Lord Whitney

Last week we had a visit from the talented Lord Whitney (Amy Lord and Rebekah Whitney). They gave a talk on how they met and how their creative journey has evolved over the past few years. I found their work hugely inspiring!
They don’t get bogged down thinking about the materials they don’t have, they use what is around them to produce amazing installations and costumes. I think I was more impressed by the costumes rather than the sets. It made me think about producing character designs with what I know rather than worrying about not having the right textures or not knowing their proper anatomy.

Another main topic of discussion was the idea of taking as many opportunities as possible. Sometimes you might be doing creative work for free but they explained how it can pay off in the end. It gets your work seen and could lead to paid work. This is something that will stick with me when I venture off into the wide world of illustration.

They talked a lot about the idea of play and about how producing work that you want to produce is often your best work. This ability to bring aspects of yourself into your work is greatly important. I’ve found that thinking in this way has helped me to overcome the struggle I’ve been having with my current brief (brothers grim book cover). I’ve been focusing on what it needs to be rather than what I would like it to be. I feel much more confident about the brief now and this is thanks to the wise words of Lord Whitney.
After the talk we all went back to the studio and were given a new brief on compound nouns. The idea was to put together two nouns into a word and produce an illustration or installation based on the word. I initially wanted to do a series of 3 tall rectangular illustrations based on different words. I only managed to complete one for the deadline and have since completed a second image. Bee-Frog was the illustration I sent off to Lord Whitney and received feedback for. 

Hi Rosie,


Thank you so much for your submission to the compound noun brief. We
really enjoyed working with you all and really hope you got something
valuable out of the exercise.


We really liked your entry, do you have any plans to carry it on any further or has it sparked any other ideas off for you?


Good luck with your work,


Bek and Amy