Ian Dodds, Contemporary Illustrator. -

Today we were lucky enough to witness lecture by contemporary illustrator Ian Dodds.

He has provided illustrative artworks for most of the daily newspapers in the UK, including the Guardian, the Independent, the financial Times and the text telegraph. Illustrations for newspapers generally are known as editorials, and usually pay approximately £100-£500 per illustration

Ian explained the importance of what he calls the five P's. These are
portfolio
professionalism
promotion
perseverance
process

His recommendations are to always make work with those five P's in mind.

With regards to self-promotion Ian outlined how critical it was to always create the best possible promotional material for your own work, which should start to be distributed either before or at least at the graduate show. He also recommended that postcards are still the best form of promotional artefact, but if anyone makes enquiries then he recommends to also include the best that you can afford in terms of a 16 page brochure of the types and styles of your work.

Ian also recommended that whilst at University you should always try to be friends with the graphic designers on any course because ultimately they will be the ones who pay your commissions.

Whilst it may seem boring to churn out colourful illustrations, it is always better than just simply copying a photograph into an editorial or for a book cover. Photographs are just plain and hold very little imaginative creativity, unless they are extremely well composed. Therefore whenever you can draw draw draw.

Other sources of income which seem to be paying a little more these days are to start making illustrations for tailored commercial webpages. These can pay quite handsomely as there is a much higher usage of your images.

When it comes to designing book covers, it seems that nowadays everybody is at it, and whilst it may put bread on the table as steady work, be prepared to get your work rejected as it is often competing with a whole raft of others.

Ian recommended the Association of illustrators (of which I am already a member) and he recommended how essential it is to provide a contract feel work. This is an area that I have already investigated and I'm reasonably satisfied with my own website and the AOI contract that I have used as a base for this work. Ian recommended that I looked at the work of Paul Slater who is patron of the Association of illustrators, who actually paints in acrylics, and could be classified as an artist rather than illustrator, but nevertheless is able to command substantial commissions for commercial work.

Finally in reiterated the use of postcards in order to self promote your work, generally use A5 size, but make sure that they are double sided in order to get two chances of hitting a target!