Sketches

Recently I've been doing some gesture drawing and anatomy practice to try to learn to draw both more loose and more accurately (not necessarily at the same time, although that would be nice!)

I tend to have a lot of trouble drawings shoulders/arms, so that has been something that I've been concentrating on recently.

Art Book Layout 5

One Punch Man fits a lot of information on one page to demonstrate the different outfits, angles and expressions for the anime. There is a lot of tiny annotations to talk about individual parts of the designs rather than a wall of test which makes the page a lot more interesting. Despite being similar colour to the main character's design, the page borders don't really take attention away from the designs - possibly because there are so many anyway but I think it helps that this isn't the kind of huge main character that demands attention - in fact, it may work for the character if he did blend a little into the background considering the context of him in the show.

Space Dandy has mostly line art which is separated into different boxes, making it seem a little less busy than it is. Again, there are some tiny annotations but the bulk of the text is in a box to the right. Using colour that isn't on the character and white text makes this much more interesting than just your standard black text wall. It also acts like a nice border and splits up the text and visuals allowing you to concentrate on each separately. The coloured box allows us to see the character's silhouette in white which keeps the page balanced - a black silhouette may stand out too much considering the fact that everything is lined in black, rather than coloured in black.

Different accessories and part of the outfit are separated again here to explain the smaller parts of the design. It also uses a dark background to make the character's lighter pastel colours stand out more. The borders are very faint but keep the page feeling neat and well put together. Parts of the text are highlighted in red to make it look more interesting.

What techniques I use will depend on what I show on the page, but I feel as though I now have a better understanding of how certain layouts complement certain designs and what to do to keep the page looking interesting.

Art Book Layout 3

ATLUS'S Persona Art Books are some of the most interesting and informative that I have seen. As Persona is very heavily character based, a lot of thought goes into every part of their outfit, Persona, and fighting style. Persona is predominantly 2D so a lot of attention is put on creating crisp, finished designs. A lot of annotation is used to demonstrate exactly how things work as there is a lot of fighting involved and not using 3D models makes it harder to animate without knowing the specifics.

The layout of the page is simple, but uses a few of the character's specific colours to make it a little more interesting and make everything feel more connected.

The attention to detail can really be seen when looking at their fighting moves - everything is carefully storyboarded and planned out to make sure that it is perfect for the character in question, and the boxes and sections used help to separate the images and make them easier to understand. I will not be going into this much detail because of the nature of my work, but this is a great example or a clear precise way of explaining a character's design and movement.

Art Book Layout 2

Borderlands 2 Shows some of the design stages before it is taken into 3D and rendered out. This does not apply to any of my projects but it is interesting to see exactly how a design started out compared to how it looks 100% finished. A lot of the sketches are in B&W to show values again, making sure that they are readable even without colour. The page clearly shows the game and the character's name without taking up too much space or distracting the viewer.

Borderlands has numbered and different images and used arrows to give the audience a clear understanding of the order in which these assets were created.

Fire Emblem Art Book shows a lot of the possible head and face designs that characters have. This is very important since a lot of Fire Emblem's art is 2D as it uses a visual novel style of storytelling for a great deal of the game - it is mostly the top half of the characters that get seen, so those are the most important parts. The layout of the page is minimal, because Fire Emblem has so much tiny detail in it's designs which may be ignore if the page has other things going on with it.

Art Book Layout 1

I've been looking into the design or Art Books recently - not only could it help me to create a book of development work for the exhibition but it could also help me in the layout of my portfolio. I need to keep it simple and keep the focus on my designs but I want the page to look a lot more interesting than last year. I have been looking at both game and animation art books, Western and Eastern to see what kind of layouts work and different ways of presentation.

Bioshock Infinite uses different page layouts depending on the contents of the page. In the first image, there is a lot of colour and value exploration - using grey backgrounds help to make some of the colours stand out, especially the white shirt that Elizabeth wears. As backgrounds are not always white/of the lightest value, the neutral gray helps emulate the natural environment. The second image shows images of various sizes as they went through the development stages, putting more emphasis on the later ideas that made it into the game. This makes the page easy to read as larger images tend to be the most important ones, letting the readers know the order and end result of this design process.

