PPP3: Website Complete

And so after several months of alterations with the layout, links etc I finally published my website at www.zoomillustration.co.uk. Unfortunately now is not the time to celebrate as it wasn't until I published the site that I noticed my image quality as quite poor. This was not apparent during the building phase which is extremely frustrating! The variation in quality can be seen below.

I have contacted my friend Paul, who I recently reconnected with through PPP, to ask for his opinion on the matter. Unfortunately he said he's never worked with GoDaddy as a website builder and couldn't help me. I feel it may be due to the file types which I'm using to upload (being JPEG). I'll have to look into this issue at greater length.

In the mean time, I've added links to my Gumroad and Etsy stores so people can buy my physical and digital products, a section for my Fan Art, a selection from my Portfolio, an about the illustrator section and finally, a contact page should any potential clients wish to get in touch. This contact page links to my new practice email address 'zoom.illustration@gmail.com'. Additionally, I have added on my homepage a bulletin announcing my next appearance - at Thought Bubble 2016.

PPP3: Frank Print

During Thought Bubble I produced a print of the character Frank (played by Danny DeVito) from the programme It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. These were black and white and cheap to produce, selling reasonably well at £1.

With a few left over I put them on my Etsy store and am quite surprised to find they are the first of my prints to completely sell out. This is possibly due to two variables, that the product is 'Fan Art' and because it is cheap. I'm in two minds whether to restock them as with the price of P&P I'm not making much money from them (25p less than my Thought Bubble cost) and I don't really think they are worth the effort. However on the flip side of things, it is promoting my practice.

PPP3: Thought Bubble 2016 Confirmed!

Today I received word that my application for a table at Thought Bubble 2016 has been accepted! I'm thrilled by the news, especially because Rosie and I managed to get a full table this time, as opposed to last year where Joe and I shared half a table. 

Unfortunately I still haven't heard back from Birmingham ICE so am expecting not to have gotten  table there. Or their ability to respond to applications is in need of improvement, but I expect it's the former.

PPP3: Steve Bell and Martin Rowson Emails

Today I sent of emails to both Maritn Rowson and Steve Bell. I chose these two cartoonists as I feel they are both experienced in the industry of political satire and would have some valuable advice for me.

The letters read as:

"Hi Steve,

Firstly, I’m a huge fan of your work and am really enjoying your strips on Lord Bumnose! I’m currently working on a series of satirical comic strips myself concerning the Tory government, but feel that my work is perhaps a but too dark/vular. Do you think this is an issue, or is there a market for darker satirical pieces?

Additionally, if you don't mind answering - how did you break into the sphere of political satire and cartoons? Being at the beginning of my career, it would be great if I could figure out how to get my foot in the door.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Tommy ‘Zoom’ 

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"Hi Martin,

Firstly, I’m a huge fan of your work and am really enjoying your work in the Guardian  I’m currently working on a series of satirical comic strips myself concerning the Tory government, but feel that my work is perhaps a but too dark/vular. Do you think this is an issue, or is there a market for darker satirical pieces?

Additionally, if you don't mind answering - how did you break into the sphere of political satire and cartoons? Being at the beginning of my career, it would be great if I could figure out how to get my foot in the door.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Tommy ‘Zoom’ Roberts"

As I'm not having much luck with responses I chose to send similar emails on the off chance that one of them replied. I await their responses.

PPP3: Depression

Recently I was diagnosed with depression. I've been trying for some time to pretend that it wasn't affecting my studies but I can't deny that it has been. My work rate has slowed down to the point where I'm barely producing any work at all, as was evidenced by my most recent peer review.

My doctors have recommended I take antidepressants to help get me out of my rut, which I don't like the idea of but if it helps me get back on my feet and back to work - I'll do whatever it takes!

PPP3: Stephan Collins Email

Today I emailed Stephan Collins, author of The Gigantic Beard That was Evil and many Guardian Strips. I haven't had much luck in responses so far which is quite disheartening, but I think I'll be especially saddened if I don't hear back from Collins, as I admire his work so much.

Here is the email I sent him;

"Hi Stephen,

Firstly, I’m a huge fan of your work! The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil, is perhaps the most unique graphic novel I’ve read in the past few years.

I’m however contacting you about a different topic, you’re well known for your Guardian weekend strips, with one of my favourites being the satirical Michael Gove/ Alien Invasion strip. I’m currently working on a series of satirical comic strips concerning the Conservative government, but feel perhaps my work is a bit too dark/vulgar. Do you think this is an issue, or is there a market for darker satirical strips?

Additionally, can you recommend any publishers that I can get in touch with when I’ve got a substantial body of strips made?

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Tommy ‘Zoom’ Roberts"

PPP3: Rachael Slott, Evan Shaner and Cliff Chiang Emails

Over the past day or so I've sent out emails to three illustrators who work in the comic book community, Rachael Slott who works on Titan Comics' Doctor Who, Evan Shaner who works on DC Comics' Future Quest and Chiff Chiang who works on Image comics Paper Girls.

