I've moved!

I totally forgot to update you all that I've moved blog, in case you wondered where I went. You can now find what I'm up to (including my completed Game of Thrones project) at https://kimberleykirk.wordpress.com/

April can't come quick enough!

Well, I started 2 ideas this week (I'm great at starting ideas, finishing them seems like a marathon though!), I've started a quick concept for a tigershark:

Sorry for the dark image

And I've started on the Game of Thrones characters I mentioned last week:

Daenerys WIP

Once I sat down and worked out who I wanted to draw it was actually quite difficult which families I wanted to represent, and at what stage each house is at too. I've decided to go for series one, and just the main characters. The characters I want to draw are:
Baratheon: Robert, Cersei, Joffrey, Tommen, Myrcella, Renly, Stannis.
Lannister: Tywin, Jaime, Tyrion
Stark: Eddard, Catelyn, Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon, John
Targaryen: Daenerys, Viserys

Think I have bitten off more than I can chew?

I've done it this way so even people married into other houses are represented (hence why Cersei is in the Baratheon house, not the Lannister house), and I also didn't want to draw things that have happened in the series in case I reveal spoilers for people who haven't seen/read it yet. Game of Thrones is one of my favourite all-time shows (I've seen all of the TV shows, but only read book 1), and I can't wait for it to return in April/ I'm hoping to have this finished by the time it returns.
The plan is to do character outlines on my computer, then transfer that to paper and finish it off with my new colouring pencils I've yet to try out. That way, if the colouring pencils don't work I can still do something with it digitally. Also, the added bonus is working digitally I have an Undo button, and I can skew things how I want. The final idea is to have all houses together on one long canvas.

I'm also slowing realising that I seem to draw people/animals/still lifes better than what I want to do, which is draw from the imagination and draw concept art, specifically landscapes for computer games.

Anyway, I think that's enough for this week, I think I'm just gonna keep hammering the line drawings of the GoT characters for now, and see how it goes. My Pinterest for the week is actually another blog! I've not read much on here yet but I've bookmarked it for a later date, hope you get something out of it: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204806209/

Back from Amsterdam

Hey, so I'm back from Amsterdam, and I had a brilliant time while over there. We did everything we had planned, and more! This is what we got up to:

Friday: We spent the day exploring, and went to the Rome exhibition at De Nieuwe Kerk. We didn't get up to much in the evening.
Saturday: Spent most of the day at the Rijksmuseum. It's number 1 on Trip Advisor, and for good reason! Went to Boom Chicago in the evening for some laughs.
Sunday: Went to the Van Gogh museum, and was a bit disappointed with it. Spent most of Sunday evening bar-hopping.

Our room, had a cage for a wardrobe, and a mini-jail on top of the bathroom!

Our hotel, Mauro Mansion

Centraal Station 

Night Watch, Rembrandt, Rijksmuseum

Portrait of Vincent Van Gogh, Rijksmuseum

Library in the Rijksmuseum, it's like something from Beauty and the Beast!

Model of an oriental vessel, Rijksmuseum

Quick 5 minute sketch

Tried to do the same on my tablet, didn't work out quite so well

My first day back at work was 2 days out of the office doing team building. The morning's activity was outdoor-based, and was OK, nothing special. However the afternoon's activity was a take on the Great British Bake Off - I was in my element! Our team didn't win but I still had fun. There was a party in the evening, and I behaved myself and drank diet coke for half of the night. I was very smug the next morning when a lot of people had hangovers!

I haven't drawn much while being in Amsterdam, or since I returned, I'm not sure what to do next. I'm sure I'll figure something out. I should probably finish my dragon piece.

I found something on the internet before I went on holiday, designers might find amusing, it certainly made me smile: http://www.creativebloq.com/design/creative-process-timeline-nails-it-111518018

For my Pinterest of the week I must admit I've not read this yet, but I've pinned it for future reading: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/240238961349923858/

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous new year. Dream big, don't give up, and don't take yourself too seriously :)

30 days of lacking!!