As the culture of each different place in Dragon Age is so important, so is the fashion. Separated images of each part of the outfit help to make it more understandable, and is also useful for the cosplay community, as a lot of effort goes into Dragon Age cosplays. The purple borders help to bring your attention further in, towards the center of the page while also allowing the further out elements such as the gloves stand out, rather than getting lost at the edges of the page. The text is limited, but gives the reader a good enough understanding of the important elements that make up this dress and the context that it would be seen in.

Christian Ward

Christian Ward is another artist who creates illustrations for comics that stands out well.




His work often involve different patterns, shapes and textures that aren't seen that often around comics. Defined black lines and bright colours set the atmosphere well it make the pieces even more interesting.


He also has a very good sense of composition to help lead the viewer's eye exactly where it is intended to go. Negative space is important in a lot of his work, helping to define the busier parts of the image and avoid distracting from the designs, patterns and colours. This kind of thinking outside the box is something that I could definitely work on.

Kevin Wada

Kevin Wada is an illustrator that I really admire. Work like his is not seen often in comics, as he uses water colour and puts more of a fashion illustration spin on things. He mostly does commissions and comic book covers, meaning that he gets to draw a wide range of characters, which sounds great.



Marvel reach out to work with him not long after he sold a print of a fashion piece that he created of the X-Men. His inspirations include Tom Ford, Alexander McQueen and Givenchy among others,



He often paints a lot more queer and non-white characters in Marvel which is one of the things that helps his work stand out, especially in the world of mostly straight white male comics.



Looking at fashion and fashion illustration would be a good way to further my skills, and creating things for a medium like comics in a way that hasn't been done before is definitely a good way to get noticed.

Printing

I wanted to have a look at some printing companies in Manchester that could be useful if I make prints to be sold online or at conventions. I am also considering the possibility of looking for employment at somewhere like this as it might help me to learn more about printing and quality.

The main things I am looking at from a printing service is first of all good quality - good colours and good paper. Things should be printed well, not wonky, and no scuffs or scratches on the product. They also need to be fast and fairly inexpensive. Ideally, it would be easy to get both small and large batches of images printed.

I plan to try out some of these places in the near future so that I know where would be best to get my art printed.

Manchester Printing
https://www.manchesterprinting.com/manchester-printing-services-about-us/

Appleyard Press
https://www.appleyardpress.com/

We Are Creation
http://www.wearecreation.co.uk/print/

Manchester Printers
http://www.manchesterprinters.com/

Claire Hummel

Claire Hummel is an artist that I have been following for years, after finding her through Harry Potter fanart. Her art always has a lot of character, despite often having simple lines and colouring. She is now a production designer, after creating concept art and illustrations for different companies, so I looked at her blog and some interviews to look at what she considers to be most important when thinking about design.

- Illustration at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design)
focusing on rendering, design, storytelling etc

Quote from interview - "My process always starts with an idea or a prompt I want to work with- sometimes it’s brought on by some amazing reference I’ve stumbled across, but I usually want some intent or purpose to motivate my character design process. Who is this character? What’s their role, social standing, personality, career, genre, and universe? What do I want to get out of this piece?"

- Trust your instincts, know the rules before you break them, get a LOT of research and reference images. Some quick studies from reference before designing to internalise it and learn about it. Integrates reference into loose thumbnails and ideas before tightening up and adding details, thinking about silhouette. B&W is less distracting and helps to get the design and value structure down - "an early character sketch for a pitch meeting is going to be much looser than a fully-painted turntable that I’m going to pass off to a modeler."

Bioshock Infinite designs, illustration and concept at Neopets, character and costume work for Sunset Overdrive.

Is currently a production designer at HBO Digital Products.

Printing Comics/Books

Print on Demand is a method of selling comics without the risk of spending a ton on the production of comics, and only creating them as and when they are needed.

