New Work: Editorial Illustration

This was a piece I did for an article I found in The Times, written by Giles Coren called 'You've never heard of Paddington Basin, the little sink from darkest Peru?'.

The article has a few different tangents to it, but the one I focussed on was the trouble Giles is having with his new resolution - B.O.O.M, or Back Off On Meat when eating out at restaurants, especially when having Dim Sum at a restaurant in the newly developed Paddington Basin. Hence the title of the article - the original illustration was a take on that title, with Paddington etc, but I wanted to steer away from that and do something more food related. So I just did a spread of dim sum with a nice bit of Pak Choi as the main focus - relating to what the article says about trying to order lots more vegetables.

It's not my favourite piece I've ever done, I think the colours are too pastel-y and it's just not that visually interesting. Here's it superimposed into the original article for context:


I've realised I need to do a lot more editorials for my portfolio, as that's the area I'm trying to get work in. So I've been scouring newspapers and magazines etc for interesting articles to illustrate. It helps if I get someone else to cut out the original illustration (which was actually commissioned for the article) so that I'm not influenced by it. So it's not a dig at the original illustrator, thinking that I can do better than what they did etc, it's just a lot easier if I take existing articles and create an illustration for them - it's the only thing I can do until I get real commissions to fill my portfolio.

So I'm aiming to do one or two new pieces today :)

Rachel says hello.

Sorry for not posting in a while, I keep meaning to but have been a bit busy =/

The main thing I've been doing (aside from too much socialising) is sorting my website out. It's nearly finished, I posted about it when I'd just started, so thought it's time to get it out there!

www.rachelsayshello.com

All my work is up there now (hurrah), I just need to write a bio and sort the backgrounds out. Writing a bio is hard so I'm sort of putting it off. Ha. I'll do it by the end of the week.

I'm building it using Indexhibit, which is quite brilliant actually. I can't remember exactly how I stumbled across it but it's created by the awesome Daniel Eatock (who I mentioned in my last post) and I don't how how I could have done my website without it. I have no idea how to use Dreamweaver and have basic knowledge of HTML so this was kind of a lifesaver. And, in my opinion, it looks dead cool.

Some participants have made theirs so spangly it's untrue. Mine is semi boring in comparison. But I'm sure they know all kind of interweb tricks and such. Mine is going to be a work in progress, definitely. At the moment, I just want it live and kicking in time for my degree show. Which I'm getting super excited about. We're going to start building/painting it soon hurrah.

Anyway, I'm so happy to have got all my recent work up there, including my recent editorial illustrations:

What's the greenest way to recharge my gadgets?


Olive oil is good for you, and the planet... Isn't it?


Bottled water sales drop off

Is there an eco perfume for Valentine's Day?

They are all based on articles on environmental issues. I love doing editorial illustrations, now I have more time on my hands I definitely need to do some more soon.


I'm getting a bit worried about all this recession business. Now, I know it's been like this for a while now. But while studying it was a bit like... it didn't really have anything to do with me. But now I'm looking for jobs, it's suddenly quite scary. I've applied to quite a few and haven't got anywhere yet. And I'm just looking for anything right now, design placements to shop jobs, anything. I had a call back for a 2nd interview at Topman the other day, and omg I so wanted that job. It was going to be perfect for me. But I didn't get it... bit gutting. I just didn't have enough experience. And at the moment, employers can be pretty choosey because there's so many applicants. But you hear about 50 yr old managing directors getting laid off and not being able to find a job anywhere. It's all a bit scary. I just hope I can find something soon because I have no money, and if I have no money it means I can't stay in Wolves, and I love my family but I can't go home. I just can't.

Ideally, someone will come along and be like "You there, do some awesome illustrations for me, here's a pile of money!" Haha. Or not.

But that makes me wonder about the recession and illustration. Not design in general, there's tons of stuff around about design and the recession, but illustration. That's another post I feel.

I'm sure I'll find a job. I have to, right?

Older posts on editorial illustrations

New editorial illustration

It's a new year and so new work. Loads of it in fact, I think I've taken on too much. But more on that later I think.

For one of my modules, I am illustrating 2 book covers (one for the Penguin Design Award, The Secret History) and also doing 6 editorial illustrations. I'm focusing the editorials on environmental/ethical articles, and I found a great one this week. Here is the link to it online. It's about how many perfumes aren't that environmentally safe etc.

The idea for the illustration came to me as soon as I read the article, didn't really have to brainstorm a lot; I love when that happens. So I was able to do this in a few hours, which is ace as I need the practice to do editorials really fast like this.


I might change a few bits and pieces (i think the lil icons are too small, this is only going to max 10cm big when printed) but there it is.