Journey into illustration – An Artists Intent and Mid Year Resolution

My relationship with illustration probably spans the entirety of my life. As a child and young teen with no television, books especially illustrated books became my inspiration and imagination. With this in mind it makes sense that my deeply held dream would be to 'become an illustrator'.

In my present day life I have had the great fortune to illustrate pieces for board games and more recently the box cover for Devious Weasel's 'Bemused' board game. And it was with this piece that I thought maybe, I could look into (all very tentative language) creating my first print. I also had the far off lofty idea of creating more prints in the future and moving my intent and thinking towards narrative illustration.

And so this is where I find myself today, in August making a mid year resolution of sorts. I launched my first print shop on the 16th August, using third party sellers (Society6 and INPRNT) with the Bemused piece. There is a certain excitement that comes with seeing your work on real world tangible items (I also discovered I really like the look of the muse on pillows and bags, which was something I wasn't expecting).

I'm going to use this blog to document my journey into making more narrative illustration, prints and other bits and pieces. I have never documented the learning process before but I hope to share my successes, pitfalls, mistakes and learning lessons with you as I go along.

With all this being said I've always enjoyed a list and actionable, achievable goals so I would like to include some aims for the mid-year:

Research:

• 15 mins artist research everyday 
• 15 mins practice and method research everyday 

Prints:

• 1 new print fortnightly (26 by the year up) 

Social Media and Marketing:

• (1st Wednesday) #WIPWEDNESDAY posts [twitter, insta, fb] 
• (2nd Wednesday) #WIPWEDNESDAY posts [twitter, insta, fb] 
• (Friday following) Final piece posting  [twitter, insta, fb, blog, website]
• (Monday following) WIP video, Blog discussion on piece [blog, website, youtube]

Intent:

• Create actionable intent and test out intent throughout the year 
• Create actionable artist manifesto and test out throughout the year 

Style:

• Experiment with cuter, lighter style (13 pieces) 
• Experiment with more sophisticated, serious style (13 pieces) 

Practice:

• Experiment with digital illustrative practice (6 pieces for lighter style, 6 for more serious) 
• Experiment with traditional illustrative practice (7 pieces for lighter style, 7 for more serious) 

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You can see more of my work at: ( Main Website / Society6 Prints / INPRNT Prints / Twitter / Instagram / Snapchat: ni.robinson )