Toonboom Harmony

Adobe Creative Suite

TV Paint

Autodesk Maya

Blender

Clip Studio Paint

Touch Designer

Resolume Arena

DragonFrame

Toonboom Harmony Adobe Creative Suite TV Paint Autodesk Maya Blender Clip Studio Paint Touch Designer Resolume Arena DragonFrame

About Me

I’m Jess Wilcock, a 22-year old multidisplinary artist based in London. I specialise in Visual Development for Animation and Costume Design.

I was raised in the North West of England in a small town just outside of Manchester and have moved to London to study and further develop my craft. I aspire to pursue a design based career with a focus on whimsical, colourful and narrative based projects, both personal and professional.

In terms of animation, I like to create work with an emphasis on emotion and inclusivity. Being a queer woman has informed a lot about the kind of stories I’ve created and been involved in the production of, and will continue to inform my personal projects.

For costume design, I enjoy creating bizarre and high concept work with a focus on movement and how the human form affects fabric. As with animation, I use my personal experiences to inform the stories behind the clothes I make.

As well as animation and costume design, I have had experience as a MUA, hair stylist, photographer, music performer/producer and fine artist.

I’m hoping to continue developing my animation skills as a recent graduate as well as further deepening my costume designing and making skills. I’m hoping to also branch out into comic creation, coding, projection mapping and game design in the near future.

Email: jesswilcockart@gmail.com

Experience

  • I worked as the sole graphic designer for MsPsychologyPerfect ltd, a psychology tutoring service and resource sale website. I’ve worked on a brand guide for the service as well as creating scientific illustrations for educational powerpoints and blog articles. I’m currently working with them to redesign the website as well as working on generating other educational resources.

    Skills Developed:

    • Graphic Design

    • Motion Graphics for advertising, logos and educational resources

    Software Skills Developed:

    • Adobe Creative Suite (After Effects, Premiere Pro)

  • I felt this was important to include as even though working as a barmaid, sales assistant, cleaner and kitchen porter isn’t creative, I felt I gathered a lot of skills that are transferrable to creative work in the following ways:

    • Team management and collaboration

    • Work in fast paced environments

    • Managing tasks and schedules

    • Organisation

 Education

  • I chose to do an animation degree as it was a long standing interest of mine and felt a formal education would be beneficial to develop my software knowledge.

    As well as software skills, I started developing more character and background design knowledge as well as overall visual development skills.

    Skills Developed:

    • Character Design

    • Background and Prop Design

    • Visual Development

    • Animation Production

    • 2D Animation

    • 3D Modelling

    • Video Editing

    Software Skills Developed:

    • Classical animation

    • ToonBoom Harmony and Storyboard Pro

    • Adobe Creative Suite (After Effects, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom, Animate and Acrobat)

    • TV Paint

    • Autodesk Maya

    • Blender

    • Resolume Arena

    • Touch Designer

    • DragonFrame

    • Procreate

    • Procreate Dreams

    • Office Suite (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook)

  • Grade: Distinction

    Similarly to my A-level courses, my Art Foundation course was often interrupted by Covid-19 Lockdowns. Despite this, my teachers were very efficient about keeping my work on track and helping me further progress in my software and practical skills.

    Skills Developed:

    • Installation Design

    • Textile Art

    • Photography

    • Illustration

    • Character Design

    • Costume Design

    Software Skills Developed:

    • Adobe Creative Suite (Indesign, Lightroom, Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro)

    • Blender

    • Procreate

    • Office Suite (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook)

  • Grades: A* x2

    My time at Winstanley College developed my self-criticism abilities as well as developing my researching skills. I have produced work during my time that I am still proud of despite some of my work being permanently incomplete due to Covid-19 cutting my course short.

    Skills Developed:

    • Screen Printing

    • Knitwear Design

    • Pattern Making

    • Costume Design

    • Painting

    • Illustration

    • Sculpture

    • Photography

    • Metalwork

    • Laser cutting

    Software Skills Developed:

    • Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Lightroom and Photoshop)

    • Office Suite (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook)

Other work

  • At this market I sold handmade earrings, hats and accessories as well as customised teddy bears and screen prints. Sharing a small tablespace with my collaborator meant we had to be very purposeful with inventory placement and customer management.

    Skills Development:

    • Teamwork

    • Screen Printing

    • Jewellery Making

    • Marketing

  • For the Ba (Hons) Animation Showcase, I finalised my Final Major Project with my teammates and developed an interactive vending machine display that sat on top of a hand-painted plinth. Photos and videos of the exhibition are available on the ‘Other Work’ tab of my website!

    Skills Developed:

    • Completing a film to a deadline

    • Hand painting and setting up exhibition materials

    • Interactive art design

  • As a member of the course committee, I worked alongside other peers to raise student complaints, complements and feedback with staff and course leaders to improve course content for future students.

    Skills Developed:

    • Teamwork and Co-ordination

    • Active Listening

    • Communication

  • Due to Covid, I had missed out on two exhibition opportunities at the college, which made this exhibition particularly special. I exhibited my FMP work which included 60s/70s costume design and my take on a retro-futuristic living room and textile aliens.

    Skills Developed:

    • Installation Planning

    • Set Design

    • Video Editing

  • Both years were a collaborative stall with a college friend where we sold handmade iron-on patches, bag charms, original prints and stickers. We also offered sketch commissions. Profits from sales were donated to Alzheimer’s Society.

    Skills Developed:

    • Marketing

    • Product research and design