Well, I've had a better stab at drawing more this week:

Random lamp study

Quick ornament study

Another hand study

30 days of graphic design. Redesign the nearest shop's logo. This is only a quick sketchy idea

30 days of graphic design. Pick 3 designers and make a new design mixing their styles. I chose Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister & Paula Scher 

I've also watched a film, Inside the mind of Leonardo Da Vinci, which I've found immensely interesting. For example he was an illegitimate child, and because of this received no formal education during his childhood, yet to look at his sketches you'd think he'd completed an engineering degree at university! It's another proven point to me that you don't need to be educated to a higher standard for something in this industry (although I'm sure it helps of course).

I'm not sure if I'll carry on with this particular 30 days of art/graphic design, as I feel it's not drawing. While I enjoy making the initial sketches I don't have the time in the day to make a fully refined drawing every day. After coming home from work, eating dinner, etc I'm lucky to squeeze in an hour to sketch (and most days I don't!). There's loads of other '30 days of art' out there, so I'll find one that will give me the motivation to finish it!

Anyhow, not long now until the first holiday of the year, but first we have AC/DC to see before that in a few weeks! I only have 1.5 weeks left at my current job, it's all happening at the moment!

Portrait of a boy - finished!!

I'm writing this entry a few hours earlier this week, as I'm sat down watching the Grand Prix and waiting for my Sunday dinner to cook.

I've finished my Portrait of a Boy piece, and submitted to the competition:

I couldn't get the contrast I liked, as both the paper and coloured pencil were poor quality (yeah yeah, I know, a workman blames his tools...) but when the total cost of the paper and pencils were about £1.55 what do you expect? I'm at least upgrading to Crayola's next time!

Once I had finished the above I've done some research regarding going freelance, and thought of a much better company name to work from. Although it seems being self-employed is a huge minefield to get set up! I'll keep chipping away at it, but for now I don't have any projects I'm working on. I've not even watched any inspirational video's, all week I've been working on getting the Trailer Tent we bought last week ready for summer. We've run out of waterproofer, so I've got some more on order, and we made the best of the bank holiday weekend by spending all of last Monday in the sun waterproofing the canvas and scrubbing the upholstery.

I've found a few art conventions to go to in the UK throughout the year. There's one in Brighton which seems the most suited to me, but it's miles away! There's also one in London (and I need to take a trip to London to go to the V&A), and Sheffield hosts a design week, which is much closer to home.

I think if anything this week I'll work on a new logo for my new company name, and once I've got the files sorted for my old name I'll post the pictures on here so you can see the design process I went through. I'll also update my Behance profile with the images too.

Portrait WIP progress, inspiring talks, and research

I feel like I'm losing my mojo with my life at the moment. This isn't going to be a woe-is-me post, but I'm struggling to find any motivation to do any art or research the things I need to.

I've forced myself to work more on my WIP this weekend, although I've been extremely busy:

All I have done is add extra colour, I haven't touched up any of the skin, hair or hoody. This week I'm hoping to finish off all of the main colour, and then start refining his face and hair.

Every morning I have breakfast, but I'm getting really tired of seeing depressing new bulletins, so this week I've quickly gone through my news app on my phone when I've got up,and then watched some inspiring videos on the internet. I've seen a couple of things this week I want to share with you:

TED Talks - Kickstart your Creativity

There are 5 videos on here, all of which I thought were good. I didn't think I'd like the last one, but after watching it it's given me a lot to think about. To me art has always been creating something that others will think is good, no matter what it is, but my horizons have always been very narrow: traditional media (pencils, paint, etc) and digital painting. But then seeing this guy embrace his limitation showed me there's multiple ways to create something interesting. I'll try to keep a broader mind when creating traditional art.

