To help forward my illustration career after I have graduated, I have signed up with the AOI (http://www.theaoi.com) a group which help all sorts of illustrators promote themselves, find out how to protect their work and offer things like portfolio reviews.
I intend to go to a portfolio review myself before I graduate. In fact here are the aims I want to have completed by the end of June;
-Have a physical portfolio
-Flesh out my online portfolio more
-Finish my children's book
-Finish all backgrounds for Smitten
-Finish CV
I have already completed my CV but just need to get another reference sorted which I have already emailed off about.
Will write more when I know more, for now I'm going to keep on drawing!
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
End of February
Since the last entry I have completed my entry for the Puffin Digital Prize 2011 competition and sent it off. I should hear back about it in May but even if nothing comes from the competition, it has given me a strong addition to my portfolio and experience with creating children's books which I am now positive I want to delve into for my future career.
Saturday, 12 February 2011
IPP Session 2
On Tuesday I went into college for the IPP session on Interviews!
It was a very useful experience, we heard from experienced students examples of good and bad things to do at interviews:
- If in the past you worked in a team, when you apply for a job don't say what the team did, say what you did.
- Always be confident, not the shy, bumbling, 'Columbo' type.
- Prepare before you go - look into questions you think you can answer and especially those that might be harder such as 'what are your weakness' and questions concerning salaries! Research how much you should earn first!
- Always be truthful on your CV so you don't get caught out.
- Try and bring forward your passion for the job.
- When applying, it is sometimes best to ask for a meeting instead of a job as there is then less pressure around the interview on both sides. You can also feel out if it is the kind of job you want this way.
- We also were told that sometimes, even if you find your perfect job, the workplace itself may have a negative effect on you and persuade you away from what you loved about the job. You need to be careful of where you choose to work.
- Bring a notebook along to the interview with a list of questions you want answered about the job.
- Don't be afraid to ask how the interview went afterwards, for tips on your next one.
All in all it was a very helpful session and I am glad I attended :)
Have just finished writing my CV at the moment and almost done with the 800 word report which are both also useful things for the future.
It was a very useful experience, we heard from experienced students examples of good and bad things to do at interviews:
- If in the past you worked in a team, when you apply for a job don't say what the team did, say what you did.
- Always be confident, not the shy, bumbling, 'Columbo' type.
- Prepare before you go - look into questions you think you can answer and especially those that might be harder such as 'what are your weakness' and questions concerning salaries! Research how much you should earn first!
- Always be truthful on your CV so you don't get caught out.
- Try and bring forward your passion for the job.
- When applying, it is sometimes best to ask for a meeting instead of a job as there is then less pressure around the interview on both sides. You can also feel out if it is the kind of job you want this way.
- We also were told that sometimes, even if you find your perfect job, the workplace itself may have a negative effect on you and persuade you away from what you loved about the job. You need to be careful of where you choose to work.
- Bring a notebook along to the interview with a list of questions you want answered about the job.
- Don't be afraid to ask how the interview went afterwards, for tips on your next one.
All in all it was a very helpful session and I am glad I attended :)
Have just finished writing my CV at the moment and almost done with the 800 word report which are both also useful things for the future.
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Website Complete!
Okay... So I waited about 24 hours for my site to be uploaded and when I got on this morning there was still nothing... So I browsed google asking why that might be and found help through this site;
http://oit.pdx.edu/using-cyberduck-to-upload-website
It says that if there is too much content then it may not upload. So, I got rid of all the animations on there and replaced them with the youtube vids I had uploaded instead and tried again and.. *click one of the pics below*
WOO IT'S DONE!! That's one of the four projects completed... (the others being the dissertation, summer pitch and some outstanding art I need to draw for my friends).
IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!! :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
I think at some point in the near future I might also make some business cards and whenever I go to conventions or even meet up with people randomly, begin handing them out. No sense waiting til I graduate.
http://oit.pdx.edu/using-cyberduck-to-upload-website
It says that if there is too much content then it may not upload. So, I got rid of all the animations on there and replaced them with the youtube vids I had uploaded instead and tried again and.. *click one of the pics below*
WOO IT'S DONE!! That's one of the four projects completed... (the others being the dissertation, summer pitch and some outstanding art I need to draw for my friends).
IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!! :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
I think at some point in the near future I might also make some business cards and whenever I go to conventions or even meet up with people randomly, begin handing them out. No sense waiting til I graduate.
Website Progress 2
I must say that it's been a long long time since I've needed to use HTML and CSS and all that.. about 5 years to be exact so I'm very out of practice and that just makes this all the harder!
Here is the last site I made, it was on my neopets account hehe...;
http://www.neopets.com/~paputaka
But aside from using neopets, I remembered that the last time I made a site it was with 'freewebs.com' (can't remember the address now though...) so, before trying out iWeb or DreamWeaver I thought I'd give that a go.
Man was I wrong.
Here is my failed attempt at a website!
http://practisewebsitefmp.webs.com/
Honestly I didn't understand the navigation, everything had changed around and it wasn't like before when you type in CSS, now everything is templated which restricts your freedom! I gave up after half an hour. What a headache.
