Self-identity and the Creative Voice

•Research your own work

•Define your own Identity and Creative Voice

•Consider the first image industry will see of your work


The creative voice is something that defines an artist as themselves for example if there is a style that someone in particular is known for then that is their creative voice, they could draw anything and you would know it is by them. A good example of a person with a distinctive creative voice is the illustrator Oliver Jeffers because his style is very unique and distinctive there is no one else quite like him in the market and this is what makes him stand out and be successful. He has a strong sense of his identity and what he is creating always represents that. Here are a few examples of his work. 

Oliver jeffers, The incredible book eating boy. Image taken from: http://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2009/jan/22/oliver-jeffers-gallery-childrens-books

Oliver Jeffers, Kinder advertisement. Image taken from:
http://www.theloopusa.com/oliverjeffers/portfolio

Within my work I think that I change a lot its a bit like I cant make up my mind, I love to explore my full potential and just create as many different things using as many different tools as I can. I like to work with many different mediums to see what I can achieve. For example I have worked with water colour, gouache, coloured pencils, 3D, pencil, fine liner and many other things in the past. I have likes and dislikes with all of these mediums and I don't particularly have a favourite thing to work with i just respond to certain things in different ways. I sometimes worry that I don't have a real set in stone style to my drawing but then other times I think this is good because I am versatile and can adapt to whatever a client might want from me. Although i may feel my work does not have a style i think that when other people look at my work they could probably tell that I created it. Here are a few examples or my work and how it can vary. 

Carries War book cover design

Oranges are not the only fruit book cover design

Aventine album cover design. 

I think that it is really hard to pin down and define my own creative voice as I find it hard to step out of my own shoes and look at myself from the outside. I also think that my creative voice is hard to pin down because it is quite versatile, as I like to constantly evolve, improve and learn new things. I want to constantly try out new Mediums and techniques to try and find the perfect image that I want to achieve. In some ways I think that this is good because I will always be expanding my creativity across more mediums but in some ways it can be seen as a bad thing because often people like consistency. Maybe my identity is a little bit of everything mixed into one, I really like change and exploring new things and I think this is represented a lot in my creative voice. I like creating a piece of art using a certain media or technique that will respond to the purpose or the look of the image that I want to create. I think that my creative voice evokes more of a feeling rather than a specific style. For example all of my work has a positive happy feel to it no matter what medium I am working with.

I feel in some ways that the first image that industry will see of my work doesn't really matter too much because the next image that they see will most likely be totally different. It really would depend on what the particular person wanted from me as to what they saw first. Overall I think that I would like to improve and work on my self-identity so my work is more recognisable to the market. 

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