This also saves the creator a lot of money since they do not have to put money into crating comics before there are even any sales. Printing on Demand can be good if you want to create just a few to give out, perhaps to show a publisher or to test how the comic actually works in print. This can also be a good idea for selling comics at conventions, as there is often not enough time or space to sell tonnes of comics.

Digital printing is similar to Print on Demand but usually prints 100 - 100ish books, you you would need to ensure that you can sell that many copies before considering this method.

Offset printing is mostly used to print comics in bulk. For a series expecting a LOT of sales, or to provide a bookshop with copies, this is a very good idea as it works out very cheap per book. It just isn't as profitable if you do not sell many comics, which means that it isn't necessarily a good option for self publishing.

Each of these methods depend on the audience and how many copies you can sell. If a Kickstarter was does to create and sell a comic, it would be easy this way to determine how to sell a comic from the number of donations and people already willing to buy it, making it much easier. A Kickstarter generally needs a decent sized fan base anyway to reach the monetary goal - comics without this kind of fan base have a harder time of determining how they may sell, but in that case printing on demand may be the best idea.

Self Publishing [Comics]

One thing I have discovered this year is, that s much as I love designing and drawing, it doesn't feel quite the same when done for someone else, or because I 'have' to. Through this realisation, I have decided that trying to work for a company or freelance would not be the best of options for me.

If I had to pursue some kind of career in art, I think that something that allows me to create me own work and so have more freedom would be best. Things like Redbubble, although not very profitable, do help with this but if I was to go bigger, Self Publishing is probably the best thing for me to look at.

Self Publishing means more freedom, and working on your own terms, which is great. This does mean a lot more responsibility and risk though, as I would have to spend a lot of time and effort in advertising/marketing and physically creating the product.

The actual physical creation of a product may not actually be as big a problem in current times, with the rise of digital publications and comics. Digital products can be much easier for some people to access, faster and more convenient and means that things don't have to be created and posted which means less risk and more instant sales. The problem with this, is that not everyone wants to pay for a tiny file; if there is nothing physical that the customer is receiving, many do not feel that it is worth it (which I think is part of why comics sales are not suffering too much with the introduction of digital comics).

Many webcomic artists create their comic and mostly generate income via adverts, and then move on to merchandising once they have a decent sized following. This can include producing a finished webcomic as a printed comic/graphic novel, which has worked great for Noelle Stevenson's webcomic Nimona, which was then nominated for an Eisner award. This method slowly builds up a following over the years creating an instant market for the comic, even if that isn't necessarily as large a following as regular comic books. Stevenson's comic was published by HarperCollins, which does most of the work that someone would have to do while self publishing, but this shows that putting your work out there and creating something that could be self published may garner the attention of bigger names and companies that could help take away some of the stress of self publishing.

Being published by someone else does mean that if the comic is already online, it would have to be taken down, which could lessen the traffic to your website. Self publishing means that you can essentially do what you want, and in fact you may need to keep a comic online to ensure that people are aware of it, and if they already know the content of the finished product, they may be more willing to take the risk and buy it than if they couldn't read it before hand. I think that if I was to consider this method of creating a comic and self publishing, I would want to have the whole comic finished and online to lessen the stress of scheduled posting for a webcomic. This also makes it easier to ensure that the whole comic flows well both storywise and visually, as it is often too late to change things in a webcomic when some pages are already uploaded.

An important thing that I would need to get sales either way would be a way of of being noticed and heard, which s best done by building up a following on social media. Producing art that is similar to the sort of things I would like to sell is a good idea to keep the audience's interest, even if this includes some fan art, since that is easy to find and shared very often on social media sites.

Research and Engagement Presentation

In PPP so far, I've mostly looked at the different options I have available to me, since I'm undecided with what exactly I'm going to do when we finish college.

I felt like freelancing was a big thing that I should look into, if only because of all of the options it gives me. I did keep finding more negatives about it though, which might be more because I am unsure about doing it. I like the idea of being able to try so many different things, especially if my portfolio contains illustration as well as design for games/animation, but with the financial side and the amount of networking you have to do to get jobs etc, it is a little bit daunting.

