Part 5: Research Task - Copyright Laws in the UK& Pricing

 UK Copyright Laws 2022:

According to 'The Illustrators Guide to Law and Business Practice' by Simon Stern, UK Copyright laws protect the artist from the time they create the work and spans across their lifetime plus seventy years. Once this time frame has passed the work is then in the public domain and does not have any restrictions.

The artist can reproduce their work to sell as prints or in other printed media, even if the original work has been sold. They retain the copyright for the original. If a client wanted certain rights to produce images from that work they would need to purchase a license with a contractual agreement signed by the artist and stating the usage rights. The artist can sell their copyright in a contractual agreement, according to the resources of the AOI but this is not common practice. The sale of copyright would be handing over all rights to that work and is known as an assignment, which must be in writing to be bound by law.

If a company or individual violates an artists copyright you can speak to them directly to resolve the matter, sometimes a 'Letter before Claim' is necessary before you consider court proceedings. It is advised to aim to settle the matter between both parties as court claims can become costly and very time consuming. There are several alternative ways to claim if money is owed rather than involving the courts. If it is a case of an individual copying an artists style or work then further investigation should be made to see if the work really does infringe on the original artists work. AOI has many resources to use to help identify whether infringement has really taken place.

When working on illustrations the illustrator must be cautious about using reference images as this could make them liable for copyright infringement if the illustration is obviously taken from that reference image and it is not 'copyright free', meaning available for public use but not for resale.

When using reference images they should either be from websites that allow the use of the images for reference purposes, there are several websites available for this purpose, or ideally use your own reference photos. If using a photo for inspiration that is not free for public use you must only take inspiration and not directly copy from it.  Even taking certain elements from that image can make you liable for infringement which has a severe penalty.

There are more copyright laws to consider if using collage materials or creating surface designs and the AOI is a very good resource along with the above mentioned book for giving further advice. The AOI also has a new service called 'Fighting Fund' where they support illustrators who have a solid claim for copyright infringement and need to go through the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court.

Pricing Your Illustrations:

According to the AOI, Illustrators do not usually work by day rates for client work. A fee is usually worked out based on the client brief, the size of the project, how long it will take to complete, the time scale given by the client (is it a tight deadline for example?) the amount of time the work will be used for and the intended usage and territory of the work. A client is purchasing a license to use the image for an intended purpose and duration and does not hold the copyright. This license covers the actual creation of the work and the duration of use. Day rates can be counterproductive because they are time based rather than value based. Illustrators are encouraged to use a project free based on the specific project. 

You can work out your average hourly rate based on the average yearly salary of an illustrator, considering how many hours you will work on client projects and measured against current cost of living. The AOI encourage illustrators to keep in mind that you are a skilled professional and therefore your wage should be above current UK minimum. They have a very useful calculator to work out what your salary may be and lot's of resources to help price your work depending on the type of project and client.

When pricing my own work for a client I would ask them questions to know the exact time frame of use, the territory it is being used in, the deadline and ask the client what their budget is for the project. I would measure these answers against my own salary calculation as well as talking to other illustrators to gage an idea of a reasonable fee. Some negotiation maybe required if the client does not reveal their budget or has a very low budget for a project that is going to take some time to complete. Where possible I would negotiate and try to come to an agreement if the project is in line with my field of interest.

If a client, charity or individual asks for work for free, the AOI strongly discourages illustrators to do so. In most cases the illustrations would be to enhance their own business and in the case of charities, they do have promotional budgets in place to finance such projects. An illustrator should seriously consider not working for free unless in exceptional circumstances.

Home (no date) The AOI. Available at: https://theaoi.com/ (Accessed: November 11, 2022).

Illustrators, A.O. (2008) “Copyright,” in Illustrators guide to law and business practice. Association Of Illustrators, pp. 46–50.

Part 5: Research Task - Working with a Client

Retrospective sample brief:

Client: Family Member

Brief: An illustration of the brides floral bouquet to be featured on all wedding stationery. Day and evening invitations, menu card, order of service cover page, RSVP's.

Deadline: 8 weeks from initial consultation.

This brief is one I recently undertook for my Brother's wedding. It was a gift and I will further discuss how this unfolded below and what I learnt through SWOT analysis.

Strengths:

This project was an opportunity to use my interest in nature to create a beautiful illustration of the brides floral bouquet in my own art style, without any restrictions with the exception of it reflecting the wedding theme colours, which happen to be colours I enjoy working with anyway.

