As the world goes into lock down governments have requested their residents to self isolate and stay at home. This has affected a lot of peoples work and may have affected you. If you are lucky you are now working from home, still earning an income and not letting your work stack up while you. are safely locked away from the virus. Working from home is a completely different environment than a lot of people are used to and can cause anxiety and distraction.
I have been working remotely, form home and other places right around the world, for a good 3 years now I have learned things along the way. I would like to share some tips and advice to anyone who finds themselves newly in the work from home boat. This advice is good for anyone from the procrastinators to the over workers. It will help you manage your time and keep you sane. Below is a list of tips to help you in this new way of working.
Inktober is a wonderful art challenge which runs for the whole of October. It was created by Jake Parker in 2009 as a self exploration not improve his personal inking skills and is now a world wide event which gets bigger every year. It is free to participate and a great way to jump into some artistic practice and be part of the world wide artist community.
Since its inception Inktober has grown to include artists working digitally and traditionally (ink) in colour and black and white and it hosts a phenomenal out pour of creativity. I myself have participated before and loved the challenge of 30 daily illustrations finished and inked, and I will be participating again this year. It is great way to accelerate your growth, make new friends I the art world and even up your online following.
As October is only just around the corner and the challenge is quick approaching I thought I would share some advice for participating in this challenge.
I wanted to develop a book that I could send to publishers. If you have read the blogs leading up till now, you would know that the reason I could not pursue publication of my previous works was because of copyright restrictions. I could have gone to a publisher with my idea to turn these texts into books and they may have helped me track down copyright approvals, but I wanted to have the best chance of a publisher saying yes to my work. And having the friction point of legal work may have had a publisher decline my application.
I also had a bundle of ideas for books at this point, with new ones piling on each day. I knew if I ever wanted any of these ideas to turn into something I either had to write them myself or hire someone to write them for me. As a girl of the DIY generation and a can do attitude, I opted for the first option.
Illustration is two fold; how you draw and what you draw. The how is the practical skills, your understanding of the medium (in example pencil/paint), anatomy, gesture, etc. The what is the content, story, character, illustration style and mood conveyed in your art. Levelling up both these sides of your illustration skills is important and often artists tend to focus on the how and not the what and this can lead to beautiful but uninspiring work.
You may have mastered the pen or the brush but your illustrations can still appear dry or amateurish if you don’t have intriguing content. I know each and everyone of you reading this are filled with great ideas and awesome art, however you may be struggling to realise these stories and visuals in your work.
In light of this I have created a class series for you, helping you add depth, character and story to your illustrations. The first course which is released today focuses entirely on your characters and figures, creating real personalities in them to draw your audience into your art and activate an emotive response and connection.
Working for free, a scary thought when you are trying to build your business or start a career. It consumes time which could be used as billable hours, and here is a secret, it is not necessary to ever work for free. It can be useful however to collaborate and build partnerships with pro bono work.
So how do you know whether a free projects is right for you? I have split up my advice into seperate sections because I have a lot to say on the topic. You can read it all or just find the heading which best suits you. Let me know your thoughts and questions in the comments below.
It has gotten to that time of year when it gets very easy to give up on our passion projects and goals, pushing things back until the new year, because this year is already half gone. My simple advice to you is don’t, don’t give up on doing what you love and creating beautiful things. Stop thinking about the half a year that is gone and think about the abundance of time you have ahead.
The first step to being productive is to stop procrastinating through stress and obsessing over what we haven’t achieve but looking forward to what we can achieve.
It may seem daunting to get back into the swing of things, but with a few tweaks to out inner monologue and a shift in our planning and environment you can rapidly increase your productivity in your life and your creative projects.
Just taking things one step at a time is a great way to start, but let’s run through some steps that you can do to get yourself in a great place to start being productive:
Hello Susann, Thank you so much for taking time to talk to us today about all your beautiful creative work. You are a very talented illustrator with a unique style which captivates the eye. How did you find your ‘voice’ in illustration, that makes your work specially yours?