Next I gave DreamWeaver a try but I had the same problem and, in my opinion, the templates were all ugly! hahaha
Sooooo I went onto iWebs and that was much nicer. I'm starting to get the hang of navigating my way around the program now and my website is slowly taking shape but I think I need a few more hours with it before it's ready.
I have a couple of problems though..
The first is that I have no idea how to get my own domain..
And the second is that my MAC needs to be connected to the Internet to be able to upload the file onto the site!! And we don't have wireless internet so I'll either have to get a cable or find a place that has wireless internet.. maybe the library. Or.. worst-case scenario, wait until I'm back at college and the internet is set up on my MAC.
Oh yeah.. And I'm also having problems uploading my animations onto the site so instead I'm uploading them to my youtube account (http://www.youtube.com/user/pluschan)and once the site is up with use the embedding thingie to post them in a type of blog.. or something. Like so;
Post Production Piece completed in the first term of the second year of our Animation Practise course.
My part of the George's Marvellous Medicine Project.
Something done in my free time, practising ball bouncing.
Collaboration on third year, 3rd term project.
STRESS
Here is the last site I made, it was on my neopets account hehe...;
http://www.neopets.com/~paputaka
But aside from using neopets, I remembered that the last time I made a site it was with 'freewebs.com' (can't remember the address now though...) so, before trying out iWeb or DreamWeaver I thought I'd give that a go.
Man was I wrong.
Here is my failed attempt at a website!
http://practisewebsitefmp.webs.com/
Honestly I didn't understand the navigation, everything had changed around and it wasn't like before when you type in CSS, now everything is templated which restricts your freedom! I gave up after half an hour. What a headache.
Next I gave DreamWeaver a try but I had the same problem and, in my opinion, the templates were all ugly! hahaha
Sooooo I went onto iWebs and that was much nicer. I'm starting to get the hang of navigating my way around the program now and my website is slowly taking shape but I think I need a few more hours with it before it's ready.
I have a couple of problems though..
The first is that I have no idea how to get my own domain..
And the second is that my MAC needs to be connected to the Internet to be able to upload the file onto the site!! And we don't have wireless internet so I'll either have to get a cable or find a place that has wireless internet.. maybe the library. Or.. worst-case scenario, wait until I'm back at college and the internet is set up on my MAC.
Oh yeah.. And I'm also having problems uploading my animations onto the site so instead I'm uploading them to my youtube account (http://www.youtube.com/user/pluschan)and once the site is up with use the embedding thingie to post them in a type of blog.. or something. Like so;
Post Production Piece completed in the first term of the second year of our Animation Practise course.
My part of the George's Marvellous Medicine Project.
Something done in my free time, practising ball bouncing.
Collaboration on third year, 3rd term project.
STRESS
Website Progress
Working on making my own website!
Seeing what's already out there...
A lot of my favourite freelance artists have their own webspaces to portfolio their art. Most of these are manga-driven sites and they have beautiful layouts. Here are examples of sites I could find, some I like and some I'm not as keen on;
These first three are all japanese artist's sites so they may be a little difficult to navigate but this is the closest to how I want my own site laid out. With a nice opening illustration and on the side all the different links you could want to explore, including a blog.
http://tonic-art.com/artworks
I don't like the layout of this one as much as any of the others but it's good to look at various ways to do things rather than just jumping straight into the first one. Too much scrolling on this one though!
http://www.kenart.net/
LOVE the layout and the way you click the thumbnails to open the picture bigger, but I don't think I'd want all my pictures on one page, I want there to be different sections on the sidebar you can click on.
http://www.ulimeyer.com/
This one is the website of a 2D animation company I did work experience for last summer and because it's a company website it's obviously a bit different from the others but it's something to think about overall anyway. The layout used to be slightly different with a mouse in run cycle that you had to click on to enter but it seems they've gotten rid of that now..
Thinking about my own site...
What I would like on it is a blog so that I can write various things and talk about any new pictures I post, a section for animations, a sections for any comics I make, one for original characters I have designed, a sketches/storyboards and life drawing section (maybe or maybe not on the same page...), and one for digital art, both original, observation and fanart! Also a link back to my website and contact details of course...
Asking friends for help..
One of my friends is also trying to set up a website at the moment and has given me some useful tips on it. There is a program on the MAC called 'iWeb' that is very useful for this sort of thing. 'It's realllly easy to use plus it lets you add ads if you want, they're safe google ads and they give you a lot of features. For a web host, google "1and1" it's about £2 a month for a .co.uk domain or £12 a year for a .com domain.'
So there's one way to make a website.. I also asked another friend of mine from Canada how she made her website and here is the correspondece;
--
Michelle 'Shrimp' Vinall 15 September at 10:52
Hallo Betty!~
I know this was awhile ago now, but I remember that you used to have your own portfolio website that you put all your art on. Was just wondering whether you used a program like iWeb to make it, or whether theres a place you can go that gives you a template or whether you made it yourself..
an example of what i mean is kurot's site here ;http://moecon.net/area27/
just wondering I want to start making my own site atm and need some help D8 Sorry to disturb you.
