Graphics Gurus: Rose Loyd

A while ago we had a mini event in college during which we were introduced to our Graphics Guru. I was put into a group with a past student called Rose Lloyd who produces digital illustrations using textures similar to myself. She also uses lots of strong shapes in her work which I really like. 
Below are a few examples of her work.

After the meet up we were encouraged to keep in contact with our Gurus and send them examples of our work. Below are some of the emails exchanged between myself and Rose.

Hi Rosie

It was nice to meet you this afternoon. This is the email account I use for illustration.

I don't know how this is going to work out but I hope I will be of help to you somewhere down the line.

I googled your name and found your blog, do you have a website?

I liked your characters and your penguins reminded me of Oliver Jeffers.

If you like his work and need to contact illustrators he is extremely nice. I met him at a book signing.

Thanks

Rose

Hi Rose,

Was lovely meeting you too :)

I've seen some of Oliver Jeffer's work around the studio but never knew who he was! Thank you very much! I really love his work :)

I'm looking forward to getting your opinion on my recent work because it's always interesting getting feedback from people other than the tutors.

I don't have a website (yet) but I do have a Facebook page for my illustration work which I update regularly.

 Link

Let me know if you can't get onto the Facebook page and I can send you some images via email instead if that ok?

Many Thanks,

Rosie

Hi Rosie

Sorry for the delay in replying.

Thanks for your link to your Facebook page. I can see that you obviously want to go into children's books and at the moment I think there is still quite a bit of work there.

I think your work is very good, I  love the characters and your bold colours. Do you think the people in 17 perhaps could be in various poses rather than all looking the same (it's only an idea so feel free to ignore it) 

You may know this but here is Oliver Jeffers email address oliver@oliverjeffers.com

Rose

When she mentions the "people in 17" she means the human characters featured in my work for the Uganda children's book. 

Hi Rose,

Thank you very much for the feedback. I agree with you 100%, and hated that many of the characters and background elements are repeated throughout the book. Unfortunately this was because of the limited time for the project. Gary said that if I was working on a real children's book it would be heavily art directed, but I'm not fully sure what he means by that.

Recently I've been finding it hard to focus on working (especially now during the holidays). I was just wondering how you stop yourself getting distracted? Does having the studio space help? And do you do work in small bursts or put aside whole days to work?

Many thanks,

Rosie

Hi Rosie

I have looked at your recent work on your Facebook link and it seems to me you are motivated and focused.

As for the way I work... once I get a brief in then I seem to go into another gear and just work until I am happy with the illustration.

I sometimes get so focused that I work till quite late and I have been known to get up in the middle of the night and come down to the computer if I can not sleep and ideas are flowing.

What I also notice is that I think an illustration is looking okay but after a good nights sleep I look at it and see something needs altering so if I have the time left on a job I sleep on it before sending it to the art director.

As for being directed by the art director I find with my most recent illustrations it is the editor that has asked for things to be slightly tweaked.

I do not know a lot about books but my friend who has done a book was given quite a lot of information on the layout of the book and quite a few people had to pass comment on each page so it became quite a lengthy process.

I loved your polar bears and they looked as though they had different personalities which is good.

This is only my personal opinion but the patten around your type takes your eye from the illustration and I prefer the typography to look as though its part of the illustration.

Again I must stress that you can just ignore my advise as everybody seems to have different ways of working.

Regards

Rose

Since then I haven't thought of any more questions to ask Rose. However I am very excited to start the FMP and get some feedback from her on my future ideas and character designs!