Weaknesses:

This project was a gift to my Brother for his wedding and therefore the time I spent was my own time out of work hours. I did not agree any limits on the number of revisions nor did I factor in the time it would take in total. In addition I did not set myself a limit on how long I would spend designing the stationery. I had very little knowledge of working with CMYK colour profiles.

Opportunities:

This was an opportunity to see how my illustrations could work on wedding stationery and was a test of my graphic design skills using Adobe Photoshop and Procreate produced by Savage Interactive. I was also working with a professional print company using CMYK profiles, which is fairly new to me and so this gave me the opportunity to learn how to work with the print company to get the best results.

Threats:

My perfectionism really ramped up for this project, I wanted to do my very best work as I would with any client. This resulted in me taking too long on each stage which ate into my work time, taking me away from paying work. I did complete by the deadline but because I hadn't set any limitations I ended up frustrated with myself and stressed about everything looking 'perfect' and printing correctly.

Reflection:

This project was a good test of my skills as an illustrator and also tested my design skills and working practice. The end results came out beautifully and both Bride and Groom were very happy with the end results.

I am proud of how everything turned out, the invitations were exactly as I hoped they would be and I did enjoy doing the illustration of the bouquet.

This project taught me a lot about how not to approach a project. Firstly, I did it for free because it was a wedding gift for my Brother. I would not normally work for free but this was an exception. I did not set any limits for myself in terms of how long I would spend putting them all together, nor did I set any limits for revisions (which turned out to be lots of little ones, that added on extra time) and I did not manage my stress levels well during this project either. The conversion to CMYK unsettled me because I am not used to working in those colour profiles and so things had to be changed last minute to be correct for the print company. This added further stress in order to meet the deadline.

Some of my stress was due to lack of experience and I am sure the more I work with CMYK the less stressful it will be. I definitely need to work on my confidence levels as I was worried the stationery wouldn't be good enough and they would not like it. Looking back I was very disorganised for this project. I thought initially I had collected enough information from them, in terms of deadline, specifically what items they needed, layout and written information, design ideas etc but I neglected to outline the revisions limits and also decide in advance how much time I had available to work on this. As this was for a family member I was too laid back about these details and it ended up costing me in time, energy and stress. This was my own fault for not being prepared enough and not setting my own limits.

If I was to do this again I would make sure I worked out these details for my own sake and stuck to them in order to avoid stressing myself out so much and eating up work hours time that should have been spent on paid work.

Overall this project has taught me a lot about myself, the way I work and what needs to be improved. I will take these lessons on board and make sure from now on that I not only think about the clients needs but also my own.

Part 5: Exercise - Presenting Yourself

 Looking back at all the work I have created for this unit, I can see just how far I've come. I began this unit not sure of what direction I was going in and inspired by many different illustrators.

My love of nature has always been a strong theme in my work and in this unit I have been able to really explore that in various forms. Whilst I have loved observational drawing in many of the exercises, I have found that it has been a great starting point for my projects, which I have then been able to adapt and develop, especially in the narrative section, where I really felt my creativity coming alive.

I remain flexible in my path but I know that my work is veering towards the narrative in a digital context with a nature based theme. I have picked out my best pieces of work and arranged them in a portfolio page here:

https://nikid286.myportfolio.com/nature-themed-work

Part 4 Quick Links

• Research Task - Social Networks: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/08/part-4-research-social-networks.html
• Research Task - 18th Century Satirists: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-research-18th-century-satirists.html
• Research Task - Contemporary Caricatures: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-research-caricatures.html
• Exercise - Caricatures: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-exercise-caricatures.html
• Exercise - World Affairs: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-exercise-world-affairs.html
• Research Task - Self Pubishing: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-research-self-publishing.html
• Exercise - Self Publishing: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-exercise-self-publishing.html
• Research Task - Future of Digital Illustration: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-research-future-of-digital.html
• Exercise - Pixelated Images: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/09/part-4-exercise-pixelated-images.html
• Research Task - Street Art: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/08/part-4-research-street-art.html
• Exercise - Street Art: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-exercise-street-art.html
• Research Task - Paper Crafts: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-research-paper-crafts.html
• Exercise - Paper Circus: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-exercise-paper-circus.html
• Research - Ceramics: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-research-ceramics.html
• Exercise - Contemporary Ceramics: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/2022/10/part-4-exercise-contemporary-ceramics.html
• Assignment 4: https://nikisillustration2degree.blogspot.com/p/part-4-assignment-4.html

Part 4: Research - Social Networks

My Favourite Platforms - Instagram & YouTube

Researching social media has been an interesting subject. I've been active on social media for many years now and seen the trends and websites comes and go.

