JALEN ROSE 6AD001 CREATIVE INDUSTRIES & OPPORTUNITIES

CONTENTS

1

• Industry Role 2

• Career Action Plan 4

• Ideal Timeline/Plan 6

• Back up Plan 7

• Skills Audit 8

• Skills Required: Life Drawing 9

• Skills Required: Animals and environment 11

• Skills Required: Character Designs 12

• SWOT 13

• Branding 14

• Creative CV 15

• Showreel 16

• Social media 17

• Art Trades and Commissions 19

• Bibliography 20

INDUSTRY ROLEThe industry roles I am going to focus on are storyboard artist and character designer.

Storyboard Artist / Story ArtistA storyboard Artist or Story Artist, creates storyboards for all manner of clients from film

production to advertising agencies. The artist works closely with the director and possibly

scriptwriter, producer and storyboard supervisors to illustrate the narrative, plan shots and draw

frames to demonstrate all types of scenes ready for the other parts of the crew to work with.

The illustrator will need to have a good sense of story and shot work, have a decent set of

drawing skills, be able to work both individually and as a team, be able to hit deadlines and have

good presentation and communication skills.

Currently the industry for storyboarding is not only locked into film and animation, but as

mentioned earlier, has broadened out to advertising and even the games industry. The areas of

the UK that have animation, film and game centres and studios are currently London, Cardiff,

Leicester and Manchester. Although some studios will hire storyboard artists on a permanent basis,

a lot of artists will work as freelance and jump from job to job to work on different projects.

A storyboard artist will usually use the same sort of techniques and skills but will focus on using

different programmes and tools. Some storyboard artists like to use programmes such as

Photoshop (Cont.)2

to create each frame digitally and upload and combine them at a faster rate, the other method involves

drawing each frame with classic pencil and paper and then scanning them in and compiling these together

on Photoshop once again to neaten and create the board. When looking into the usual earnings for a

storyboard artist, it varies depending on the size and type of company. Although there isn’t a definite

number for a storyboard artist, they are usually compared to an industry illustrators rate, on average

they earn £31,000 per year with the highest earning £64,000 and the lowest earning £13,000 per

year.

Character Designer / Character ArtistA character designer is a vital role in the process of pre production work for all sorts of media including:

film, television, animation and games design. The role of a character designer is to create the look and

feel of a character for the selected project, this will usually be based on a brief and the designer will

usually go through multiple different designs of the same character before the client is happy with it.

The character designer will create character sheets that will feature turn arounds, facial expressions,

different colour schemes/outfits and other things specified on the clients brief. The work will require the

artist to blend skills from different fields to create well rounded characters. Hence the position requires a

mix of skills, this role could be considered to fit under different names like game artist, character artist,

concept artist or just plain illustrator.

A character designer needs to be able to demonstrate the following skills: a decent understanding of

anatomy, able to work on a deadline, have good presentation and social skills, be detail oriented, able to

tackle difficult challenges in the work place and be reliable. (Cont.)

3

The character design role is spread across a huge area of the artistic industry including games, film, TV

and animation. The areas of the UK that have studios are currently London, Cardiff, Leicester and

Manchester. Although some studios will hire character designers on a permanent basis, a lot of artists

will work as freelance and jump from job to job to work on different projects.

CAREER ACTION PLAN

What I am currently doingCurrently I am a third year student at the University of Wolverhampton studying animation. During

my past three years on the course, I did my best to learn and develop myself as an artist. As the

years progressed I discovered I had a natural connection with storyboarding and character design over

actually animating, so I decided to delve deeper into this part of the industry and use my experience

with animation to help my range of works expand. In my second year I gained some experience as a

character designer and worked as a freelance illustrator for a small project, it gave me a deeper

understanding of how I can improve both my illustrations and my work flow. Now in my third year I

have been able to chose a career path I want to follow and stick to it, these being storyboard artist

and character designer.

For my final project of the course, instead of doing an animation based project I am working hard to

create a portfolio that is actually revolving around a web comic project I am working on. The web comic

is a project I’ve wanted to follow for a long time and I have been following a brief created by a

website called ‘Hive Works’ a web comic hosting website that is open for submissions in May. I am to

take my web comic through their submission process and get it hosted on their site. 4

Currently as I am working on the web comic I am building a separate portfolio from this one and

guidelines state I am unable to use the same work on more than one portfolio, so I have a few

examples of unfinished/process pages of my web comic below to show how its stylized and how it

looks.

I think the reason I chose to

look into an artistic career is

pretty bog standard: I drew a

lot as a child and never

stopped. I was always inspired

by such odd and over the top

cartoonish things such as

Godzilla, Power Rangers and

Pokémon. As I aged this never

really left and I was always

looking at ways to improve my

style and further my abilities,

while at the same time

constantly trying to stay

inspired.

5

IDEAL TIMELINE FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS2016-2017

Since I have taken a very different path on my degree compared to the rest of my course, my hand in will be a little

different to match that. Hench I am working on Monster Noir (My web comic) to hand into Hive Works, I am hoping

that it is accepted and this will get my work some recognition and fans. I can also use the Hive Works hosting as a way

to network with some other artists that work in the same field as me, maybe even collaborate with a few of them.

• April 2016- Continue to work on Monster Noir and Portfolios

• May 2016- Continue working on Monster Noir and Portfolios, then prepare for hand in’s to Hive Works and for final

project/Creative Industries.

• June 2016- Degree show and continue Monster Noir, hopefully be offered a place at Hive Works.

• July 2016- Take a well deserved break and continue Monster Noir and practicing drawing.

