Discussion Forums

Discussion Forums

1.) Ambition

My tutors and peers get together to discuss a different topic about whats going on in  the illustrative industry to share are thoughts and opinions. All though this topic we discussed was about 'Ambition' and what it means to us now that we are coming to the end of our second year, heading in to our last year, level 6!- we need to start thinking about how we will fit into the industry and how we can make it happen...
We talked about whether or not the recession has an affects on illustrators getting a job, however it has been said in the guardian newspaper, that throughout Britians history, having a degree has never guaranteed you getting a job at the end regardless of the financial climate....you have to work hard to get to where you want to be.

We also talked about the collaborative's 'Lord Whitney' and pointed out all the things they have done to get to where they are now...they have done a lot of voluntary work, they are very versatile and they take risks and that is what has payed off! They have a clear vision of there goal and they work at it until they get it!!!!


2.)"Where is the content? Where is the comment?"

This topic was on an article about 'Where is the content? Where is the comment? written by artist, illustrator and author Lawrence Zeengen.

Zeegen describes the illustration of today as being just pretty and meaningless suggesting there's nothingness about it.
He said.... "illustration has become entrenched in navel-gazing and self-authorship...obssessed with it's own craft, it has withdrawn from society's big debates to focus on the chit-chat of inner sanctum nothingness. It's time for the profession to stop pleasing itself and engage with the world outside"

Zeegen favours the work of illustrator, cartoonist and animator David Shrigley who's work is all about the content and meaning. And its obvious to see that Shrigleys work is all about the meaning because of the humorous drawings he illustrates to go with the funny controversial captions he sometimes writes at  the side and this is what Zeegan prefers because its passing a comment on our society.
However I don't quite agree with Lawrence Zeegan for many reasons but for me his article was irrelavant. Yes he is entitled to his own opinion but without art of all kinds in the world, that are made to have a meaning or not... it doesn't matter, art can mean many things to one person and nothing to another, that is how art works!

3.) Authorstrator

This topic was about the differences in personal and commissioned illustration work.
And we looked at some illustrators work to see if we could tell which piece of theirs was personal and which was commissioned. Matthew Richardson said he likes his personal work compared to his commissioned and I guess that would be the case for a lot of illustrators who prefer to be able to just do exactly what they want act however for other illustrators they seemed to be able to produce better commissioned work then their personal, which shows that having a restriction and a deadline can really work in your favour.