Message boards used to be the main source of social media and that has evolved over the years, with content becoming more fast-paced and visual. Blogs were once a very popular way to discuss your work and the work of others and they have slowly been phased out by sites like Facebook and Twitter where you can write short form posts to get your points across.

There are also more portfolio based social media platforms where you can upload your available works, create prints on demand, even sell your illustrations on different types of products such as cards, mugs, bedding, homeware.

Each social platform has it's own algorithm, it's own target audience, demographics and style of presenting yourself.

In it's early days, Facebook was a great place to showcase my work and be seen by my family, friends and contacts from all over the world. The other online groups I was part of connected me with a range of people that I could add as friends on Facebook and continue to talk to them about my life and work. Over the years Facebook changed it's usage and pages were introduced. Initially a good thing, presenting a focused way to showcase your work and discuss it with your followers who were genuinely interested. There are also groups based on many different subjects you could join. Gradually these became less useful as algorithms changed, and posts were seen by fewer of your followers.

When Instagram came on the social media scene, that changed everything. Being able to post images relating to your work became a fun way to express yourself both personally and professionally.

Over the years the platforms have evolved with new ones appearing and many changes taking place on the platforms already in existence. Many of these changes have had a damaging effect on the reach of posts and connections with potential or existing clients, customers or collectors.

In last four years social media has become a valuable tool for artists and illustrators to use to showcase their work in a professional, consistent and clear way. Posting photos, mini videos and livestreams seem to benefit the artist in a way that is ideal for showcasing work to the right kinds of people. Connecting with other like-minded artists and with collectors and clients themselves in a way that wasn't possible years ago. Social media has certainly evolved over the years and although it is a very powerful tool for artists to use it does come with it's drawbacks. As technology changes, the ability to keep up with the trends, new platforms, new ways of posting and the battle of the algorithm all present challenges to today's working artist.

I have been posting my art videos on You Tube since it opened in 2007 and have seen so many changes over the years. It is still one my of favourite places to post about my work and connect with other artists because as a very visual person, being able to show my artwork in my art studio and talk about it, really helps to bring my message across. The landscape of video is changing a lot in recent times with Tik Tok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. I believe Facebook is also developing much more advanced tools to bring technology into people's homes with the use of A.I.

Instagram is one of my main favourite ways to communicate to my audience. I have become part of an amazing community of illustrators on Instagram and enjoy sharing our experiences, tips and just general support to each other.

Through OCA I have been part of the Discord forum for this degree and have connected with many other distance learning students, this has helped me to not feel so alone and gain support from others. It's also great way to be able to help others where possible too.

I asked the students which social media they used the most and currently most students agreed that Instagram, You Tube and Pinterest were their favourites. These platforms offer an opportunity to connect on a more personal level and create a fun environment for artists while sharing their work visually online.

LinkedIn is good for those wanting to showcase a professional portfolio to potential clients and find employment whilst also receiving up to date news on the industry. Many of us have profiles on LinkedIn to present our education, experience and skills which allows us the opportunity to connect directly with businesses and clients for future projects.

For me and other students I spoke to, we all enjoy a more down to earth approach, using Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok to go directly to the consumer and create a more personal connection. These platforms still offer the opportunity to showcase your portfolio and be seen by companies wishing to work with you. The opportunities are quite diverse in this age of technology and I think there has been no better time than now to be a working artist and showcase your work to the masses.

Part 4: Research - 18th Century Satirists

 Looking at William Hogarth's engraving 'An Election Entertainment', this seems like a good image to be reworked for contemporary humour. Created in 1755 to depict party members gathering support for the Whigs who contested the Oxfordshire election in 1754 against the Tory's.  It would appear not much has changed in terms of the extravagant, lurid and ludicrous behaviours of politician's, especially during election season. This image is certainly not comfortable viewing, there are messages everywhere about how the people using their tactics. Drinking, fighting, luring, bribing, all crammed into this room, with music being playing, things flying out the window. Creepy expressions on faces, one official looks to have been hit over the head. It looks like chaos.

This image could be reworked to include the current MP's during the illegal meetings of 'Partygate' during the 2020 and 2021 Pandemic lockdowns. Instead of the Inn, it would be the gardens at No.10 Downing Street, MP's, the Prime Minister at the time Boris Johnson all having a jolly time drinking with face masks hanging from an ear, Keep Calm and Stay Home sign by the flower beds, no social distancing as MP's laugh in each other's faces and whispering behind each others back and in the corner getting up to no good behind the rose bushes.

