James Wilkins - Internship Review Sep 18 2013

Hi all, my name is James Wilkins and I am an illustrator! If I could use two words to sum up my work it would be humorous and crazy. I studied Illustration & Print at Plymouth College of Art where i learnt many new skills and also was able to adapt my work to the style I have accomplished today. I release weekly comics....weekly on my tumblr site Creative Chaos Illustration, being a huge geek, these tend to poke fun at pop culture and sometimes are based on characters I have created. I have just finished a two week internship at advocate art, and all I can say is, what a fantastic place to work and be part of. Every person at advocate is extremely passionate about what they do and how they do it. From organising a wide (and very impressive) range of artists together, to adding the final little touches of detail to the in-house illustrations. With most agencies the role of an intern is to simply make tea and photocopy documents, but not at advocate. Here you are taught on how to use various programs from Cumulus, to Microsoft office. If you have any questions to ask about how to do something, the team are more than happy to help out. During my two weeks I have also had my portfolio looked over, which was very helpful in terms of understanding the style and direction in which my work should now be progressing towards. It was also mentioned that a piece of my work was near enough completed to be printed for male greetings cards. Getting this kind of feedback has really helped me build up confidence in myself and in my work. I graduated from Plymouth College of Art last year having studied illustration & print, and since have had trouble finding any internships/jobs. I am a freelance artist at the moment but felt that I needed some kind of experience in a professional environment. And luck would have it that advocate were looking for interns, so I jumped at the chance. Being a part of Advocate for two weeks has really helped me in understanding how the professional world of illustration works, and seeing at what I can become if I work as hard as the people here. It has been a pleasure and I didn’t make one cup of tea. Be sure to check out tons upon tons of my work over at the Creative Chaos website, facebook or tumblr.