I was super lucky to get picked for one of the history workshop illustration briefs by Viv. The brief was about Victorian tattoos, and since my project last year was all about the first female tattoo artist, I spent a lot of time looking into Victorian women with tattoos. It was actually pretty common among the upper class in America, so I already felt like I had a good amount of background knowledge for this. Plus, I thought it’d be cool to work on something tattoo-related, being a tattoo artist myself. I sent in my designs, and honestly, I think I just got lucky with the background knowledge I already had. I ended up being chosen for the brief, which was awesome. There were a few small tweaks I had to make, but nothing major.The final piece turned out fine – I’m just not in love with the illustrations themselves. I know they work well for the article, though, and look great next to the text, so I can’t really complain im just being MARDYYYYYY
I think I just need to let go of my personal feelings about them. I really wanted to do something more personal, like my flash designs, but that wasn’t the point of the article. So I had to shift my mindset and do what the brief needed, not what I originally wanted. I’ve always said I like doing editorial illustrations, and I think I do, but this brief was a bit different from what I had imagined. It had a quick turnaround, and because I’m so into the subject, I was a bit hard on myself with what I came up with.
Still, I’m hoping that if I get another workshop brief like this, it’ll help me get better and give me a clearer idea of whether editorial illustration is a route I want to go down for my career.