Whilst this research task was not a subject I want to delve into, I did want to have a go at one image to show willingness to look into it.

References:

belltoons.co.uk. 2022. [online] Available at: <https://belltoons.co.uk/> [Accessed 5 October 2022].

Royalacademy.org.uk. 2022. An Election Entertainment (Four Prints of an Election, plate 1) | Works of Art | RA Collection | Royal Academy of Arts. [online] Available at: <https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/an-election-entertainment-i-four-prints-of-an-election-i-plate-1-1> [Accessed 5 October 2022].

En.wikipedia.org. 2022. Partygate - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partygate> [Accessed 5 October 2022].

Part 4: Research - Caricatures

 Whilst browsing Instagram.com I found a range of caricature drawings that were using different mediums and by different artists. In each of the drawings you could instantly recognise who they are meant to be and what I found most interesting was that different artists chose different areas of the persons face or features to exaggerate but still they were recognisable. I think this is probably due to the fact that every person has features that are unique to them and even though exaggerated they are still of the same form and shape whether enlarged or made smaller. For example even though Johnny Depp's head is definitely not that shape in real life you can still tell it's him because the rest of the features bring everything together and I think our brains must piece together the information and know who the person is. It's definitely possible to distort a persons features too much and it make them unrecognisable. I feel it is a fine balance to maintain likeness but still have that comical take.

It's interesting how far each caricaturist has approached their drawings, some have exaggerated far more than others, almost to the point of making the person uglier and yet you still know who it is like this last one of Morgan Freeman. I think it's taken a bit too far but it is interesting how he is still recognisable. The hair colour and texture, freckles and marks on his face, skin colour, larger lips all work together to say this is Morgan Freeman.

Part 4: Exercise - Caricatures

 Inspiration and Advice:

Before starting this exercise I did a lot of research on how to draw caricatures and tips to make them successful. I also found Sara Tepes video about drawing 100 different portraits in her sketchbook. Drawing portraits is something I haven't done in a long time and so I was a bit nervous about approaching this exercise. I brainstormed who I could draw in my sketchbook.

I chose Jack Grealish for this exercise and intended to do lot's of smaller practice versions first to get used to drawing faces again and then practice simplifying and making a caricature style. In the end I did one attempt quite badly because I spent a lot more time on other exercises that I felt were more relevant to my voice and then got covid just before submitting and so chose to leave this exercise here.

Part 4: Exercise - World Affairs

 I chose to skip this exercise to put more effort into the other ones that were more relevant to my voice and style, due to time and being ill with covid.

Part 4: Research - Self Publishing

 

I really enjoyed this research task and found several really beautiful zines to enjoy reading. The smallest one I found by Gemmys Cloud was so sweet, a limited pastel colour palette and very creatively put together. Lockdown Rainbows also by Gemmys Cloud was a cute, story about surviving the lockdowns and the good things we could do and find during that time. It was cartoon style and limited colour palette, which I really enjoyed. Both of Gemmys zines were created digitally and printed on uncoated, 250gsm paper. 'Lello Meadow Mountains' was vertically concertina folded and 'Lockdown Rainbows' was a fold out poster style zine.

The Greenhouse Project by Ella Mae was a project I was almost part of. I submitted a sketch of a Cosmos flower but sadly wasn't picked this time round. The zine is a beautiful collection of illustrations by various artists, including the author herself, of plants you can grow in the greenhouse. The whole zine feels like you are looking through someone's sketchbook, it's really effective and eye catching. I also got Ella Mae's Sketchbook zine, a collection of her sketchbook pages of various natures scenes, plants etc. Ella uses a mix of paints and coloured pencils, which give a really nice natural feel to the drawings. Both of these were cut and folded in half and bound.

Lastly, 'Creative Process - Character Design on Procreate' by Apenas Illustrator is a cute little zine about Bia's creative process on Procreate, colouring and adding textures to her characters. This was an informative, step by step guide and lovely to look at as well. Printed on glossy paper and cut and folded in half.

These zines all gave me a good idea of what kinds of looks I could go for and how to fold them. I like the idea of a more natural paper and limited colour palette. I also looked around on YouTube, there were lot's of videos about zine making and many different approaches. I like the look of Frannerd's Riso printed zine, this is a technique I'd like to try in the future. 

