Hullo all,
Sorry its been such a long time since I have updated this thing but life has been absoloutly manic. So I'll start from where I left off.
1) The new york trip
This was an amazing trip that really opened my eyes to the possiblities (and limitations) of the illustration industry. I met many wonderful art directors who really liked my work and hopefully will offer me work in the future. One publishing company has been in touch with me regarding my children's books which is very exciting so I'm waiting to see what happens next with that. all the feed back I recieved was largly good and what wasn't good was useful. so all in all it was great trip. I hope to do another one next year lol!!!
2) Upon my return to the Uk I had to return to the Isle of Man (extreamly jet lagged) and have a job interview to become an artist in residence for a year at the courtyard gallery ( www.thecourtyardgallery.net ) which is an excellent contemporay gallery on the island and the position is a payed one and I become a courtyard artist (able to exhibit there) and i have a solo exhibition at the end of my residencey....hasent to say I got the Job....yay me. I start on August 30th
3) Back to college and work work work, no break work like crazy, get all my artwork done, type up all my reports and then put up the degree show. and wait and stress and then find out that I got a FIRST!!!!! yay (for those of you that don't know a first is the highest mark you can get on a uk honours degree) yay!!!!
4) Graduation
this was wierd and will get its own special post I think.
5) the New designers show
We did this graduates show in london as do most art schools and profesionals come round and hopefully offer you work. to my surprise there were a few people interested in my work and I will be in touch very soon, this show was interesting because we got to see what the other colleges work was like. and though there were individuals that stood out form other colleges. on the whole our college was by far the best!!!
6)Now
well I got back to the island a couple of weeks ago and have ended up getting quite a bit of graphic design work from local places which is really nice but it has kept me really busy. I ve been to the gallery a couple of times and have talked to person who will be working along side me and the curren artist in residence (whos solo show was amazing by the way) and I can't wait to start there.
I will aim to post more often now I'm finnished college. on friday I will be posting off about a million letters and illustration samples to prospective clients so fingers crossed people.
hope all is well with every one

xposted again so apologies to all who see it multiple times
I spent the better part of today cooped up in a swelterinf hot omputer lab trying to make Dream weaver do my bidding (I sware that program hates me.) but after hours of blood swet and tears i give you the now fully updated website....

http://www.juanillustration.co.uk

enjoy people.....now I'm gunna crash out and panic about the NY trip.

These are all images from a children's book I have written and illustrated called "My Friend George" what do you all think
If people are interested I will post the story too...












I did these about a month ago but it has taken me ages to sort out the dummy book, which is now ready and I have appiontmnts with children's book publishers in NY next week which is exciting, I'm quite pleased with these, this will be x posted so apoligies to all who see them muliple times.

wow 5 weeks of easter went by so fast, did get alot of work done though wich is good, the tutors seemed to like the majority of it.
I spent the majority of last week sorting out my portfolio and haveing varing folio surgeries with visiting professionals that came to visit college... which was good. I have had to pay out a fair bit to get my folio printed out really nice, but my god its so nice, my tutors all feel that my folio is looking very professional and think thet I should do well in New york.
About which I began making appiontments with publishers and reps and the like, I have some and I'm still waiting for some more to get back to me, but we are going for a week and thus far I have six visits arranged and as soon as I get back from NY I have a job interview to be an artist in residence in a Gallery back home. so hopefully that will all go well and I'll be sorted for a year finacially.
If anyone knows of any publishers or reps in New york please feel free to let me know about them as my class needs vists as some people have been luckier than others.
I'l do a huge update upon my return and let you all know how its going and how he trip went.
I cant belive how hard the 3rd year is compared to the previous 2......still the end is in sight.

hey all, just to say uni is mental....so much work so little time.....will do a massive update soon and will answer the thing I posted last time...I avn't forgotten.

psykosketch did this for me so in return I will do this for you all, leave a comment if your interested, but if you do it you must post it on your journal and do it for others.
1. I'll respond with something random I like about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll name something we should do together.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal so you can do the same for other people
have fun.

