UAL Children's Book thing

I emailed about a call for a childrens book illustrator on the UAL oppurtunities site a bit ago, got this response back, which is probably my nicest rejection yet because it contained actual feedback.

Now I'm just waiting for her to explain what this Q-Tales platform thing is, because it sounds good but it's easy to make stuff sound good.
There's two website results for q-tales
Theres the .eu site

And theres the .com site.

Confusingly theyre both related to childrens books but I think it's probably the latter.
 It's worth noting that neither have a public showcase of portfolios so I don't think it's anything to get too giddy about.  Unless its like a super secret members only club where all the publishers prey on portfolios. who knows.
Milena knows. She just hasn't told me yet.

Art Market

Got the response saying to be sure I attend the briefing on May 23rd, which, alas, is the first day of my placement - obvious priority. 

So emailed back to say so 

So they said I just need to get someone to get the booklet for me basically so that's all fine, hopefully i will be selling in the market. 

I think I'd like to put a couple of copies of heady leggy book up there but if its just prints I can sort that out too.

Lisk Feng

Lisk Feng is one of my favourites at the minute, and for a while now.

She's great, great colours, composition, clarity, charm. She's got it all

I can't figure out her process

It looks like a digital traditional hybrid
Or maybe she's just really good at either one
I really can't tell

Her practise is quite varied, she seems to work commercially for editorial and advertising but also has done comics and has personal work that seems to feed into her commercial projects.

It's basically the career I want, editorial and advertising for money, comics, books and personal work for fun and sanity.

Here are some favourites

Pink and blue, classic.

The yellow really POPs out too 

Great clouds

Textures, what are they, natural or digital

How did she doooo this

I think, on closer inspection it might be digital painting, textured brushes.

So anyway I emailed her today 

This is said email

Disheartened

I'm finding this emailing lark a little disheartening because none of them will reply to me.

I'm gonna stop emailing companies and art directors and start emailing practitioners instead.

Hallmark weeeeeeeeee

So I emailed about a placement at Tigerprint/Hallmark on Monday and this morning I got this back

Eeeeeee hahahaa excellent
One wonders of the motives for mentioning the limited spaces. To make me answer quickly probably.

This also presented decisions whether to commute or accomodate.
I chose accomodation because it starts really early and I'd probably have to get a train like before seven and I am not up for that.

I responded

She offered me these dates

Began to dispair as they all looked terrible, was hoping for later in the year, after 17th preferably
But cross-referencing estudio I noted that 23rd of May is after 603 deadline and 3rd of June is right before the show prep week starts. Perfect!

So I selected these dates

The info she sent through was as follows

A very long email about logistics

And this document

So yehh I am very excited now
I think this'll be good, Rosie enjoyed hers so I'm sure I will too.
It doesn't say if they have tablets and photoshop but I assume they do

Also I need to figure out whether to get the two weeks off work because it'l be an absolute ball ache going back for the four hour evening shift, and I'd spend as much as I'd make just getting there. I'd have to get the taxi to saltaire station then the train to leeds, taxi to work, taxi from work to station, train to salraire and taxi back to the accomodation, which would equate to about £22, and in the four hour shift I would make about £23, so I think I'm gonna book that off.

Exciting though
Proper company and pro people
Now I need to decide what piece of work to send back as my favourite.

Response from Peter Allen

sent me this email back, so maybe if he remembers he will email me at some point
Seems like a nice chap and its basically the first time someones replied to my questions

Jennifer Nelson

I follow Jennifer Nelson Artists on instagram and theres some nice work on there.
Quite different to mine, but nice to look at

I found her on linked in and now we are 'friends

 It's basically a small agency run by this woman
Seems a very nice agency to be represented by, very personal and caring and whatnot
If I were to be represented I'd like an agency like this, seems very friendly and nice
Not like the souless face of corporate art.

Anyway she has this page specifically for all the illustators who contact her for advice, which I just thought was really refreshingly kind and genuine, in this seemingly cutthroat passive aggresive industry I'm becoming increasingly disenfranchised with.

 So I contact her asking for advice about my portfolio and graduating
Hopefully she will respond

Here is my message;

Hi
First I'd like to say this is a very good idea and I think it's admirable that you so willing to offer help and guidance to struggling artists.

Basically I'm about to graduate from BA Illustration at Leeds College of Art and I'd like a professional opinion on my portfolio. Also any tips and guidance you have for what one should be doing after graduation to crack into the industry would be massively helpful because it seems quite enigmatic at the minute..

Here's a link to my portfolio
https://issuu.com/hs109802/docs/portfoliosmaller

Kindest Regards and thanks for your time

Hollie Smith

Placement

Whilst applying for the job I found this part on Tigerprints website

So let's apply for that too

Applying for a job

For Tigerprint/Hallmark, it seems to be both.
That would be veeerrry nifty.
What's to lose

Very easy, just upload cv, and i added my portfolio too

Now we wait

Andlyn

Found this agency Andlyn on the AOI website
Don't really know if they're any good or not, they represent like 6 people and only three of them are illustrators and theyre alright but nothing extraordinary.

So maybe this one will reply to me

Sent an email rather than a submission

This is my email

Peter Allen

It's difficult to squeeze a response out of office people so I'm trying some illustrators instead

I found this guy on the AOI portfolios

I like his work its very playful and bold

He has a very impressive client list too

 I sent him this email

Illustration Ltd

Another decent agency.

They have a submission page but mostly I want advice and feedback so I went straight to email.

I picked Juliette because her job title sounded the most important

I think I'll try some of the others as well

I sent her this

Lemonade

Tireless search for agents continues
Just some feedback would be good
Not received any yet

Keeeep tryin'

So lemonade, theyre pretty big and seem decdent

Very passive agressive sumbission instructions

Oh well, y'dont know till ye try

Here is my email

Wonder how many people have made the life lemons reference

Response

More of a rejection but a response at least
From Plum Pudding
It's a very nice rejection
Quite a good response too, better than that book agency place, actually gave me something else to look at which is nice
I'll try them again after a bit of time

Blind Mice Response

Got an email back from the blind mice cookbook people I emailed

So maybe I'll hear something from that soon

Linkedin

I quite like linkedin

Got my profile all spiffy

 

 

So I've been spam adding art directors and people who work at places I want to work for
Here are some of my successes

So thats pretty sweet so far
It's good because once they accept me I get their email address and then email them my portfolio. I'm still working through the list.
It seems some poeple will just accept anyone though
As long as theyre accepting me i aint fussed