Overall Review & Reflection of Silver Arts Award Challenge Unit 1

Actually, I don't like this writing part of the award. I find it extremely frustrating. Sometimes it can be fun but I feel like it cramps my creativity. Creating the comic was the fun part.

Challenge Review and Reflection

The challenge to create my own comic overall was amazing and I enjoyed it even during those times when I was tired or something felt repetitive. I feel like I have achieved something and my hard work will gain me something I really want in life.

There were many hard challenges and problems while making the comic but there were some super easy things that I could just do without thinking. Sometimes I needed help with drawing the body shapes because it is a naturally challenging thing to do and also times where I required help with scenery colour schemes and characters. Easier parts were thinking of names and creating the storyline; I love to use my imagination to create things so found this came easily as well as being lots of fun. However, there were way bigger difficulties like when I pressed the wrong button and it would enter something wrong or delete something out! Luckily Ami was there to help and I got there in the end and can now solve most things out on my own.  

All of it, of course, was great fun and I had many good times going round to Ami’s just sitting on her sofa listening to some music while making the comic. Attending Ami’s sessions was great because it wasn't always serious, in fact it hardly was! It was a fun casual thing where we could talk and have a little chat and have a laugh at funny things we said or did on accident. I realise that I work better in a creative, relaxed and informal setting.

Ami helped teach me about Photoshop by showing me all the different tools which I wrote down in my book with little doodles beside them so I could always look back so it could help me remember what they were and then from there I just kept practising.

Overall, I have learned many skills during my time working towards the silver arts award challenge. I can now apply these skills to many things as well as continue to create more Manga comics and drawings. My Photoshop skills are now improved and I can use it more efficiently and can create better drawings and images and could even make a sequal to my comic. I have already been showing my Mum how to use Photoshop for her business. 

I have learned more drawing techniques which I believe have made me a better drawer and has helped me create and understand more about illustration. I have even learnt about Manga, Anime and more of the Japanese culture because the comic was based on Manga which is something I already love and have been trying to improve on. With all these skills on board I can now go away and make my own artworks and stories and maybe get a job in later life like a manga illustrator. With my comic finished and also many other drawings I have created I can put it into a portfolio which could help me get a job in the future in an area which I enjoy.

To compliment my Arts Challenge, I went on several outings; Hyper Japan, a Japanese Festival; Under The Spotlight; most epically, I went to Comic-Con in London! You can read all the reviews of these events by clicking on the highlighted text. 

In addition to my trips out, I have even learnt some Japanese words but mostly song lyrics as I love to sing. First I listen to the first sentence of the song while reading the Japanese pronunciation lyrics and have a try at saying one word at a time. Then I try and sing it all myself with and then without the music and seeing if it matches and then I keep at it until I match the pronunciation and lyrics. There are probably better methods to learning lyrics of Japanese songs but I prefer to imitate as it also helps me with my acting if I have to be a certain character.

To conclude, I am very proud and happy that I have made my own comic and am so happy that it's finally all made after many sessions of hard work, I hope that with it I will receive a Silver Arts Award after all my effort

Comic Con London

For those of you who don't know, Comic con is a convention where you can dress up as characters in certain outrageous styles that you don’t generally wear and it's a place with skits and cosplay catwalks and all your nerdy needs.

I had been looking forward to going to Comic Con for quite some time and my friend and I had been planning our outfits for ages! I went along with my friend and her sister and her Mum.

I arrived at Comic-Con London and started queuing for a wrist band so I could be let in. Luckily it didn't take very long and I could look at the other cosplayers as I was waiting. After I had been let in I looked around and marvelled at all the different outfits and props people had. I browsed the stalls and came across a Jack Frost cosplayer and nervously asked for my very first photo with a cosplayer at Comic-Con!

I started looking at the stalls more closely and there were so many different varieties of things to buy, such as: plushies, jewellery, badges, comics, drawings, books, wigs, costumes, clothes, hats, masks and so much more! I purchased a ring and a pillowcase from Black Butler, an Anime I watch.

After looking around some more and taking pictures with more Cosplayers I had lunch. There was a big lunch hall with plenty of seats and places for people to sit and also a lot of nice food to buy. I bought some cherry coke and 6 little doughnuts to dunk in hot melted chocolate, DELICIOUS! After I had eaten and was full up I started walking back until I came across a massive conga line! I joined in and got high fives and people joining onto me and there was music and it was such fun!

After all that excitement I walked back to the stalls for more photos with cosplayers and had one last look at the little stands before taking the train home.

Overall, I thought it was a very good experience. The quality of some of the cosplayers were amazing but some not so good. Everyone was really friendly and I felt like it was well organised. It was crowded though so if you don't like crowds maybe not a great place to be.

The items on sale in the little shops were mostly very expensive but there were a few stalls that sold things for quite a good price.

I'd go again and I'd recommend it for those who enjoy anime and cosplay.

Working with Ami

My time working with Ami has been really fun and enjoyable mostly because it was just so casual and relaxed. If we got something wrong we could just laugh about it and fix it and if we pronounced something wrong we would just make a joke about it. We also got to have some music on and I got to choose sometimes. Often I would come in and Ami would be finishing her lunch as she is only half done with it.

It's not all fun and games though because it took a lot of work making the comic. We had sessions almost every week for about 1 and a half hours. There were sessions that had longer gaps in between and this was hard as I had to get my mind back on to the project. 

I had to learn to remember the Photoshop tools and how to use them. Eventually I got the hang of it and now can do most things easily by myself. Though Ami was doing the teaching I taught her some stuff about anime and manga too.

I asked her these questions as part of my research into her career.

Q1: When did you first start your Career?

