Corvus

Recently I have had the opportunity to meet up with a friend from uni. After an hour of walking around Manchester, she took me to the Nexus Art Cafe in Manchester. Link to the website right here . I have to say that this is an amazing place. Good setting, a garden, loads of comfy chairs, good nibbles and warmth throughout the cafe. If not for the conversation that I had with her while drawing, I would have surely fallen asleep, it was that nice in there. :P

We had an amazing opportunity just these past few days to exhibit our work at the annual Degree Show Exhibition.  Following the success of last year Seniors, our year was able to, through pop-up sales, Christmas cards and cookie sales, raise money and secure a place for the show at one of the local restaurants in Manchester, the LEAF on Portland Street. The preparations to the exhibition were wild and chaotic, but thankfully they went over rather quickly, allowing us for some peace before the preview night. I had to print the work, buy frames, put the work in frames, get mirror plates, fix them to the frame, transport everything (glad that the uni was able to hire a van for transport), unload everything and fix it to the show board. Never mind that I nearly fell off the ladder twice, haha. The preview night was a relaxing atmosphere, unfortunately I wasn't able to stay for long due to some other work that I was meant to do. My mom was available a...

A week ago I took part in a portfoio review at The Emperor, a creative agency, in their Manchester studio.  My group, consisting of E. and S. were preparing for this meeting, for the past week, when we finally settled on the date of the review with Mrs. O'Brien, the Creative Director of Emperors' Manchester studio. Here is a summary of the good and improvement points from my review. Good points: + A plus for including contact page, as the introduction to the portfolio (email, phone, website, blog) + A plus for presenting the works that make me proud + A plus for including the commissioned and self-initiated projects along with the briefs set by others + A plus for bringing in final outcomes (books and booklets) Improvement points: + Need to think more about which pieces you present, don't overcrowd it with one project + Need to re-shoot some of the photographs to get a good light + Need to add some journey spreads (two pages of work from start to finish) ...

This seems a little overdue, but I have finally found the time to write it up. Few months ago, we held a Q&A panel for some of the graduates of our Illustration course. The invited guests were: Rose Lloyd , Beth Mills and Chris Howker . Be sure to check out their amazing work. Q. How do you manage your time? C.H: Poorly, it is a rather difficult thing to do, but I enjoy having time for myself. B.M: I like the normal hours, as in the office job. 12 hours on week days. Make sure to never do enything, if you are not getting paid for it. R.L: I work nearly every day, even weekends, because I work from home and try to do everything right for the deadline. I do try to not get sick with it, I don't want to over do it. It's good to be disciplined. Q. How did you know, that you want to do art? C.H: I knew since primary school, often I was called the artsy kid. I did a photography course, but then moved to illustration and sticked with it. B.M: I decided in the last...

A few weeks ago, we were able to attend a portfolio review meeting at The Chase, a creative studio consultants based in Manchester. You can read more about them here.  I had the opportunity to talk to Reece Hacking, who is a Junior Designer at The Chase. Presenting him with my portfolio in a form of a booklet, he proceeded to ask me questions about certain pieces of work and where did they stem from.  For example, my cover is a part of a larger image, designed for the Hiii Contest, organized in Japan, but open to designers around the world.  He also asked about the logo at the front, which comes from my interest in Harry Potter, Latin and Sir Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven .  The name or the nickname Corvus is a Latin translation of raven, crow. Therefore I thought it's fitting that my logo represents a raven and the word Corvus.  It was a successful meeting and I hope to have the opportunity for more such occasio...

 The first week back at university provided us with a challenge exhibition at The Kosmonaut Bar in Northern Quarters, Manchester.  Faced with limited colour palette, we were tasked to create a quality piece of work, developed from the summer project and refined to the best standards.  We rushed into the pace of work and dealt with it quite well, if I may say so, although we were stalled for a day due to the printer failure. Thankfully, our Managing Team (J, Y, C, and S) were up for it and able to find a professional printing service.                                        The exhibition 'Chrome' run from 22nd Sept to 26th Sept.                                    I think that while the experience was needed and useful, it also made us think of different v...

Today we had a lecture from Emma Reynolds , an established illustrator and character designer, on possible careers available to illustrators. Okay, so what are the possibilities and what are the routes for us after we graduate from an Illustration course? Well, first of all: THERE IS NO SET PATH, THERE ARE MANY OPTIONS AVAILABLE AFTER UNIVERSITY Option 1. A steady, full time job provides you with a stable wage, job security and a set routine that can help you with your working method. Furthermore, if you choose to work full time in a studio, be it a gaming, graphics, printing studio, you are in a place where you can share and learn from others, you will gain industry experience, as well as gain the option of lecturing in your field. On the other hand though it is not as flexible, for example if you go into teaching you can end up working extra hours and not having enough spare time for your own practice. Option 2. You can get ...

Illustration Friday   Illustration Friday is a weekly art challenge aiming to get artists to inspire each other and have fun with their art. Every Friday a new topic is posted. Artists are given one week to submit their own illustration to an online gallery and see what everyone else is sharing  withing the topic. Fun. Free. Creative.  Here are some HOW IT WORKS information from the Illustration Friday . How to Participate in 3 EASY Steps: 1: Make an illustration based on the current week’s topic (announced every Friday and always listed on the homepage ). 2: Publish your image on your own blog or website. 3: Return to Illustration Friday and use the Submit your illustration button on the homepage . Other ways to get involved: • Join over 200,000 of your fellow artists on the IF Facebook page ! • Follow IF on Instagram . • Follow IF on Twitter . • Submit your artwork for a possible feature on the IF Blog. • ...