Professional Illustrator Interview - Jo Parry

Jo Parry is a successful Bournemouth based artist and illustrator with a diverse style which keeps her very busy.  I was lucky enough to secure an interview with Jo, who told me all about her working practices, how she got started as an illustrator and her best advice to those of us just starting out.  You can read the transcript of the interview below, but to get an idea of Jo's versatile style, check out her work here.



Hi Jo. Thanks for talking to me about your illustration. First of all, I’m curious to know where your love of illustration comes from. Did you draw as a child? Who are your early influences. 

I did! In fact I did little else, and was never without my pencils and paper. I loved picture books as a kid, my favourite being a beautifully illustrated versions of RL Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verse. Still trying to track down the original copy today! 

You produce art in all kinds of formats; posters, prints, greetings cards, children’s book illustrations etc. Which is your favourite and how / why are you so versatile

I probably enjoy creating card designs the most because I can get hem done quickly. Fundamentally I'm an impatient artist so the things I like to create most are those I can see results from within hours, rather than days. I get bored easily so illustrating greetings cards allows me to get relatively immediate results. Versatility is key if you want to be busy, and it helps with the boredom aspect! If you can adapt your work to fit many fields, you have a far better chance of being successful. 

Where did you train?

I completed a total of five years at art school at the Arts Institute in Bournemouth , 2 years foundation then a further two years specialising in graphic design and illustration. I went back for a further year to study graphic communication because I wanted to enhance my digital skills. 

What sort of work did you do to start with? When do you consider you had your breakthrough to commercial success and being able to make a living?

I started off by doing magazine editorials, mainly illustrations to accompany articles in national magazines, as well as packaging design and posters for design companies. I worked enough to get by in the early days but found real success once I joined the Advocate team.

Do you work with agents? If so, how did you go about getting an agent? 

I was lucky enough to have an agent before leaving art college so was was working commercially as soon as I'd left. I moved on to a second, and then third, Advocate, who represent me now. The best way to gain an agent is just knocking on doors and persisting. You need to make yourself known on the circuit and I always feel face to face meetings work best. A lot of illustrators send off postcards or the odd email to agencies and make little progress, because you just get lost in the crowd. Decide what agencies you wish to contact, check to see who else they represent and what styles they champion, and tailor Your portfolio to that. Be proactive and find a way of making yourself stand out from the rest! I placed an ad in the back of Greetings Magazine, an industry publication, because I wanted to work in that area. My current agent picked up on it and after a 10 minute phone call I was signed up.  

Tell me about your daily routine and where you work. Can you send me a photograph of you in your studio? 

Jo's under-stair studio

I am very particular about how I work and my daily routine. I work from home so always start at 8.30am and then through to the evening most days. It's not unusual for me to do 14 hour days.  Unlike a lot of other artists I treat my working day like anyone else who goes out to work. I'm washed, dressed and fed before I start! I can't and never do sit around in my PJs ! If you work from home you have to be especially disciplined and not distracted. I feel it is important to be in 'work mode' before starting each day. I even have 'work clothes’! I work in my lounge, in a space under the stairs would you believe! It’s not as bad as it sounds, I’m next to the kitchen,handy for tea and biscuits !

Tell me about your processes. What's  are your favourite mediums and brands to work with

To start with, I pencil sketch out designs manually as apposed to digitally, then scan. I still like to do this part the old fashioned way! All my colour work is digital now so once sketches are approved move onto the digital painting.

How much of your work is produce digitally? How do you move between digital and traditionalism him mediums? 

As covered in the other question, all my work is digital now, except for my teaching work. I am an art tutor to children once a week, and adults one evening a week. The works I produce for these sessions is traditional. My favourite traditional medium is artists pastels.

What do you consider are the best and worst aspects of being a self employed illustrator? 

Good question!! The best aspect is being able to make a living from your passion, that's a huge honour. The worst part is probably the long hours and the fact you spend a huge amount of time on your own. Oh and chasing down payments!

Illustration can be a pretty solitary occupation. How do you keep yourself motivated and engaged professionally? 

