Live Illustration (Course Closes Tonight!) No-fluff Q&A

Today’s a biiiig day... the doors to our Live Illustration Course are closing tonight! 

AGH! 

In this special live illustration-y episode, we grill Katie with loads of the brilliant live illustration questions you submitted. 

Katie also shares some behind-the-scenes stories about v early gigs, navigating some more unusual client requirements (hiya, Apple lawyers!), and why your own values matter just as much as your skills.

Timestamps

00:36 – Is it risky to live illustrate by hand? 
03:15 – How to build your live illustration portfolio even before you’ve had a client
05:59 – How Katie got started (and her very first paid-in-sandwiches job)
07:59 – Managing nerves and the fear of making mistakes
10:25 – Is it okay to check references while you’re live illustrating?
12:11 – How much do you need to know beforehand, and what to ask your client
15:24 – Transitioning from "normal" Illustrator to Live Illustrator
17:47 – What happens if you go blank during a live session?
18:51 – How much preparation should you really do before an event?
21:06 – Can you still be a live illustrator if you’re dyslexic?
22:02 – Is live illustration realistic as a side gig?
24:37 – What to ask clients about output expectations 
25:41 – Is semi-live illustration allowed?
27:06 – How to set up cameras for live drawing
28:00 – Should you specialise in a niche for live illustration work?
30:04 – What kinds of businesses actually use live illustrators?
32:39 – Final encouragement: fly your freak flag and be yourself

p.s. The doors to the Live Illustration Course close tonight (2nd May)!
If you're thinking about joining, now's the best time! 

Why though?

1. This is the lowest price it will ever be - we're doing a special price for this first ever live round of the course
2. You get lifetime access
3. You can hop back in for future live rounds, get ALL future course updates and take it at your own pace. 

The price *will* go up next time. 

Find out more and sign up here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/lic 

Come and say hello!

✏️ @thegoodshipillustration
🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com

p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

Transcript

0:20  
Music.

0:26  
Hello, welcome. Today is a very exciting day, because the doors to the live illustration course are closing tonight. They be open for one week, and we're going to do a live illustration themed call brilliant.

0:36  
I've got lots of questions. Katie, people are dying to get on this course, and we've got loads of questions. So the first one is, do you think there are effective, professional ways to live illustrate by hand, or does it always feel like a risky business? This

0:51  
is a good thing to ask, and people have been asking me this a lot, because I think there's this assumption that you have to work digitally to be a live illustrator. And that is not the case in my experience. Anyway, clients want real illustrations by a real illustrator in the room, like they're dying for people to draw on boards or on paper on the wall, and I spend so much of my time convincing them, please let me draw on the iPad. It's going to be so much better for you. But I think because people see me doing it digitally, they think that's the way forward, but yeah, if you can do it, as I say, naturally, with traditional materials, lean into that as a total strength. Clients love it, and it can be risky, but there's things you can do. For instance, I'll give you a good, sneaky tip. You can have white like a white sticky address labels. You can take those with you, and if you make a mistake, just load of labels on it. Yeah. And then some people like to, like, sketch out a plan on the board or the roll of paper beforehand, so you're not completely winging it. There's, there is planning that goes into these things. I think more planning when it's traditional materials. So it's not really risky, but it's definitely professional and effective.

2:01  
If you're going to draw live at an event, I suppose you could have a flip chart, or you could have a paper, piece of paper on a desk with a camera over it, that's on a big screen or something. Yeah?

2:11  
And even if you're just in the room as well, like as the Sims where the event is happening, that works, yeah, sort

2:19  
of good ways. So they'll, sometimes they'll set up boards for you to work on, or you use a roll of paper and just draw across, like they're filming it as you work.

2:27  
Or you're filming, oh, they're not even filming it. You're just in the room listening to the speaker, and people are like, Well, somebody's drawing what they're saying and then at the end. So like, sometimes they'll set you up beside the stage, or, like, nearby at the back, so you're not just disrupting people,

2:41  
but, yeah, not necessarily seeing you draw it live, but they come and have a look after Yeah, yeah, okay. And I

2:47  
much prefer working on the iPad for millions of reasons, but

2:51  
and then that's projected onto a screen during the talk, during the talk,

2:55  
or in the break times, if they don't want to distract from what's going on, or sometimes it's completely secret, and then they'll just be sending that image to people afterwards as

3:03  
well. Oh, so it does, it might not happen simultaneously and visibly during the course. So

3:08  
it is happening life, but nobody knows, so that's a lower stress factor. Yeah, definitely.