Wow it seemed every one liked my shakespeare book covers, I ve never had that many comments on a post before (something like 60 in the illustrators forum. which is great, it's certainly encouraging for the ominous New york trip. I do confess I am shitting my self a little about it, I know I shouldn't but its a big city filled with big agents and big publishers and big art directors and I'm only little from a tiny island in a tiny sea.
anyway the easter break is almost over and I feel acomplished in the past four weeks I have produced two b/w 36 page artist's books (of which I have made several copies and attached them all together.), A children's book consisting of a 32 page dummy book and four finnished artworks/ double page spreads, two book covers and the artwork for my page in our course's promotional book to be sent to millions of art directors all over the world.
wow I've been a busy bee.
I may even take the rest of the day off. who ever said that an art degree was easy is a big fat liar.

Since the tempest did so well here is the others from the series, let me know your thoughts












I hope you like these, I wonder what penquin publishing will think
thanks for looking.
www.juaniilustration.co.uk

did this alittle while ago as antempt to contemporise Shakespears books



Let me know what you think and go see my website
www.juanillustration.co.uk

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
found out today that my face has swelled up due to an abcess in my tooth, cant find a dentist in all of cornwall to see me do I'm going to A and E in truro, I fucking hte dentists.

this is a mock magazine cover that I did today, I'm quite pleased with it, I state its not a real cover its a self enicated projest to see if I can work for a broad (american) audience, any thoughts anyone.

Its been ages and ages since I last updated this thing, so I guess its about time I did:
Well the third and final year of my degree is as far as I know, going very very well, My disertation which I feared more than Death itself is all done now, and hopefully it will be all ok, now I'm in the prosess of working my arse off to get a portfolio together for the New York trip in afew short weeks.
also I'm in the prosess of putting a bunch of work together for a job as an artist in residence back home on the Isle of Man.

hopefully Newyork will bode well and offer me lots of work and hopfully an agent but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Well what a summer its been, after expectig to end up working all summer in some kind of cornershop hell hole, I ended up living the dream and working as a freelance illustrator all summer, whats more I actually earned more doing this than I would anywhere eles...cool.
I handed the final illustrations in yesturday with very good results and I must say a wieght has been lifted off of my mind, I now feel ready to begin anew upon my return to university college falmouth.
and so it is that time of year once more where I load up my back pack and be ready for a day of lumping stuff around airports and generally panick about the road ahead. but I am ready and I am detiremend to sucseed and I will get there even if it kills me.
realistically I will not be updating this for a while but as always I never say never so if not I will be back in december where I will update once again.
until then I hope you all fair well in all your endevers.

Well where to begin, Oh yes my radio interview, I was quite pleased with the show and I came off quiet well. (i didn't come across as an illustration obsessed folklore hippy, which is what I was afraid of.) I even got a few emails from people wanting to know where they can see my work, which was nice. in terms of jobs I finnished the map which was both an absoloute beast to do and a hell of a learning expereance, I ve also finnished the second poster which I am fairly pleased with, and finally I am working on the illustrations for the new manx edition of manx fairytales by sophia morison. Ive done 54 out of 60 of the interior illustrations for this,and will be doing the cover for my first 3rd year project.

so in my defence for not updateing for awhile I have been very busy of late.
well it seems to be coming (all to quickly) towards the time when I must back up my entire life into surprisingly few boxes and bags and make my final trip to cornwall for my final year of this artistic educational odessy I started five years ago now when I chose to go back into education. I am filled witha bitter sweet feeling that I will be happy and feel a somwhat overdue sence of achievement when its all over, I also feel sad that it will be over I have made freinds and done things I wouldn't have dreamed of five years ago, both me and my outlook on life have changed so much that when I think of how I was when I was 21 before all this its like its some one eles's life.......... wierd.
well I am going to go now
i say this alot but i will endever to update again soon

well as I have stated work wise the second year was fantstic, I 'm very pleased with the way my work is going, though I still intend to push much harder. however things in the house all turned to shit at the start of the second term, the house had divided itself where there were a group of 3 (who shall remain namless) who desided that the rest of the house didn't matter and a war insued and to cut a long story short, ended with them 3 moving out, and me for one anting nothing more to do with them.

Things next term should be alot better as there are some manx people moving in whom I have been freinds with for a few years now, and the remaining house mates are cool so it should be fine.

since returning to the Island I have been actually living the dream and working as an illustrator illustrating manx folk lore stuff...and getting paid for it too.....which is nice!, this has also garnered me a little bit of fame too as I am going to be interviewed by the Island's radio station soon in regard to this work....Gulp!, it pretty excitting stuff, though its rather nerve racking too.