• August 2016- Begin the job hunt (for both part time and creative industries)

• Sept 2016- Have a complete portfolio and printed version of Monster Noir and attend Comics Uncovered 2016• Oct 2016/Dec 2016- Continue Monster Noir while developing skills and finding jobs

2017-2020

• 2017- Further my work on portfolio and skills, find work on a project in the industry (preferably story artist) while

continuing Monster Noir. Attend conventions for Monster Noir.

• 2018-2019- Have printed books of Monster Noir and have attended even more Con’s. Continue working as/looking for

Storyboard/Story Artist roles.

• 2020/2021 and onward: I would love to have multiple Monster Noir books out and be able to work on that while

working as a Story Artist for anywhere really. I would preferably love to work at animation studios and game studios

that feature things I love such as: Sony Pictures Animation, Blizzard Games, Platinum Games and Bethesda. I would

also love to be a guest artist for Marvel or any other variant covers in the comic industry. 6

BACK UP PLANIf after a year or so of not being able to settle into or a placement or job role and I am in a dead end with my skill set. I plan to look into doing a Masters in Illustration, I feel like this would help me improve my skills to a high standard and allow me to understand even more of my craft. When it comes to Monster Noir, if It isn’t accepted into Hive Works I will be continuing the work I put into it. It would be updated slightly less but would still be to the highest of standards. I would then continue to promote the series at conventions and then submit to other platforms like Hive works such as: Line Webtoon and ComickerDigital.

7

SKILLS AUDIT My skills as an illustrator have a pretty decent range, I am still learning a few of the basics for industry standard such asgetting to grips with commonly used programs such as Illustrator and getting a better understanding of life drawing and environment drawing. I hope to gather such skill while I continue to work on my projects such as Monster Noir, that require me to do so. I have a decent understanding of how Photoshop and Paint Tool Sai work and have used them for a few years now, while using these programs and having used traditional means of artistic methods as well, I have also learnt a great deal about character design and while working on my major project I had also delved into working with storyboards. Things I feel that I am becoming/have become advanced at are working with thumbnails, cartooning and working with comic structure. I have gathered these skills while working on my Monster Noir project as all three are important for me to have a great understanding of so that I can create the best work I possibly can for my major project.

8

SKILLS REQUIRED LIFE DRAWING:Both of my career choices require me to have a decent drawing skill, life drawing is one of the most important thing I must work and have been continuing to for the last few years.

9

SKILLS REQUIRED: LIFE DRAWING CONT.

10

SKILLS REQUIRED: ANIMAL AND ENVIRONMENT DRAWINGS

11

SKILLS REQUIRED: CHARACTER DESIGNS

12

SWOT STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

- Huge passion for projects - Hard working- Close attention to detail - Eye for character/creature design- Cartooning- Quick doodler/thumbnail creator

- Certain parts of human anatomy - Can be demotivated if stuck at a wall- Not amazing at drawing buildings - Can be slow if not used to project- I am very hard on my work

OPPORTUNITIES Threats

- Conventions- Gaining experience through practice - Placements - Art trades with fellow artists - Networking

- People with better experience/styles - Lack of money - Location - No form of personal transport

13

BRANDING

When I think about how I want my work to be looked at, I always aim to make it look friendly, simple and high quality with a ton of character. I love putting character into my work and making sure it can really show my personality as an artist, with allmy marketing materials I hope to create that essence of character that a possible employer can read easily.

Business Cards

14

CREATIVE CVWhen It came to creating my creative CV, I looked to make something that really reflected who I am and what my personality is like. I decided to go for a fighting game like style look to it with a nice vibrant and bold look to It. I will update this as time goes on, for example I need a main website to promote rather than my art blogs, but for now I feel this is a strong start and shows who I am and what I can bring to the industry.

15

SHOWREEL

Check out my showreel at: vimeo.com/165047999 16

SOCIAL MEDIA AND NETWORKINGHaving a broad online presence within the art industry is very important. I have two main sites I use (next to my main university blog) and a deviant art account to upload sketches now and again. I spread myself as far as I can to make sure my work is out there to see.

www.facebook.com/JRoseDoodless

jalenroseart.tumblr.comjalenroseart.deviantart.com 17

ART TRADES WITH FELLOW ILLUSTRATORS AND COMMISSIONSWhile using my Tumblr Blog, I came across a few artists who I really admired and had a nice friendly atmosphere to them. I contacted them to see if we could exchange some doodles with each other to compare art styles and improve through this. I have currently finished two art trades and hope for more.

Both of these images are drawings of my Monster NoirProtagonists in their own styles. I sent them similar drawings and respected their right do with what they wish with them.

Alongside trading art pieces with fellow artists, I also received a fair amount of requests for commissions. I used a basic pricing amount for each tier of drawing I offered to start offand I plan to raise the pricing after University as my skills have vastly improved since I first opened commissions.

lollibeepop.tumblr.com

atowncalledomelette.tumblr.com

18

ART TRADES WITH FELLOW ILLUSTRATORS AND COMMISSIONS CONT.

A large amount of the commissions I have done have been sketch and doodle commissions that don’t give me much more that £15 a piece. Even though this is a low amount, it still has allowed me to gain a bit of experience working with some clients and allowed me to further my skills and get my art work out there.

Sheet used to promote commission prices. A few examples of completed commissions. 19

BIBLIOGRAPHY

20

INDUSTRY ROLE

http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/2008/02/20/building-a-storyboard-portfolio/

http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/349_storyboard_artist_animation

http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/3080_storyboard_artist_film

http://www.insidejobs.com/careers/character-designer

http://www.careerigniter.com/careers/character-designer/

http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?JobId=65318597

CAREER ACTION PLAN

http://www.webtoons.com/en/

http://comickerdigital.com/

http://www.thehiveworks.com/

http://www.thehiveworks.com/submissions.php

OTHER REFERENCING USED

lollibeepop.tumblr.com

atowncalledomelette.tumblr.com