In the end it comes down to discipline and reminding yourself how lucky you are to do this as an occupation. Motivation isn't too much of an issue for me, there's always something new I want to try or a new style I want to explore.

Do you collaborate with other artists or writers directly? 

Generally no, but I have occasionally worked on collaborations with other artists. I know a few illustrators who do this regularly but for me it's not the way I work generally. 

What are you working on currently? What’s in the pipeline? 

I've just finished work on my first self written children's book, a long standing ambition of mine! I'm currently writing 6 more so my job now is to get publishing deals for these in 2016. Hopefully ! Other than that I'm working on greetings cards for high street retailers, a series of colouring book covers, my own range of vintage style giftware, a couple of pop up books for a regular client, two christmas books, oh and I teach art on saturdays to a great bunch of 20 school children. I also do personal tutoring sessions for children from home. 

I notice you used Instagram and Facebook. What other social media do you use to engage with your audience, and how do you use it? What has been most successful

I use those plus twitter, to update my followers on what I’m currently working on. Hard to say which has been the most useful, probably twitter. I think the probably has the best reach. Luckily my agent does the majority of publicity for me.

Finally, what advice would you give to new illustrators wanting to enter the profession? 



First and most important point, NEVER undersell yourself. Seek advice from other illustrators if you need advice on commission prices etc. Your time and skills are extremely valuable, never forget that. Know your market! I think that is probably the very best bit of advice I can give. To know your market firstly you have to know what area or areas you wish to work in, and then spend lots of time studying that field. Illustrators can often be guilty of being vanity artists, by that I mean just producing work they like to do. To be honest that’s more the discipline of a tradition artist. Artists paint for themselves, illustrators paint for others! Know what is on trend, what styles and treatments are popular, what themes, you have to know this stuff back to front if you want to be commercially viable. Become an expert in illustration fashions and trends, and see which discipline suits your skill base. Apart from that I’d encourage all illustrators to be as technically proficient as possible, particularly if they will be working digitally. That way you can develop more than one style. So many illustrators pigeonhole themselves by working tightly to one illustrative style, this will limit your chances of scoring regular commissions, be flexible and adapt to market forces! Finally I would say grow a thick skin (you will experience many setbacks and rejections!) and invest in the most comfortable chair you can for your work station. With any luck you’ll be sat in it an awful lot! 

Thanks to Jo for her time and wisdom. I love Jo's discipline - the very reason that I chose to take on a studio, rather than simply working from home - working from home would be achievable for me as we are lucky enough to have space, but there are too many distractions for a 'day job' and I value the feeling of professionalism that 'going to work' gives me.  Now I just have to practice, practice, practice so that I can become as skilled and prolific as some of the excellent professionals who have been kind enough to share their knowledge with me during this module.  

There is more to come on this, with more interviews to upload for your enjoyment, but before this, I think it's time to reflect again on my own ambitions.  Watch this space...

H. x

Lecture reflection - Julia Woolams, Mair Perkins and Adam Hayes

Adam Hayes

One of the most interesting things about the Professional Practice module is having the opportunity to listen to industry professionals tell us first hand about what it's like to make a living as a creative.

The three professionals all work in different ways and in different fields but there were some common messages.  Dealing with money isn't easy, but it's important to get comfortable charging a realistic price for your work.  Don't work for free - doing so undervalues the entire industry.  This is something I can easily relate to in my work as a Face Painter - I am often asked to work for charities and the implication each time is that it is such a good cause that I should donate my time, materials, expertise, insurance, hours of training and energy for free.  Doing this ensures that the next painter will also be expected to work for free.  It is important to set the bar and to value what we do.  As with the face painting world that I already understand, there are agencies and forums who can support and assist with pricing, noteably the AOI.  Agents will also undertake this piece of work but of course come with a fee, so it is worth considering the complexity, exposure and size of a commission before deciding on whether to go through an Agency.