3:15  
Okay. Would you like another question? Yeah, go for it. So this is from Renee, who's who would like tips on getting the live illustration portfolio ready to convince that first client, please. Oh,

3:25  
this is good. We are going to cover this in the course, because I'm I've got a whole bit talking about how to strategically build your portfolio, what to practice on, and overcoming that thing of just because it was a practice thing, it's still a portfolio piece just Yeah, so we will cover that. I think what was it getting convincing the first client? It does take practice. I think your first piece of work that you do probably won't be client persuading,

3:53  
yeah, tell us how you got into it, because that's a really good story. So I it was when I

3:58  
was doing my Masters, because this let you get on with whatever you want and go down whatever rabbit hole. And I rabbit hole. And I got really excited about war artists and like reportage. And I was like, Oh, this looks so cool, like the on the spot thing, but I didn't really want to go to war zones, like I saw, like what George Butler was doing. And I thought that's so cool. And Nikki groom did an amazing reportage observational work in the Calais jungle when that was all happening, but I was like, that's really cool, but I don't want to do that exact thing. But then I discovered graphic recording and graphic facilitation, that sort of thing. And it originated in like, the 60s and 70s in San Francisco, and they used it for design thinking, like coming up with good ideas. And it wasn't just for artists. It was just for artists. It was just for people that had something to communicate and they wanted to make it visual, because they realised it helped people have loads of ideas and think better and faster. So I was like, I'm gonna try that out. And then, just by chance, Edinburgh University, where I was studying, they put a call out, internal call out for they were like, I can't remember what the word it is. We need visual notes for. Or sustainability event. And I was like me, I'll do it. And I had no idea what I was doing. I showed up with a board that I bought in the art shop and a bulldog clip, and I just clipped pieces of paper to it, and I was just going from table to table. And people would draw, like, saying words, and I was drawing them, and they paid me in sandwiches for that first ever job. But they also, there was a professional photographer there, and so I got photos from my website, and I figured out, Hey, this is really fun. I really like doing it. And I also loved that there was no with a normal illustration project. There's like, rounds of edits, or, like, you do the roughs, and then, oh my, I just really struggle so bad with all that. And there was none of that. So this is amazing. And just started there. And there was, I feel like it's still really hard to find people who talk about how to do it. It's quite mysterious. And I suppose I also was like, I'm not telling people how to do this. It's really fun, and I want to do it, but I've got to a point where I'm like, literally, there is plenty to go around. I'm

5:59  
not gonna like you get far too many clients to have them all to

6:03  
yourself. Yes, I'm sharing now, being generous, but you

6:06  
did the TED talk as well. Didn't you by accident? Yeah? Kind of starting point? Yeah, I went

6:11  
to TEDx Newcastle. I can't remember if that was before or after. I think it might be an after. And I took my iPad, and while they were talking, I was drawing really badly when I look back now, God, but it was fine. And I was drawing what they were saying, and I was tweeting it, so live tweeting the event that wasn't being paid or anything, as a student for fun. But then at the end, they were like, Katie chapel, please come on stage and show your way up like a five year old with my iPhone. Hello. Here's my iPad, and they're like, beamed up on the screen behind me, but that was, it was good confidence booster. And just to be like, This was really fun. And also I, like, had a great time and networked a bit. I don't know if I got any work from that, but it was a good test and a good practice, like

6:54  
being shoved off the diving board. Yeah, really, oh, now I can dive Yeah.

6:59  
I think that is scary, that sort of thing, but there's lots of things you can do to calm yourself down as well, like, what? So I really, there's loads of things, but I really like writing down the worst case scenarios. Because if you're creative, you've got a really good imagination, and you can think of all the worst case scenario things, and you can write them all down, but then you when you read this, you like, you realise you're not going to die,

7:22  
hopefully. No, the worst case probably never involves death. No, the

7:25  
worst case is embarrassment or disappointing a client and you people will be fighting. We've all survived that. We've all survived that, exactly. But there's lots of others. There's like, nervous system calming things you can do and do you put these in the course. I put them in the course. They've got, like, a whole toolkit, brilliant, because there's, I think when, especially when you're doing this sort of work, you can get really stuck in your brain. Then you just feel like a brain with a hand. So when you get back in touch with your actual human body, especially because it's quite physical, especially if it's in person, like you need to talk to your body again and it you don't want it to let you down, like by shaking or being sweaty and things

7:59  
you it sounds like the kind of chosen career of a thrill seeker, isn't it? Really. I'm gonna do this in three hours, and I'm gonna be live on jump on stage. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, where I sort of like, Oh, could I just stay here for four weeks working on this illustration, quietly, alone?