In my final year of Uni we did a project called 1st destination which was all about designing and making up business cards and thinking about what kind of thing we wanted to do when we graduated. It was probably then that I first thought about starting my own business. In 2007, a year after graduating I officially registred MiaMai and started trading under that name.

Q2: What inspired you to make and design clothes and art?

I've always been arty. Originally I thought I wanted to do photograhy but naturally moved into Art and fashion. I liked that I could move between the two transferring my illustrations onto clothes and illustrating my designes. I was inspired to create my own designs and loved the idea of creating something that someone fell in love with or that just made them smile and feel good about themselves

Q3: Do you enjoy your work?

Yes I love what I do. I love that being the boss of my own company I can do exactly what I want to do. I understand that I am very fortunate to be able to make a living doing something that I love!

Q4: Were you encouraged to pursue what you love/loved?

Yes my family and friends were always very supportive of me following my creative dreams. I also received encouragement from Uni both from my tutors but also the enterprise unit. I entered a competition in my final year which was all about supporting young entrepreneurs. I actually won the design category so received some business mentoring too which really helped in the beginning.

Q5: What's your favourite part about your job?

I like making and creating so just the process of being creative is probably my favourite thing. I also like being able to see things through from initial design to the final photo shoot.

Q6: How many working hours do you work?

I work part time at a craft organisation called Making Space so I fit Mia Mai into the other days of the week. I don't have set hours. I just work when I want to/can do.

Q7: Who is your inspiration?

Ah good question. Art wise my favourite artist is Audrey Kawasaki, a Japanese artist who's work is just beautiful. I also really like the illustrations of Angelique Houtcamp - she's a Dutch tattoo artist who does very traditional but awesome artwork. Fashion wise I have always admired the late Alexander McQueen. I went to see the show Savage Beauty last year and it was a huge inspiration!

Q8: What's your favourite thing to make/draw?

At the moment I'm really enjoying making lingerie. I went on a professional master class last year and got utterly inspired. I still have more to learn but that's what I'm concentrating on at the moment.

Q9: What item sells the best?

Probably my prints because they are very reasonably cheap. People love paying £10 to have something they love on their wall and I'm able to produce them very cheaply so I still make a good profit.

Q10: Is there anything else career wise you’d like to achieve?

I'd love to get my lingerie to a stage where I could sell it in boutiques etc. I also really like the idea of trying my hand at tattooing (especially as its a huge inspiration of mine). I have bought a machine but not yet tried something out!

My Own Career Aspirations

Personally, I’d like to be an Anime and Manga illustrator. Creating and designing characters is something I already love doing and I do a lot of this in my spare time. Getting to the point where I will be able to do this as a job takes a lot of work so hopefully at the end of this all I can do the thing I love for a living. To start I have practiced drawing my own characters and am slowly growing better at it.

I have started trying to draw characters from animes and such. I started to learn how to colour in and edit my drawings digitally with Ami so now I do that too. I even made a dress with Ami which turned out amazingly and I am very proud of it.

I have been doing this silver arts award and I have already got my bronze arts award. I have also been building up a portfolio of my drawings and artwork so I one day can show it to maybe an arts college or some kind of arty job that I would like to do.

Hopefully getting this silver arts award on top of my bronze will go some way to helping my career path. 

Here are some of my drawings.

So you want to be an Illustrator?

Here are some other routes and Ideas to becoming an Illustrator

- Start to create your own style and techniques and get reviews on your drawings

- Start your own small business selling your art/characters to others

- Go to loads of arty workshops

- Try achieving a bronze/silver/gold arts award

- Make your own portfolio to show

- Go to loads of galleries and view all the different styles of art

- Spread and showcase your art via Social media

- Work with Illustrators to make a piece of art

-Try to get some work experience with artists

Career Pathways

As part of the challenge I have to think about possible career pathways. I've chosen Illustration as the overall job as that is the part I am most interested in. 

Being an Illustrator is a job and set of skills that could be applied to a large variety of industries. Here are a few of examples of the different industries and routes I think one could take with it.


You could be a fashion illustrator, drawing and creating outfits for models.
    

• You can Illustrate your own ideas and see if any fashion brands likes them.   
• You can Illustrate other people's ideas for them
• You could Illustrate jewelry
• You can Illustrate patterns out for materials
• You can Illustrate clothe magazine covers

 

You could be a comic/manga/book illustrator, using your imagination to draw pictures.

• You can Illustrate characters
• You can Illustrate  the scenes and background
• You can Illustrate  the props
• You can Illustrate the covers
• You can even Illustrate your own characters/backgrounds/props and covers and sell them to people

You can be an advertisement illustrator, creating colourful, eye catching ads.

• You can Illustrate the background
• You can Illustrate the object of which is being advertised
• You can Illustrate the font for the text
• You can Illustrate the animation
• You can Illustrate posters

You can be a business illustrator,  

• You can Illustrate the logo’s
• You can Illustrate the business website designs
• You can Illustrate the a short cartoon on the business and what they do
• You can Illustrate new business ideas

Bringing it all together

Back at Ami's today to start pulling the comic together to send to the printer. 

It's taken a really long time to get to this point with some big gaps in between sessions but after a lot of effort I'm very very close to finishing the comic. On reflection, I think if I were to do this again I would ensure that there were no big gaps in between sessions.

The very big things are done, so just lots of tweaking and bits to add such as some words today. We made some last minute changes and moved things around a bit. We went through page by page in a systematic order to ensure that I had everything covered.

I've felt very tired with this now and I just really wanted to get it finished. I felt really relieved when we had got everything covered and happy. It's now ready to go to a Printer. 

I also have some homework relating to the Silver Arts Award Challenge. Unfortunately, the comic isn't the only part of the challenge. I now have to think about possible routes forward should I want to pursue a career in illustration.