Lincoln Illustration Lecture

Hello Fellow Bloggers!

I thought I'd share with you what I've been up too recently. November has already been a busy month, which I have loved every minute of and there's still more to come!

A few weeks ago I was asked by the Illustration Department at  Lincoln University whether I would be willing to talk to some of the third year students about my work and how the MA Design Programme had informed my practice and I of course excitedly said yes!

So on Monday 17th November I spent a full day lecturing to the 2nd Year and 3rd Year Illustration students. I firstly introduced myself and explained how a lot of their visiting speakers probably talk about their working experiences- to give them an insight into the industry their going in too. But my presentation was going to be slightly different, I was more focused on showing them my work and what to expect after uni.

I wanted to speak quite honestly and open about my journey through Illustration, including the highs and the lows. I think a lot of illustrators suffer from creative block from time and time and it can get very frustrating and disheartening when a project isn't turning out exactly how you planned.
I reassured the students that this perfectly normal and problem solving is why creative people love what they do so much.

I know if I found the creative process easy then I would get very boring very quickly; but I think taking risks, challenging yourself and making mistakes are all part of the creative process and need to be practiced, whatever stage in your professional career.

All the students in 2nd and 3rd year were really engaged and came up to me afterwards to talk individually. They all had different thoughts on where their practice might be heading and I know a few of them were considering continuing in education towards a Masters. I hope some of the advice I gave them was taken as food for thought , as everyone's experiences and opinions are different.

Here's a few images of my Portfolio that I took in to show the students, they all seemed to really like the stock I had printed on, which is 300 gsm Somerset Printmaking Paper. We all agreed that printing on nice stock gives the work a richer quality.

A3 Box Portfolio
The box portfolio is effective when prints need extra attention and need to be handled.

A3 Box Portfolio
Left- Boxing Cows, Giclee Print.
Right - Run Rabbit Run, Giclee Print

A3 Box Portfolio
Left-  MA Dissertation 'Stepping Beyond the Familiar'
 Right- Giclee print called 'Have you got any Polos?' 

Thanks to the Lincoln Illustration Department for inviting me to talk to the students and the students themselves for being engaged and enthusiastic throughout my time there

If students would like any advice or the notes from the slides them please contact me via email at jessicarawlings1990@hotmail.co.uk

Keep your eyes peeled for my next blog post about working with my old college on a Chatsworth House commission.

Thanks for looking
Bye for now

MA Design Exhibition

Hello Everyone

Well the Private View for the MA Design Exhibition was a success! It was full of new friendly faces- all drinking wine and talking about Design.

I met lots of new and interesting people and got some lovely comments about my work. A big thank you to those who bought my work- I hope you all enjoy your new prints.

Here's some photos I took just before the show opened;

Here's how I displayed my work.
I'm so pleased with the frames, which were all done by Speed Frames in Lincoln. They are all white washed box frames, which I think act as a subtle backdrop against the busyness of the prints and gives the work a contemporary feel. The three pieces are priced individually at £70 unframed and £180 framed; they make a great bold statement in any space.

This little guy is called 'Horsey' and got lots of attention on the opening night, he's made out of MDF and is currently priced at £40.
I think he needs some friends to accompany him though so watch this space for more wooden creatures!

This paper pop up piece is titled 'Have you got any Polos?' and is inspired from the walks I used to go on as a child with my Nannan and Grandad in the countryside. We would always carry around a packet of polos with us and feed the horses with them, they used to love it when we walked by!
Safe to say that all the horses that lived near us had every minty breath!

Here's a photo of the gallery just before it was buzzing with people and got very warm indeed!
My work is on the far left; there's a great range of work displayed in the Show including illustration, stop motion animation, type design, pattern cutting, collaborative printmaking, graphic design and silversmithery.

The show is open Monday - Saturday, from 10am - 4pm and ends Saturday 27th September (my birthday) if your around then stop by and take a look.

Thanks for looking
Bye for now

Lincoln MA Design Exhibition TONIGHT 6-9 pm

Hi Everyone


Its finally here! The MA Design and MA Fine Art Final Show has arrived!! The Private View opens tonight 6-9pm at the Lincoln Art, Architecture and Design East Building in the Project Space. Here's a map of where the building is, see no 12.

The Gallery Space is located next to the door entrance on the left, you can't miss it! MA Fine Art are exhibiting on the Ground Floor with their Show 'Carry On Regardless' and MA Design are on the Upper Floor with their exhibition ironically called 'Upstairs'.

