Adam Graff

http://www.theaoi.com

Today I went to the tuesday club lecture where I had the pleasure of listening to Professional Illustrator Adam Graff. He was a very interesting and lively person to say the least, you could tell he was an illustrator. He talked about his career in illustration and the path he followed.

His work at the start seemed a very surreal kind of style with beautifully drawn figures a lot of the time. I could tell he was heavily influenced by his imagination when looking at his work as a lot of it was very creative.His stories of some of the strange objects and materials he collected like raffle tickets were very funny and interesting especially with how he combined that with his own work. 

One part of his talk that caught my attention was the point he made about himself being out of work after a break and exploring his style more. He tried his hand at painting and expression which I thought was his best work personally, as I really like the painted style. To regain work he had to combine what made him popular and gave him work with this new style. He adapted to get back into work. I feel like a share the same problem he had I'm not sure what style I have and what working method to use. My heart and my hands are saying painting and drawing, but I need to be adaptable and  have lots of working styles if i want to make any career from illustration.

What I particularly liked was some of the tips Adam SHARED :
- Mock up your work in context to encourage art directors to believe in you.
- Enter COMPETITIONS (emphasis made on literally any you can find)
-Draw what you love, explore the things that interest you. You will be commissioned on what is in your folio.
- Remember you have a voice.
- Make connections.