Analysis

After all this research into various career opportunity’s and course idea's, I have decided that I really want to be an Illustrator, I truly enjoy illustrating big pictures with backgrounds, it's a challenge but the finished product is worth it. I really was interested in the design for games course as although I wanted to be a character designer and the course was more general than what I wanted it still looked really fun and a great opportunity but although I enjoy drawing non-humans and backgrounds I really enjoy drawing humans and that wasn't really the focus of the course, also designing a character involves a lot of sketches and I rather work on a finished picture. As for Graphic design, I never really was interested in this, it was simply a back up plan in case I couldn't make it into illustration.

After working all this out I decided to have a talk with the leader of the BA (Hons) Illustration course, she told me all about the course and how as I have an understanding of anatomy and especially knowledge of digital art programs I would be ahead of the quite a lot of the class. After having time to think it over I came to the decision that the course would be a waste of three years. The whole purpose of the Illustration course is to experiment with every type of Illustration and make a style for yourself for people who don't already have a chosen style when I already know I want to draw stylised realism and that I have my own style I developed in my free time. This was actually quite a relief as I was worried about the debt from the £9000 course.

Instead of going onto this course I am going into full time work and improving my illustration skill in my free time and hopefully also doing some illustration jobs as well. I am confident I can continue to improve and develop without higher education as I have basically taught myself this much already from what I can perceive with my own two eyes and various tutorials on the internet and in books as well as experimentation with new ways of drawing, sketching, colouring and painting backgrounds. I wont be going into part time work and focusing more on getting Illustration jobs just yet as I want to have a stable job to live off and the illustration market is just to unpredictable, it could range from months to days between jobs and I would rather slowly ease into illustrating to give myself as much time to improve as possible.

In a few years as I get more confident with my art I will look into more challenging illustrations as I don't want to be stuck in a job that I don't like for the rest of my life. As I get more confident in my skills I will also try my very best to get my work out there, I plan to offer schools, library’s and youth centres free illustrations just to get it seen by my target audience, as my work is a bit to contemporary for older people.

Covering Letter

Jodie Pearce

7 Cromwell Road

St Judes

Plymouth

PL4 9QR

Disney Studios

500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521-9722

14th December 2011

Dear Sir/Madam

Application for character design apprenticeship

My name is Jodie Pearce and one thing you should know about me is that I am a massive fan your classics but I have lost passion and faith for the company after your 2D films started to die out and be replaced my films like High School Musical and Hannah Montanna. Like the rest of the Disney classic fans I went to the cinema to see Tangled out of a feeling of obligation to the company for at least trying but when I actually saw it. It blew my mind, it was such a step forward from all the old princess films and it reminded me again why I loved Disney, the animation, score, songs, it was all amazing. After watching it again and again I realised that even though this is an amazing step forward, there is so much more you can do building from it and that is what I would like to do if I ever got the chance to be a character designer for you, push the boundary's. Make stronger 'princesses' who don't have to be saved, villains that aren't just 'evil', side characters not just there for kids to laugh at. 

Although my talent is drawing my passion has always been designing characters. Since a young age I have been in love with fairy tales, books and films and as I perused my career in art my experience from this inspired me to start making my own characters and eventually worlds. Over the years my artistic talent has improved to quite a high level and I learnt important skills like perseverance and creativity as well as broadening my horizons and looking at more than just western films and books. I believe all this has helped improve my character design skills as as my skill increased I realised I could draw more interesting clothing and hair styles which has pushed my character design way up and I truly believe I could really make some amazing characters with the right guidance.

I know you don't offer apprenticeships for character design but I seriously believe we need more character designers as even if the film is beautifully animated with an amazing plot and score it will still do badly if no-one likes the characters, as they are, I believe, the most important part of the film. I would be happy to discus my idea's with you further or even have an interview. 

Yours Faithfully

Jodie Pearce

CV

Jodie Pearce

7 Cromwell Road

St Judes

Plymouth

PL4 9QR

01752 267 136

07535601338

Jpearce5@plymouthart.ac.uk

Professional Profile

Hard-working artist who is imaginative and independent. Organized and intelligent with a strong academic skills including mathematics, writing and science.