Johnson Banks for the V&A

Julia Woolams is a Senior creative for London agency Johnson Banks. Johnson Banks are a small but successful agency who have represented clients such as the London Science Museum, the V&A etc.  Read more about them here.  Julie has chosen to work full time with the agency in the way of a traditional employee, i.e. to get up each morning and to go to the same place of work (or a client site). This is a secure way to make a living and allows concentrated focus on the types of work carried out by that employer.  For me, the downside would be the lack of personal creative time and the strict briefs.  Julia said that often, the client will not choose the preferred option but will choose something that the agency may not feel will work best and so either flexibility or negotiation skills are required, but also an openness of mind as often, this route will produce a successful outcome which may not have presented itself as an immediate solution. Julia is a Graphic Designer and said that Johnson Banks use illustrators on an ad hoc basis, usually from a bank of people already known.

Mair Perkins is a self employed illustrator / animator. She works from home or from her rented studio and the majority of her client work comes from her own animated illustrations.  Mair produces 'explainer animations' - short infographics explaining a point or a process or giving information about a place of interest.  To supplement her income Mair also produces anime portraits and also produces illustration work both for clients and for her own projects. Mair has an excellent website here to showcase her animation work and a separate website here for her illustration work. Mair's websites are excellent, informative and clear on pricing and structure of her services. Mair stressed the importance of being very clear on what a price might include, for example the number of revisions, milestones and deadlines etc - something I understand very well from my years as a Project Manager, for example, if a client doesn't give approval by an agreed date the project deadline may slip, for which the service provider may be unfairly blamed.  It is crucial when working for oneself that expectations, roles and responsibilities are agreed up front in any project. For a project to be delivered in September, it might be required for a milestone to be signed off by July - it is not the service provider's fault if the client does not sign off until August, but the client expectation will be that the delivery deadline does not slip, so it is important that each party understands the consequences of any project slippage, including financial.  

Adam Hayes

The third professional, and the one I identified with most strongly, is Adam Hayes. Adam lives in Wales with his family (until recently he resided in Matlock), and works with clients globally from his rented studio. Adam specialises in hand drawn type and hand drawn, complex illustrations.  Like Adam, I tend to steer away from technology (a Summer goal is to improve my usage of this a little more whilst staying true to my hand drawn origins)and I love to fill every inch of the surface with hand drawn tiny detail, a habit which often means that 'long' project deadlines are actually quite tight for me due to the intricacy of the drawing process.  Adam has an agent in New York and, knowing the value of face to face meetings when forging professional relationships, will fly over once a year or so to meet with clients and agency contacts. This greatly appeals to me and would fulfil the need I have to be maintain the professional persona I have spent many years building up in my Project Management work.  I know the value of making this effort, having regularly flown to Sweden and Germany to create and nurture relationships with clients which have always paid dividends in trust, communication and repeat business.

Adam specialises in illustrative type, something that highly appeals to me and another Summer goal - I have been playing with hand lettered type this semester (for personal, not University projects) and have been practising many times a week but the only way to reach Adam's standard is to increase this practice.  However to possess both skills, type and drawing, is to broaden the opportunities for the types of work I might be commissioned for.  Adam spoke of the pros and cons of using an Agent - for smaller pieces of work this might not be required and would allow the illustrator to keep 100% of the fee, but for larger pieces of work the Agent acts as a go-between, liaising with the client and allowing the illustrator to get on with the business of illustrating.  He talked of a recent, large project which paid well but was complex where an Agent would have allowed him to concentrate on producing the artwork instead of breaking up this concentrated time for meetings and discussions.

So, upon reflection, here is what is important to me:-

• Having my own dedicated studio space away from home life and kids - a place to 'go to work'.
• To be able to maintain professionalism - to take on well paid jobs that allow me to afford to occasionally put on smart clothes and fly / drive / travel by train to see clients and build up relationships.
• To work in a style that is true to me, but to broaden that style to include illustrative type and other skills that will allow me to bid for a wider variety of work.
• To maintain time for personal projects and technique development.
• To charge appropriately so that I maintain my value and can afford to work and live in my chosen way; as Mike Wilks said to me 'don't expect to be rich, but don't expect to be poor either.'
• To work hard, challenge myself, improve quality, build up a client list and portfolio and to enjoy every moment of what I choose to do, even in the moments that I hate it. 

And that's it for today - much food for thought.  Sincere thanks to Julia, Mair and Adam for sharing their own thoughts and processes which have allowed me to shape mine.