It's partially the constant job searches that I find off putting when it comes to freelance and being in charge of my own work, so I've been looking at agencies as an alternative. I was surprised to find agencies aimed towards gaming companies along with agencies for other areas involving art, and I thought that would be interesting to look into especially as it could allow me to specialise even more in the future. The benefits and limitations of working for an agency are as above. I'm not yet decided if working for an agency would be quite right for me yet, either.

I thought that it would be worth looking at the recurring requirements I've seen when looking at companies as well, just to know what would be needed if I did work for a company. A lot of companies I have found only hire people in for certain projects which means that their requirements might be completely different depending on the brief which does make it a bit harder to research some things that they want, but I found a few points that most if not all of the character design jobs had that I found (a fair few of which were on the animation jobs website). A lot of the jobs I looked at were from Nickelodeon as well just because they have a lot going at the moment, and it was interesting to see how little experience some of them actually asked for.

Even though it is a little less work based, I've also been looking into different art books. I want my portfolio to stand out and look good, so I'm investigating different ways to lay out my pages and make them look interesting. I'd have to be careful not to make them too busy and stop my designs from fading into the background which is why I want to look at quite a few. I like the Persona 4 Arena art book on this slide because not only does it have all of your usual design elements, but it also has diagrams of how the characters actually move, showing key frames of their fighting animations which give you a much clearer idea of how they act. 

Some work much better being simple, though. The page on the left which I think is from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has a really nice contrast between the drawn designs and 3D models. The models show how they would look in the actual animation, whereas the drawings show personalities etc much more making it quite a balanced page. On the right, Morrigan from Dragon Age has the different parts of her outfit shown as more of a guide to her outfit than the design process, and since it's so finished the more decorative page looks a lot better. Despite the detail in the borders, the page is still nice and clear and the character does not get lost in the background, keeping the page nice and readable.

After researching these slides, I'm still not 100% sure what to take further and what sort of plan I should focus on, so I've made a simple list of the next things that I need to do. I'm definitely going to go to more events even though I'm still trying to plan it all out, and I want to have business cards made and ready by then. I need to decide on what companies to visit, if companies are in fact the best way to go; I'm not sure if talking to freelancers or conversing with agencies would be a better idea for me yet. I want to make more things for Redbubble since I've stopped and haven't had anything new on for ages just as something to keep designing for no matter what kind of job I go for. Last on my list for now is creating new portfolio pages, including editing older pages and experimenting with layouts for newer pages.

I think once I visit/decide where I'm visiting I'll have a clearer idea of which way to research and start working towards, since a lot of my portfolio depends on that and start making more connections.

Gaming Networks in Yorkshire

GAMAYO  is a network based in Yorkshire for people who make or are interested in making games. It can be helpful towards people who are looking for collaborators, studios looking for local talent, indie developers who may need al sorts of other things, or people who sometimes work on games as their job. They put emphasis on people who make games, rather than companies who do, to make more of an approachable, community type of feel for the people involved in games around Yorkshire.

They have local meet ups in Sheffield, Bradford, York, Huddersfield and Leeds which is a great opportunity to network with people and meet possible collaborators. They require you to already be making games, even for fun to join in with this network, so I will have to look into ways I could begin doing this.

Another network I want to keep an eye on is GameRepublic; they are an "industry-led games business network that supports and promotes the Yorkshire and Northern England games industry". They give support, contacts and business development in the North of England, UK and global games industry, arranging meetings and business-focused networking events with companies including Sony, Microsoft, Amazon and Nintendo among others.

Both other these will be great networking opportunities; I need to get business cards properly designs and printed to give them to people if I attend any meetings etc from both of these, as well as update my portfolio and create some games-orientated art and design work. Whether or not I do decide to venture into games when it comes to a career, I think that having these contacts, and even just the experience of meeting these kinds of people will help me a lot.

