This has been a more productive week than last week, I have managed to develop my initial sketches further into more detailed illustrations. I am not completely happy with all of them because they are still a bit all over the place and are nowhere near good enough to go into the zine, but they are an improvement on my initial designs.

I’m still behind schedule on my weekly planner, which I guess is to be expected considering the state of the world right now. Though technically I have more time now, I’m still finding it difficult to motivate myself at home. I was hoping that by now I would have adjusted to the situation, but I haven’t, I miss being able to leave the house and going into college to knock out tons of work in a day. I miss seeing my tutors and the few people I talk to in college, I’m realising how helpful it was to be around a bunch of creatives that are all working, it definitely motivates me. Nevertheless, I am doing my best at home, I’m trying to work consistently, even if my work hours have changed. And while I may not feel like I’m doing as much work as usual, I am still working hard and not giving up. I also have my girlfriend and aunt to talk to and throw ideas off of which I am grateful for, life would have been much harder if I was still in London right now.

I am most happy with my orca development illustration which looks most like I see it in my mind. So far, I have only used pencils to create my illustrations, I intend to spend the next week or two working on media testing and layout ideas. I am going to experiment with watercolours, brush pens, digital painting and collage, with the possibility of trying out soft pastels again. I will only try soft pastels if I am able to get access to some, which so far is proving difficult due to shops being closed, I already have the rest of the materials to hand in my home.

I am also quite happy with my advertisement anxiety development illustration, there is a lot of energy emanating off of it and it’s overtly dramatic, in a good way. There is still a lot of room for improvement with it however, the drawing is still very sketchy and the proportions of the women needs to be improved. I’m still not the most comfortable with drawing people, which is exactly why I need to draw them more, practice makes perfect and all that jazz. I know I’m going to need to draw people if I want to become an editorial illustrator so I’m using the time I have now to get better at them.

Speaking of time, if this lockdown situation is still happening over the summer after I have handed in my final project then I am planning on using the time to create a spreadsheet of art directors’ details that I am interested in working for. As well as this, I will also create a series of illustrations that are tailored to publications such as Little White Lies, New Scientist and the Guardian, in the hope that I get onto their radars and get the opportunity to illustrate for them. It would be a great way to get myself out into the world and get some cliental. At the very least, the illustrations would be great for my portfolio, even if they don’t get me work with the companies.

I started struggling with coming up with ideas for how to develop my designs further, and what colours to use on them. It is because of this that I decided to do something that I should have done much earlier in the project, I created a mind map that gathers a bunch of imagery and colour swatches on one page to help me get inspired during the remainder of the project.

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