H. x

Professional Illustrator Interview - Mike Wilks

 One of the most interesting aspects of the Professional Practice module has been having the time and encouragement to take the opportunity to interview professionals in our field. All of the interviews I've conducted have been fascinating, with commonalities and also differences between the artists and their approach to their craft.  

Mike Wilks came to my attention a few years ago.  I had long admired the pen and ink work of Chris Riddell and the colour and complexity of Patrick Woodroffe.  I came across a book called 'Pile' by Brian Aldiss and illustrated by Mike and was instantly drawn to it's beautiful, highly complex and intricate black and white illustrations.  I researched more of Mike's work and discovered that, like me, he is fascinated by detail.  I e-mailed Mike a while ago for another module and he was kind enough to reply and to share some information with me, and so I approached him again for this module and he very generously agreed to give me an interview.  I had hoped to meet Mike in London, but circumstances did not allow and so here instead is the transcript of our interview which was conducted over e-mail - huge thanks to Mike.  I e-mailed many illustrators and only a few were kind enough to respond, so this is greatly appreciated.

Hi Mike, Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.  First of all, I’m curious to know where your love of illustration comes from. I believe you drew a lot as a child? Who were your early influences.

My dad must have been my earliest influence. He was not a trained draughtsman but he could draw a bit. I also read a lot of comics.

Where did you do your formal training?

I won a 13+ scholarship to junior art school in 1960. The one I attended was in Sutton, Surrey but there were other junior art schools all over the country at that time. It was where I learnt to draw and paint and a few other skills that were on the curriculum such as wood engraving and calligraphy. At that school we sat GCE O-levels at 15 and A-levels at 16 to get them out of the way. I then attended Croydon College of Art for four years where I studied graphic design. Illustration was almost totally absent from my work throughout that time.

What sort of work did you do to start with? When do you consider you had your breakthrough to commercial success and being able to make a living?

When I graduated from art school I worked as a graphic designer. My first job was as a packaging designer. I designed a lot of milk cartons, bread wrappers, blancmange packets and the like and then changed jobs to a large design group designing more sophisticated projects such as corporate identities and eventually I was promoted to creative director by the time I was 22. I then left that rather well-paid job and set up my own graphic design group, TWD, doing much the same thing. TWD grew and prospered but by the age of 27 and facing many more years doing similar work I got bored and sold my share to my partners. I then freelanced and taught graphic design part-time at Harrow School of Art. When I had free time I rediscovered my love of drawing and began my first book, Pile, Petals From St Klaed's Computer.

You’re well known now, but how did you market yourself when you first started? How did you get your name known?

I started by lugging Pile around to most of the publishers in London but without success. I was then introduced to a top literary agent (since retired), Carol Smith, who sold the book for me and got me a commission for my second book, In Granny's Garden. From there I published The Weather Works and then, in 1986, The Ultimate Alphabet which was my first commercial success.

Detail features heavily in your work. How long does it take to complete a piece?

A pen and ink drawing might typically take me about two weeks (14 days - no weekends off for me). A small painting can take up to two months. The largest painting I have undertaken was for The Ultimate Noah's Ark. It measured 1.2 x 1.8 metres and occupied me for two years.

Mike Wilks - Ultimate Noah's Ark

How did you become involved with Central Illustration Agency? Do you work with any other agencies?


Following the success of The Ultimate Alphabet I upped sticks from London and moved to the South of France where I stayed for ten years. When I returned to London in 1998 I was looking around for new challenges and decided to join CIA. They seemed to have the most exciting stable of artists. Apart from my literary agent CIA was the only other agent I have used.

Tell me about your daily routine and where you work. Can you send me a photograph of
you in your studio?

I work every day in my studio in an old converted pub in South London. You can find pictures here http://www.theresident.co.uk/homes-interiors/convert-pub-live-work-space/ I have acres of space and use the former public bar for a painting and drawing studio and the old saloon bar is where I write surrounded by books. I live downstairs in what used to be the old pub cellar which is much nicer than it sounds.

Tell me about your processes. How do you generate ideas? What are your favourite mediums and brands to work with?

