The Best Artwork Ever (As Voted By You)

A few months ago I asked Art Classroom readers to vote on the best artwork ever featured on the blog. The polls (blog poll, twitter poll, Facebook poll and email suggestions) are now closed and the votes have been counted. It was a close contest for the first few weeks, but in the end, Anna C’s ‘Fail’ (Oban High) topped the polls by over 23 votes and showed itself as the clear winner. It is very rewarding seeing the talent and quality of the work that has been displayed on the blog in the past two years and I love the ironic twist that a painting named ‘Fail’ is the winning piece. Congratulations to Anna, an iTunes Gift Card will be on its way to you this week.

Top Artwork Ever

Sorry for the lack of updates, I’ve been really busy picking ten artworks to put into a poll to find The Art Classroom’s Top Artwork Ever. Please go visit facebook to view the entries and to vote in the competition.

 

Click Here to see entries and vote.

Artwork Invoice

Becoming A Professional Artist / Designer – Part 2

As promised, please find an Artist’s/ Designer’s invoice available for download below from the ‘box’ (bottom of the right hand column). This invoice will let you see how invoices are laid out, to help you create your own, or you can download it, print it out and fill in the details. It is completely free for use. I can’t take any responsibility for the success of your work, your job or the passing of funds, though this should help those who are just starting out, or those that never knew how to invoice properly. As with all exchanges of money, you will need to clear such funds with the tax office and it will be likely that you will have to pay tax on the amount if you earn more than £5000. There will also be National Insurance Contributions to be made. More information on Self Employment and contributions can be found here. This always sounds a bit complicated, but it needn’t be. Most employers will automatically take contributions and tax from you before you get paid, so you don’t need to claim again or you’ll earn so little when you start off that you’ll be exempt from tax. It helps to know how to stay on the right side of the law though.

You should always clear with you client about what they are purchasing. Are they getting complete rights to the work for use and reproduction or are they buying a one-off piece that cannot be tampered with. As with all good invoices, I have left a rights and reproduction line for you to delete as appropriate, though this should not be considered as a contract, that may also be needed to protect your agreement.

I hope this helps some of you out there. Good luck and if you do use it, successfully or unsuccessfully, let me know.

Artwork For Friends

Becoming A Professional Designer – Part One

I’ve recently been working on a friend’s band album art and t-shirt design. It’s always incredibly difficult to work for friends, deciding if you should charge them, what you should charge and if you give away a freebie, will you be stuck providing freebies for the rest of your life. As an ex-freelance designer, I used to find it difficult to say ‘no’ to work, no matter if it was free work or paid. Every job is an opportunity to sell yourself, every job is another step closer to getting the perfect job. Though I have learned to say ‘no’, I can now pick and choose the design jobs I want to get involved in. I don’t need to prove myself, I don’t even need to do them anymore financially, teaching pays my mortgage.

As an ex-freelance designer, I always have time for my friends. Lots of the artists turned professional, that I know, forget about their friends awfully quickly after they’ve had a little bit of success or fame. They start to believe the hype pushed onto them and when that dies down, the fall is so much greater and without your friends there, there’s no one to catch you on the way down. I always have time for my friends, for their ideas, for their trust and for their loyalty in asking me for my talents.

Always make time for your friends, do the best job you can for them, if they are a friend, they’ll see the work and they’ll pay you in whatever way they can. If you’re wondering what to charge, I’d always charge a friend rate of £80 (usually for around £20 an hour for 4 hours work), it’s not a lot, but it’s a little gauge of the work that you have put into it, especially in your spare time. Most of my friends who I have invoiced end up paying more for the work anyway, they don’t want to offend you for paying you pittance for your talents. Friends are friends and time is money, you’ll have to find your own compromise.

If you do the work and you’re not happy with the feedback or payment, next time, just say ‘no’. You can’t feel forced to involve your talents for something that annoys you.

I have been doing these Clay covers on and off for over ten years now, I enjoy pleasing my friends and giving them what they what, while staying true to myself and producing something I’m still proud to attach my name to. It’s a tough thing to do in design. It’s a very fine balance to keep.

This week I’ll upload some forms to help you handle your design work professionally. Tomorrow I will start the whole thing off by featuring an invoice form for claiming your cash.

Ed Sheeran Logos

I did a little work for a friend of mine about six months ago, his name is Ed Sheeran and he just recently had a No1 iTunes album (just last week). His album, ‘No5 Collaborations Project’, is a mix of singer/songwriter music with London grime/rap.

I’m totally over the moon for him and anyone looking for something a little different than the usual pop-shlop should check him out.

This is the product of eight years of hard grafting and well deserved, when I met up with him last year he was slogging his rucksack around on trains from England to Scotland and selling a few CDs per gig. I’m glad people have come to there senses and given him the opportunity he deserves. Now signed to Atlantic, he has Jamie Foxx looking after him… I’m sure he’s in very good hands. Well done Ed!

In Paula’s Hands

Unfortunately due my laziness, the blog has fallen into a bit of a slump. I thought I should kick start it back on track with some great skill from Paula A H (S3, OLSP High) who’s work from home was featured two weeks ago. Paula has been working on analytical drawings of her own hands (one with her drawing hand, the other with her non-drawing hand (above)), and a pastel study as an alternative to  portraiture.

Paula’s skill is very obvious, even in her pastel piece that is still to be finished. Paula starts off the piece by drawing an outline of the shapes, she then adds highlighted blobs of colour to build up the form. When using pastel it is advisable to work from light to dark colours as it is easy to cover a white pastel with black, but impossible to cover a black pastel with white.

Really beautiful work. I’ll update this post when the piece has been finished. Well Done Paula.

Wait No Longer

This week’s Artwork of the Week comes from a Primary Teaching Student at the University of Glasgow. Miss Quigley created the short animation below at home. This gritty and quite realistic animation was shot using a Sony digital camera, then the photos were processed through iStop Motion, with sounds and editing completed in iMovie.

The short focuses on the people who are left behind after war, it shows us that it is not just those that are involved in the war, but those connected, who feel a greater impact through hurt and loss. The figure of the lead woman waiting on her loved one is extremely successful, her clothes look of the period and flow and move realistically, her proportions are more real than that usually seen in animations and she reacts well within the scenery, with the lighting and with each prop.

A beautifully created masterpiece with visuals and emotions that stay with you long after the film has finished.

Saara’s World

This week’s chosen artwork comes from Saara A from Notredame Secondary. Her project was to take a famous painting and adapt a story to it using four re-drawn panels. Saara had decided to go with ‘Christina’s World’ by Andrew Wyeth, a famous painting about a crippled girl crawling across a field. I was interested to see that Saara went for a different story focusing on the drama of running away rather than the actual reason for the painting, it really was quite refreshing. She originally wrote the story in her native language then translated it to English. It was then edited and typed into her A4 folded book.

Click to see larger readable version.

Paper Millipede

Lisa in S2 has just finished making her paper maquette of a millipede for her development of an Insect Chair. It’s an intricate piece of work with numerous legs and a segmented shell.

A.O.T.W. #1

‘Artwork of the week’ will air a great piece of work that is either in progress or that has been finished. It is open to all years and will depend on the unique quality and skill of the work. Our first winner ever is Jessica from S2 (Gleniffer High School), she is currently working on a Mexican ‘Day of the Dead’ Skeleton and Coffin. Her coffin is made from a card ‘net’ (template) that has been papier mached and painted with a folk art pattern. Her skeleton is mache that is currently being undercoated for decoration. Well done Jessica!