why I do my work the way I do. Ma is the space inbetween the action, if you want to see ma in practice Studio Ghibli is a great example. So my work which is mostly for decoration is my ma as you will, it is the break I need from my hard hitting work. In terms of studio ghibli ma comes after important parts of the story to help the information sink in and to transition to the next plot point. Ma comes in the form of mundane details for example a girl has a hard day at school lots of bizarre things happen. The ma could be she goes home and runs a bath and just goes about her normal routine before she is thrown into the next set of ordeals.
But I do also create work that does have meaning to it, I mostly focus on mental health and opening up that conversation and making the whole subject less taboo. That work is often very introspective and it takes a lot of energy to translate it into an image.
The what for me it to make prints, to make stories and t-shirts, I basically want to make the topic of mental health as accessible as possible. The more people are exposed to it the easier it becomes to talk about it. And I want to approach my decorative work in the same way, if someone wants to wear my designs doesn't want to wear a t-shirt about mental health instead they want something a bit lighter in tone I can also supply my customers that option. My main audience is 13-25 I think the younger end of my audience will like my work for it's style and the older end will appreciate the message behind some of my pieces.
I think in terms of where I could sell or display my work I think there is quite a few pathways I can explore. Comic conventions are where I have had the most success up till now and I think with me producing t-shirt they are going to continue to be one of the best places to sell. I've had varying levels of success when it comes to selling my work locally, children and teenagers are my main buyers when I sell locally. I have recently started to see a raise in street artists taking an interest in my work and I feel like paste up's might be a good way to reach that audience. I think selling my work online could work if I concentrate on actively advertising, as of now I have had no success with it but I think that is all down to me not giving my etsy and redbubble enough exposure.
Marta Gonzalez
Sometimes you need to experiment with platforms and what you are creating, the best thing you could do is just try things to see what is a viable option or not. And I would recommend just getting a regular job first because it helps you develop as a person and helps you gain confidence.
(when I mentioned Fig Taylor and her feedback regarding my work) Even professionals can give bad advice sometimes, just because one person tells you something won't work for you doesn't mean they are right. I don't see why you couldn't do editorial illustration for more alternative magazines. Don't let one person tell you what you can or can't do.
What might be unpopular now might be popular next week or next month, trends change so don't base your decision on where you want to go with your work on what is popular right now. What is selling now might fade out of fashion in a few months, what has faded out of fashion a few mouths or years ago might have a resurgence. If it is selling even if it's not selling much keep doing it, if it isn't selling at all that's when you need to consider shaking things up a bit. Just keep doing what you love doing and keep developing it.
Reflecting on the feedback
I think Marta really helped me realise that just because my style isn't popular with art directors at the moment it doesn't mean it never will, and maybe it's not worth worrying about how popular or unpopular my style is. Sometimes you just need to go with the flow.
Other thoughts
When I mentioned Fig Taylor I quickly found the people who did know of or have encountered her have a rather low opinion of her. One woman said when she was a student Fig Taylor gave her feedback and she said it was useless to her and ended up being completely off. She said Fig had been out of the industry for too long and didn't really have much of a grasp on what is currently popular. and to take what she had to say about my work and what direction I should take it with a pinch of salt She also said Fig was the one approaching universities to do these feedback sessions not the otherway round which it's a very good sign.
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