Youtube - InPursuitOfArt

Art School, University or Self Taught - My Worthless 1st Class Degree

https://youtu.be/741QcPO04As

If you have read my previous posts you'll know about my inner struggle with deciding to start a university degree or not. My partner has not been keen for me to start this for several reasons, the biggest being worth, and I agree with him. For the amount it would cost me would put me into quite a bit of debt. Also I'm not sure Uni would teach me necessary skills (there is a part in the video above where the guy started learning about perspective AFTER Uni!). Also, I would want to go to Uni for the networking, but the course I would do would be homelearning, so aside from forums I would have very little change to network unlike a brick-and-mortar Uni.'s

I've been looking for another opinion on whether Uni is worth it. Every job I come across in the field I want to work in requires a degree OR strong portfolio, of which I have neither. I have read a lot of stories though where people are in a job they love and didn't go to Uni. In my mind I used to have the view of going to Uni = instant job prospects. That might've been the case 20 years ago, but not anymore in the UK. My best friend has a Uni loan for law, and all that happened after she graduated was she working as a cash manager in a bargain store. Now she works in a care home. It doesn't seem right that's she qualified to work in law, but could only get sh*tty jobs. I don't want to spend a lot of money, and invest a lot of time into something that may prove useless, especially when I can spend that time practising and networking. So I think my mind is now set regarding this issue; I won't be going to Uni to further my art education.

Anyway, just to break up the rant above, we picked up the trailer tent on Friday! We've had it out today, and given it a good clean down. Tomorrow we're off to buy some canvas cleaner and waterproofer, also some other bits-and-bobs like pans, cutlery, etc, so we can just go on holiday at a moments' notice!

First set-up, ha!

Also, I lost another pound at Slimming World last week, that's 8lb off in total! I've not had too much in the way of chocolate today, although I didn't go to my parent;s for a scrumptious Easter dinner :)

I've managed to do a bit of research this weekend too. I can't find ANYTHING in the way of art conventions in the UK, I don't think I'm searching the right parameters. However I did manage to find some pricelists that studio's charge, and they vary wildly. I need to look up more places so I have something to base my prices on, that and the fact I need to start working out what I need to stay above the breadline.

Also from the above I've noticed company names seem to be quite snappy, or fresh, or memorable, something which mine isn't, so I'm thinking of changing the name. Mine is so 90's, and I think people would forget it in a heartbeat, so now I need to choose a new name!

Company name.

So next week I should have a more snappy name to brand myself with, finish the WIP and research some more. Have a good week!

Lighter nights and portrait WIP

Not much to report on this week, I've gotten further with my coloured pencil drawing of my best friend's little boy:

When I drew him in pencil I didn't think his cheeks looked chubby enough, (as he has cute chubby cheeks), but now I've fleshed him out a bit and done a bit with his hair it doesn't look so bad now.
I spent ages trying to get the shadows correct on his face, but then I wanted to lay down some different colour, so I have a quick 10 minutes on his hair and started his hoody. I'll carry on working on this during the week.

The clocks went forward an hour today, so it's 7.31pm and it's still light :) I think the sun has set now (hard to see behind all of the houses on my estate), but it means spring is finally here :) Although it is going to be miserable and rain tomorrow. Ha, I'm a typical Brit, talking about the weather!

I've gone back on Tropico, it's nice to have some chill-out time on that. That, and the fact I haven't gone anywhere this weekend. I've bought a trailer tent so I can holiday in the country when the weather gets better, and that's about it!

And at Slimming World last Monday I reached my first half-stone award! In 5 weeks I've lost 7 pounds, keep it coming!

I've finished reading the Freelance Handbook, and made LOADS of notes. I've downloaded Evernote, so I have lots to research now, such as legal stuff, setting fees, wellbeing, resources, etc.

I did manage to critique a couple of pieces on DeviantArt last week, but I think for now I'm going to give my weekly tasks a rest, as let's face it I don't really do them despite trying to make myself accountable on here. Instead I'm going to focus on research the Freelance Handbook, and carry on with my WIP.

Have a good week everyone!

