We had a guest Art Therapist, Sarah Shellard, come to the studio to talk to us about how she became an Art Therapist and what it all entails.
Sarah recommended to do a one day course of Art Therapy to get an understanding of how it all works and to make sure it's something that I would be interested in doing. She explained that the university course for Art Therapy is difficult to get on to, and therefore you are required to have lots of life experience and experience helping others of all ages and in different situations.
She also recommended reading up on Art Therapy and to gain a good knowledge before taking on the course.
Sarah explained a normal week of studying for an Art Therapy degree and it seems very intense. The course is five days a week -
Monday 9am-7pm at uni studying
Tuesday and Wednesday at a work placement (a school in Sarah's case)
Thursday and Friday at the studio working.
And this is a two year course. As well as this, as a student studying Art Therapy, you are required to attend your own personal therapy for one hour a week, however, this is not funded by the course and costs around £40p/w. So this is another financial commitment to think about, as well as the course.
Working as an Art Therapist and with clients, you gain a folder of artwork from your client and you look at each image and determine what it is the client is feeling. It is important that the therapist keeps all of the artwork, as if the client takes it home with them, then it could be hurtful to others or could be destroyed and the client would then blame you for this happening. As they can't find the words to describe what they are feeling, they instead draw what is in their head and as an Art Therapist you can translate what they are feeling. Sarah explained that it's important to word what you're saying carefully so that you don't put your thoughts in the clients head. Also, some of the things you will find out, won't always be pleasant and therefore you are required to always have your own therapist so that your own feelings don't then impact your clients.
At any one time an Art Therapist will have up to four clients, and you will write up about each client and also create your own artwork as a reflection on what you've found out from the client. This is quite time consuming so therefore four clients is enough.
Working as an art therapist, you wouldn't be paid less than £25,000 a year, however, this could go up to £30-35,000.
Good books that Sarah recommends are:
Case. Catherine (1992) The Handbook of Art Therapy Routledge
Case. Catherine (2007) Art Therapy with Children: from Infancy to Adolesense Routledge
Hyland Moon. Catherine (2008) Studio Art Therapy Jessica Kinglsey
Malchiodi. Cathy A (1998) The Art Therapy (Source Book) Contemporary Books
Malchiodi. Cathy A (2003) Handbook of Art Therapy Guildford Press
We also had a couple of established illustrators come in to talk to us about their careers.
The first of which was Natalie Hughes. Natalie was an ex-student of Illustration at the University of Gloucestershire, so it was good to see someone who has been in my position now, and to see her as a successful illustrator in the industry.
Natalie explained that as soon as she finished university she went to Book Fairs like London and Bologna in Italy and she took her Final Major Project with her to show to professionals. She got her work out in the illustration world straight away, she handed out promotional items and she spoke to other illustrators and agencies.
She encouraged us to put work on social media as this encourages yourself to do more work and to create contacts.
Her most successful work that she's done is a map colouring book which was listed in the Guardian Gift guide in 2015.
The second illustrator we had in was Bjorn R Lie. Bjorn has been an illustrator for 14 years and has gained a lot of experience!
He has done editorial work, book illustrations for Penguin Classics, design work for notebooks for NoBrow, t-shirt designs, packaging designs, textiles and commercial.
He works with lots of different people and for lots of different target audiences and therefore calls himself "too much of a chameleon". However, he also does personal art work at the same time, as this keeps him grounded and reminds him of what he's comfortable doing.
He found that creating picture books is the most challenging thing he does, however he completed a book in 2008 and since then it had been translated in to lots of different languages so every time it's released it has a new lease of life.
His visual language stems from a few different areas, including: characters, humour, nostalgia, nature and retro colours.
When Bjorn first started as an illustrator he did have an agent and recommends it for when you're trying to get your name known. He told us it's important to have a good relationship with your agent and to communicate well. He also recommends to have a part time job when you first start as well, as the agent will take a cut from your commissions. However, Bjorn managed to build up his own clientele and therefore didn't need an agent anymore and he doesn't have one now.
It's really useful having established illustrators come in to the studio to talk to us about their career and their successes. It's important to see that there's a lot of hard work that goes into working as an illustrator but it's worth it when you get to see your own work printed or on display somewhere, and that it is possible to be successful with enough determination and belief!
WEBSITE REVIEWS
Today I looked at two artists websites and reviewed what I found when having a look around. This will give me some ideas as to what I could and should put on my website when I come to creating it.
The first website I visited was gemmacorrell.com and here is what I found:
- The welcome page is simple yet interesting. The layout takes the eye around the page appropriately. The type is friendly and looks like hand writing which makes it more personal and welcoming.
- The welcome page is black and white which makes it not too over crowded with colour.
- She uses simple line drawings to accompany the writing. This keeps it visual.
- I was attracted to this website as her web address is simple…just her name makes it straight forward and easy to remember.
- The first things that engaged me in the page was the block capital bubble writing and the drawings.
- The pages are categorised, this makes it easy to navigate and each page has links to the next page or more pages.
- The images are clear and everything is organised.
- There’s not too much writing – the images speak for themselves. There’s only a little bit of writing to guide you to each part of the website.
- The website has links to social media and contact details.
- It provides previous, current and future exhibitions along with previous clientele.
- The site appears professional and that it belongs to a confident illustrator who is happy wth her work.
- The website shows that she can work with illustrations, cartoons, comics, typography and patterns and that she has products. This shows she can work in a range of ways and that she is versatile.
Things that I have taken from looking at this website to help me with my own are:
- keep it simple and organised
- it’s about my work – show images effectively
- Make sure I copyright it
The second website I looked at was amandahall-illustration.com and this is what I found from reviewing her website:
- Her images are large as soon as the website loads.
- She has details of her books along with her images and also reviews by professionals.
- Her images are colourful and detailed which makes them appealing.
- There are links at the top of the page to different areas of the website and links to her social media.
- Each of her books has a separate section with its details such as ISBN number. As you scroll down you find another book and this makes them easily assessable.
- The images immediately engage me in her website and there is a good amount of images which demonstrates what she can do very well.
- The links to seeing the next page is quite small so easily missed, so some people may not realise that there is more of her work to see. The writing is also quite small which made it difficult to read.
- Her website comes across as professional, she’s confident and happy with her work and her style which is consistent.
Things that I have taken from looking at this website to help me with my own are:
- Have images large and easy to see and my favourite / most effective work first to be seen.
- If I have a book on my website, give the ISBN number so it’s easy to find and buy. Also have positive reviews with it as a second influence on what the client will think.
- arrange and organise my website effectively.
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