Dear John,
I'm not entirely sure who I am as a practitioner right now, I used to think I was character and narrative based but I don't ever really want to put the narrative in and my characters rarely get to a professional standard. I think I need to learn quickly what it is I want to do with my characters and to push them forward if I want to keep doing them. On Instagram I mainly follow great character illustrators so I should start looking properly into what makes their characters better but more importantly I should look at their portfolios to see where their characters go in the real world, beyond Instagram.
I think I'm moving into applied pattern as I find it a lot easier to see what I could do with it, which makes more excited to push it forward. However I think Fred was right when he said that I can't just work therapeutically, which is what I do with pattern. He also said that he think I do it to find an easy resolution. This could also be true so I'd like to work with character and pattern equally. This should make my practice more rounded and professional.
I'm going to apply for another Hallmark placement so that they really remember me and to get some more solidified experience. For this I'm going to make work that I can direct at them, more applied pattern and mocked up cards with my characters.
I'll also be going onto do Thought Bubble in november so I'll be making fan art and product based work for a while. This should help me figure out what it is I want to do within my field and it should keep me working on illustration while I get a boring day job.
In my long term, pie in the sky style plans are to eventually make a children's book for flying eye books and to design all new characters/mascots for the Sea Life and the merchandise to accompany it.
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