I don't have a 'process' I just roll up my sleeves and get stuck in. Talk of 'process' is just art school jargon to make art teachers sound important (believe me, I used to be one) and I usually have to fight off ideas with a stick. I write with a computer, draw with a Rotring Isograph and paint with Liquitex acrylic colours and Winsor & Newton series 7 sable brushes. More recently I have been getting back to painting in oil colours and I have enjoyed using Pro Arte brushes. Oils are obviously not used for commercial commissions as they take weeks to dry.

How much of your work is produced digitally? How do you move between digital and traditional mediums?

Apart from writing I only like to use a computer to 'tickle' what I produce with traditional media. There is a homogeneity with digital images that I find unattractive and there's not as much fun to be had as there is when sploshing around with paint.

What do you consider are the best and worst aspects of being a self employed illustrator?

As most of my work in self-instigated I feel I'm insulated in many ways from the 'illustration world'. The best part of being an illustrator would be the variety and flexibility of the work and the worst, probably, the relatively small income and intermittent nature of it.

Illustration can be a pretty solitary occupation. How do you keep yourself motivated and engaged professionally?

I've never had any problem with either of these.

Do you collaborate with other artists or writers directly?

The nature of my work means I don't need to.

What are you working on currently? What’s in the pipeline?

I never talk about work in progress except to say that I'm currently completing the illustrations for a new novel (my fourth). Recently an American publisher, Pomegranate, bought the rights to republish several books in my back-catalogue. The Ultimate Alphabet: Complete Edition has just been published and a new edition of The Weather Works will be published in autumn 2016. There are also ranges of jigsaw puzzles, note cards, wall calendars etc to complement the reappearance of these books with much more to be published over the next few years. http://www.pomegranate.com/mike-wilks.html

What social media do you use to engage with your audience, and how do you use it? What has been most successful?

I only really use Facebook. I would much rather be making books or pictures than 'interacting' with an audience.

Finally, what advice would you give to new illustrators wanting to enter the profession?

Strap yourself in and be prepared for a wild, fun ride. Don't expect to become rich but don't expect to starve either. Forget everything you learnt at art school - unless you came across a surefire cure for hangovers - and, above all, don't try to be 'fashionable'. That way if there is any 'fashion' about your work you'll be the one making it. Oh, and make sure you wash your brushes out and clean your pens every evening.






















Thanks again to Mike for that interview.  One thing that comes across again and again when talking to professionals is the incredible work ethic and dedication which comes hand in hand with having the privilege to work doing something that you love.  Repeated I hear tales of no evenings or weekends off, but I also sense and have experienced myself the joy of working in a quiet studio while the rest of the family are out or in bed or doing 'normal' things like watching TV and becoming totally and utterly absorbed in creating a piece of art.  I am reminded of one of the many reasons for embarking on this path, the desire to work for myself, doing something I love and being able to manage my time around my daughter and her schooling. Mike has also talked to me in previous correspondence about the importance of having self belief - practice, practice, practice, be the best you can be and believe in yourself. 

H. x

Promotional Materials - Postcards

There are a few things in life that are very important to me: my  daughter, space (physical and mental), health, good coffee and good chocolate being just some.

But possibly one of the most important discoveries I've made about myself as I've grown older, is that I need to be authentic.

Bear with me if that sounds a bit odd, what I mean is that I need to be truthful to myself and to do what I think is right - which, combined with my creativity, has put me in a right old dilemma this week.  Let me tell you why:

We were tasked with making some promotional postcards. The idea is that you send the promotional postcards off to potential clients or to potential customers or agencies or employers we would like to work with.

This is a great idea, but what has become clear by talking to many professionals, is that many of these postcards, so carefully crafted, end up either in the bin, being used as a coffee mat, or, if we are among the lucky ones, filed in a drawer to be referred to never or slightly sooner.

So I decided to take a different approach - a bit of a risk, which, because of the nature of the module, my intent not fitting the requirements and being in a mixed group of Illustrators and Graphic Designers, just didn't work for me.

