- Are you looking to earn income from your visual communication skills?
- This is a more complicated question than it might appear to be. I have an absorbing day job that pays the bills, I would really like to step away from it, even just a bit, and do something different, I'm desperate for a new challenge, but realistically I can't afford to stop earning whilst I build my new professional profile so I might not be able to finance a change.
- Do you see a clear line between commercial and personal work?
- No. They feed each other and I have sold personal work (and not sold commercial work)
- How will you integrate the two? (Commercial work can be outside of visual communication.)
- Currently I study, do visual communication work and personal work in the evenings and at weekends. I would like to reduce my working hours to have a whole weekday to concentrate on visual communication/personal art projects. I'm working on the logistics of this....
- How can the subjects you come across on a daily basis and have unique perspectives on, feed into your practice? How can they become your own curatorial project? Make a list of these, whether you think they’re of value or not. Do any of them have currency?
- Veterinary medicine - I have made illustrations and done visual projects. This is an area that I think I can develop and which may lead to more paid work. I haven't been able to promote myself too much here because I don't have the time to complete more projects and continue my studies and current commitments. I do manage some sneaky drawings when I'm working if everything is stable. This is good for observation, developing my reportage techniques and building my confidence but I'm not sure that I'm entitled to publish my work without tortuous discussions with my employer....
- Animals - I have a small sideline doing pet portraits. It's a competitive area. I get most of my commissions by word of mouth but could promote myself more if I had time to complete more work. This is an area that could feed into other illustration projects and I'm wondering if some of the stories I hear could feed into a narrative project for my coursework
- Walking - this is linked to animals because a lot of my walking is with my dog. I have conversations with random strangers and I see mini stories in the streets around me. I don't know if there is enough material here or if it could be woven into any sort of story.
- Urban sketching - I attend meetings when I can and need to develop the confidence to sketch more on my own. I am fascinated by reportage and need to be bolder and more imaginative here.
- I live in a new town and used this as the basis for my Drawing 2 project. I've changed and developed since then and I think that I could use my surroundings in a reportage project.
- Education - I teach veterinary students on a 1 to 1 basis and have done a PGCert in veterinary education so I have been exposed to some of the theories and ideas around education. The social science aspects of the research was very interesting and the practicalities of teaching in a clinical setting could lead to further work and ideas.
- My parents are ageing and struggling to grasp new technology and ideas, there might be scope to create work that helps people deal with things like the internet or common health problems
- Are they being discussed in the media?
- Currently I'm not sure that they are but I'll keep my eyes open. Reportage pops up fairly regularly, but that might be because I'm interested in it so I'm looking.
- How could you extend the discussion around these subjects through creative work?
- By telling peoples stories
- By promoting my ideas on social media
- By making and selling a booklet/zine/comic
- By talking to people about what I do
- By approaching creative gatekeepers(publishers, educators etc) and showing them examples of my work
From the examples : Alice Moloney runs creative workshops, Burn Kim makes work that his audience/followers want to repost and it sounds like David Hitch was sending out newsletters. I'm not sure that newsletters are as well accepted as I assume they might have been in 2015 when the course was written, but maybe it could be adapted to a more individual approach. Pitching self generated ideas to appropriate agencies who appear to offer a good fit for them might be useful.
Peepshow collective work collaboratively, the mix of ideas from different people will generate different outcomes than for people working alone. Herman Inclusus makes alternative products to sell as a sideline which might introduce a different audience to his work.
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