Lecture reflection - Carol Adlam

Carol Adlam

As part of the Directed Projects module, we were given the opportunity to meet and hear from successful and versatile illustrator, artist and write Carol Adlam.  

Carol graduated from the Cambridge School of Arts but the first thing that struck me is that illustration is not her first career!  Like me, she had a successful career not related to the arts and she re-trained in order to do something she loved. Whilst I have never doubted or regretted my decision to change direction in my forties, it was reassuring to see and speak with someone who had done that and is now successfully illustrating, writing, working with other creatives in partnerships, lecturing and also finding positions as resident artist in various establishments, including at the University of Derby.  When I asked Carol about this during the lecture she said that many on her course were mid-career professionals re-training to do something else, which gave me great hope as one of the things I was hoping for when I started my course was a higher number of mature students than there actually are.

Carol Adlam

Like Jo Parry, (see interview earlier in this blog), Carol works in many different styles, children's picture books, reportage - an area I was unaware of until recently but have a great interest in, and interestingly, graphic novels.  The graphic novel is one genre of illustration that generally makes me groan.  Although I think it is incredibly clever how a well drawn graphic novel can tell a story, often without words, I've always felt it is not for me, despite owning an excellent book called 'Understanding Comics' by Scott McCloud - I encourage you to read this even if, like me, you don't like traditional graphic novels.  However Carol approaches the graphic novel in a completely different way and hers are beautifully illustrated and tell a harrowing, true story of a young girl's story of the Holocaust based on interviews with Suzanne, a Holocaust survivor. It was a bit of an eye opener for me and led me to think about how I might approach a graphic novel in my own style - why should I be confined by dark spaces and superheroes?  There is no reason why I couldn't tell a children's story, or that of my Mum, a WW2 refugee, in graphic novel format using colour and line.

So I'm really interested to think about maybe how Carol has become so successful, given that this is a later life choice.  A look at her website 'about me' page gives a clue. Carol has been shortlisted for various prizes and residence positions.  Carol has entered competitions and applied for artist in residence schemes - she has put herself out there and that, alongside her beautiful rendering and work ethic - she illustrated a 64 page colour picture book in three months (she did say a lot of late night tea was consumed) - has given her the success she deserves.

The final point I'll make for tonight (I'm aware I do go on a bit - I'm already over my quota of required blogs and still have quite a bit to report on) is that Carol's website is an excellent resource for anyone putting together a CV and I will certainly bear it in mind when I am ready to do mine and get out there - it is clean and clear, nice examples of images in the portfolio section and the 'about' and 'client' sections show Carol's achievements.

Carol will be based down at the print rooms in Britannia Mill for some of the next few months and I will certainly be taking the opportunity to go over and say hello to her.  I will leave you with a couple more of her images for now.

H. x