I admire each of their work in different ways and have blogged about their work in this years PPP. I'm still waiting to hear back on them, but they are quite busy people so don't expect an immediate response.

Here is the email I sent to Rachael;

"Hi Rachael,

Firstly, I’m a huge Birmingham-born fan of you work, having recently discovered it through the Doctor Who Twelfth Doctor comics.

I was wondering if you have a few minutes to describe your influences and how you got into comics. I myself am nearing the end of time as an illustration student in Leeds, and even though I can’t see myself finding work for a big company such as Titan any time soon, I’d love to have a greater understanding of how you broke into the field of comics. Additionally, what do you have planned for the future, post Twelfth Doctor, if you are of course allowed to say, of course!

Thanks for your time,

Tommy ‘Zoom’ Roberts"

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Here is the email I sent to Evan;

"Hi Evan ‘Doc’,

Firstly, I’m a huge fan of you work, having recently discovered it through DC’s Convergence: Shazam issues!

I was wondering if you have a few minutes to describe your influences and how you got into comics. I myself am nearing the end of time as an illustration student in England, and even though I can’t see myself finding work for a big company such as DC any time soon, I’d love to have a greater understanding of narrative illustration from those in the professional field.

Thanks for your time,

Tommy ‘Zoom’ Roberts

P.S. Will Quest World be making an appearance in the forthcoming Future Quest comic? I’m kidding."

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And finally, here is the email I sent to Cliff;

"Hi Cliff,

Firstly, I’m a huge fan of your work, having discovered it through your Wonder Woman run.

I was hoping you’d have a few minutes to discuss a few things about the line quality in your work. How do you feel your line work has changed over recent years? I can’t help but notice your understanding of line weighting has grown, how do you decide how heavy to make a line, or is it a subconscious decision? 

I’ve also noticed that your work has taken on a more rigid quality in place of fluidity in recent years. I love the transition and feel it makes your work even more unique. Was there a moment in time when you knowingly began to introduce this into your work, or was it something that occurred naturally.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Tommy ‘Zoom’ Roberts

P.S. I’m loving your work on Paper Girls and cannot wait for the next run of issues! Thanks for all of your hard work in making something so enjoyable!"

PPP3: Lacking Purpose

Recently I've come to realise that I want part of my practice to be more than just being narrative or character based illustration, it needs to have a purpose and I think that purpose should be to help people. What became apparent from today's peer review session for OUIL603 was that most people's work had some beneficial aspect to society, be it, drawing attention to the elderly to general education. My work is lacking this.

With this in mind I have decided to take on the Crispin Orthotics brief. I wasn't initially going to do this brief but the idea of my work helping someone in some capacity has changed my creative purpose somewhat.

PPP3: 603 Peer Review

I came way from today's peer review hopeful and inspired. After struggling for some time with my final project for OUIL603 today's crit cleared up a lot of things and gave me a sense of direction. While I planned to create a short narrative with my characters from my Beyond La La Land comic, it didn't have any applications beyond that. However, Rosie suggested that I use the character of Red, who I have focused a lot of creative attention on and design a self defence booklet with her as the guide. I love this idea and as it has the ability to become something more than just one product and could be used in a variety of places such as self defence classes to police stations.

Here is my feedback from the session;

PPP3: Andy Oliver Email

This morning I emailed Andy Oliver who is an editor at Broken Frontier a news site that specialises in raising the profile of small press self publishers. With self publishing being an avenue I want to get into as a stepping stone to greater things, I thought it would be a great idea to contact someone in that field.

Here is my email;

"Hi Andy,

My name is Tom Roberts and I’m an illustrator studying at Leeds College of Art. I’m currently in my final year of study and am looking into different avenues of work post graduation. 

I am a keen narrative illustrator and saw that, along with Broken Frontier, you discuss zines quite frequently over on Twitter. I was wondering if you had any advice for someone starting off in this area of creativity. 

I expect you’re a very busy person, but I would be very grateful if you could impart some knowledge to me, or even suggest a few other people who you think would be worth getting in touch with.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Tom"

PPP3: Paul Quinn Email

As part of PPP we've been asked to reach out to the outside world away from the 'degree bubble'. So far I haven't really done that apart from the networking that came out of Thought Bubble. With this in mind I contacted an old school friend, Paul Quinn, who now works as a Web Developer in Nottingham. Here is his site. I haven't spoken to Paul for a few years now but know that he deals with illustrators in his line of work so I asked him these questions;

- How many illustrators usually work within a web development company?

- How do your roles interact/cross over? 

- Finally, do you have any contacts that you would advise I get in touch with to further my investigation into this avenue of work?

He replied quite quickly to my surprise with quite a long response;

"Hello Tom

Thanks for your e-mail and I am happy to answer, I will jump straight into your questions and give you some insight.

How many illustrators usually work within a web development company?

This will vary from company to company as some agency's/development companies will have different focuses. A development agency would normally have more of a focus to building and so you tend to find they they have not as many designers/illustrators. Often more than not you might find some development agencies will often get designs given to them to build or create.

