watermelon helmet season 2024

That's it. You've finished second year and are looking down the barrel of 4 months of nothingness before embarking on your final year. 

The last thing you want to do is spend those months ignoring your illustration practice and here's why.

1. You risk spending semester one of your final year (1/6th of your degree) getting back to the point that your currently at. Waste. Of. Time. 

2. Work you undertake from this point in time can be included in your final semester portfolio. Meaning that you can choose to begin that semester with an empty portfolio or you can choose to begin it with a populated portfolio. 
With this in mind here's our advice:

1. Draw
Spend a lot of time drawing from references. Fill up your sketchbooks with your drawings. Most importantly, enjoy the process!

2. Look
Get inspired and informed by exploring the work of illustrators, artists, and designers. The internet is a great resource for this. Don’t just 'like' your favourite artists on Instagram; take the time to reflect on what you need to improve and identify artists who excel in those areas. Be a connoisseur of art and illustration. Before heading back home take advantage of our amazing library resources and pack a bag of books.

3. Personal Projects & Play
Assign yourself a personal projects to work on. These projects should be fun, playful, and even silly. You don’t need to worry about specific learning outcomes; the key is to engage with your subject, create work, and practice being an illustrator.

1. draw

We would recommend as much observational drawing as possible. Don't think that without exciting subjects to draw that you can't produce interesting work and, most importantly, learn and develop your skills.

2. Look

There's no shortage of places to look. In addition to instagram and other image based websites, don't forget about documentaries (Youtube, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Amazon etc) as well as some of the great illustration, art, design and drawing channels on Youtube.

Cartoonist Kayfabe

The audio/visual inside-scoop from master comic makers Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg.

Sketching with Lucy

New Drawing with Lucy videos available from 07:00 every Friday. Next five videos will be all about UK insects. All photos and film used in my Draw Along vide...

Our Painted Lives

Our Painted Lives is an invitation to watch and paint along in daily painting exercises, Monday thru Friday. Join us!

Proko

Hey there! My name is Stan Prokopenko, I'm an artist and teacher. Proko is a resource for artists to get good art instruction videos. When you watch Proko tu...

ILLUSTRATION AGE

Books Directory of Illustration 36 is a Thing of Organic Beauty

3. personal projects

A personal project will mean you always have something to do, something to work toward and will help you to avoid sitting staring at the dreaded blank page without any ideas of what to do. It can be a full blown illustration project that requires research and development (illustrated book) or it can be a simple task that helps you pick a subject to draw (draw all of the objects in your room),

If you're a second year moving into third year, the projects you begin working on now can be presented (and graded) in your final portfolio next summer. This means if you begin working now, you can start your final semester with your portfolio already underway!

​Here are some examples...
Illustrator Paul Rogers has been drawing 1 image per page of Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road' and posting them to this dedicated instagram page.
How about book jackets based on songs and the artists who perform them? (Karl James Mountford).
Or some zines...

SUMMER PROJECT PADLETS

You know how much we love a bit of padlet action. Here's two padlets for you, on the left you can post inspiration and ideas for summer projects - could be embedded social media posts, other peoples work, competitions etc. On the right, you can share your own work with each other. We've turned comments on, so you can also give feedback etc.

Beneath the padlets, you'll find the HTML code to embed them on your own site. This way you can create a summer specific page and use it as your own one-stop-shop to summer success.

Made with Padlet


​HTML EMBED CODE FOR ABOVE PADLETS

Copy the following code and paste it into a 'Embed Code' box on your weebly site.​

<div class="padlet-embed" style="border: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.1); border-radius: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 100%; background: #F4F4F4;">
<p style="padding: 0; margin: 0;"><iframe width="320" height="240" style="width: 38%; height: 1000px; display: inline-block; padding: 0; margin: 0;" src="https://cumbriauni.padlet.org/embed/y9dndmchz0jmuz1o" frameborder="0" allow="camera;microphone;geolocation"></iframe> <iframe width="320" height="240" style="width: 61%; height: 1000px; display: inline-block; padding: 0; margin: 0;" src="https://cumbriauni.padlet.org/embed/dq8mbp7dxp3cd0i8" frameborder="0" allow="camera;microphone;geolocation"></iframe></p>
<div style="padding: 8px; text-align: right; margin: 0;"><a href="https://padlet.com?ref=embed" style="padding: 0; margin: 0; border: none; display: block; line-height: 1; height: 16px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://padlet.net/embeds/made_with_padlet.png" width="86" height="16" style="padding: 0; margin: 0; background: none; border: none; display: inline; box-shadow: none;" alt="Made with Padlet" /></a></div>
</div>