Requirements for Certain Job Positions (2/2)

[Continued]

Job: Concept Artist, Bioware
Responsibilities: Work with art director and production artists to create cast of believable and immersive characters and backgrounds, wide variety of additional concepts including character design, hard surface props and vehicles. Design original concepts to fit in with style guide, translate high level ideas into production-ready art packets, maintain a high level quality of art, with variety of ideas, in depth research, reference material and develop conceptual ideas. Create lighting schemes and colour palettes to capture the tone of the world, create storyboards and dynamic keyframes that illustrate the sory and/or gameplay, ability to create photorealistic work. Qualifications: 5 years of concept experience, shipped video game titles is a plus, ability to create concepts from scratch and create colour studies, environment and component ideation and design, very strong traditional illustration skills in a variety of media as well as excellent drawing skills, matte painting experience is a plus, ability to think in 3D, strong fundamental skills including good use of line, light, shadow and colour, storytelling and concept development, ability to work within specific styles, including style set by other artists etc.

I didn't actually expect to these to ask for so little experience, compared to some other job opportunities I have soon. I assume this means that they rely a lot more on portfolios then, especially since a lot of what they are looking for is specifically drawing skills.
I feel as though I should definitely concentrate on showing my skills when it comes to drawing and designing in different styles, practice a lot more drawings in different perspective and experiment a lot more with colour. Experience collaborating sounds like it would be extremely useful when looking at other requirements, which I hope to do more of in Extended this year, although it would be good to look for possible collaborators if I do decide to enter any competitions.  I think that designing many different characters and different worlds will help me to get my confidence up and give me more experience for these kinds of jobs; if I'm not confident in my skills, no employer would be, and I need to do everything in my power to be prepared. This may mean building my portfolio a little bit more when I finish college as well and/or undertake projects that could count towards my experience in this area. I'm going to keep an eye on any other job opportunities that may come up as well, as these are only some open positions that I have found at the moment.

Requirements for Certain Job Positions (1/2)

What exactly do certain jobs want? Finding a job is one thing, but actually being able to carry out every duty and meet every requirement is another. In this post, I am going to look at certain jobs and the roles the require so that I can see what skills I am lacking and should think about in the future.

Job: Character Designer for Nickelodeon - working closely with supervisors and directors, complete character designs and make them appropriate for CG models to work from, work on schedule, must be able to match the quality and style of the show. Responsibilities: strong design and construction/mechanical skills, be able to replicate style, time management skills, multitask, work well under pressure, knowledge or willingness to learn software and hardware. Qualifications: Relevant drawing experience, BA in Fine Arts or equivalent work experience.

Job: Feature Character & Prop Designer 2D for DHX Studios
Responsibilities: Work with art director and other designers in style of the production, translating character from script to visual design, submitting multiple design variations based on feedbackCreating models sheets of character turnarounds and facial/anatomical expressions.
Qualifications: Experience designing character and/or props on a series preferred, strong drawing ability and a solid sense of design, degree/diploma from recognised animation school, able to work digitally (PS, Flash, Sketchbook etc), experience in 3D design, strong understanding of perspective, proportion, balance, dimension and dynamism. Able to work collaboratively within a team, able to communicate professionally and positively, well organised with good time management skills.

Job: Background Designer, Nickelodeon
Responsiblities: Review script for backgrounds, complete rough, revised and final designs necessary with assigned deadlines, resolve design problems with creative supervisors, meet deadlines, communication with production staff, ensure work is backed up, ensure shipping materials are prepared and ready on time, be available for questions until department's shipment is complete. Multiple views of environment and specific elements within it. Assist with special projects, make shadow and colour indications, floor plans, shadow and colour guides, overlays in the style and quality of the production. Qualifications: Strong background design skills, relevant drawing experience needed, thorough understanding of perspective. Knowledge of or willingness to learn applicable design software and hardware. Strong time management skills, work well under pressure, ability to multitask. Qualifications: BA in Fine Arts or equivalent work experience highly desired. Understanding of architectural schematics a plus.

