Expo Day!
Today was a very exciting day! The illustrations I had made were going to be placed in the Gist exposition place for a lot of people to see.
Everyone got assigned their own expo atelier room which I was very unhappy about. We were told that nothing can be hung nor taped on the wall with nails and strong tape. It was difficult figuring out how to hang or place my art in such a small and limited space. I've printed my illustrations in A3 size instead of A2, framed it so it could stand on those little sill things against the wall in the hall. Sounded like an okay solution at first, but the next day I noticed that my work was too spread out and so tiny compared to another classmate's 2+ meter high art next to mine.
On the day of the exposition (today) I asked several other classmates' opninions on that problem and they said I should move to the entrance space of the building where I could set up all frames on a table without having it invisible between other art. Great idea.
I showed about six illustrations and a Making Of book to show guests my process. The book has been printed once and the idea was that people could write in it, leaving their opinion on my work. There are no obvious feedback pages, because I want the guests to make the book more interesting to read, having text wherever they'd like. I chose the final illustrations, because they represent the story I have the best.
It was hard to get people to write in the book, even after I'd put the book on a vertical handmade stand along with a paper with instructions on it. Two classmates wrote something in it and one of them put a chair in front of the table for comfort. That chair attracted some more people and having the book flat on the table, open on the written pages helped a lot, too, to get more people write in it.
The only thing I don't like is that there's no clear storyLINE to read off them. I find illustrating so difficult. I know I've set very high goals for myself, to get better at something I'm terrible at, but I did grow so much by doing so!
At first I felt disappointed but now, I simply don't mind not having reached one goal during Gist. Other important goals have been and I've learned and gained what I had hoped for. ^-^
Before I forget. I'm also selling an art print, the green one below called Arrival, to one of the guests of the expo.
*I changed the set up later and also helped Hilal (Shia) create a lifesize Shia on wood