Thank you so much for reaching out (and for the compliments!), happy to have found your blog! It’s so funny that you mention “my style” because for the longest time, I was sure I didn’t have one. Up to three years ago I found myself copying illustrators whose style I admired, but apart from feeling bad about it, I didn’t feel like it was “me” – it was a lot of pencil work and very reduced colour.
In 2017, I saw people on Instagram using paint markers in their sketchbooks and I was captivated by the vibrant colours and the smooth surfaces that made the drawings seem like printed artworks. Usually I would never say that a medium defines your style, but I think for me it did change something. I started doodling, not thinking too much about what I wanted to draw but merely playing with those colours, building shapes and seeing what could develop from them. Also, when working digitally before, I was SO bad with colours! The markers gave me a limited palette to work with and I just chose 4–5 colours and stuck with them for the whole illustration. That really tied my work together, I think.
Before you start reading, if you want to catch up on part one and two just click below.
PART 1 | PART 2
If you are all caught up let’s begin with part 3. We finished off last way back in time at university. Well now we move forward a bit and it is time for a bit of self exploration. Now it is time for ‘The Elephant Who Forgot What He Was’. This is a beautiful poem I found online by Christopher Ronald Jones (if you are reading Chris please let me know what you think of my adaptation, would love to get in touch). I had decided after illustrating an Australian classic it was time to dip my toes into the water of children’s poetry, and see what my imagination came up with.
This little project took me about a month to develop from concept to completion and is still one of my favourite personal projects to date.
It started like all good picture books do, with a pinch of reading, a dash of pagination and a big dollop of story boarding. I spent about a week figuring out the layout of this 32 page pipe dream and then off I went full steam ahead into the fun of character design and creating an aesthetic for this sweet little story.
I have recently had birthday. Another journey around the sun and it has made me quite reflective on how I got to where I am in my life. To an outsider I am successful, I have a strong professional presence in design, illustration and performance, a good social life, loving husband and positive outlook for the future. People describe me as “lucky”, but luck has nothing to do with where I am or any accomplishment I may have made. Everything I have was built through constant learning, trial and error and lots and lots of work (and it was nurtured by the love and support of those I chose to surround myself with).
Luck, in my opinion is the hope of the lazy, for if luck exists, what is the need for hard work. I am not going to lie to you and say that if you sit just as you are some day your prince will come, your life will change, that some one will hand you the keys to the kingdom and as if by magic you will have everything you have desired. Unfortunately, this is not the case. If you have goals, passions and desires then my only suggestion to you is to work hard and be diligent and this will give you the greatest chance to be successful in your endeavours.
Now this is a pretty vague piece of advice, ‘work hard and you will be rewarded’. However it has never failed me, even when the ‘reward’ came in a form which was completely unexpected or planned.
So below I have listed some steps you can take to grow your talents, and make your own ‘luck.
Hello Melissa, I am honoured to be able to chat with you. I have followed your work for quite a while now and I am so thrilled to see you are have just released a new book which you have not only illustrated but written as well, this is such an exciting step in an already well established career. Can you tell us a bit about the book?
Hi Cara! Thank you so much for featuring on your blog and in this wonderful project :) Mighty Min is my first authored & illustrated book and it is a story I feel that I have had inside me since I was a child. I’ve always been fascinated by miniature worlds and the thought of small people living below our feet - I loved books such as ‘The burrowers’ when I was younger and it definitely inspired this story.
‘Mighty Min’ is about a miniature girl called Min who lives with her 4 equally miniature but very mighty aunts. Min dreams of being strong and brave like her aunts and one day she gets swept up by an owl and she finds herself on a mighty adventure where she discovers that just because she is small doesn't mean she's not brave & heroic.
The book has been described as ‘a Thumbelina for the 21st century’ which I think describes it well.
One of my favourite things to do as a creative is illustrate and I really want to share this passion with you. Art is such a precious gift and personal experience and I want to give you the opportunity to have your own personalise illustration. Whether it be a pet portrait, a family drawing, or a little book to tell someone you love them, I want to create something for you that is uniquely yours and no one else’s. As such I am opening up illustration commissions on my store.