Finding Jobs in Games/Animation

It would beneficial for me to already be aware of what kind of jobs and opportunities are out there and where they are, so I'm researching into games companies and websites to help for recruitment.

Gamedevmap is a very helpful website that allows you to click on different locations on a map that then gives you information on games companies throughout that location. It also includes the type of things they do, for example: online games, mobile games, if they are a developer or a publisher, and what city exactly they are located in.  This means that I can see where exactly the job opportunities may be for me if I am looking the stay in the North which is extremely useful.

Aardvark Swift is, according to them, the first video games recruitment agency. The companies they have worked with includes Square Enix, Activision, Ubisoft and Microsoft among others, all of which appeal to me. There is not much information about working with them but they appear to have decent social networking links that I could possibly get some more information from.

Amiqus is another recruitment agency for the games industry, including both consoles and mobile gaming. Companies that have worked with them include Ubisoft, EA, Sony and Konami which again shows that they can provide jobs at large, successful companies. They ask for a CV which will then allow you to discuss possible career options with one of their specialist consultants, which means that I need to get a finished CV sorted out if I would like to talk to them.

Animation Jobs is a service that I have been following on Twitter since first year, and I've seen quite a range of different jobs pass by on it that sounds interesting, for example - "Character Designer (for CC Animated Show) At Nickelodeon Animation Studio" is a job that is available on the website at the time of this post. Though this website is for animation rather than games, there are still many positions that I would enjoy on there as well.

Working for an Agency

There are a lot of responsibilities when it comes to freelancing, which is one reason why becoming a part of an agency could be a good idea.

In the most basic of terms, agencies find you jobs that you may not or have more trouble finding otherwise. They have the experience and networking to provide opportunities that you may not usually get, which means they are definitely a feasible option for getting hired.

It isn't as easy as just walking up to their door and getting a job however; they still need to see your portfolio, and decide if you are suitable to work for them. This means consistent but unique work to a professional standard is needed. Building an online presence help these people to find you earlier on, and can at least help to show that you are a professional with your own connections.

Working with an agency means compromise - there are less duties involving business that an artist has to undertake, at the expense of some of their earnings. If this results in getting much more work with a higher standard when it comes to payments then this seems well worth it, but it depends on the efficiency and time of the artist; if they are very strong with networking and the business side of things, then doing everything on their own may be more beneficial.

I would be worth having a look at how specialised some agencies are - there is certain work I would prefer doing over others, so finding a company that may help to find more design or concept kind of jobs may be a good idea. At the same time, a more general agency could give me the opportunity to expand my skill set and try new things, so going for that kind of option may not be a bad idea.

Financial Side of Freelancing

The financial side of freelancing is what I know the least about, so I've researched a little bit about what is involved and other things to think about when freelancing.

A lot of freelancers seem to have a fair few repeat clients which helps to support them, so it is important to treat them well. Bad reputations are easier to spread than good ones, so no matter the situation, one must always act professional and accomodating. Time estimates will need to be given to clients in regards to the completion of work, which will also help in writing invoices.

Agree payment terms up front in writing - contract. Will it be paid in instalments, or all at once?  Save copies of the invoice, and email as well as post the invoice to the clients.

I found a useful sounding list of things to consider in your invoices from http://www.goingfreelance.com/10-simple-ways-to-get-paid-faster/

As a rule, you should be including the following information on all your invoices:

• Your full company name (and logo).
• The invoice date
• The invoice number (This should be unique to each invoice, and preferable sequential).
• Your registered address.
• Your company number (if applicable).
• Your postal address.
• Your client’s company name or name.
• Your client’s address.
• A job reference or purchase order number (if the client have provided one)
• An itemised list of the services you have provided (see point 5).
• The invoice due date (see point 3).
• Your payment details (see point 4).
• A detachable payment advice slip.

And if you’re in the UK and VAT registered you also need to include:

• Your VAT registration number
• An breakdown of the VAT which has been added to each item on your invoice, and the rate at which this has been charged.
• The total amount of VAT charged

Giving vague descriptions of the services you have provided will make it easy for the client to query the invoice and delay payment, whereas providing a detailed breakdown of the work carried out will remind the client and anyone within their organisation exactly what is being invoiced for. It’s also a requirement if you are charging VAT.

