Commercial Illustration Presentation Plan, Current Illustration Trends Research

Investigation into illustration agencies/companies/industry related to your future progression (Show examples of illustration work)

• Central Illustration Agency- Based in London, focus on collaboration and bringing ideas to life, ambassadors providing a platform to grow as a commercial artist. Each artist has an online portfolio, lots of graphic artists. James Oses, looking at how traditional processes can be used. 
• Folio Art Agency- London based with artists worldwide. Variety of styles and specialisms. William Grill, illustrator using traditional coloured pencil. Huge commercial viability, he has worked with The New York Times and Flying Eye Books to produce a children's book. Also uses printmaking processes like lino print.
• AOI- A professional body for illustrators in the UK, membership-based union focused on campaigning and promoting creatives of all ages, from students to represented artists. It is an amazing organisation that acts as a voice for illustrators and is available to help all members with contracts or any problems they may have. AOI Folios or all represented artists, well-curated and can filter by medium, subject and style. 
• Flying Eye Books- Children's imprint for the publishing house Nobrow. Focus on storytelling and non-fiction children's books. Can submit completed or book concepts to them, something to look at for the future. I love their books and curated artists, all similar to my way of working and style. Fun and imaginative. 'A Mouse Called Julian' by Joe Todd Stanton, focus on traditional processes. 'As Strong as a River' by Sarah Noble. 

Sarah Noble and Joe Todd-Stanton

William Grill

Current and future trends within your chosen area (Find sources in publications)

The 2021 Graphic Design and Illustration Trends to Know Now | InDesign Skills

Trends from the London Illustration Fair 2019 | Printed.com Blog

• Riso in children's books is increasingly popular. Eva Eland is one of the first to utilise this process. Love the simplicity.
• Printmaking with Jon Klassen, increase in textures both traditional and digital. 
• Children's illustration has come on a lot since the 2000s, used to be a lot simpler and traditional like 'The Jolly Postman' and 'Winnie the Witch' and 'Maisy and Friends'. These utilise traditional materials like watercolour, inks and fine liners then scanned in. This approach was the most achievable at that time as digital drawing apps weren't as evolved and couldn't be used to create traditional-looking art. 
• The direction of editorial design is very loose and playful with block colours and graphic shapes. The main trend at the minute is small heads with long/bigger limbs, pushing natural proportions. Although editorial interests me, I don't think there's as much creative freedom, I like to tell stories through my work and the type of readers in editorial publications are older whereas my illustration style is more suited to young readers.
• Optical illusions, heavy digital rendering, 3D with Cinema 4D. Eva Cremers is someone who uses these processes, working with Nike on advertisements. Strong sense of digital in publishing, whether it's magazines or books.
• Looking at the type of art in zine and print fairs, current trends and how you create a brand. 
• Amber Vittoria, living in New York, has worked with The  New York Times, Vogue and the V&A Museum.

'Where Happiness Begins', Eva Eland

Clement Thoby, illustration for German magazine ZEIT Verbrechen, Sunday Review editorial illustration

Henri Matisse continues to inspire artists today, recognisable graphic style

Amber Vittoria

Details of your chosen specialism/areas of illustration you are interested in perusing (Show own research related to specialism)

• Children’s Publishing, Printmaking
• Information from the Guardian article ‘The Best Children’s Books of 2020’. Talks about the change in viewing and art during the pandemic. It's harder to access children’s publishing than older or fictional publishing as it's not available on a Kindle or online. A change in engagement due to the pandemic so most of the interaction has been on social media. 
• Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler created 'The Gruffalo Stayed in the Cave', a play on the original story but inspired by current circumstances. 
• Oliver Jeffers online story time reading his books each night on an Instagram Livestream, also released 'What We'll Build' on this, show how much the pandemic changed everything and audience engagement. Finding ways around this and being adaptable in the industry is important to stay current. 
• A rise in educational/circumstantial books like Captain Toms Journey, teaching life lessons in a fun and engaging way. 
• Shows the importance of children's literature as they provide an escape for children. I love the idea of providing them with a creative outlet to draw and channel their imagination, especially when they haven't been able to go to school/parks/day trips. This may have a knock-on effect, making them less confident and adventurous. 
• More adventure books, increased diversity not limited by gender or stereotypical roles so they can associate themselves with the characters.
• Greater reliance on books during the pandemic with parents taking on teaching responsibilities. 

Oliver Jeffers' response the the events of 2020, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler recreated illustration

Books to mention:

• 'Outside In' by Deborah Underwood (Author) and Cindy Derby (Illustrator), reminding us that the outside world will still be there when we need it/it's not going anywhere. Haven't read it but I can imagine it's quite a heartwarming story. 
• 'When You Look Up' by Decur, "Introverts creative awakening" moving beyond the world of his phone where he finds a notebook in his new room. Inspires a story about discovering the world through clear eyes.
• 'What We'll Build' and 'Here We Are' by Oliver Jeffers, beautifully illustrated and told stories teaching children about the world and the opportunity to be whatever they want. 

Books published in 2020, renewed hope and important life lessons for children taught through heartfelt stories and imagery

Target audience/audience for your work, who is your work aimed at?

