Samantha Landells

A lot of my independent research takes place on my phone as I am constantly doing this throughout the day when I am travelling and things. I really enjoyed creating my cute snail couple and would like to continue delving further into this style and theme of illustration. A lot of the accounts I have been interested in recently hit the category of cute, which is what also inspired the creation of my 'Cute food character project' earlier. I love the way this style feels and looks aesthetically and I would love to be able to improve my skills within this style and create something influenced by my research into these types of artists. One of my favourite artists that I have found at the moment is @catface.exe I absolutely adore their colour palettes and use of liquid forms. I am really inspired by the way they take creatures and incorporate them either within or into components of liquid. This is such an interesting style which I would really like to experiment with in my pers...

One of the main platforms I use as part of my more proactive research platforms is Instagram, however I have found that most of the time I spend on the site is on the explore page rather than what is supposed to be my refined feed. This is because I am following a lot of accounts which either no longer interest me or do not relate to illustration at all. In order to improve both my research process and motivation I have decided to have a clear out of my followings in order to improve my refined feed and make it more directed towards my current interests. I feel this by doing this it will help inspire me to create more illustrations and help improve my illustration techniques by enabling me to break down the images created by inspiring artists in order to try and identify their methods which I will then try to replicate or utilise in my own personal work. I feel that this was important to document as it shows I am concerned about using every opportunity I have effectively.

Following the news of my university being closed for the forseeable future until the Corvid-19 Pandemic settles, I like most, became extremely overwhelmed and stressed by the seriousness of this event. In order to help myself calm down and become level again so that I could actively work on my new module at home I decided to create some cute snail characters which were inspired by the artist @snail.mart and her adorable snail creations. I have included one of the designs which influenced me alongside my creation for comparison. I really enjoyed the process of making this basic design, although I found their methods may consist of the use of procreate rather than Illustrator as it was difficult to use the brush to create each of the individual shapes without having them necessarily join. However I chose this software rather than Photoshop due to the ability to make my brush strokes have a 'smooth' more accurate feature. I decided to dedicate my snail creatures to me and ...

I faced a lot of difficulty during the beginning of this module as I struggled to comprehend how to structure my responses and what exactly I was supposed to be looking into, however as the  module progressed and I asked for some clarification from my tutors I found myself enjoying this task. I especially liked my research into the Folio Society as I found it extremely interesting and relevant to my future goals. Following my contextual studies module I feel I have a new found appreciation for artist influence and how it can alter and enhance my designs in a multitude of ways. I feel that by delving below the surface of initial movements and societies to learn their deeper meanings, purposes and ambitions is truly inspiring to me and helps me feel a lot more involved as a whole. Due to this I feel this type of research shall be important to continue in the future in order to allow me to develop as both a creative and industry professional. To do this I will try and improve th...

I really enjoyed this project and felt very engaged with the topic, I felt I was able to explore a variety of ideas and materials which provided me with the opportunity to problem solve a variety of issues that I experienced, such as having to explore and understand how different materials would behave once folded into the noodle boxes. Primarily I had one strong concept; however I feel I explored a wide variety of concepts, ranging from farm yard animals to iridescent skeletons. I found the 3D workshops extremely interesting as it showcased a new working method which I could use to develop pieces of work in the future, my skills are still lacking in this area however I would like to continue exploring the use of C4D in the future. One thing I must improve on in the future is clearly identifying how my research effects my decisions and make sure this is clearly evidenced within my work. Overall I am very happy with the progress I made during this module as I feel I better...

As I was working on the hand in of my latest 3D module I attended a presentation from the Association of Illustrators, who were here to inform myself and a range of others the various processes and requirements we will be needed to complete in order to successfully become free lance artists. I found this presentation extremely informative and it gave me a better understanding of the groups and legal actions in place to protect my rights as a creative. Although I plan on maintaining my presence as mainly educational for the time being there are some stages which I can begin to explore in order to ensure that once I decide to take my work further I have a larger platform available to me, such as joining the association of illustrators or creating an online presence. I was informed more in-depth of the importance of an active online social media presence for creatives like myself, and I feel this may be the first step I take considering I have easy access to these platforms already. I...