Wayne McLoughlin

Wayne McLoughlin is one of my favorite artists, though he's quite secretive about what medium he uses, his artwork, to me is just enchanting. He even illustrates Warriors which gives him brownie points off me.
He has won awards for six unique markets;
Children's & Tween Illustration National Advertising & Catalog Art (all categories) Specialized Advertising Art/Articles for the Outdoor IndustryEditorial, Historical, Conceptual Art - Magazines & Books Character & Backstory Development for Toys, Books & TV                                                        Paper Engineering 

As well as illustrating Warriors (Warrior cats) for the author Erin Hunter, he also illustrates her series; Seekers (about bears) and Survivors (dogs).

I have chosen too look at Wayne McLoughlin because I've studied animals briefly on this course.

http://www.workbook.com/portfolios/mcloughlin_w

Publishing

Us Brits, have one of the best book industries in the world. We're also true book lovers, forever shoveling book after book into our ever expanding minds, whether its a good solid book in the grasp of our hands, an eBook on one of them new-fangled kindles or an audio book as we go for our morning jog or commute to work. We love books, our nation is home to some of the best fiction (an honourable few- Bram Stoker, Erin Hunter, Mary Shelley) and non fiction (Joy&George Adamson, Philippa Gregory and Juliet Gardiner) authors in the world. And this imagination and skill of jotting down these events have now given us one of the worlds leading Book industries at an amazing worth of £4.5 Billion GBP, generating more worth than music, TV and film at this time.
Of course with in the book industries there's smaller groups, publishing houses, illustrators, authors, editors, and us the public, who decide, what book we want the most and the style we want it in, whether that would  be Paperback, Hardback, eBook or Audio. The British public generates 60% of the British Book industries worth as it happens.
If you where to work within the book industry, would you want to work in the print rooms, making sure that the machinery put the book together in the correct order? Nahhh, you'd want to be where the fun stuff is, illustrating the actual story inside of the book or creating the front cover- the one thing that gets the consumer to pick it up off the shelf in the store in the first place.
I would much prefer to work illustrating the interior! How about you?
With a book, you can read it, get to know the character, whether animal or human you start to visualize them in your head and from there you can put it too paper and help create a best selling masterpiece.
Publishing isn't just tied into Books, look at Newspapers and Magazines.

Harper collins is my favorite publishing house (bias because they published my favorite series- Warriors)
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/

Industry Structures

As an Artist, there are many twisting, winding paths too choose from. Parents may frown upon your choice of career and say 'Art? Art, there's no goddamn money in art!' Well they are bastard liars or idiots. Every company you can think of, has commissioned an artist (if its not an art company in itself) to design a logo, create the typeface for the company, or advertise the company through that specific artists style.. Something like the coca-cola font is now recognized world wide, though its had minor tweaks to the font over the decades, to suit the moving culture and modern times, the type face has never changed so massively that you wouldn't recognize it.
Design houses are a massive money maker within the creative world (if successful) they can have hundreds (maybe thousands) of clients and be a world wide company, with houses in every big city, and you could be making big money.. But there is a catch, just like how the devil would want your soul for that Lamborghini Sesto Elemento you've always lusted after. In design houses you are very rarely given creative freedom and have to work in the style that house is best known for, which restricts your creative flow and is utterlyyyyyy boring in my oppinion. Having said that, it might appeal to you, to work in a design house, you might feel comfortable boxed in to one particular style of artwork, where as I, I like to be as free as a bird, and do what I want when I want #swag #yolo which leads to Freelance work.
As beautiful as the word 'Free' sounds it comes at a cost. How fucking ironic! Because the price you have to pay for freelance work is if you're not working you don't get paid. But the plus side for being your own man (or artist I am not gender bias ladies) is that people commission you to work for them because they like your style!

Here's some design houses, to have a look at
http://ilovedust.com/
Based in the south of england, near the sea side. These guys are really cool for a design house, bikers for the win, they look mean and their artwork is even meaner, their artwork has a very rock and roll vibe! Its fresh, cool and totally down with the kids.
How about this bunch...
http://www.vault49.com/
These guys are based in New York, one of the most enticing cities in the world, because if you can bet known in New York, you can get known anywhere.

For Freelance, there are two options, you can join a well known website, where your work will be cataloged, with many other illustrators. If a company approaches this website or that catalog and they then decide they want you, the business that has hosted you will want a percentage of earnings from the work.
An example of this is..
http://www.jellylondon.com/illustration
Or you could create your own website...
Like Amy did.
http://www.amydover.com/
(Sorry Amy, but your work is very nice and quirky)

So reader, its up to you...

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a scary word, to any creative soul. Its a dangerous business to involve yourself in, being caught out can get you into a lot of trouble, and with the internet being the way it is, you're stupid if you think you can slip under the radar. Plagiarism, is copying somebody else's work or ideas and claiming it as your own, which naturally can cause a lot of offence to the original artist, as due credit isn't being awarded to them, and instead to who is wrongly claiming all of the glory.

One man who has been accused of plagiarism is insanely famous for the multi-coloured print of the blonde bombshell, Marilyn Monroe.  Andy Warhol, without permission of the photographer, silk screened her photographs. Of course, when you are so well known in the art world, its hard for someone not to realise, with his celebrity status, these silk screen flower prints where soon in magazines.. And who of course noticed? The original photographer! Patricia Caulfield then claimed ownership of her work after seeing Warhols adaption of her photograph. After a tedious court battle, Miss Caulfield and Andy settled for her receiving royalties to use the image as well as two of his adaptions.
Moral of the story, its not big, its not clever and if you're an artistic fellow surely you're creative enough to come with your own ideas?
http://www.phaidon.com/resource/warhol-flowers-opener.jpg
(^Photo of Warhols and Caulfields's flowers, forgive me for not actually putting the photo in, getting used to this blog malarkey)