References:

Aesthetics Wiki. 2022. Lo-Fi. [online] Available at: <https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Lo-Fi> [Accessed 7 October 2022].

https://www.apenasillustrator.com/. 2022. Apenas Illustrator. [online] Available at: <https://www.apenasillustrator.com/> [Accessed 7 October 2022].

Etsy. 2022. Ellamaessketchbook - Etsy UK. [online] Available at: <https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Ellamaessketchbook> [Accessed 7 October 2022].

Etsy. 2022. gemmyscloud - Etsy UK. [online] Available at: <https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/gemmyscloud?ref=shop_sugg> [Accessed 7 October 2022].

Part 4: Exercise - Self Publishing

My Own Reference Photos:

Sketchbook Pages:

 https://youtu.be/Ixqr9e3wCxI

Reflection:

I really enjoyed this exercise because it gave me the opportunity to bring several of my favourite things together in one piece. In this course I've really enjoyed observational drawing of plants and a lot of my personal work is nature based and so this was a great starting point for this project.  I ruled out making a zine about my characters or a story at this stage because I felt a stronger desire to follow the gardening theme and knew I wanted to make this zine as something that I could develop into something tangible for my online shop in the future. My greeting cards and paintings all follow the nature theme so this would fit in perfectly and would be a new type of product to go alongside the rest.

As you can see from my sketchbook pages I decided to go with a zine about what plants to have in your garden for a cottage garden look. My audience are 20 somethings who are learning to garden and want some simple tips on what types of plants to use and any special tips about each plant. 

I chose to make the zine out of one sheet of A4 paper, cut and folded, using the tutorial above. I've not made a zine before and didn't want too many pages to fill so this size seemed ideal. Having it in a handy pocket size, it's a quick read which makes learning about cottage garden plants easy and fun.

Since this was a mini zine I was limited for space for text so I kept it really simple. I included plants that flower during the Summer and that create a variety of heights, textures and colours. I also wanted to include a little bit about pruning to get the best out of your plants and how to tell the difference between when Dahlia's are budding versus finishing.

I mulled over what kind of look I wanted for the pages for quite a while. I wasn't sure whether to go for a traditional watercolour and ink or keep it black and white or a bolder colour scheme. My style is very colourful and pastel and I love the impressionist style for detail, so I decided to keep true to that and also felt that with it being colourful and eye catching that would appeal to the younger audience. I loved the idea of the retro seed packet illustrations and I found a few for inspiration for my own pages. I think this look works well with my voice and also fits with the theme of the zine. Initially I was going to paint onto paper and then scan it but I didn't feel like it would result in the overall finish I wanted. I've been experimenting with a gouache brush pack on Procreate and decided to play with that more and use it for this project. I really like the textures you can get with it and layer up the colours using the different shaped digital brushes and washes.

For the title I ended up choosing 'What to Grow in Your Cottage Garden'. I tried out several different titles as shown in my sketchbook pages. I felt like this title got to the point the best, wasn't too wordy and shows that it's an informational zine rather than just pretty pictures. I think it fits the target audience well, it's specific to the type of garden it's aimed at and most cottage garden plants flower during the Summer month's and it's the time when we are all outside the most, so I didn't feel like I needed to add the word Sumer into the title but maybe I could add it as a sub title. Other changes I could do is add more about each plant and the conditions they need and when they begin to flower. I wouldn't want to cover too much in this mini zine though as I want to keep the premise of it being a quick little pocket guide to help you know what to grab at the garden centre to create the cottage garden look.

My finished zine came out quite well, it's the first time I've tried making one before and I really enjoyed it. This zine is something I would like to develop further and actually make it into a polished, finished zine to sell in my online shop next year. I think with some tweaking I can make this even better and it would be a useful little guide for someone new to gardening who wants a cottage garden look. All the plants I chose are ones I've grown myself and enjoy in my own garden, it was lovely to use my experience and knowledge of plants to put into this little zine and hopefully help others to create a garden they love too.

References:

Telling Tales. 2022. How to fold a zine. [online] Available at: <https://tellingcambridgetales.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/how-to-fold-a-zine/> [Accessed 10 August 2022].

BBC Gardeners World Magazine. 2022. 12 key plants for a cottage garden. [online] Available at: <https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/plants-for-a-cottage-garden/> [Accessed 10 August 2022].

Rhs.org.uk. 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-design/design-with-plants/cottage-garden-plants> [Accessed 10 August 2022].

Aesthetics Wiki. 2022. Lo-Fi. [online] Available at: <https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Lo-Fi> [Accessed 1 October 2022].