This year is a year of new a great changes for co.create and one of the biggest which has been in the works is the opening of my very own online store now you can purchase the artwork that you love to display in your home, and while you are out and about.
Every month there will be a new collection released of 5 artworks and patterns, with new stand alone products popping up in between.
I am partnering with Society6 for this venture so you can access a wide range of high quality products, from a trusted and premium source. Currently available on the store is everything from art prints to phone cases, t-shirts and bags and even some furniture.
Today you can do anything online order food, get a lift, buy anything and everything and you can also communicate with anyone from anywhere in the world. We spend so much of our time on the internet we grow an identity on the platform, we live there. With the thousands of uses for this fantastic tool it surprises me why people don’t utilise more often for work and have scepticism of remote employees when everyone is so accessible.
As a designer I have worked in-house, studio freelance and remote and at first it surprised me how little my work process changed. I became quickly aware that I can do my job at exactly the same standard from anywhere, and that having the freedom to be anywhere actually made my work better and gave me more resources to my disposal to make things happen.
Today you can do anything online order food, get a lift, buy anything and everything and you can also communicate with anyone from anywhere in the world. We spend so much of our time on the internet we grow an identity on the platform, we live there. With the thousands of uses for this fantastic tool it surprises me why people don’t utilise more often for work and have scepticism of remote employees when everyone is so accessible.
As a designer I have worked in-house, studio freelance and remote and at first it surprised me how little my work process changed. I became quickly aware that I can do my job at exactly the same standard from anywhere, and that having the freedom to be anywhere actually made my work better and gave me more resources to my disposal to make things happen.
Whether your business is successful or still learning to fly, your constant emotional, cognitive and financial connection to it will bring along stress. Running a business can be tricky, you are not only doing the work you are good at, what you are passionate about, but you also have to market your business, do the accounting, keep up your brand, create client relations… the list goes on.
I want to encourage you to lift some of the burden of running your own business (especially if you are a sole trader) and seek out help and assistance in the back ground workings of your business. This will allow you to get on with what you do best, and focus on doing your work, developing your products and supporting your clients.
There seems to be an ever growing myth that design is easy, with more and more digital programmes and apps now available on the market more and more people are taking it into their own hands to “whip up” designs for their brand, business and community. But before you jump down this rabbit hole I want you to stop and think about the potential damage you could be doing to your brand, and how a damaged brand could impact your lively hood.
It is true, anyone can design, with the proper tools and training, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be good at it. Design is not just combining images, colour, typography and text into a visual product, design is problem solving, it is about more than just aesthetic. It is due to this that I implore you to consult a professional when endeavouring on creating assets for your business or developing your brand.
A designers biggest tool to get hired is their portfolio. It is your first impression and can make or break your chance of getting a job.
The difference between a good and bad portfolio can be subtle and I want to help you make yourself as hireable as you can. Every creative has unique skills, and a talent which is gold for the right career. I want to help you highlight your assets and market yourself to get your dream job in your industry.
I have been a designer for several years and have worked with a huge range of clients, from brides to big corporate business, I have dipped my two into projects of all sizes. Some projects went amazingly well, the client was happy, I’m happy, it’s on deadline with no problems. Then there were others which were to say the least... problematic.
I really do care about my clients and the work that I do. I don’t want anyone to have a bad experience, but sometimes things get out of my control, frustrations come along and the project begins to suffer because of it.
I have learnt a lot about client relations and project management and can pretty much deal with anything that comes my way.
So I thought I would help you out with some simple tips to make sure your projects run like clockwork and keep your designer happy so they produce the best work they can for you.
As a designer I have worked in a multitude of environments, from corporate offices, to boutique studios and large commercial business. Each place I have worked I have been seated at a desk, put in with the marketing crowd and done a 9-5 job. I enjoy going into an office and doing the hard yards, talking with the team and having a physical presence.
However over the past couple years I have expanded as a designer to become a freelancer and remote worker, being able to work at any time from anywhere and, I have to say, that this has not had a negative impact on my work at all. In fact it has made me a more dedicated and hard working employee.