Hope you can help me and I hope you are well! :)
Betty Kwong 15 September at 17:05
Hi Michelle! :D
I just use basic html to build it LOL. I use to have some much free time, I would look up html tutorials like (http://www.lissaexplains.com/) and just use a notepad to build it from scratch. LOL OTL;;
Another way I know how to build websites is use Adobe Dreamweaver. They provide a lot of templates and layouts for you. I had to do a simple one for class in University
www.ecuad.ca/~bkwong/
and that is what we used. I hope that helps a bit! :<
Thanks Michelle! Good Luck to you!
--
This was perhaps the most useful information I've received so far about it so I will continue with the website progress later!
Seeing what's already out there...
A lot of my favourite freelance artists have their own webspaces to portfolio their art. Most of these are manga-driven sites and they have beautiful layouts. Here are examples of sites I could find, some I like and some I'm not as keen on;
These first three are all japanese artist's sites so they may be a little difficult to navigate but this is the closest to how I want my own site laid out. With a nice opening illustration and on the side all the different links you could want to explore, including a blog.
http://tonic-art.com/artworks
I don't like the layout of this one as much as any of the others but it's good to look at various ways to do things rather than just jumping straight into the first one. Too much scrolling on this one though!
http://www.kenart.net/
LOVE the layout and the way you click the thumbnails to open the picture bigger, but I don't think I'd want all my pictures on one page, I want there to be different sections on the sidebar you can click on.
http://www.ulimeyer.com/
This one is the website of a 2D animation company I did work experience for last summer and because it's a company website it's obviously a bit different from the others but it's something to think about overall anyway. The layout used to be slightly different with a mouse in run cycle that you had to click on to enter but it seems they've gotten rid of that now..
Thinking about my own site...
What I would like on it is a blog so that I can write various things and talk about any new pictures I post, a section for animations, a sections for any comics I make, one for original characters I have designed, a sketches/storyboards and life drawing section (maybe or maybe not on the same page...), and one for digital art, both original, observation and fanart! Also a link back to my website and contact details of course...
Asking friends for help..
One of my friends is also trying to set up a website at the moment and has given me some useful tips on it. There is a program on the MAC called 'iWeb' that is very useful for this sort of thing. 'It's realllly easy to use plus it lets you add ads if you want, they're safe google ads and they give you a lot of features. For a web host, google "1and1" it's about £2 a month for a .co.uk domain or £12 a year for a .com domain.'
So there's one way to make a website.. I also asked another friend of mine from Canada how she made her website and here is the correspondece;
--
Michelle 'Shrimp' Vinall 15 September at 10:52
Hallo Betty!~
I know this was awhile ago now, but I remember that you used to have your own portfolio website that you put all your art on. Was just wondering whether you used a program like iWeb to make it, or whether theres a place you can go that gives you a template or whether you made it yourself..
an example of what i mean is kurot's site here ;http://moecon.net/area27/
just wondering I want to start making my own site atm and need some help D8 Sorry to disturb you.
Hope you can help me and I hope you are well! :)
Betty Kwong 15 September at 17:05
Hi Michelle! :D
I just use basic html to build it LOL. I use to have some much free time, I would look up html tutorials like (http://www.lissaexplains.com/) and just use a notepad to build it from scratch. LOL OTL;;
Another way I know how to build websites is use Adobe Dreamweaver. They provide a lot of templates and layouts for you. I had to do a simple one for class in University
www.ecuad.ca/~bkwong/
and that is what we used. I hope that helps a bit! :<
Thanks Michelle! Good Luck to you!
--
This was perhaps the most useful information I've received so far about it so I will continue with the website progress later!
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
IPP lesson - 09/12/2010
Today for our IPP session, we got into groups of 4 or so and discussed with each other what we wanted to do for our careers in the future and how we would get there, things we would need and what the path to our goal from our graduation would most likely look like.
For mine I wrote down being a children's illustrator and that what I needed most was to start working on an original idea and enter competitions and such to get my work out there. At least once I have my original idea and the designs for it under my belt I can start spreading the word around. I have heard about self-publishing as well but for now I want to try different routes and that can be my back-up plan! The career path I made squiggly and run all over the place because honestly I don't know how difficult it will be but I imagine it will not be an easy road and definately not one guaranteed to end in success.
It was a useful session, and stressed the importance of having an online presence, which I am happy to say is something I have constantly been doing for the past six years via http://lubrian.deviantart.com.
So just need to keep on drawing and working towards the penguin competition for the most part as well as update my CV to make it relevant to my chosen career path.
For mine I wrote down being a children's illustrator and that what I needed most was to start working on an original idea and enter competitions and such to get my work out there. At least once I have my original idea and the designs for it under my belt I can start spreading the word around. I have heard about self-publishing as well but for now I want to try different routes and that can be my back-up plan! The career path I made squiggly and run all over the place because honestly I don't know how difficult it will be but I imagine it will not be an easy road and definately not one guaranteed to end in success.
It was a useful session, and stressed the importance of having an online presence, which I am happy to say is something I have constantly been doing for the past six years via http://lubrian.deviantart.com.
So just need to keep on drawing and working towards the penguin competition for the most part as well as update my CV to make it relevant to my chosen career path.
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