MA Illustration

My experience at AUB has been fierce and amazing at the same time. I’ve taken advantage of the facilities, and the course totally changed my mindset, my approach to art, my style and my audience.

I used to feel self-deprecated because I didn’t have an arts degree or any professional experience, and now I’ve gained more confidence since I believe that practice make perfect. From an artist going crazy with my use of colour negatively, to focusing on using colour more effectively and capturing the attention of viewers, I feel so grateful about this chance I’ve had.

I was ambitious when, during the second unit, I signed up to four projects via my Course Leader and these were completed at the last minute within one month. I had to test different compositions, colours, swatches and text placements to find the best ones and after that, I also got a lot of feedback from international authors and illustrators in terms of children's books to add and remove unnecessary pages. At that time, I was extremely stressed, but my Course Leader told me I could leave it until third unit if I couldn’t complete it. However, I wanted to wrap everything up and finally I completed it.

Right after second unit, I saw the Green Futures Competition and found the brief totally matching with my projects. Hence, I submitted it as my entry for this competition and luckily, I was shortlisted.

On BA (Hons) Textiles Design, I found that I never had much time for the initial drawing process, as the making took up the majority of my time. This was really frustrating to me as I love drawing and wanted to spend more time on it during projects, although this was a very rare occurrence during my degree. Despite coming from this background, I have decided against working with textiles in any capacity thus far during my Master’s, as I really do want a change, and I am thoroughly enjoying having the space to discover who I am as an illustrator as opposed to a textiles designer. I like keeping these roles separate, as qualities that I value in my illustrations are not necessarily qualities that I value in my textiles.

The most exciting part of the MA is the fact that I have made it this far! I do struggle with perfectionism and self-criticism, so I’m really glad to have this opportunity. Being accepted onto this course has finally made me believe that my work is good enough, and that I can do difficult things, even when I’m doubtful. I feel that I’m a better artist just for pushing myself to take risks and to do things that seem scary.

In all seriousness, my favourite thing is having less contact time than on BA, and more freedom to explore my own ideas without constant input. It’s obviously good to discuss ideas with peers and tutors, but sometimes you just need that breathing room to make your work distinctly you. It also feels more like you are actually working in the creative industry as you are almost entirely self-governed. This is very helpful in preparing students for future employment.

Read Cerys' full story: https://aub.ac.uk/latest/cerys-watkins-shifting-creative-focus-at-ma-level