Before designing the postcards I thought about what might pique my interest, should young illustrators or designers send promotional material to me.  I thought it would be interesting to send a series of postcards over a number of consecutive days, which, when put together, tell a story.  I thought this would send a message that I could be consistent, reliable, see the part and yet tell the whole story.

Before we jump too much further let's look at the reasons why this now feels like it isn't right to continue.  The first two postcards were duly dispatched - the first to arrive on the designated date and the second to arrive the next working day.  However when we arrived at the lecture the postcards were already there and had been examined and 'judged', feedback given and returned to us.  The feedback gave me a jolting realisation that my handwritten but in no-special-typeface style (so that the postman could read it) was not going to cut the mustard, so to speak.  

I also realised that with the first postcard returned to me, the series would then not make sense.

I had used a narrative style designed to pique the interest of a creative, but hadn't used a show stopping design that might give that 'wow' factor.

It was also apparent that Graphic Designers and Illustrators are very different animals, my Graphic Design colleagues were loud, proud and striking, risky, risqué, bold, beautiful and showcasing a number of typefaces.  My Illustration colleagues were, on the whole, more ethereal, lurking at the back, quietly waiting to be noticed.  I thought back to the 'Great Face Race' challenge in the first module where all of us Illustrators missed the typeface trick and ended up reworking our designs to a new, more Graphic Design style.

I felt a bit odd inside.  I spoke to Leo and explained that he would receive another postcard and why, and said that I would continue to send them so that he could feed back. 'I'll have to be honest though, Helen.' he said.

Now honesty I like, but there was something in that tone that reflected something inside me and put my authenticity radar on red alert.  How could I honestly continue to send that series of cards, knowing that they are not going to meet requirements. I imagined myself growing more and more embarrassed with each card sent and the creative narrative I had planned sounding more and more inappropriate on each one.  There were six cards in the series, so this would go on for six excruciating days and poor Leo would have to endure this silly mail.

So, instead of posting them physically I will post them here - here they are. They are based on a piece of work I did around the theme of conversations:-

The Mouse character is actually a poster, the other images form the underside of the poster, folded book style and this was to be mailed on the final day.  

So, this module is all about learning and professionalism, so what did I learn?

1. Sometimes it's best to think a little more about the audience - the chances are that this tactic would have backfired on a professional organisation - especially if the first card ended up in the bin, or the Royal Mail failed to deliver.
2. A better idea would have just been to send the poster as a promotional item, along with the relevant contact details, which could have been printed on and the item folded to postcard size.
3. I actually like telling stories verbally as well as visually (the postcards were handwritten with a piece of narrative for each day), so perhaps writing and illustrating my own books is the way forward - I already have work in the pipeline along these lines and I am intend to use the Summer to further this work.

Now, what to do with the Star Wars stamps that I had bought to send them with?

H. x

Missing a trip to London and making a trip to London.

Do you ever feel like the Universe is conspiring against you?  Well, perhaps that is a little romantic but certainly, sometimes, some things are not meant to be.

On 26th February, our University group were scheduled to visit the House of Illustration in London. I was looking forward to the trip immensely and had a full day planned, the exhibitions at the House of Illustration and the guest speakers, a trip to the Portrait Gallery and it's next door neighbour the National Gallery, and a coffee and chat with an illustrator.  Train tickets were purchased (it worked better for me with travel and childcare to travel from Nottingham rather than the provided-by-the-University coaches).  I have worked in London on many occasions so I dusted off my Oyster card and anticipated the trip with excitement.

And then my Aunt passed away. My Aunt was a huge influence on my childhood love of art, as referred to in previous blogs. A celebration of her life and her humanistic funeral were planned for 26th February.

I missed the trip.  Of course.  We celebrated the life of a fantastic lady and I inherited a small dog of indeterminate breed.  However I was also reminded of the passion for art that my Aunt had, and shared, just by staying in her lovely Hampstead house.

 Her house is filled with art, some reproduction, some original, including the portrait of my late Uncle, William Hare,5th Earl of Listowel, shown at the top of this blog entry. Again I was reminded of years of looking at paintings, buying postcard prints from Galleries and pinning them to the cork tiles of my 1970's bedroom, and drawing, drawing, scribbling and reproducing in my own childish hand on any available surface.