Logo design, imbalance in work life, and competitions

This week during my lunch breaks I've been working on a logo for my brand if I ever decide to go freelance. However just in case people try to plagiarise it I've decided not to add it on here just yet. When the time is right I will. All I will say is for the logo I seemed to finish it very quickly, and I'm not sure if this is a good thing. I did 4 sketches for variety. chose one design to run with, mocked it up, changed it some more, and now I'm happy with it. Luckily I hid the text layer which has the same on just in time for when the office manager interrupted my lunch break! :) But I'm guessing the process above is similar to having a paying client: mock up designs, finish a rough, make amends and finalize design.

Also my partner and myself have talked of going into the mobile catering business. We've both agreed the company name needs to be witty, but I'm not happy with what we've come up with yet, so I've yet to start any work on the logo design for that. At least if I go freelance I can start that whenever, but I'm loathe to start up the mobile catering business until we've bought a house. If we are self-employed it will be very difficult to get a mortgage, but we can do our research in the meantime.

I'm pretty jaded with work at the moment, I don't feel like I'm ever going to get anywhere than where I'm at now. Just to explain my current situation:

• I left a floundering company in my home town to work out-of-town at a company that is doing well for itself. I was hoping to side-step into the same job, but I knew I had to start in a menial job in customer service.
• Despite numerous efforts to get back into a studio environment I've pretty much been ignored by everyone who would help me achieve this. I've been stuck in limbo like this for the past 3.5 years.
• A new person has been appointed to create a new studio, and even though it sounds promising the new studio will be a 1.5hr drive away (or 50mins on the train), and even though they want me to be the 'middle man' between customer service and the new studio I honestly don't think it's going in the right direction for me (or even a change of job for that matter).

The new person wants me to be the go-between, but I already do that, so I don't know if my job role would change at all, and I'm getting very frustrated not getting anywhere in a creative role. My manager has washed her hands of the situation (she has told me herself), and I feel the only way I'll get to do what I'm passionate about in life is to go freelance. I've even put myself through a home-distance learning course and put myself through exams for Adobe, all at my own cost and time, and it feels like it has been for nothing. It's not changed anything in my job role, and it hasn't garnered any more attention for new jobs. So I will persevere in going freelance.

When I went to stop with my nan last month she handed me an article out of the paper on drawing. It was on how to draw in perspective, and how to colour with coloured pencils. Even though I didn't find it much help I did notice a competition to draw either a place or a portrait in coloured pencil, so I've decided to enter it.

The subject is my best friend's little boy, and he's quite hard to draw as he's so cute! I couldn't find a brilliant photo of him, so I've gone with the best one I could find. The ones I like of him are where he takes selfies with his mum's phones, but they're very badly focussed and lit :) I finished the pencil sketch today, and intend to colour it in:

Apologies for the awful lighting, I've tried my best to make it look OK. I haven't done much with the hair as it's blonde and curly, so I just wanted the general shape on paper

The competition doesn't end until April. After chalk my favourite medium (in school) was coloured pencils, so I hope this turns out good! I asked my partner for his opinion, and I phrased it like this 'Did you look at my drawing and think 'that looks like X', or did you look at my drawing and think 'that's X!'. He said he thought the second options, which is good, although I don't think it looks anything like my subject!

I've not played Tropico since last weekend now, but I haven't done much in the way of art either, oops!

And just on a side note I had my family over for a roast dinner today (Sunday dinners are an institution), and I had to take a photo of this massive potato:

This bad boy made enough roast potatoes for 5 people! The photo doesn't do the size justice, it would've made a wicked jacket potato!

So going to my usual theme of tasks I set myself for the week and usually fail:

Critique at least one piece of artwork - didn't suceed, I did look but didn't critique anything.

Contribute to an active art forum - I still don't think I've joined one yet, any suggestions? Was thinking Conceptart.org, or the Sycra forums, but I'm quite intimidated by the high standard of work on both of those forums. I'm not keen on DeviantArt, even though I have an account on there.

Start work on a logo - done, and even finished it!

Drawing for the competition - started

So tasks for this week are to carry on with the coloured sketch, and join an art forum. I'll try to critique too, but I get to this time of the day (9.37pm) and I'm usually pretty tired so I'm off to bed.