Summative Position Statement

At present, my practice is solely illustrative. It is based around drawing, both traditionally and digitally, in a range of media for different purposes. The key aspects of my work are colour, character and visual silliness, applied to many formats including publications, book and album covers, posters and promotional material, pattern, comics, and editorial work. 

Currently I don't see a particular visual tone that ties my work together, in the way that many practitioners have a 'style', but I think it is unified by my drawing process and the tone of voice behind it. I am looking to pursue this to make a body of work that is more visually consistent but is never repetetive, because when it becomes boring to make it becomes boring to look at. 

In terms of the next year I plan to work part-time in my dentists job to keep the motivation it gives me to be a creative practitioner, but at the same time I will continue to look for jobs that I actually want. I will be doing my placement at Hallmark and following that I plan to enquire about other placements and positions as an in-house illustrator so I will get to be honing my drawing skills as my job. I want to work freelance and hope to get representation from a reputable agent, but I will need to establish a client base first. In order to do this I will be sending my work to magazines, newspapers and publishers and making visits to local studios and any larger companies I can wrangle meetings at. 

I think my practice fits best into publishing and editorial, and I would also like to dabble in advertising, purely for the for the financial gain. My key aim is to get my own books and stories published for an audience of children. I will continue to push the Heady Leggy universe and make more work based around it, intially as perosnal work but with a view to getting the work off the ground and either published or animated, just kickstarted in some format.

My main goal for the forseeable future is to be able to support myself through illustration, either freelance or as an employed creative of some sort, without having to have a horrible side job where people vomit right in front of me. I think it'll take a lot of time and work to achieve, and I might never get there but as long as my day job doesn't make me utterly miserable then I think I'll be on the right track.