BLAST OFF!
Hello there and welcome to my very first blog post from the new website. This little creative space, carved out of the internet, has been brewing for some time and I’m delighted to share it and my worky updates, scribbles, thoughts and musings with you.
Winter may be approaching, a time for cosying up and hankering down, but the last month has been a time of fervent creative activity and project launches. So buckle up, it’s about to get…. slimey?!
October saw the launch of our new children’s picture book Slug in a Mug, written by the brilliant Laura Westring, with pictures by me.
The “almost true” story was inspired by Laura’s move to an empty cottage in 2020. Having woken one morning to find a slug in her mug, she began inventing stories with her young son to relieve the stress and social isolation of pandemic lockdowns.
A number of zoom meetings later and months of intensive molusc related research (I went Day-Lewis for this one), then jump forward to October 2022 and Slug has officially arrived, with launch parties and books on shelves all over the place. I don’t say this lightly, but it really has been a dream of a project to work on.
I’ll be posting more about Slug in a Mug on the blog here soon, with behind the scene content and some making of sneak peaks. Working with Laura on this project has brought into focus the benefits I personally get from working with other real life humans, so I thought I would dedicate my first post on the blog, to this subject.
TEAM WORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK
I’ve been very lucky to have been involved in some joyous artistic collaborations over my years working as a creative, which have taken me on theatre tours across the UK, playing music to unexpected audiences and building space rockets, paper maché robots and cardboard cities at international festivals.
Teamwork - The brilliant Ruth Janssen, in children’s theatre show, Grandad and Me… and me on my back, shredding on a guitar.
I really enjoy the creative process that comes from collaborative ventures in particular. One reason is that it offers up a change to the quite often solitary nature of being a self employed illustrator. But mostly it’s down to the work that comes out of it. In my experience, it is almost always richer for it, having a second opinion on things (slug started out a fleshy pink colour….big mistake in the world of books for kids!), being able to share in the high moments as a project is realised and celebrate them with a collaborator is really special and helps to face the inevitable challenging moments when they appear and not feel overwhelmed or get derailed.
Laura and me looking very pleased with ourselves, celebrating one of the first books back from print!
I find these sorts of projects help you to push past your boundaries, quite often when I’m creating work on my own, I settle very early on with a sketch and then make a final render. Sometimes I get lucky and it all works out, but I also have found great results from reworking sketches, in not settling on the first thing which looks half decent in my preparatory work. Having someone who can constructively assess your work can be incredibly helpful and there have been plenty of occasions where the final illustration has a much more satisfying story to tell after it’s been given some scrutiny (light hearted approach works best!) and a chance to breath. It’s a work in process but I’m getting better and knowing when to step away from a drawing and if/when to come back to it another day. Very often I find a bit of space and time in-between drawing sessions and trying not to get too comfy or fall into the familiar patterns of accepting the drawings immediately in front of me, often works wonders.
"Do Not Go where the Path may Lead; Go Instead where there is No Path and Leave a Trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Collaborative projects and partnerships have helped me to overcome certain hurdles in my own practise, and dare I say it, in life! It’s a stereotype that gets flung about often, about creative folk (illustrators in particular!) being introverted and that they find it difficult to promote their own practise with out a deep sense of dread…. but in my case that has certainly been true.
It is a struggle and I’m pretty sure that if I was left to own devices and only worked on solo projects I would be falling into those traps more often. But I would encourage any creative practitioner (who is maybe reading this and can relate to the above), to consider a project which enables you to work with other collaborators. They don’t all turn out rosy, they can be incredibly challenging and you might have to go through one or two before one lands sweetly, but when you find the right team mate/s and the work you’re creating makes you smile, the art that can emerge and experience of making it are so valuable, I’m confident you won’t regret it.
…and when you find a great collaborator, you suddenly, somehow, are able to do highly athletic heel kicks in mid air (you may need a lie down after it though)
Slug in a Mug is available online now, you grab your copy here.
Slug even has its own website and instagram profile, so you can keep up to speed with its trail across the internet and out into the world. Give them a follow for updates on events, to find out what comes next for our hero and of course where you can grab a copy of the book in a book shop near you (it is almost Christmas by the way!)
In the spirit of collaboration, here is a list of people/collaborators I am very fond of and have been lucky to work with. Why not check out their work and go give um a follow.
Judith Williams - Artist, Celebrant, Teacher Ruth Janssen - Dancer, Yoga Teacher Sita Iona Pieraccini - Actor, Musician, Vocalist Helen Gallogly - Textile Artist, Costume Hannah (McLean) Justad - Theatre Artist, Educator and Consultant Charlotte Duffy - Cardboard Artist, illustrator Debi Gliori - Artist, Writer, Picture book maker Andy Mcgeoch - Digital Artist and Science Educator Marta Masiero - Dancer, Yoga Teacher
