As an immigrant with a goal to stay in UK on the working visa, finding a job in animation industry that will sponsor a visa seems almost impossible. That has been proved by multiple visiting lecturers that straight up announced that if you are not a UK or EU resident you basically have very little chance of finding a job in this field. Regarding this factor, I had to correct my course of action and focus on finding a job anywhere in the creative industry as long as I will be sponsored a visa. As much as I want to be part of animation and film industry, it seems highly unlikely that in such political climate, I with a Russian passport will find any job that’s proximate to my field of interest. Since my primary goal has always been to escape the looming dictatorship of my home country, I’m willing to put my interests and passions aside and take on any boring low paid job in the UK as long as it grants me a chance to stay and later on file for residency.
Because I am delaying my inevitable exile from the country, I have applied and got into another master’s course under UAL’s branch which is Illustration and Visual Media at LCC in hopes that I will get a slightly higher chance of finding an internship and an in-studio job.
I am aiming at finding connections and internships in the illustration and visual media area because it feels slightly more commercialised. Eventually I got accepted into LCC and I will be starting the course in September 2024.
To prepare for the course, I want to be back in my artistic state. Not as an animator or director, but as an artist with no boundaries. I’m trying to remember my days in high school when I was doing art for A level. I want it to be fun and inspiring process again and this summer before I start the course I will be going back to my fine art roots and explore more subjects that matter to me. However I am not forgetting animation as it will forever be an ace up my sleeve on any occasion. If you can draw-it’s a plus. If you can draw and animate-you are a God. That’s why I am eternally grateful for the skills that MA Character Animation course has provided me with.