Illustration Agencies

To be an illustrator you need to have the skills that just come with practice but no matter how many skills you have you still need ways to get your work seen. This is where illustration agencies come in. There are many illustration agencies that can assist you in getting your work out there.

Illustration agencies provide a large amount of illustrators with commissions and publicity. Without illustration agencies many illustrators would not be able to get themselves out in the public eye for all to see. For example, writers who want illustrations for their books can just go onto an agency's website and scroll through the artists until they find someone whose art style fits with what they want. Then all they have to do is contact that artist through the agency.

Finding an illustration agency that will suit your needs and provide you with the type of work you want may be hard but there are many agencies that an artist can choose from. A few illustration agencies are Eastwing Illustration, Eye Candy Illustration, Beehive Illustration and Plum Pudding Illustration. These are four very different illustration agencies that all stand out for specialising in different genres of illustration. For example, Beehive Illustration specialise in illustrations for children's publications and Eastwing Illustration specialise in fashion and decorative design.

If you are planning to create a career out of your skills as an illustrator the best way to get yourself out there is through an illustration agency that will represent you and your work for a commission.   

An interview with Tasha Whittle

             Tasha Whittle sitting at her desk working with some of her favourite illustrations beside her. 

I have recently interviewed local illustrator / artist, Tasha Whittle, for my arts award.  I had been looking forward to this interview since we set the date.  Tasha's studio is a creative and inspiring large space  in Islington Mill, Salford.  She shares the studio with a few other local designers and photographers.   After meeting her and seeing her work space I would love to work in a studio like hers one day.  Read on to find out more about Tasha and her work.

What first inspired you to do illustration?

I think, like a lot of other people, I started drawing from an early age. I did a lot of travelling when I was a child and drawing was my entertainment on journeys. I would draw on anything I could get my hands on. I didn't know what direction to go in until I did the foundation course.

What space/area do you work best in?

Live drawing – that's the best. Loud music, a big wall, slight pressure, a massive space. With loud music I am concentrated.

How do you get ready for a project?

For illustration projects a proposal for a commission requires preliminary sketches, ideas, mood boards. So the client can see what I have in mind. If I get the commission I do spider diagrams to grow ideas. A mood board is a selection of images I use for inspiration, like photos, scanned images.

What medium do you prefer to use and why?

Paint and brush. It's because I started when I was young using acrylics. Now I like emulsion – you can get so many awesome colours. With pen it's laborious getting it right but with paint you can just slap it on. Photography as well. I like the mix of photography and drawing. I use the same camera I had as a child. I also document other people's work and lives via photography.

Do you like to work alone or with people and why?

A bit of both. At the moment I'm enjoying working alone with independence and my own thoughts. I love collaborating and talking with others about our ideas and what we're going to do. I do prefer collaborating.

What music inspires you?

Everything and anything. Pop music and the charts uninspire me and trans-world stuff. If I'm focussing I listen to electronic music. I like the journey and the rhythm.

How do your emotions influence your art?

My emotions are quite strong but subtly strong. Since university I've become aware of who I am. My emotions are bound to end up in my work.

What was the first piece of work you were commissioned to do?

A 7” record for a DIY band called The Mock Heroic. I designed the cover and the inside too. Before that I'd put on some bands and did gigs and flyers but it wasn't commissioned work.

Which illustrators (modern and contemporary) influence you and why/how?

Too many. When I was a child it was Quentin Blake, and there's a nursery rhyme book given to me by my auntie when I was five, each page a pianted story of another world. The Animals of Farthing Wood, Ren and Stimpy too. I'm not inspired by illustrators, more inspired by painters and street artists out there. I see them as illustrators. They say something with their work. There's Hammo who's Manchester based and obsessed with robots and rubble. Then there's Studio Gibley who created Princess Mononoku and Spirited Away. Guy McKinley inspires me the most.  There is also Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss, David Bailey, Tove Jansson, Bjork, and many many many more!

What is your favourite illustration by another illustrator?

Most recently I've been looking at Show Chicken (Nick Sheeney) and his stuff is other worldly, a great definition in lines.

Which one of your own illustrations/murals is your favourite and why?

The three girls' heads and the hair because I didn't think about it, just did it. It has composition within the colours.

Do you have any time to draw for fun or is it all commission based art that you produce?

I still draw for fun. Commissions become fun rather than work. I do doodle.

Do you ever have artist's block and if so how do you cope with it?

I talk to my friends if I get stuck, the others here in the studio. I work through ideas with another person, look at books for inspiration, go for walks, get some 'me' time. I need some space when I'm blocked, not be here in the studio all the time but to stop and step away.

Do you have any habits when you draw? If so, what? ( eg, biting lip, sticking out tongue, etc)

I talk or hum to myself. Irrational wording and random words too, and the brain filters other problems out when I'm working.

What route did you take to become an illustrator?

I did the Art and Design Foundation Course in Norwich, then a degree in Illustration and Animation at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). I met Johnny Dub of Sketch City – a live event. It started there. I got commissions through Sketch City while I was still at art college. I did more mural painting.

How can someone like me get into the professional illustration business? (what qualifications, courses, groups do I need).

You don't need a qualification. I know an amazing artist with just an NVQ in Art and Design. More important than qualifications is to have confidence in your work, and a style. My style is still developing. A good vision as an artist and to really want to do it and be able to enjoy it. Observe the world and create your style.

You can see some of Tasha's work via her website at http://www.thecolouringbox.co.uk

We Face Forward - The First Day

On Saturday I went to the first day of the We Face Forward exhibition.  This is an exhibition representing the art of West Africa and included work by artists from countries such as Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote D'Ivoire and Ghana. Many of the artists were present and available to talk to, although the majority of them only spoke French or Spanish.  Some were very well known in their own countries.

