Position Statement

When I first came to LCA I thought a lot about dropped out. I was terrified I'd never be as good as older students, that I'd never achieve anything and the idea of asking for a wage for my work made me feel uncomfortable. 

Looking back, I had no confidence in my work and as a freelance. However over the last three years of study and meeting the people I have outside of university, I've become a hugely confident, friendly and open minded artist. I've learnt so much about animation, a form of art I'd always loved but never imagined doing and LCA put me in a place where I could take the time to study an art form that I knew nothing about and in the end be able to base my own business off the skills I've learnt. I’ve learnt how to properly promote myself both for businesses and freelancing, including how to safe guard my own pay and work. I’ve learnt how to use software like Photoshop and After Effects, things I never thought I’d even be interested in as I was stuck in being committed to hand drawn and didn’t realize hand drawn digital animation was an option. And above all, I’ve learnt animation process going from concept, to script writing, to storyboarding and animations, to animation and finally promotion and publication.

I'm so thankful that I stuck to it and continued studying - because moving past that feeling of nothing under your feet and not knowing what you're doing 100% can be scary, but getting over that is the best way to learn and I've learnt so much as an independent artist and as a business woman. I plan to continue freelance work as an illustrator, animator and cartoonist. Although tempting studying an MA is, I don't want to drop out of the freelancing business now as I can feel it just starting to pick up. I want to say thank you to my tutors, who have (especially in my final year of study) been understanding and respectful of me and the issues I was having. Thank you and wish me luck.

When I first came to LCA I thought a lot about dropped out. I was terrified I'd never be as good as older students, that I'd never achieve anything and the idea of asking for a wage for my work made me feel uncomfortable. 

Looking back, I had no confidence in my work and as a freelance. However over the last three years of study and meeting the people I have outside of university, I've become a hugely confident, friendly and open minded artist. I've learnt so much about animation, a form of art I'd always loved but never imagined doing and LCA put me in a place where I could take the time to study an art form that I knew nothing about and in the end be able to base my own business off the skills I've learnt. I’ve learnt how to properly promote myself both for businesses and freelancing, including how to safe guard my own pay and work. I’ve learnt how to use software like Photoshop and After Effects, things I never thought I’d even be interested in as I was stuck in being committed to hand drawn and didn’t realize hand drawn digital animation was an option. And above all, I’ve learnt animation process going from concept, to script writing, to storyboarding and animations, to animation and finally promotion and publication.

I'm so thankful that I stuck to it and continued studying - because moving past that feeling of nothing under your feet and not knowing what you're doing 100% can be scary, but getting over that is the best way to learn and I've learnt so much as an independent artist and as a business woman. I plan to continue freelance work as an illustrator, animator and cartoonist. Although tempting studying an MA is, I don't want to drop out of the freelancing business now as I can feel it just starting to pick up. I want to say thank you to my tutors, who have (especially in my final year of study) been understanding and respectful of me and the issues I was having. Thank you and wish me luck.

- Molly Lester, BA(hons) Animation 2014-2017

Promotional Boards

Creative CV and Letter Head

Words:

Molly Lester

Animator, Illustrator and Cartoonist

Profile

Molly lester is a visual storyteller based in the North of England. Previously finding inspiration from social circles and communities around her. She current devisees inspiration from current political and social issues as well as aiming to positively represent LGBTQ+ identities and cultures and promote awareness/acceptance.

Skills

2D Animation

Story Boarding

Character Design

Visual Storytelling

Traditional Illustration

Watercolour

Screen Printing

Software

Photoshop

After Effects

Education

Nidderdale Highschool GCSE ART A* (2010-2012)

Harrogate College FINE ART EXSTENDED DIPLOMA D* D* D* (2012-2014)

Leeds college of Art BA(HONS) ANIMATION _______ (2014-2017)

Contact

Email   MOLLYPUKES@GMAIL.COM

Instagram/Twitter/Tumblr/Facebook  @MOLLYPUKES

Letter Head:

Showreel 2017

Above is my 2017 showreel that I've created to promote my work from my previous three years of study at Leeds college of Art. I selected a lot of the segments from my final year film 'a fox wants to play guitar' as well as a few examples of commissioned pieces. The soundtrack used in this showreel is also owned by 'James Grimshaw' and I have full approval of using the soundtrack so don't have to worry about copy right.

My first and very own Website

Since 2014 I've been meaning to create my own website. I understand it's hugely promotional but in my first and second year, I didn't feel confident enough to promote myself with my own website. However this year I've taken huge steps in my life as a freelancer, a self-employed business and all the promotion that's needed for that sort of work to keep on coming.

I created my Website using wordpress.com. I didn't have much money to work with so started with a persona plan of £30 a year for a website domain. Mollypukes.com is now officially up and running. I'd contemplated not calling it 'Mollypukes' as a few clients had mentioned my name wasn't very professional however I wanted to continue branding myself past my legal name. 'Mollypukes' is me as a business and 'Molly Lester' is me as a person. I also wanted to create this website much like I created my business cards - I wanted it to be approachable and friendly.

Here are a few screenshots from my website:

I designed the 'starting' page of my website to be redirected to my illustration page, as I'm treating my illustration page as a form of portfolio - mixed with personal projects but mainly client and commission work. I hadn't used wordpress before and to be honest I was really confused when using it. I set up pages within the menu setting as well as logo links to all my social medias - but getting it to show on the website itself was the tricky part. After a long reading of their 'how to' page I managed to bring it all together. As of now I haven't updated that I have a website on my social media page - as I'm planning to after a few commissioned works are finished and I have the approval to use them in my portfolio online.  

Printing business cards with AWESOME MERCH

I hadn't used the website before however had heard good things from artists I'd met and had a few beers with at the zine festival I attended/sold at back in September, even held a few and really loved the quality of them. So I hopped on their website and saw they offered business card printings. I designed my own, I really wanted to and my aim for this year was to properly brand myself as myself and these cards were the first step.

The process involved me designing on a template for them to later print off - two of them, one for the back and one for the front (there was an option for a single sided card that was slightly cheaper). The staff were really ace, considering I didn't really know what I was doing and at the same time I ordered in a set of badges for a commission I was carrying out on the side. Before I got my cards I got an E-Mail from the staff, saying they loved the design so much they were wondering if they could use it as an AD for them printing business cards - which is basically my advertising, advertising their printing of things that advertise. So FREE PROMOTION FOR ME REALLY. A photo of my 'cards were uploaded to their website and once I got the cards in my hands, I was really impressed with how they'd turned out.

When designing the cards I wanted to keep to a bold colour pallet, that wasn't too intimidating but would be eye catching - so ended up going with yellow, green and pink. I'd used these colours in the past to promote myself and after a year or so of doing that, I wanted to keep the trend because so far it'd been effective. I included an illustration of myself as the logo with details about getting in touch.

Here's the design:

Here's the image Awesome Merch uploaded to their website (with my permission and thanks). I'm really happy with how the business cards turned out, considering the cheaper cost.

I'm planning on taking these cards to festivals in the future, however with the end of year show looming I'll most likely just be taking them to that - and using them all up as promotion at Leeds college of Arts event.