On top of all this I'm working on a comic book proposal for submission and desperatly trying to research my dissertation too!!
I am desperatly trying to arange a night out with my freinds aswell, but it seems since we are all grown ups now, its hard to sort it out.

well thats all for now, so I shall endever to update again soon!

It's been so long since I last updated this thing, its just year 2 (of 3) has been absoloutly manic, I havn't had time to catch my breath its just been work work work. it has just been insane, the first year was a walk in the park compared to this, well at lest I know what to expect for my final year now.
Life has been good though, I finnished my second year with a first so thats good, I'm happy about that, I'm enjoying work and recieved payment on my first offical illustration job today, I recieved £350 big ones for one peice of work whoo hoo and they are comissioning more so stay tuned.
I will update this every few days while I'm here over the summer and damn it I'm gunna stick to it.

Well, I have spent today packing and once again have managed to cram my whole life into 2 bags, its odd where as last time there seemed to a massive wait and a huge build up to leaving for cornwall, but this time it all seems to be upon me at once, which is good in a way as i have little time to get stressed about the the journey.

I really cant wait to get back and truly do endever to update far more than last year, I'm going to aim for atleast once a week,
well to all tose that I have not said good bye too, good bye, and to everyone here on the isle of man, good bye and I will see you all at christmas.

Well It apperars the end is upon me yet again, the time to go back across the sea to falmouth looms over me, I'm very much looking forward to going, mainly so my life can get some kind of normality back to it.
I leave on saturday morrning, and I guess that means I will be backing for most of tommorrow.
Will definatly try to post more regularly this year at falmouth.
I will proberbly do a monster post tomorrow.

Wow, I've been so slack at this journal recently, I had planed to update atleast once a week, but as you can tell that never happened. Its not like I've been busy either I mean I ended up quitting my age old job at the co-op three weeks ago because the new boss is a complete wanker and traets everyone like shit, and for once I was justified in quitting, I had a massive aurgument with the great big prick and told him to stick his job up his arse.......it felt good rebeling again....its been a long time for me, since I left four other people have left too for the same reason.

Where has the summer gone though, it seems like only yesturday that I was getting ready to leave Falmouth, and this time next week I will be bourding the plane to go back to falmouth! The summer has been rather dull this time around most of myold freindshave sucome to the banality of thier lives, Wok is more miserible than I have ever known him to be, Chris has a baby now so that demands all of his time, sven and emma for some reason never go out any more and I've not seen them all summer and then there is Finney who has desided that after a three yearbreak is going to back to uni and do his masters in environmental sciences, he also thinks that hes in for an easy ride, I don't even know ehy hes going back its not like he even did anything with his degree anyway.

Sorry that turned into a bit of a rant, Kylie has been the only real exception to the banilty over here and even she is getting pised off with everyones dullness, she has recently lost her joband I really think that its not too late for her to go to college and do art.....she's really good.

well onto greener pastures its not long now until I go backto the joyful Falmouth and to be honest I can,t wait to leave all this banality behind me.

It has ocered to me that i haven't really mentioned some of the great people whom have become my friends over the past year, so here they are.....
Julie
Julie has become my girlfriend, she is amazingly creative and loving, she is able to see things from a childs piont of view, which really helps in illusration, she has a growing good taste in music too, i love her very much, she is an illustrator too.
Rachel
Rachel is cool, shes could to talk to and sees things with an open mind, shes always up for a laugh, or monopaly!, I enjoy just talking shit with rachel, her taste in music is quite coll but we will not mention the beastie boys!! rach does illustration too.
Jon
Jon is a cool dude, hes always mellow and likes to chill, he enjoys the odd sick joke and has a very cool taste in music, jon also has a knak for finding cool stuff, be it toys or books or what ever. Jon also does illustration.
Denise
Denise is very hard working, but enjoys a good laugh, she gets a bit enouyed by the ease of her course, i think deep down she wishes she did illustration instead of graphics.
Andrew
Andrew is a very cool guy, he has a very dry sense of humor and his love of morrissy is legendary, hes good to talk toand never shows his work, I like andrew hes cool, he also does illustration.
these are not all of the freinds i have made just the ones I will be living with next year.