Stuart Kolokavich Lecture

Had a really fantastic lecture today from Stuart Kolakovic, who not only is a brilliant artist, but a really nice guy too.

Here'sa summary of the best/most important bits of his lecture:

Graduated from Kingston in 2007.

During his time at Uni he played around with screenprint a lot

Produced a comic about his grandad for his final show that got him a lot of cover.

Rinse your University's facilities whilst you can

Keep your website simple

Don't be afraid to go on the Dole whilst you go show your portfolio around.

Don't be afraid to ask the AOI for pricing help.

Always phone before sending an email, asking if you can. Then phone to ask if you can take your portfolio in.

Be wary of doing work for free

Constantly work in your spare time.

Agents look after you and stop you getting ripped off.

Get a good chair to save your back.

After the lecture I got to talk to Stuart and show him my work. He was really enthusiastic but had some constructive critism for me;

my comics need to be more refined, and looking at them, I totally agree. They look far too handmade, too simple.

I should stretch what my characters can do, Stuart recommended mocking up food packaging for my food characters to go on. I was thinking I could make takeout boxes with the sushi characters on.

I have a backlog of posts I've been storing in Word cause I wanted my first post to be my proposal. Now that's posted I can post the backlog, then finally get up to date.

28th Jan 2011.

Quite possibly my best day at university so far.
In the morning we had a lecture from a rather wonderful lady Fig Taylor. Fig is the portfolio consultant at AOI (Association of Illustrators) and it's damn easy to see why she's been doing this job 25 years. Incredibly informative, and witty to boot, Fig gave a lecture that has put my post-university future in more perspective (though I won't deny, as an artist with more than one distinct style, it has also made me slightly worried)

Overall, Fig's talk was fantastic, and it's highly tempting to buy her book (as well as some others I spied on Amazon)

Fig's book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Create-Portfolio-Get-Hired/dp/1856696723/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297273149&sr=8-1 If Fig's book is anything like her talk I know it will be a useful asset to have.

Illustration 101: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Illustration-101-Streetwise-Surviving-Illustrator/dp/product-description/0953730719/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=266239&s=books

I liked the look of Illustration 101 cause it seemed to give true insider tips, like tactics on how to call art directors (or get their names so you could call later and know who to get to)

In the afternoon a small group of us were lucky enough to have a raptor (bird of prey) drawing masterclass with John Norris Wood. John is a ridiculously talented natural history illustrator who taught at the Royal College of art. The day was everything you could have hoped for and more, and we were allowed to get very close to the birds.