Jack Teagle Lecture

I found Jack Teagle's lecture to be really interesting actually, more so than i expected. It was really useful and inspiring to have someone not too much older than me explain in detail what steps he has taken to become a freelance Illustrator which is exactly where i hope to be in a few years time. I was surprised at how slow the process from him graduating to working 'full time' illustrating was... and a bit disappointed. However it made me realise how important it is for me to start putting into motion now the steps that will take me towards being an illustrator... i need to recognise that the sooner i get going on producing and distributing work, the sooner i will be in a position to receive commissions and freelance work.

Here are some of the notes i took during the lecture:

• Diversity is important: Jack makes comics, tshirts, band art, posters, canvas works and more.
• At University, Jack was unsure as to what direction he should take his work in, so he worked on things that interested him, and took a lot of inspiration from comics, superheroes, sci-fi and retro toys.
• He worked constantly in sketchbooks and worked on developing his own style, looking at both imagery and hand-rendered type.
  
• He worked on comics, one series of which especially which involved characters such as wrestlers doing everyday activities like putting the washing on.
• Jack consistently updated his blog with everything he was working on, and used the Internet to keep in touch with other artists and build connections and a fast growing fan following.
  
• Work was few and far between still, even after university so Jack spent a lot of his time working on expanding his portfolio, entering competitions and doing a lot of work for free just to make contacts.
  
• Over this period, he realised that hand-painting his work was a time consuming method, and was becoming a restraint when working on editorials where fast turn-over was essential. This lead him to explore using digital art in these circumstances.
  
• No Brow asked him to join their company. SPERA, Anorak magazine, Research World - some of the companies that got in touch.
• YCN approached him and became his agent.
• Since then he has been holding regular solo and joint exhibitions, working on more zines and comics, selling paintings and taking commissions.

My 3 questions going into the lecture were:

- What is the best piece of advice you could give me after the experience you have gained?

- What/who are your influences?

- Which medias do you prefer to work in?

I got the answers to all of these within the lecture itself. It was clear that Jack's biggest learning point, and the thing that had been of most value to him was the amount of work he produced. He produces art non-stop and is consistent in updating his blog and website, this was the biggest piece of advice he offered... and its something i will definitely take on board!
His influences were sci-fi, comics, toys, wrestlers, superheroes, japanese art.... etc. This was interesting to hear but varies significantly from my own inspirations.
The interesting point that Jack made about medias was the time difference in hand-rendering artwork, and creating it digitally. At the present i hand-render nearly everything and occasionally use the computer as a touching-up device. After listening to Jack talk about fast turn-arounds and deadline pressures it has made me more determined to become more confident with digital art programs so that i may be able to speed up my working process in the future.