A Place to Start

It’s coming on 3 years now since I graduated with a degree, and life post-grad has felt stagnant. I know this is a feeling widely shared amongst art school graduates, and while it’s amazing to not feel alone, this doesn’t do much to fix the issue of invisibility I feel as someone who still has yet to break into the industry. A few days back, an Italian painter took a passing interest in my sketchbook whilst I was out in a gallery, and as he was flipping through it commented about the array of styles I had. He was impressed with the diversity (I think, I hope?), but I couldn’t help but feel that he’d seen straight to my greatest weakness.

The Offending Sketchbook

It’s a sketchbook, so it’s really not that deep, but it demonstrates the point that I’m doing too much, and none of it especially well!

An area I know I struggle in is creating a single illustrative identity. All through university I remember the question being anxiously asked was “what about style?”, and the constant answer of “don’t think about it, it’ll come later”. This dismissive attitude serves well in an academic setting where you're expected to experiment and push your creative limitations. It also leaves you woefully under-developed for the actual industry, which relies on you knowing who you are, and what exactly you make. This is a totally reasonable expectation! It’s a professional environment, and it doesn’t have the budget for ditherers, but that doesn’t dismiss the fact It’s hard to graduate with a portfolio that is ‘unfocused’, ‘spread too thin’ and full of ‘too many different ideas’ with no concept of what the strongest direction for you to pull in should be. Of my fellow graduates, those who have seen success have been the ones with a firm visual identity (or rather, a set ‘brand’). Skill can only carry you so far, but our modern industry landscape demands you market yourself succinctly and efficiently. As a shy (and quite insecure) person though, I think it’s tricky to take a firm stand. To become one thing means to become divisive; people might really dislike what you do, and it’s far easier to judge a singular thing than a broad array. I worry that if I only drew, people might think I couldn’t paint. If I only painted, I might miss out on an opportunity for someone who works in ink. I recognise I’m absolutely a “Jack of all trades, Master of none”, and this is something that I aim to fix as I begin to reinvent my identity as an illustrator.

Maybe a bit too much going on….

It’s a shame that the industry expects artists to be just one thing. Quentin Blake’s “100 figures: The Unseen Art of Quentin Blake’ exhibition, which showcased a lifelong practice of Blake’s figure drawing, gave me such a bittersweet feeling when I first saw it. His illustrative work is so widely known and iconic; and this whole other substantial aspect of his artistic practice must remain ‘unseen’ to preserve the iconic status of his brand. There is an oxymoron here that the work is now a published art book, but the wider point stands that this must be a removed and distant aspect from the artist, hidden away and sold as a peek behind the curtain. Why can’t Blake share a breadth of work? Have we fully rejected the renaissance man? I don’t actually think it’s anything that dramatic really. It’s more that an illustrator has always needed a clear brand. We are a product as well as a producer, and being recognisable as an image-maker gives you a clear advantage in the world of guerrilla marketing. You see a Cath Kidson design and you think her name without even needing to see a label. Designers need to know what they’re getting when they hire you. Success means being understandable and reliable, as well as iconic.

So how then to redetermine my own direction as an artist? First what do I like to draw? Fantasy, fairytales, flora, fauna… not so much modern reality. Anything with a magical twist. I’m inspired by the Pre-raphelites, and I want to create gentle atmospheres, sometimes haunting ones. It’s cringy to sit and try to spell it out, but this is just the first step.

Following a great talk from The Good Ship Illustration on Marketing for Introverts, I’ve decided to devote the next 5 weeks to a marketing campaign that will hopefully not only reach out to people who might like my work, but will help me to distil my creative identity into something much more focused and memorable. This begins here, with me starting a blog! Ironic that an illustrator needs a space for words, but I like waffling away about random topics, and I hope that in the process of doing so, my creative identity will begin to become much clearer. I plan to share these blogs in my new newsletter, which you can sign up to below!. There’ll be no spam; just seasonal portfolio updates, occasional blog posts and maybe a update about bits and bobs I sell.

I hope other people can relate to the lost feeling of establishing a creative identity; it would be great to hear how other people found their focuses, or what niche you stumbled into…