Illustrators Inc.

Oh man. I got home yesterday and I conked out. Dead. There was so much I wanted to do; hell, I was going to work on my self-portrait for college, alas it was not to be.

Illustration: Joven Kerekes

I conked out happily, though. The day was excellent.
Illustrators Inc was an (indoor) event in Malahide Park, focusing on the various elements of illustration with a big emphasis on children's books illustration, something I can see myself doing in the future but also something that scares me immensely ("What if I corrupt them??" -case in point my explaining of a "guillotine" to a four year old child when I worked at a creche a few years ago). It was a Laureate Na nÓg driven event (Thanks Niamh!) in association with Children's Books Ireland and the county council. Illustrators Inc was one of the many events that have been put on throughout this year by this team, e.g. at the start of this summer there were children's events on in Meeting House Square (Teamed up with The Ark).

  I know lists are boring, and you won't have the same feel for these as me, but I might as well give you a short run-down on these seminars? Drum roll Please;

Illustrators Inc
  Professional Development Day for Illustrators

Licensing
With Fig Taylor, Rod Hunt and Anna Hewitt
Something we really should all know about. This was a talk on copyright and keeping your copyright. About how one should put together terms and agreements and how careful you ought to be when reading a company's terms. Also Merchandising. Also be careful of educational companies (Speaking very broadly, yeah?). It was interesting and valuable. It also saddened me a little, these speakers were from the UK, and referred to the AOI, the Association of Illustrators. While we do have the IGI, the AOI sounds more established and, to be honest, almost like a help centre for illustrators, rather than a collective (That was my understanding, anyway).

Irish Funding Opportunities
With Catriona Ryan, Mathilde Veldt and Sinead Connolly
 Okay, so this talk did not set my mind on fire, or anything, but it was one of the definite necessities. I'm still glad it was in there. There are so many means of funding your art, it's unbelievable (Could it be that the government actually Does support the arts, mein gott!). A lot of the time, you have to justify to the city council how your work will benefit the people/the city etc. but to be honest, I find that fair enough.. you Are asking for funding, essentially.


The Role of Illustration and Illustrators in the Visual Arts
With Fiona Kearney accompanied by Alé Mercado
Fiona Kearney of the Glucksman Gallery (Cork) took the floor and talked about illustrations in the context of gallery space and fine art. This did fire, and from my impressions it seems the Glucksman is not judgemental when it comes to art, it doesn't need to slot nicely into the "fine art" category, unlike many galleries out there. While being exhibited in a gallery was of the least concern to me right then, Fiona talking about how artists can use the space the gallery gives them really interested me. It would be possible to elevate your work from the page. A viewer's experience needn't be constrained by a frame, or by flat 2D, even. e.g. The Project Twins' page rolled out onto the floor as well as hanging from the wall. Concept. Lovely.
Very impressed (And I feel it could have been a confidence booster to many illustrators there!)

Project Twins

Free Lunch
No friends. Stop laughing. This is super important, okay?
This was a delicious hour-long event.

Banking on Bologna
With Warren Buckleitner, Chris Judge and David Maybury
This year, one of my tutors will be at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. That is the only reason I  knew what this was about. Well timed, well timed.
The book fair is an annual event, been going on for forever (lazy research!). My grasp is that the fair is less about selling books so much as selling yourself. Most book publishers are present at Bologna, you can get up close and personal with those high, high up the ladder, people you usually couldn't touch. Fabulous. Though it's mainly book-focused there is Some digital media in here as well.
Fun fact: Scholastic signed Harry Potter here.

Illustrating for Interactive Design
With Warren Buckleitner
This was a focus on apps. This is another one of those that set my mind alight. The talk wasn't on the nitty-gritty programming aspect of app development, so much as the psychological elements and presentation, what makes a good app and a bad app - again with a focus on creating apps/games for children. It was super interesting, I enjoyed it. While I cannot program, I can't help but remember that there's four whole courses in my college on game design and interactive media; we should be milking this like crazy. 

Toca Band

 
Animating your Illustrations.
With Paul Young and Pauline Macnamara
I was super tired by now, unfortunately these two got the graveyard shift. The focus on this talk was moving from illustration to animation, career-wise. Presumably, the title of this seminar came from looking at concept art and seeing the final render. Cartoon Saloon (Paul Young told us) tend to keep as close to concept art as possible. This being said, I believe this is because they draw simple from the start, to make sure their sketches ARE animate-able (ohhh that spelling), unlike Disney, who do full on illustrations that would be impossible to replicate and animate (This being said the variation of Body shape and ethnicity would be nice if it were kept HM). We learnt about TRTÉ and RTÉ Jr. as well as Cartoon Saloon's past and its projects, future and current.

After this there was a wine reception in Malahide Castle, it was super classy with wine and actual beautifully presented finger food (and free castle tours). I didn't drink a lot however, so I kept pretty quiet (Maybe next time I'll determinedly embarrass myself!).

If you have any specific questions, I will try to answer them (yes, my invisible audience), also I'm hoping the presentation slides from each seminar are uploaded online very soon...

I loved the day, it was well worth coming to. I feel I've walked away with a lot of information, a lot of insight into the different sides to illustration and perhaps, knowing a little bit more about illustrators themselves.

I'm pretty happy to be clambering to join their ranks.