Design led agencies would have illustrators within their company. I have worked at a few agencies that have been design led, by this I mean that they tend to do a lot of their work in creating e.g. film, tv, advertising, marketing, digital marketing. Therefore the requirement for design is more integral to a design-led agency. 

I do note that illustrators roles within agencies tend to follow similar to my own in that you tend to have a more broader set of skill set and one favoured skill is part of a collection. In other words an illustrator would also be able to do web design and print design.

How do your roles interact/cross over?

Our roles crossover mainly on projects where development is integral to the end product, so for example a website. On a website we would all sit down at the start of the project (project brief) and go through what it is the client wants and work from there. This is to ensure that both roles are not limited by field of view e.g. a designer might not be aware of the limitations of web design and a developer might not be aware of certain design principles and best practices (vertical rhythm/typography). 

As the project progresses both roles crossover to ensure nothing gets missed or any misinterpretation.

Finally, do you have any contacts that you would advise I get in touch with to further my investigation into this avenue of work?

Yes of course, nottingham and birmingham have a few great agencies:

http://383project.com/

https://www.weareframework.co.uk/

https://www.impression.co.uk/"

It's great to be back in touch with Paul and we're now discussing my course and his job at length, we're even planning on going out for a drink the next time I go passed Nottingham.

PPP3: Final Programme Board Meeting

Today I took part in my final student rep related meeting with the final programme board meeting of the year. I'm going to be sad to leave this role behind as I feel it has really benefited me and my understanding of the structure/running of the programme and the college as a whole. I take away from this role experience in a professional environment, improved communicative skills and the ability to pass on key information to my student peers.

PPP3: Gumroad Update

I have now updated my Gumroad site with a zine I made for Thought Bubble, 'Clone Idle' and the collection of Tory Chums Strips that I completed for CoP. Being that these products are digital and have no reproductions costs I have lowered the price to that which it would have been should they have been printed.

PPP3: Glyn Dillon - Big Heads

Recently I had to miss the Glyn Dillon Big Heads talk, but luckily Patrick has emailed a link to his private Vimeo account to view the chat. I was very impressed with Glyn, knowing little about him apart from him being the Author of 'The Nao of Brown' that several of my peers have mentioned on occasion.

I love how drastically different the different areas of Illustration are that he's worked in, from working on a graphic novel such as Nao to working as a costume designer on Star Wars episode VII.

What interested me the most was when he spoke about his time creating Nao and how near the end he  has to put in some serious hours to get it completed. It goes to show that even with a lot of experience, theres never enough time to get what you want to do done.

PPP3: AOI Lecture

Today we had the Association of Illustrators lecture. Initially I wasn't too interested in this lecture as I didn't really know anything at all about the AOI and boy was it a curveball. I learnt so much! More importantly I learn things that initially swayed me on choosing to study at Leeds College of Art in the first place.

Firstly I want to start off discussing the acceptance of commission form they provided. It sets in stone the duration an illustration can be used for, where, for what purposes and any additional terms concerning the brief. These were all things that I hadn't really thought about before hand, even though John has mentioned them on a few occasions.

The representative also discussed;
- promo materials, how your contact info should be clear on all documents and websites.
- creative presence, social media/blogs should be updated frequently, several times a day if possible.
- accounts, keep up to date with accounting, apply for income tax within three months, keep receipts.
- the right to be recognised as the creator, and have you work not be altered in any form.
- reference fees.
- registration and copyright symbol do not need to exist to secure copyright.
- pricing, don't underestimate my skills, it's a disservice to the whole industry.

There is much to mull over now and I plan to create my own invoice and commission letter in the future after today's lecture. The only down side to this lecture was that there was so much information being thrown at us which was both relevant and interesting. I would have preferred if we had a section in the programme where we spend a week focusing on all of these points specifically.

PPP3: Thought Bubble 2016/Birmingham ICE Applications

I have decided to apply for Thought Bubble again this year after having a very enjoyable time there last year. This time I have decided to apply with Rosie W as Joe didn't enjoy his experience last year and didn't want to attend again. We have applied for a full table and hopefully, now having a bit of experience at the event, will successfully get the application we want. I don't think I'd be happy having a quarter of a table again. Fingers crossed.

Additionally, I have decided to apply for Birmingham ICE, a comic convention similar to Thought Bubble, but still in it's early years. With my moving back to Birmingham in the Summer, I thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to expand my creative presence away from Leeds in my hometown. The idea of exhibiting my work in an area where people I know from my youth, is somewhat nerve-wracking, however odd that sounds.

PPP3: Illustrator - Rachael Slott

Recently I discovered the work of Rachael Stott a comic illustrator who works for Titan, creating comics for their 'Twelfth Doctor Year Two' series.

Her line work is fantastic! She has a great understanding of character features and weighting of lines. Furthermore her detail to hair is amazing. The only negative I would say about her designs is that she tends to over-elongate fingers, which can sometimes be distracting.


Follow Tommy 'Zoom''s board Rachael Slott on Pinterest.


I've taken a cue from her drawing technique and ingrained it into a self portrait of myself. This detail adds an additional level of quality to my work that I hope to develop further in my practise.