Who am I? Why am I here?

5 Things I have learnt so far:

-the importance of displaying/sharing your work with other (confidence)
Being quite a shy and anxious person I have been reluctant to share my work with others due to my own insecurities of whether or not my work is 'good enough'.
However I have learnt throughout level 4 that even if you aren't personally happy with your own work you need to be able to show and defend it in front of others so as to gain criticism and further improve your work and process.
This particularly important so as to gain other peoples perspective and general outlooks which my completely differ to yours and therefore may see things in your work/process that you are missing

-perseverance
I often produced work/went on tangents with in my practice in first year that weren't always successful or necessarily where I wanted to go with my work. A times this was frustrating however often it lead to some of my most successful outcomes through an exhaustive process of trial and error.

-reflection
Although I think naturally I am quite reflective of my work, particularly in terms of what is it saying/communicating I have learnt to take this scrutiny further so as to better maximise my outcomes through the use of the blog and module evaluations as well as peer reviews/crits.

-process
So far on this course I have learnt that process is everything when producing successful final outcomes. This is because having a an exhaustive work process rather than just jumping straight in with final outcomes allows for creative decisions and revelations to be made that you other wise would have missed

-research
Admittedly prior to this course research wasn't a huge part of my practice. Although I am an avid reader of both fiction and none fiction and that this would inevitably influence my work this research was never very exhaustive or focused. Throughout level 4 I learnt that exhaustive, focused research is essential to understanding and thus being able to generate ideas and effectively respond to/communicate the main ideas of briefs/subject matter.

5 things you want to know more about:

-typography
As I want to move my practice into graphic design as well as illustration I want to gain a bette runderstanding of how typography works given that it is an essential skill to being a designer and would help me improve my illustration practice as well by being able to create a better sense of harmony between my type and imagery on for eample poster art.

-commissions
Given that it is how you make a lively hood with illustration I am keen to understand the process of how to confirm commissions particularly in regards to what you need to outline to clients and how much you should charge for different projects/ Although I have paid experience in graphic design, this has been on an hourly rate of pay for days spent in studio as a freelance design where as I realise with illustration it is based on one off commissions per image so therefore I would like to better understand how this works.

-print
I have a long running affinity for print but only briefly touched upon it in first year so therefore would like to know more about this process of producing them, particularly screen prints, as well as understanding more about print culture and how I can use this to expand awareness of my practice in professional circles.

-moving imagery
I want to be as flexible as possible with my practice as this is becoming increasingly essential to gaining commissions/building a client base given that recent technological developments mean that digital skills as well as cross overs in to other disciplines such as animation mean that an good understanding of how moving image works and how to produce it would really help my practice have more mass marketability.

-Art Directors
Given  that it is these people who will be commissioning my work I want to build up a better understanding of who they are and how to approach them.

5 skills that are my strengths:

-Drafting
-Digital Skills
-Communication
-Content
-Composition

Although I'm not the greatest drafts man in the world I have come to realise over first year that I do in fact have relatively strong drawing skills and that I am able to use them effectively translate form and figure into my own reductive aesthetic. I think this is particularity effective when combined with my composition skills which I have think have grown significantly in first year given that I know am able to employ a strong sense of balance within my images so as to effectively highlight focal points within my images as well as create a pleasing over all aesthetic. When these are combined with a strong understanding of how to use software/digital image creation I think it has led to a strong and flexible creative practice.

The above skills are essential aesthetically however it is only when combined with strong content which is communicated effectively, something that I think was one of my strengths in first year, that you can truly make effective images.

What I want to improve: 

Although all aspects of my practice are my greatest strengths I also think they are the things I need to most improve given that I think they are essential to an effective creative practice.

Outside of these factors I also need to improve my time keeping and planning  given that this is frequently where I shoot my self in the foot and make things hard for my self.

I also want to improve my confidence when showing/sharing my work given that, as someone once said to me, the first rule of illustration is showing people your work as unless people see it how can you ever expect people to commission you and thus have a successful practice.

5 practitioners that demonstrate my interest within illustration:

-Eleni Kalorkoti
-Jon Mcknaught
-Noma Barr
-Malika Favre
-Adrian Johnson

The above illustrators all have a strong use of reductive, shape based imagery combined with strong compositional skills at the heart of their practices. Throughout first year this is something I have tried to apply to my own practice and am keen to further develop through second year. Furthermore practitioners such as Kalorkoti and Mcknaught create a very specific melancholic and ephemeral atmosphere/tone within their work which is also something I am keen to develop and refine within my own work.
I want to better understand how strong lighting as well as bold, minimal compositions can be used to highlight communication, something I think both Noa Bar and Malika Favre are very effective at. Furthermore Barr is particularly accomplished at using visual metaphors to simply and effectively communicate the content of his work. I want to further understand how to employ these factors within my own work so as to better refine/increase the communicative aspects of my work,

5 websites that reflect your interest within illustration:

-Boomkat: https://boomkat.com/
-It's Nice That: http://www.itsnicethat.com/
-50 Watts: http://50watts.com/
-Handsome Frank: https://handsomefrank.com/
-Nobrow: http://nobrow.net/

Although I find images/practitioners relevant to my specific interests within illustration/the creative industry all over the internet these are probably the 5 I most frequently use. I have a strong interest in music and artwork created for music, particularly album covers, and find Boomkat to be the best source of album artwork given that it is a website that focuses on left of field music from all genres which is the specific area of music I am more interested as opposed to big label releases.

50 Watts and Nobrow are useful for finding print based artists given that they both have a strong focus on that and print is something I am keen to expand upon as a main factor within my work.

It's Nice That is relevant to mine as well as most practices given the volume of work/professional practitioners that they display upon their website. Furthermore the search function and categorisation of imagery allows me to find posts that are most relevant to my practice.

Handsome Frank agency has a lot of my favourite contemporary illustrators such as Malika Favre signed to it and therefore is good for keeping on top of what they are up to as well as finding other similar practitioners.