The Unseen

4) Making a submission and helping to compile the Unseen anthology  (~1/2 day)

I entered a cover design and it was chosen for the anthology. The theme this year is 'Submerged' so I made my design of a small paper boat on a sea because soon it too will be submerged. It works well as a kind of introduction to the contents for which most of the entries are completely underwater. The original designs I made in pencil and in two layers that work together. As this is a risograph publication, I had to make my image in two separations, blue and yellow, where they overlap creates a green. The particular colours chosen were difficult to combine into a strong green and so I had difficulty in creating the original image I had planned (a diver underwater) as I wanted semi-realistic colours but I could not make it work. Instead, I made a collage in black and white of fish in a river, however, it was far out of my usual style which is disappointing for me. Fortunately there are many opportunities to be involved in publishing projects within the University.

I volunteered to help compile the pages after printing (pictured) and fold the covers for them. This process took about an hour because there were two of us working quickly. Together we folded 100 copies ready for stapling and then selling.

Looking back at my cover design, I think I should have left the waves blue to give a strong contrast between the sea and the boat, creating a more stronger composition. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this project and the chance to collaborate with other artists on a book was exciting. Again, creating a physical item at the end of the process was also satisfying so I think this could be the kind of area I would like to go into, creating and publishing books, which overlaps well with the idea of selling at conventions. 

True Believers

5) Running a stall at True Believers Comic Festival (1 day)

I ran a table with a friend at this medium sized local festival, selling prints, books, bags and badges we had handmade as part of our course and as extra. Following the disappointment of our previous attempt, we were not expecting much better but we actually did far better, covering table costs and even making a profit. 

We applied for a table after attending last year's festival which we enjoyed very much. The table cost was £40 for two people but split evenly it was not expensive. From preparing for Semi Nice, I had a good idea of what items I needed, how to display my stock and to arrive early to give plenty of time to set up. We needed to get the bus to the event location which was easy because there was a cheap direct route, however, my friend overslept and missed it, meaning I had to get there and start setting up by myself which I was anxious about. There were some other vendors on the same bus with suitcases of stock, which was reassuring, and we all managed to arrive in plenty of time. On our table we were given some information about the event, our lanyards and a thank you letter which was all very welcoming.

It was a great experience, meeting and talking to festival goers who were all having a good time there, and talking to the other table runners was helpful in learning some tricks about set up and other festivals they were going to attend. We were told about a website that lists the calendar of comic-con events in the UK for the whole year, which will be helpful in the future but is a little unrealistic at the moment, given our available time, energy and funds.

It is definitely something I would do again next year, hopefully with some better selling products after looking at what others were selling or offering. Also I might invest in some mesh screens which could be used to add height to display more items on, making the table a little less cluttered. Many art sellers had these which gives an element of professionalism to their table. From our good experience at this event, we are considering expanding to include Bristol Comic and Zine Fair next year.

Pitt Rivers

6) Contacting the Pitt Rivers Museum about selling my book (1 day)

I took a trip into Oxford to show the museum the book I made as part of another module, 'The Bottle Witch' which is inspired by an artefact in the museum. I went with the intention of offering them it as a possible item in their shop since I have had interest in the book with a few sales already.

The appropriate person to talk to was unavailable on the day so I left the book example with a note and contact details in an envelope for them and a few days later I received an email saying that they liked the book and that I would have to wait to hear back from them.

From this I have learnt the value of self-initiated work, getting out and being proactive about promoting your own work. At the moment I am still waiting on a reply but I will email her asking for an update. I have also learnt that you have to do a lot of your own pushing which I find difficult as I do not want to come across as rude.

Stroud

7) Sending items to sell at the Stroud Museum in the Park 

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the actual event but I did give a few items to be sold on my behalf: my children's books 'The Bottle Witch' and 'The Enormous Turnip', my Inktober book, some Lucky Cat prints, fish prints, and badges. I was disappointed to have missed the event as the photos I saw looked like everyone had a good time but I'm happy that I sold about £20 worth of items despite not being there.

OYAP

8) Running workshops with Oxfordshire Youth Arts Partnership (OYAP) (3 days)

OYAP is an organisation that helps provide activities for young people in my area. They run arts and performance programs that volunteers and professionals work together to make happen. For this placement I had to have a valid DBS check (which I had already from working at a holiday camp) so this was no issue. As I have done work with OYAP before, they already had my details which made this work experience very easy to organise, the organisers sent out an email asking for volunteers over the holidays which I replied to.

I helped to run arts workshops on the theme of Time Travel; one day was two printing workshops using lino and the next was a two day project making a large installation time machine sculpture with digital media and illustrations. I was working with a few professional artists and children aged 7-14. On the first day we ran sessions encouraging the children to think about how their time machine would look and work by working collaboratively on drawings before designing their print to be made in styrofoam for the younger ones and lino for the older ones. The children were enthusiastic which made the workshop easier and more fun for everyone and at the end of the day we made the extra prints into a small exhibition on the studio wall for parents to see. The second two-day workshop had everyone making their own projects and collaborating to join them into one large machine, using cardboard, bubblewrap and other recycled materials.

As I have an illustrative background, I was asked to make some drawings to decorate the interior of the machine and by doing this, other children were inspired to draw as well. Helping everyone to create what they wanted instead of being told what to do created a hardworking and focused atmosphere, meaning we got a lot done in a short amount of time. The relationship between all the helpers was very relaxed which worked well in that environment, as we were able to make our own things to go in the time machine and join in with the activities. 

Some issues that came up were that a few of the children we were working with had learning difficulties, meaning it was sometimes difficult to get them to focus on the tasks or join in with the group, however, they both enjoyed participating in their own projects. There was also an issue where one person cut themselves using a lino tool but luckily one of the leaders helped to get that sorted out quickly. I do have some medical training but if I wanted to work with children and using possibly dangerous items, it would be wise to have a qualification in it so I could help.

One career option I might look into is being a technician in a school as I think I could help with classes in a studio environment while still having time to pursue my own art outside of this environment. Working as a helper for these workshops gives me a good idea of what is required to be a technician and what skills I therefore need to improve: communication with other people, in both a teaching and social aspect. 

Final Product!

We completed our newspaper!

Printed onto newsprint paper which gives it a good, handmade feel and made using the risograph which was a valuable learning experience with a technology I would like to work with in the future more often.

Overall, I am pleased with our paper although I think we could have been a little more prepared and printed a week earlier as we had originally planned. At times I found it difficult to work in a group as not everyone was at the same stage at the same time which made the digital compilation and printing process more difficult. I also did not want to come across as pushy to people who were behind others in the creation process. I think if we had discussed our individual pages with the group more then we could have produced a more professional and cohesive looking paper because stylistically it looks very different from page to page.

Printing and Compiling

We used the risograph printer to make our publication using  blue and black for the content and red and black for the cover. It was very helpful having the master copies printed last week as it meant we were prepared to start straight away today so the printing process only took about an hour to make 20 copies. (Whilst using the risograph I learned the correct ways to input paper so that the pages will be double sided and the right way around.)

Compiling the paper was therefore very simple as we decided against stapling so we just folded the paper in half to make the pages. We had originally thought it would take the whole day to print but it was much faster than we expected which was a bonus.