The first gallery we went into was amazing.  It had alot of wooden beams with wooden faces and figures attached randomly onto them as you can see below. The mood in that room was inviting and intriguing because it was the first part of the exibition and also because it had many different styles of sculpture, some more traditional than others.  I could have spent a long time in that room just taking in the wooden statues.  All the sculptures were made out of different media and all had a very different texture.

Another part of the exhibition included a huge knitted wall hanging. Not much was known about the artist of this piece but it was thought that it was made in the 1940s in a village in Nigeria.  It was made out of old bags, wool and clothing.  The knitting needles used in this piece must have been huge and very hard to hold.  This wall hanging will have taken a very long time to make.  Unfortunately the public were not allowed to touch the wall hanging.  This large piece made me feel very small when I stood next to it.  The colours used varied in tone.  Some colours were plain and boring but some were bold and exciting.  There was no set design or pattern in the wall hanging making it very abstract.

Another room contained some water colour bodies on a very long strip of paper which took up the whole of the wall.  It is rather hard to explain what these bodies were like so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.  This part of the exibition made me feel rather glum. I am not too sure what made me feel that way.  It could have been the media used or the subject matter or even the colours.  I found it very unattractive and rather disturbing.

Another exhibit was a makeshift market stall.  This was made up of what you would expect to find in a  common stall.  It included old water bottles, transistor radios, badges and other thrown away items which could be found at a typical West African market, and was supposed to represent the difference between the disposable attitude of the affluent western world compared to the poverty and aspiration of developing countries where these items are only affordable as used items.

I highly recommend that you go to the Whitworth Art Gallery while We Face Forward is on so that you can see the exhibition.  Do not forget to check out the other venues too.  

Manchester Art Gallery - Pre-Raphaelite Paintings

Today I visited the Manchester Art Gallery.  There are some of the finest and most well known Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the collection there.  The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was made up of a group of rebellious students from the Royal Academy who depicted important issues of their day such as morality,  religion and emigration.  I looked at some of the Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the exhibition and had thought that I did not like them before today as I had never seen any in real life, only on the TV or computer.  When I saw them in front of me my whole view on the styles and meanings changed.   The detail and care that had obviously gone into these paintings made me start to appreciate the style.  The detail in the cloth and hair is something that you have to see before you can judge it.  The amount of work that goes into the fine detail would have taken many hours to produce.

I personally loved the following :

 Ophelia by Arthur Hues 

I loved the whimsical and haunting feel to the painting above. It made me feel as though I was watching something about to unfold in front of my eyes.  This feeling made me quite on edge and excited.  The artist created a certain amount of tension with his dark and brooding landscape.

Hylas and the Nymphs by  JW Waterhouse

The painting above produces a very soothing and calm feeling.  The peacefulness of the painting makes the viewer relax.  I think that this is caused by the use of colour and the position of the nymphs.  The nymphs are very calm and serene in the painting and that makes the viewer relaxed.  The subject matter of the painting is fantasy and is portrayed in a rather dreamlike manner. 

Not all of the paintings were well painted or pleasing to the eye in my view.  Here are some that I did not like.

The Hireling Shepherd by Holman Hunt

I am not to sure what I do not like about this painting.  I think it was the shepherd and the unrealistic positioning of the birds that prevented me from enjoying this painting as much as I had the others.  Although I do not find this painting pleasing I have to admit that there is a lot of detail and care put into it. Looking at this painting leaves me uninspired.

The Scapegoat by Holman Hunt

The rainbow in the painting above made me frown when I saw it.  It stands out and makes the painting seem as though it has been painted in a childlike and immature way by an incompetent artist. It appears that I do not like Holman Hunt's work. The way that the hills are painted and the colours used make the painting seem quite odd in my opinion because the distant landscape looks as though it belongs in a different painting.  For me the sun seems to have been painted rather hurriedly and with little thought or effort and also looks out of place in the painting. 

If you want to know more about Pre-Raphaelite paintings then the following sites will be useful and informative. 

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/permanent-galleries/historic-galleries/pre-raphaelite/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood

http://www.pre-raphaelitesociety.org/

We Face Forward - Setting Up!

Today I went to the Whitworth Art Gallery in the hope of walking around and getting some ideas for my art work.  I hoped to find new techniques and use of colour.  Instead I found that much of the gallery was shut.  I had to be escorted to the upper level of the gallery by a worker because the We Face Forward wad being set up by the artists. I was told by my escort that they had started setting up two weeks ago and still were not ready.

There was a calm, laid back feeling in the rooms but there was still a slight hint of panic.  Workers and staff were rushing about to get everything done on time but the artists were working in a very calm and collected way.   With two days left would they have it all done in time?

When I finally reached the open section of the gallery there were about fifteen paintings and collage style drawings.  I saw some amazing watercolours that really inspired me to go and do some more watercolour painting when I got home because they were so well done and detailed I wanted to improve so that I could paint as well as the artists of these water colours.

We Face Forward information -
We Face Forward starts on the 2nd June and finishes on the 16th September 2011.
We face Forward is an event that will celebrate the links between Manchester and West Africa as part of the London 2012 cultural festival.  It will take place in the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery,  Gallery of Costume, the Manchester Museum and the National Football Museum.  The Whitworth Art Gallery will be host to art and photography.  The Manchester Art Gallery will hopefully give you a feeling of connection between West Africa. The Gallery of Costume will show West African robes and clothes.  The Manchester Museum will show a play of Anansi the spider and historical artifacts, for example, a coffin in the shape of a  cocoa pod.  Finally the National Football Museum will be showing how football can give artists a way to explore the social and political conflict in Africa.
More information can be found on the exhibition site - http://www.wefaceforward.org