abilitytogrowandchange

In the previous CA my teachers aknowledged that I saw there was more to illustration than just 2D drawings. They saw I was fully exploring all the possiblities in which I could express myself. I still haven't stopped exploring: I have used new mediums like video, but I also found a new ways to present my illustrations. Namely on t-shirts. Besides that my artistic language is changing, like I have described in 1. Creative Ability. I am drifting away from making work about myself and am now maturing as an artist by making work about topics that concern other people and society. My skills have developed over the years and I'm aware of this. I have challenged myself to make more skillful work than the years before and it has turned out well.

In the past years I have filled 3 sketchbook with drawings on every page. I never really knew what to do with them, besides posting them on social media. My friend asked me why I never thought of making t-shirts. I said to him I thought my drawings wouldn't be suitable to be worn. My friend heavily disagreed and said he would love to wear my art. We went through all my drawings and made selection of drawings that would make nice t-shirts.

When the publication assignment came up, I figured this would be a good opportunity to start with my t-shirt project. I made around 10 different designs for t-shirts. I put them on social media and asked people if they would wear them or not. This way I got a clear idea of what t-shirts could actually be produced. I was surprised by all the positive feedback I got on this project and how many people were willing to buy them.

I picked designs that had the most votes and had samples made of them. I am at the moment still in the process of this project, so the t-shirts haven't been launched yet. I hope to launch them end of December/beginning of January.

I am really happy my friend showed me my art is wearable. I don't think I would otherwise have done it. Until now I have been super happy about how this project is turning out. I am planning on having another launch that I can prepare during the plusweeks and launch during my gapyear. Designing t-shirts also made me think of possibly doing an internship in this field. I can see myself making nice designs for a skate brand for example, but I still have a bigger interest in film and animation.

One of the ways in which I have changed is that I got a better idea of who I am in society and what opinions I have. This change was slowly growing within me at the end of the 2nd year and start rapidly growing during the social practice (cultural diversity) in the 3rd year. The theory I had in my practice was about people, society, identity, racism, queerness and lgbtq. Because of this practice I feel like I have much better understanding of what these terms mean. It gave me a strong idea of who I am and what I want to fight for: being a woman.

I was working on my work 'Would you take this pill' in which I could express my identity and what I believe in. It felt good to make a work that could be meaningful for a big audience, namely women.

For the practice theory I wrote an essay that was very important to me: 'The hormonal woman in a non-hormonal' society. At this point I was already done with the 'Would you take this pill' project, but the essay was to me an explanation of this project. It felt so good to give words to my thoughts and feelings regarding this topic. I feel very strongly that this is a direction I want to continue. As mentioned before, I think I'll use this topic for my graduation project.

I decided to sign up for the IFFR open call to make a poster for the festival. I was so sure I wanted to do this, because I love IFFR. I have made posters two times before.

One in the 1st year for North Sea Jazz, which was very bad in my opinion, because I hadn't developed any skills yet, let alone an artistic language, had very little time and worked in Photoshop for the second time.
In the 2nd year for Metropolis Festival. I did a lot better this time and it was one of the best illustrations I digitally had made at this time. I saw there were still a lot of flaws, because of my lack of skill.
Now in the 3rd year, I felt like I had enough skills and experience to make a poster that I actually would feel satisfied about.

Not only did I use the skills I already had, I explored new skills while making this poster. This work is very different from the work I usually make. I've used a lot of patterns and experimented with shapes and colors. While I was working on this it felt much less as illustrating, but way more as designing. At first I was doubting about making something experimental, because I knew I could make something good if I would stick to my illustrative style that I have used in commissions before. I went with my gut feeling and did it anyway. Seeing it turn out so well, gave me a lot of confidence about what I am capable of.