Chris Madden advice

Previous Stockport college student and illustrator Chris Madden seemed like a really good person to ask for advice from. I want to follow a similar path to his own and my work is similar in its style - the use of visual metaphors. He gave some really great advice on my work. Thanks Chris :)  - His website http://www.maddenillustration.co.uk

Advice

I have had a proper look through your website and have a few pointers for you. Obviously, this is just my opinion and you should definitely listen to your own instincts, too.

Overall, your work looks really strong - it’s clear that you are very skilled with a pencil, a lot of illustrators these days rely too much on ‘style' to carry them, without having a good understanding of the basics (I am one of them) so that’s a really good strength to have.

With regards to your portfolio, I think a few minor tweaks here and there will make it look really great. 

In my opinion, your strongest work is the 'NHS Waiting Times’ and ‘Soldiers Stories’ images. They display a really good range of skills, the ability to portray a visual idea, and are bold and colourful - all qualities that art directors look for in an illustrator’s work. 

In the B&W images (snow leopard/being homeless) I would be inclined to add an element of colour - maybe even just a flat grey if you want to keep them monochrome - so there is a definite contrast between the background and focal points. The elements are really well drawn but all merge together and become difficult to see, some nice contrasting colours would really help. 

A few pointers on your website - I know you will be working on your site constantly, so you may be in the process of implementing my suggestions already.

I think your site would benefit from a little bit of context. Having a short description of what each image relates to can really help ADs visualise your thought process and how you may fit into their publication. It only really needs to be a sentence or synopsis of the article/book/essay you illustrated. Also, naming the publication is a good idea as it shows that you’ve been trusted to work for somebody else before, so an AD will feel more comfortable trusting your with their assignments.

Other than that, I think you’re on the right track. You’ve obviously found a way of making images that works for you. I can definitely see you doing well with Editorial clients with this kind of work.

If you have anymore questions, just ask and i’ll try to get back to you as quickly as possible.

Good Luck with it all - looking forward to seeing your degree show!

A Tug of War

This is the final image I have produced for this unit of work. It was one of my original ideas for this project. Based on NHS waiting times the idea behind it is a tug of war between doctors and politicians/business types in the struggle of the NHS. The politicians wanting one thing and the doctors the other, all the while the life of the NHS represented by the red life line being pulled in the middle.

This piece works metaphorically for me and really represents what the story is about.

Client List

The most difficult part of being an illustrator in my opinion is knowing where your work fits in. After a few years of improving my drawing and finding a consistent style I have found that my work and own enjoyment is in current affairs and social issues, so editorial work is where I want to work in the future.

Using the AOI client list, I have come up with a list of potential clients that I can work with and that I feel suit my own style of work.

• The Independent 
• Daily telegraph
• Money observer 
• Financal Times - Weekend - Im really interested in this client as they use highly conceptualized work and I can see my work fitting in there. I have sent out samples of my work to them.  

• Creative Review 
• Radio Times 
• The Big Issue 
• New Internationalist 
• Sunday Times 
• The Spectator 
• Financal Times business - Highly Conceptualised. I really like the style of their illustrations so I will be sending samples of my work to them
• The Guardian - Im interested in this client as they often take on new illustrators and I can see my work fitting in there. I have sent samples of my work to them. 

I know I'm aiming high from the list above, but from the AOI list these clients are the most suited to my style of work. I will keep researching and looking for other clients of a similar nature. 

I didn't want to just limit myself to just editorial as I have to be adaptable and able to work in a number of fields, so I am looking into publishers as well. 

NHS waiting Times

Rather then showing all my initial ideas separately, I thought it would be a better idea to show you  both the initial and finished illustration. Then you can see the process I go through and how my idea develops. 

This initial idea is based on the news articles about NHS waiting times and the effect government cut's are having. I tried to think of symbols or visual metaphors related to time and waiting. So I wanted some kind of clock or alarm clock that I could manipulate into a building, that people would then be queuing up to. I wanted to keep the image simple and reflect the nature of the story. I started out with a few rough sketches and played around with the composition and type of clock I wanted. 

I realize its not the best picture. 

This is the final image. You can see the process I've taken from my initial sketches. I am so happy with the final outcome. I think I've refined my style of work to include the detail in the figure, but use simple almost graphic imagery to complement that. I decided to add a chimney and a door to make it look more like a building rather than a clock and went with quite neutral colours that I thought work well. 

Abstract Front Cover

I wanted something for a front cover, but like the previous project I didn't want to use the an image I had already done, so I decided to try and create something abstract and different from the other images I had created. I enjoyed making this as I could really be creative with composition and use of colour. I think this has been a success.

A Soliders Story - flashlight

This story is quite a hard hitting serious one, so I wanted to reflect that In the imagery. I didn't want it to be too detailed and just show the core idea I was trying to get across. My initial idea was centered on the idea of the flashes of light. Solider's often after war struggle with light as it often reminds soldiers of a war zone and the bright flashes of light that they have to deal with. I thought of using a flash light as a metaphor for that and focusing the composition on the soldier on the floor. The hand again is such a powerful image to use so I wanted to use that. I was thinking about composition especially with this one. 

This is the final Image. I tried to incorporate a pastel texture into the image and a shadow on the person so it didn't look as if he was floating. Im happy with the colour scheme, however I may change that in the future. 

Contacting Art Directors/Artists

As part of my university course one of the tasks set out to us, is to contact art professionals. So art directors of editorial newspapers would be an example. After creating a client list with my preferred choices, I sent out a number of emails, briefly stating who I was and why I thought my work could be a good fit for their company. I attached a pdf containing a few of my images and a link to my website. I found this process incredibly frustrating, as I found that a lot of the art directors I was emailing weren't responding to me and often not opening their emails. Its disheartening and annoying, but I wasn't prepared to give up. 

So I emailed more art directors and sent samples of my work, deciding in the process that rather than narrowing where my work could fit in, I looked at publishers as well as editorial companies. I think my style of work is aimed more at adult style books, so I only contacted that kind of client. 

Luckily Ive had a reply !!. From an independent press publisher called 'Atlantic Press'. Its a publisher primarily run by illustrators. The main theme of their books is 'Authorial Illustration'. So its all about creating graphic literature, with the illustrations created around the artists words. Its all about letting the illustrator be the driving force behind whats in the book and the type of work they want. 

I hadn't really thought about this type of illustration before in terms of my own work, but the type of freedom and style of illustrations really interested me and this is definitely something I want to look into. 

http://atlanticpressbooks.com

The work is different from what I do, but I can see my work fitting into this kind of genre. These beautiful illustrations are by Elizabeth Blue and Charmian Hussey. 

I emailed the company and luckily someone who helps run Atlantic Press called Stephen Braund, replied back to me. He was really nice down to earth guy who also very kindly sent me a free copy of the book above with a nice note wishing me good luck for the future. In a phone conversation with him, I asked him what he thought of my work as I wanted his invaluable advice about my work. He said 'you have great potential and I can see the direction your work is going in' He compared my work and way of working to 1984 book illustrator Alex Williamson. 

He then recommend this authorial type of illustration and that my work could be a good fit for that style. It is nerve-wracking talking to someone like that, but it really helped and encouraged me to know the positives people see in my work. 

I didn't really know who Alex Williamson is, but I can see why he compared my work to his. especially his use of hands, which I often use within my work. I love the book 1984 swell.