Project ideas

When working on projects, aim to strike a balance between fun, playful elements and meaningful, valuable content. While social media offers many suggestions, be mindful that some can be quite self-indulgent and may not provide substantial content for assessment purposes (e.g., designing yourself as a Spider-Man villain). Focus on projects that are enjoyable but also challenge your skills and contribute to your growth as an illustrator.

baxter bailey stamp project

Baxter Bailey recently completed a stamp design project with first-year students, and now it's your turn to give it a try! Here’s how it works:

Students were given a shortlist of subjects, each celebrating an aspect of British culture. Their task was to design a series of stamps based on their assigned subject. Additionally, they worked on related elements such as packaging and hand stamps.

You have the flexibility to either pick a single subject or spend the coming months exploring and designing stamps for all the subjects on the list. This project offers a fantastic opportunity to delve into British culture while honing your design and illustration skills across various elements.

The brief can be found here
Picture
David Gentleman

editorial

This is a concept that a few students have embraced over the years, but it's such an easy and rewarding task that we're surprised more don't do it. Here's how it works:
  1. Choose a Single News Outlet: Select one reliable news source, such as The Guardian or BBC News, to consistently source your articles from.
  2. Create Editorial Illustrations: For each chosen article, create an editorial illustration. If you do this once a week from now until the final submission, you could have 53 editorial illustrations completed!
Pro Tip: Don’t spend too much time searching for articles that inspire 'cool' images. Instead, pick the top articles and focus your energy on creating the illustrations. This way, you'll spend more time honing your illustration skills rather than getting bogged down in the selection process.
Picture
David Foldvari for The Guardian

Book illustration

There’s a reason we often assign 'book illustration' projects—they’re straightforward and highly effective. You read the text and respond with your illustrations. The simplicity, relatability, and clarity of this task allow us to explore various concepts such as literal versus conceptual illustration, and experimenting with different materials and techniques.

For instance, you could use this project to experiment with different methods ("I want to explore collage/pen/paint/Procreate") or to capture different moods and tones. You might choose to create one illustration per text, as we often suggest, or decide to create several. You could even spend the entire summer working on illustrations from a single book. There are no limits—let your creativity guide you!
Picture
Nicole Rifkin for Folio Society

Visual diary

If you’re interested in narrative illustration, keeping a visual diary can be a fascinating way to practice the mechanics and techniques of sequential image making without the need to find 'the right story' to illustrate. From Robert Crumb to Lucie Ebrey, visual diaries and comics have long been a means of telling personal stories or exorcising personal demons. They can be deeply meaningful and richly human, or they can be delightfully silly. The important thing is that they allow you to practice key skills. Whether serious or whimsical, what matters most is that you’re honing your craft.
Picture
Lucie Ebrey aka Muggy Ebes

Make one thing into another

Illustrator Matt Stevens has a unique knack for transforming films into classic paperbacks, adding a delightful nerdy touch by attributing the director as the author. In a single post below, he showcases nine projects, each referencing illustration and design styles from the 1960s and 1970s. Matt’s work not only showcases his technical skills but also highlights his deep contextual awareness and inspirations.

Furthermore, his attention to detail, such as adding price stickers and worn edges, elevates his creations, demonstrating a commitment to authenticity and enhancing the nostalgic charm of his designs.

ANIMATed podcast

Lately, we've noticed a growing interest among students in the realm of animation. However, mastering the skills and techniques involved requires more than just enthusiasm—it requires a subject to wrestle with. So, why not consider bringing the audio content of a podcast to life through animation?

Podcasts are rich sources of diverse narratives, dialogues, and soundscapes, offering a treasure trove of material waiting to be visually interpreted. By animating a podcast, you not only sharpen your animation skills but also engage in a creative dialogue with the audio content, transforming spoken words into dynamic visual narratives.
from Grindletoons