More information on the Gallery Space visit here: http://projectspacelsad.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/

Look out for these posters below, which will be plastered all around  Lincoln.

The MA Design Exhibitors include:

Jessica Rawlings - http://jessica-rawlings.co.uk/

Jamie Slinn - http://jslinnblog.tumblr.com/

Tom Bishop - http://www.tom-bishop.co.uk/

Ross Hammond

Rachel Heir

Laura Green

Yikai XU

Can't wait for tonight, its going to be a great show, looking forward to seeing lots of faces there

Illustration Presentation

Hi Everyone!

I  presented to some of the undergraduate students at Lincoln University today, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to talk to them about my work and my experiences, as I was in the same position as them 2 years ago. The presentation was titled 'My Journey through Illustration from BA-MA'.

I talked honestly about the transition from undergrad to postgrad, what happened after my degree and also why I chose to undertake a Masters course. I wanted to show the students how my work has changed and developed over the past 2 year and wanted to give them an insight into the approaches and processes I use. The talk was then followed by a discussion about the definitions and boundaries regarding illustration and art.

The students were fully engaged throughout the talk and asked lots of insightful questions. Some of the students were thinking about studying a Masters and others were interested in my plans after the MA.

At the end of the talk some of the students had a look through my portfolio and asked a few more questions about the techniques I use. I then had the opportunity to look at some of the students work, which was really interesting to see what they were all up too in the studio.

It's been a great experience for me and something that I'd love to keep doing, I'd like to thank all the students for their comments and if anyone would like a copy of it or would like to chat further then email me at jessicarawlings1990@hotmail.co.uk. 

Screen Prints and Development Work

Hello blog followers,

Here is my screen print that I have been meaning to upload for a few days now, I hope you enjoy it.
The image is in response to my walks taken through the YSP in Wakefield. The text used are snatches of convocations that I overheard while walking and the characters are what was seen and also references some sculptures displayed in the Park.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to explain how the Masters is going at the moment. I've had a challenging few weeks where I have really questioned what I am doing and why, the biggest question mark has been towards the processes I use when producing artwork, and also colour, scale and composition. In the past I have favoured  screen printing as a way of producing artwork, however as my research of theories and contexts around art and illustration grows and develops I feel slightly disconnected to this way of creating imagery. There are certain elements of the process that I am attracted too and others I think I need to re-evaluate.

Screen printing by hand gives a certain unique quality, which I find hard to replicate digitally; happy accidents, the smudging of ink and misregistration are all qualities which I feel enrich the viewers experience when engaging with the work, as they can connect to how the piece has been made.
However I am finding it hard to create a certain tension with atmosphere and texture in the imagery with using screen printing, as it produces a flat inked surface.

With this in mind I think the way to approach this would be to produce a hybrid print, giving me the opportunity to push and experiment with certain processes with my images. At the moment I am considering developing an image with a screen printed  background, so that the viewer can see the artist's hand, having some of my images made into lino stamps, which can be pressed onto the artwork and then having the main part of the imagery printed and coloured digitally, giving me the opportunity to rethink certain colour combinations and compositions. Afterwards I can also paint into the artwork with gouache , this could be used as washes over certain parts of the work or applied to create shadows of the characters within it.

With using these different processes to create an image I will hopefully achieve what I feel has been missing in my screen printed work. I understand that screen printing is a great way to produce work for selling in an edition to galleries and shops and although my work won't be technical termed as a multiple, there will hopefully be richer and a more aesthetically pleasing image emerging.

Below is a rough black and white image that I am hoping to trial these new ideas out on - I will hopefully keep updating how the image changes and progresses.

Thanks for reading my lengthier than usual blog update, now to put these ideas into motion and get cracking!!

Work in progress

Here's a sneak peek of what I am planning at the moment, the images are in black and white at the moment as they are going to be screen printing.. still deciding on colours

The work is in response to my different journeys I've taken during summer and how the objects are related to folklore and mythology, more to come soon

Thanks for looking! Comments welcome

Quick Snaps

Its the start of the academic year and I couldn't be happier with the feedback I have been getting about my work, which is being currently exhibited in the new art and design building at Lincoln University.
 I've got one more year left of the Masters and it is going to be extremely interesting and exciting to see how my work develops and changes over that time.

Its going to be lot of hard work and dedication but I know it will all pay off

Here are a few snaps of my work in the exhibition- enjoy!