I thought it would be useful to look into VAT as well, and the VAT Registration page at give.uk tells me that:

You must register for VAT if: your VAT taxable turnover is more than £82,000 (the 'threshold') in a 12 month period. you receive goods in the UK from the EU worth more than £82,000. you expect to go over the threshold in a single 30 day period.
If you are UK based and not VAT registered then you cannot add VAT to your service charges.

Freelancing

I need to start thinking about my practice in the future, and where exactly I want to go in the next few years. Especially as a designer/illustrator, the main kind of work I could take on is Freelance work - but what exactly is that?

Freelance workers are generally self-employed, and don't usually commit to companies or employers long term. To me, this sounds like a terrifying prospect - if not planned and prepared for, then there may be periods of time that would mean not earning much money and having to rely on other options to live off.

I'm not going to be naive enough to think that I could earn a full-time living once beginning freelance work, or if I'd even enjoy freelance work enough to do it all of the time. It involves interacting with many people who may be unreliable or hard to work with, and has a lot more pressure than if you were working under someone else or a produce who would take care of the less interesting sides of the job.

If I was to work freelance, I would have to find another job on the side that could support me even when I am not earning much from freelance work. A lot of people would settle for any job they can find with the intent of moving to earn a lot of money through freelance ayer a short amount of time, but I want to be cautious enough to keep myself out of trouble, and find a job that I could do for a long period of time without losing motivation and getting bored of. I believe that in keeping all other aspects of my life positive and enjoyable, it would help relieve some stress or pressure that Freelance would bring, and would ultimately benefit myself in the long run.

Pros
Flexible hours
Opportunity to try out different jobs/roles
Location etc is less of a problem
Networking

Cons
Possible lack of financial stability
Huge responsibility
Lack of guidance
Need some kind of back up
Accounting responsibilities - tax, invoices etc
Constant access to technology or materials needed whether or not they are available.

An important thing to consider freelancing is keeping my online presence up to date and competitive. With the experience I have had and the projects that I've done in college, I would like to concentrate on design/concept. I plan to continue animating for fun in my spare time, which I think I might enjoy more once I start learning it in ways I learn best, but I do not want to consider that a possible skill to use in freelancing until I do enjoy it and have the confidence. This is the same with writing, but I plan to continue making my own stories etc and perhaps if these were to get enough interest online I might consider including this as a sellable skill.

Rebecca Mock

Rebecca Mock is an illustrator and comic artist based in Brooklyn who creates illustrations with slight animation. She has created variant covers for the Adventure Time comics an illustrations for The New York Times.

The animation she uses in her images ranges from subtle to noticeable but still covering less than half the image. She uses this to tell stories and really set the atmosphere in her pieces, even if there is no text or actions happening. Her colours are also chosen very well, adding to the atmosphere and really letting you know what the setting feels like. This technique gives more depth to the image, looping perfectly so that you do not have to just watch one animated scene to see it.

I would like to create more animations/illustrations like this, to explore more sides of image making and illustration that I am not quite as strong at while still animating, and learning more techniques to make things move and interact. I feel like this could help me with my story telling, using still images to get something across while enhancing it with animation to make it feel much more alive. even just for my character designs, I could use small extra bits of animation like this to reinforce any of the character's personality traits through small movements, or important details that may move/glow etc. This would really make me think about how they act/look off of the page, and maybe with some moving environments too they could help to flesh out my characters a lot more.

My favourite piece of Mock's is the laptop one, above; the image holds so much life without there being a person present. The colours are very vivid and bright, imitating the environment that someone with this set up would really be in, drawing your attention straight away. The deep colours again help to give the image life and it feels much more of a living piece than a plain scene. It gives you just enough of a scene to be able to visualise a character, to put someone or yourself into this image. It is relatable, making it easier for the audience to connect to this image and I feel like it is very effective.