So I missed the trip.  But I did research it a little, mainly by grilling my peers over coffee in the University cafe. 

One thing that always fascinates me is how, given a brief, every illustrator will come up with a different response.  I had been browsing the wonderful work on the Guardian website here; illustrator submissions  for the Folio Society competition for new artwork for the cover of War Horse and had posted a link on our Visual Communication Facebook page.  I had no idea at the time, that this exhibition was held at the House of Illustration and would have loved to have seen this work 'in the flesh'. I was also sad to miss a talk by Merlin Evans, a prolific illustrator whom I admire greatly for both her versatility and work ethic as well as her style.  Merlin produces medical illustrations, hugely detailed and beautiful, as well as working for clients including Camp Bestival, a regular 'must go' festival for my daughter and I. She also often works in what I am learning is called a 'reportage style' - a style that interests me very much and one I am experimenting with in a current brief for the National Trust. I am bravely putting one of Merlin's images side by side with one of my own - please be aware mine is in draft, but you will see that this is a very interesting way of getting a lot of information onto one illustration and could provide another source of income if it's something that I can learn to do well.

Helen Collard

Merlin Evans

So although it was disappointing to miss the trip, all is not lost. The galleries I intended to visit are still there.  The illustrator I had planned to meet has kindly given me an e-mail interview instead, and the House of Illustration is available to visit, so this will be rescheduled at some point as I plan to do a couple of days of London galleries.  I have not been to the RA, the Tate Modern or, my personal favourite, the Tate itself, for far too long.

H. x

Old CV / New CV - first thoughts

Sample creative CV

The whole point of the Professional Practice module is to get us to think like a professional, how would we actually earn a living out there in that big, bad, bold, competitive world?  Unlike many of my cohort I do have a CV.  Having a few years under my belt means that I have an extensive and pretty impressive wealth of experience.  I've shouldered professional responsibilities that might make some shudder.  I've had weeks and weeks where my commute to work has been: get up at 5.30am, drive to Birmingham airport, fly to Copenhagen, catch the train across the bridge (The Bridge, if you've seen the Scandinavian police drama - and if you haven't, you really should) to Malmö in Sweden, walk to the office, and be at my desk by 2.30pm.  I've worked from hotels, airports, coffee shops, home, libraries, basically anywhere I can fire up my laptop.  But sitting in that room, in University, with all those younger students - and believe me there are going to be some creative stars among them (I could name names, but I won't), it is suddenly easy to become frozen with fear, petrified that I may never enter paid employment again.  It is almost enough to make me yell at the top of my voice, 'Helen what are you DOING? Get back to a 'proper' job immediately'.  My CV currently looks like this (names have been changed to protect the innocent) :-

Boring isn't it? It all depends on the audience of course.  This CV contains all of the information needed to prove to a prospective employer that I know my stuff in this field.  Of course I am now focussing on creative roles, or roles combining creativity with my passion for education.  I have a strong desire to teach and with a background in mentoring and person centred Humanistic Psychotherapy I believe that each individual has the capacity to be the best that they can be with support and structured coaching.  Would you pick this out from the above? Probably not, but I am starting to realise that the building blocks are there and a little restructuring to highlight those skills is required.  Plus a different format to showcase my creativity.  

In order to begin this process I've been looking at creative CVs and collecting some inspirational examples here.  

I've also been getting a bit of 'hands on' experience, working with award winning animator Bexie Bush on her new film 'The Rumour Mill'.  More to come on this later but it's been a great example of the implementation of transferable skills.  Although I have no experience in the world of model building or animation, my expertise with processes and efficiency meant that I was easily able to find a quicker way of hand cutting bricks from a sheet of cardboard without compromising quality, and I was able to work around my own constraints of childcare (unpaid work experience does not afford the luxury of additional childminders, unfortunately) by bringing some of the work back to my own studio to return complete, which is the equivalent of spending two days on site.  A perfect example of flexibility and a win / win situation eh?  And while we are on the subject of flexibility, I can do a perfect yoga backbend.  But that's another story.

Sample creative CV

Sample creative CV