Resources, tips and tools from our Futures roster

Hannah Gillingham

Painterly illustrator Hannah crafts her expressive pieces using traditional painting methods recreated through modern technology. She reveals the tools and tips she recommends for being brave when putting your work out there and making those valuable connections.

Make Connections

When I was first starting out and beginning my freelance journey as an illustrator the most invaluable tool and resource I found was speaking to other creatives who were already in the industry. At the very beginning, despite having studied Illustration at university, I had very little knowledge of what it took to break into the industry and how to make a sustainable career as an illustrator so working from the ground up often felt overwhelming. Reaching out to creatives already in the industry and seeking their advice and guidance meant that I not only started to build connections but I also began to learn a lot more quite quickly. The creative community is a very supportive one!

Get social

Despite how many may feel towards it, social media has been a very important and helpful tool when starting out and continues to be hugely beneficial now. It can feel daunting to begin with however the more eyes on your work the better and now with social media it is made simpler and cheaper to do so. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is waiting for the ‘right time’ to showcase your work when really you should be actively documenting your work and sharing it for everyone to see. A lot of my work and favourite projects have come from sharing and networking on social media.

Check out Hannah's portfolio here

Wei Wu

Illustrator Wei crafts dream-like compositions that celebrate the power of being a woman, and snapshots of daily life combined with surreal motifs. Wei shared with us her recommendations for starting out as a professional artist, from establishing a personal style to how to showcase your work.

Building your portfolio

For someone just starting out in their career, exposure is important. In addition to posting your work on social media, I think that organising your work effectively and creating a unique portfolio website can better enable you to spread your work.

For example, categorising your work will allow clients in different fields to see your potential, a clear bio will give people an idea of your experience, and so on. This website is complete with a place to showcase your diversity and charm!

Develop a personal style.

Although it's not easy for beginners to establish a strong personal style in the early days, I think it's something that can't be avoided (if you're looking at illustration as a long-term endeavour).

That's why it's important to know what topics and art forms you like. Because this will drive you to keep exploring and experimenting, which may be a relatively long process, but it will also be very rewarding. At the same time, "refresh" your brain. Keep reading books, browsing art websites, going to exhibitions, and anything else that enriches you, and integrate art into your life.

See more from Wei here.

Jordan Amy Lee

Minimalist illustrator Jordan crafts bold compositions that explore moments of everyday life. Jordan shared with us her top tips for taking your creativity with you wherever you go and the joys of people-watching.

Procreate

One tool I love and especially found helpful when starting out in the industry is Procreate. It's such a great and versatile app and is really accessible for people of all skill sets, so it's a useful tool to use as you're getting into illustrating and finding your visual voice / potentially trying out different styles. You really just make it work for you - you can create full finalised digital illustrations, or use it as a tool to play around with rough sketches, colour palettes and composition, which is how I tend to use it. I often choose to use it over sketchbooks, as I enjoy the fact you can tweak things as much as you like until you get to a good place.

Observation

Another tool, which is maybe annoying and obvious, is your own observation! The internet, books and art galleries are all amazing sources of inspiration, but I don't think anything beats getting out and really *looking* and absorbing life happening around you. It's so endlessly interesting, and also can be really useful in learning what you're visually drawn to, and want to capture in your work. People-watching out and about, in cafes, the outfits you see, crazy hairstyles, interactions with other people and things, food and produce you see out in shops and restaurants, interesting packaging, birds and different kinds of dogs you see out walking, a really beautiful tree or flower in the park. I am constantly taking photos or sketching things when I'm out to later work on when I get home, and this is the basis for most of my personal work.

See more from Jordan here.

Inès Pagniez

Characterful illustrator and animator Inès creates humorous and tactile artwork that depicts the full range of human emotion. Here she shares her top tips for beginning a new career and how to keep your work fresh.

Places full of life

One of the things that helped me at the beginning of my career was living in London. Being surrounded by talented, creative people gave me confidence to pursue my artistic path. I think it’s important to be in a rich cultural place filled with museums, gigs, theatres, etc.

Experimentation

The second one was being able to experiment fully with animation during my studies at Supinfocom in France. I got to try different mediums, different animation styles; 2d, stop motion, 3D animation. It helped guide me towards what fulfilled me most; working with my hands, sculpting, playing with clay, etc.

Check out more from Inès here.

Mahboobeh Kalaee

Poetic and experimental animation director Mahboobeh crafts immersive worlds to depict her striking concepts. Here she shares with us her top tips for seeing the inspiration in the everyday and how she uses her words to translate her ideas.

Record a video!

When seeking inspiration, being an observer is a common approach. Recording a video of a scene that you believe holds an intriguing visual or meaningful idea allows you to explore a more serious form of observation beyond the camera frame. While watching the camera frame and what you are recording (which could be an image of a piece of paper spinning in the street), look for a kind of fantasy that is in contrast or harmony with the reality you are capturing. Creating mixed media films often stems from discoveries in the real world. If you are interested in the world of creating hybrid images, immerse yourself in your surroundings. Recording videos and archiving the movements of objects in a space that you find captivating and glorious enables you to create a visual library of this world and explore it when in need of an idea for making an experimental, hybrid, or creative film.

Write your day!

Writing is an action in response to observation. Daily writing, jotting down observations, interesting dialogues we hear, helps us in finding coherent connections in our observations. This practice is aimed at creating a kind of mental organisation. Therefore, it is also a tool for enhancing improvisation. By archiving our thoughts and observations, we elevate the quality of thinking in the moment. Writing thoughts helps our scattered observations create a meaningful network and also a path to generate daring ideas. Sometimes while writing, brainstorming takes place. That is exactly when our thoughts are in the process of generating and regenerating. In fact, writing is a tool for the flexibility of the power of thought and better processing of issues. Finding a new perspective on the issue through accumulated words.

Futures is one of the most exciting parts of Jelly and is fuelled by our passion to make the creative industries more accessible and representative because we believe that promising talent comes from any background regardless of experience.

Our team work alongside our Futures talent to help develop their skills, helping them find a route to a commercial career or the right space within the industry.

Find out more about our Futures initiative here.