Commission for the summer

Following some work which I completed last year for the owner of Tuesdays skate shop in Bolton, Which was to come up with the designs for a skateboard deck and t shirt print. I recently contacted him again to see how well he was getting on and to let him know I am open to do more work if he ever wanted. The boards and t-shirts have all sold out now which I was surprised to hear, (50 of each were printed). I was paid £100 and was my first ever paid job but I feel like I undersold myself as the drawings took absolutely ages

He has requested the same work again but with different designs, one is another image of his cat and the second design is a drawing of a large well known bridge in Bolton which runs next to the skatepark. Unfortunately the work I did last year was highly representational and more on the fine art side of things which is the complete opposite to what I want to be focusing on after uni. I asked is maybe this time he would consider letting me take a more illustrative  approach and he has agreed which im really pleased about. This is what I will consider my first ever actual illustration job, the designs last year were basically just copying pictures.

I told him I will go and see him in the shop when I return home after uni to discuss the illustrations with him.

I was hesitant to contact him at first as he hasn't messaged me since he paid me, but I'm over the moon that I did now. This has given me the confidence to want to message more people actually asking for work, even if people say no then they can always pass your name on which is still very beneficial in terms of trying to get noticed.

Sally Deng Interview

Ive been in contact with up and coming illustrator Sally Deng. I first saw her work on instagram and I was a huge fan instantly. I was keen to find out how she looks for and receives commissions. Also about what media she uses to create her images. I wanted to keep the questions short but to the point because I didn't want to risk not getting a reply or seem like I was mithering.
Im glad that I contacted her now and I now realise that it is probably crucial for me to stick with creative people after university.
Also I now know that her illustrations are made with acrylic which I would never have guessed. Im definitely going to try this for myself

Thanks for responding I appreciate it! 
Here they are -
What university did you go to? 
What were your first steps after graduating and how did you make illustration your full time job?
In terms of the creative process, do you use a layer of watercolour under your crayon or just all crayon? (especially the waves and surfers)

I went to Art Center College if Design. After graduating, I ended up traveling to different places for different reasons but I saw that as chance to hand out promos to any art directors that would see me. And I use neither watercolors nor crayons. They’re all acrylic paint and color pencil and there’s no specific order of what is layered on first. Hope that helps!

Thankyou, do you have any advice for a young creative who's just about to graduate and wants to enter the world of illustration?
That's what I meant in the U.K. We call coloured pencils crayons, I think the combination works really well all the colour palettes are great.
Thanks again really appreciate it!

I’m sure you’ve heard this before but surround yourself with creative people and people you admire. When I first started, meeting art directors and handing them postcards really helped. Or just snail mail them if they’re too busy to meet. Also, explore and have fun doing other things than illustration. The more knowledge/experience you have in other fields, the better your art would be.

Some of Sallys work - 

Business card design

 For my business card my aim was to create something simple, yet something that stands out and would intrigue somebody who picked it up to want to see more of my work.

It needed to communicate the way in which I draw and the skills I have, whilst representing the playful and lighthearted nature of my work.

I think the most suitable image I had is this chicken below, despite its simplicity its actually one of my favourite drawings I have produced this year. I have been on a mission to make my characters look more naive and expressive and I think this particular chicken captured that tradition perfectly. It makes me chuckle when I look at it because of the weird position its stood in and the blank expression on its face.

To accompany the chicken I took the same coloured pencils which I drew it with and wrote my name in a fairly naive and wonky way. Again to try and show the nature of my work (or at least how I want to work to be)

This was the final design, I combined the chicken and name and made them interact by having the chicken stood on top of the 'B', then surrounding the chickens I scanned in some scribbles and lines in the same colours to fill out the background and add movement to the piece. I Find the combination of the more refined shading of the chicken and the quick nature of the surrounding marks works quite well. It will also make the card more eye catching and interesting to look at.

Making my Website

I finally got round to building my website. I wanted to keep it simple and concise with all my images laid out on the front page and a contact form on the second page. I have not put an explanation for what each image is about because they were only either self initiated briefs or competitions. But it will still give people a taste of what my work is like. I realise it is a fairly basic site at the minute, I hope to expand on it as my portfolio grows. I managed to buy the domain name joebakerillustration.com but have not yet figured out how to get it to the top of google, this is something I will look into soon

Potential up coming commission

After contacting the nursery owner and getting my work reviewed, she rang me back a few days later explaining she has a friend who is in the early stages of creating a phonics system to help young children learn to read and she will be needing the help of an illustrator. I did something similar to this in college where I made up my own picture alphabet and really enjoyed it. She really liked my Carmelite prize work and would want it drawn in a similar way to that.  I was really happy with this news, seems like things could start slowly coming together if I do a good job at this, as she may know publishers/ Childerns book authors if she is making these teaching aids herself. I now have her contact details and am awaiting an email from her.

Website inspiration

Here are a few of my favourite websites to visit when trying to be inspired to draw. they are all very simple and don't have loads of writing on. This is how I want my website to look when I make it, I realise I wont have this number or quality of images to put on there but no doubt that will change over time.

I really like the home page on Laura Carlins website, its just one big image with lots of little doodles on, maybe this could be something to consider with mine

The Nous Vous website is also really nice. It almost has a sketchbook about it with the rough shapes on the front and black banner to the side, looking bit like the spine of a book

Nursary owner reviewed my work

After completing the Carmelite prize I decided that I wanted some feedback outside of college, so I contacted a woman who owns a nursery near my house (I also contacted her when I was researching anthropomorphism in children's books  for CoP)

She really liked the images and thought they would look fantastic in a real children's book, I realise that she isn't trained in a creative field and therefor probably wouldn't be able to tell if something was off e.g composition/ colour pallet. But she owns tonnes of these books and reads them to children everyday so I would would still class her opinion as a very valid one. She knows other nursery owners and people who make educational visual teaching aids for children and said she will send my images round for me. Hopefully this will get my name out bit more, I can get some further feedback and maybe a chance of some work