• I want to make picture books aimed at young children, going off Oliver Jeffers and Jon Klassen's books, their target audiences are 4-6 due to the complexity of text and picture to text ratio. 
• Need to appeal to children and parents as they will be buying and reading the books. Good children's books cater to older audiences too, with hidden Easter eggs and humour.
• Modern children's books can have quite dark narratives with witty humour that can be understood differently by different ages. This is a big change compared to books from the early 2000's I grew up with like 'The Jolly Postman' and 'Winnie the Witch'. These have no ulterior motive as they aimed to provide an escape/bedtime story with no stereotypical imagery.

'The Jolly Postman', Janet and Allan Ahlberg

'Winnie the Witch', series by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul

Skills analysis of the sector and your abilities (SWOT analysis of your skills and knowledge, compare to professional standards)

• Skill level is higher due to technology. Creatives are expected to be experts in generating a social media presence, using graphic design software seamlessly and managing their career to remain current in the modern era. Digital processes have somewhat simplified and manipulated ways to make art traditionally, using textured brushstrokes and effects.
• Need to be able to think about commercial viability as an illustrator, how your work will/could be used by the consumer. If it could translate into books, branding, merchandise?
• Over the past few years, I've developed a good skillset of digital and traditional processes, well rounded with experience in editorial, character design, typology, printmaking through university projects and personal work.
• Children's publishing works with text and imagery, thinking about continuity in every spread. The composition and lighting are just as important as the story to make it visually engaging. 

SWOT (Separate box on this slide)

• Always opportunities to improve and learn new processes. I want to continue to push myself to be better, looking at ways to combine a passion for printmaking with children's book illustration. Struggle to narrow down my preferred specialism as I love both. Printmaking and Risograph printing are so experimental and, often don't turn out as planned but the process is so rewarding. Finding new ways to print and create imagery sometimes enhanced by digital processes.
• Risograph is perfect for creatives who embrace spontaneity, finding enjoyment in the process rather than the outcome.
• The threat is that lots of young creatives are thinking more sustainably and wanting to utilise Risograph processes, lots of competition to find jobs/freelance work without the security of working in a design company. 
• Competitive industry being one of the biggest rising sectors.

'The Rock from the Sky', Jon Klassen

Natalie Andrewson

Opportunities, this may include competitions, commissions and exhibitions you may take part in, in future.

• I've been able to utilise Commercial Illustration projects to take part in competitions, previously participated in the Pictoplasma Character Design Competition, Penguin Student Design Awards (unsubmitted), Ohh Deer Card Competition, Cheltenham Illustration Awards and The Macmillan Prize for Illustration. Also took part in Inktober, a huge challenge on Instagram to create a drawing inspired by a prompt for each day of October. Good for networking, building a social media presence and finding people with similar goals/interests.
• Important to work to a professional standard with live briefs to prepare for the future. Need to get used to managing my work/working with tight deadlines.
• Cheltenham exhibition has been moved to next year in line with social guidelines. This means it'll be a bigger event combining 2020 and 2021 entries. Possibility to network.
• I want to do the Macmillan Prize for Illustration, using the basis of this brief to explore other book ideas. Working on the narrative element in preparation for an MA or career in children's publishing.  
• I also want to utilise this time to further explore printmaking, utilising traditional processes for some of the competitions such as the Penguin Design Awards and the AOI World Illustration Awards. 

'A Hermit's Home', 2021 Macmillan submission

Illustrations from Inktober 2020, @amelias.studio

How will your findings influence your practice and the development of new work?

• So much influence socially, environmentally, the importance of teaching children life lessons in a fun and engaging way. Need to keep up with the times/current news to stay relevant. 
• Riso is increasing in popularity for advertising and branding, gradually creeping into children's publishing so this could be an interesting avenue to look at. Include a picture of Eva Eland's new book.
• I like the collage elements used by Lauren Child and Oliver Jeffers to add depth and curiosity. Can be quite abstract by layering textures, magazine cuttings or old paintings in the case of Jeffers series of 'Disaster Paintings'.
• I don't want to limit myself at this stage, I want to progress onto the Children's Book Illustration MA at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. This will be more specialised with like-minded people and provide me with more opportunities in publishing. Very daunting to push myself out of my comfort zone and move, as well as being around very talented people with similar goals but I think it will be a good step for me. 

Oliver Jeffers sketchbook pages

Charlie and Lola, Lauren Child

Strategy to address your observations (SMART targets/Action plan/Preparation for Level 6)

• Keep progressing, trying new processes and developing my digital painting skills. My main focus is to become more confident in using colour and picking schemes based on the atmosphere I want to create. Keep pushing the narrative and storytelling elements in my work, looking at how characters can interact within a scene. 
• Making time to try printing processes, planning to utilise the studio space at college over the summer to try out collagraph, riso and cyanotype in preparation for Level 6. Using this time to experiment so I have a clearer direction for next year.
• Producing personal work for MA portfolio, emphasis on finding inspiration from nature/observational drawing. Practice colour schemes.

Recent monoprint