Skills

ñ  Creativity

ñ  Maturity

ñ  Illustration

ñ  Open-mindedness

ñ  Writing

ñ  Quick Learner

ñ  Can work independently or in a group.

ñ  Calculation

ñ  Perseverance

ñ  Knowledge of Computers

ñ  Can use different computer programs, for example Microsoft Exel, Microsoft Powepoint, Adobie Photoshop ect.

ñ  Hard-working

Education

June/July 2009

            Lipson community college

                  GCSE Drama – Grade C

June/July 2010

            Lipson community college

           

                        GCSE Textiles – Grade B

                        GCSE English – Grade A                  

                        GCSE English Literature – Grade B

                        GCSE Mathematics – Grade A

                        GCSE Science – Grade B

                        GCSE Additional Science – Grade A

                        Function Skills English Writing Level 2 – Pass

                        BTEC First Diploma Art and Design – A/A*

Work Experience

One week work experience set up by Lipson in Waterstones (Drake Circus) 2010

References

Available on request 

Employment Vacancies and Leads

Employment Vacancies




Looking through the internet I found three job vacancies that would be suitable.

Creative Designer

http://www.totaljobs.com/JobSeeking/Creative-Designer_job52368296

This job is set in Bristol and has a salary of £25,000 per annum, it is looking for someone with a well polished portfolio who is a natural at digital art programs like photoshop and illustrator. They also need you to have a keen eye for typography, colour and layout which will help to pinpoint a variety of design techniques to solve specific design problems. You also need to be good at multitasking and communication. Bringing something new to the job would be a massive bonus as well.

This job sounds really good but I don't think it will give me much creative freedom, also I think it would be aimed more towards graphic designers.

Designer And Artworker - Design & Print

http://www.itjobspost.com/JobSeeker/search.cfm?page=position-description&JobID=183746

This job is set in Surrey and the salary is £ 25000-30000 Per Annum. The company is a supplier of design and print and they have a design studio where they create high quality printed material, they are looking for someone who is hard-working and good under pressure with good knowledge of digital art programs, especially 3D would be a bonus. 

This job sounds more like a following job not leading like the one before, which I prefer as I don't have much experience.

Creative Artworker

http://www.companyexplorers.com/index.php?post_id=161506

This job is based in Waltham Cross and pays £18 per hour, they are looking for someone with photoshop skills on the mac. They also want you to be  highly organised, a good communicator and have good attention to detail. As well as that you need a strong portfolio.


This job seems more flexible than the rest with the whole £X per hour, it also seems like it's based in a studio with macs which I am not used to.




Employment Leads




Disney Character Designer


I have always loved Disney and it would be absolutely amazing to be a character designer there, I have grown up with it's classic films and I loved how even with each style change the movies were so predominately Disney. Although the company had declined over the years and a lot of their films come across as the same old stuff again, after seeing Tangled it feels like the company may be going up-hill again and having a chance to create a princess, villain or comedy relief character with my own little twist or even have an influence on the films style would actually be a dream come true, especially since character design has become my passion over the years.


Studio Ghibli Character Designer


I discovered Ghibli in my late teen's and I fell in love with how the films weren't just the typical prince meet princess story's. Most were about the journeys of the characters. I'd love to do illustrations for Ghibli but they don't really need them, but drawing the designs for the characters would be so much fun, especially since the films have amazing slightly unusual designs even though the style doesn't change like with Disney. Unfortunately being based in Japan would cause language barriers but it is still one of my dreams to work there.


Square Enix Character Designer


Until I actually looked into this company I wasn't really impressed but once I played Kingdom Hearts it opened my eyes to the company I discovered the amazing designs Tetsuya Nomura (Now one of my hero's) for the Final Fantasy games as well as Kingdom Hearts and The World Ends With You. I think my dream job would be Nomura's, he designs the characters for the games as well as monsters and the plot, all his designs are so unique they are one of the things that makes the whole company stand out. I am not even a game fan but some of Square's work is absolutely breathtaking and working there would be a dream come true, although since the company is situated in Japan like Ghibli there would be language barriers.