8:15  
Yeah, yeah. I don't wonder if the adrenaline thing, like, I feel like I maybe broke my adrenaline in lockdown because I got so busy doing online events that I just stopped getting nervous because I was always and then I don't care anymore. Yeah,

8:30  
you get to that stage of exposing yourself as an illustrator with work. We think I did my best. No one's going to laugh at me. That's what I can do, and I'm not going to worry about it. But in early days, in years one or two, like, Oh, this is so awful. It's like dropping my knickers in public, all those different things. But you do get to a point where you're just immune to it, don't you think that's as good as I can do? I am what I am. Same

8:51  
for us recording this podcast, yeah, yeah. It was so hard, wasn't it? We'd have to prepare so hard, so scary. It was scary, and we'd be like, embarrassed afterwards, in case we've said something and we haven't edited it out. And, yeah, it's just exposure therapy, isn't it? Yeah,

9:09  
now it's so nice to get to a place where you think, I can't be anything else. I am just this. And I think whether it's work or podcasting or anything, accepting yourself so like you say you're doing those drawings and live illustration, people probably think they're brilliant, and you've just drawn something, oh, that's the worst face I've ever drawn. Nobody notices, do they? But you tell yourself these things all the time, everyone's going to point at one bit of my drawing and say, That's really bad. They don't

9:35  
they don't care. They're just like, Wow, you did it live

9:38  
well, they're the centre of their own world as well. They're probably worrying about their own thing, so they're not going to focus too much.

9:44  
And that's so true. You're there to make them look good, yeah, and that's a big thing. Like, they're just going to get a pat on the back from their team and their boss. Like, you were so cool to hire that illustrate, I don't really care about you, and that really helped to calm you down as well. So, like, it's nothing to do with me. Can

9:59  
I ask? Good question before I forget. I'm worried that I hold these questions. I have to butt in because I will forget them. I always think it's like playing without sheet music. Can you have reference when you're working? Have you found a way when you suddenly have to come up with something like, I can't think of a factory how it can't think of what something looks like. Do you get to mind reference in lifetime? You do? Yeah.

10:25  
So I think probably the purest out there would be like, No, you must just know things and draw them. But you've always got your phone in your pocket, haven't you, and there's so much, there's so many times, even at an in person event, where they can see me, I'll just whip my phone out to either check a spelling, because that's a big one people have been really worried about, like people with dyslexia and things there are. There's no rules. You can check spellings. It's totally allowed. And check reference, and sometimes even just looking at emojis for a little bit of what does that look like again? Oh yeah. And the other one, shaking hands always comes out, and I always I can draw it once I see I'm like, oh, yeah, that's where the fingers go. But doing it for memory, it's like, AI hand and six fingers, and they're all in the wrong place. And, yeah, yeah, you're allowed to check for reference. And some, I interviewed Dario Paniagua yesterday, who's at the king of metaphors, and I was amazed at how much preparation he does. It was like opening a secret box for me, I was like, you're allowed to do that much preparation, because I just show up. And I'm like, let's try. Whereas he is really methodical and well planned out and thinks about it a lot. I imagine

11:32  
if you're the king of metaphors, you need a lot of time to think about those metaphors.

11:36  
Yeah, exactly. Otherwise, you just do all the cliches.

11:38  
He must have a box of metaphors ready to roll. He does a moment. He

11:43  
was like, each event deserves new metaphors. He's a bit of a purist about the metaphors. I was like, whoa. A fresh metaphor for everyone. Yeah, and he's got methods for creating the metaphors, which he shares in the course, which is really interesting. But yeah, fresh metaphor for every it just

12:00  
shows, doesn't it, how different everybody's brain is. Space for that kind of Illustrator everywhere, really is the idea of thinking of metaphors, fresh ones, everyday life. Yeah, because that's

12:11  
the other thing I was thinking. If you're working with a business or an area of business that you don't know anything about and you don't know what they're going to say, I was like, do they brief you beforehand and say, here are three, three or four key things we're going to discuss some of the elements of our business. Are this so that you can kind of germ up beforehand? Do you get an outline? Yeah.

12:31  
And that's one of the things I learned the hard way was. So now I've got a checklist, which, again, I've shared in the course, but there's a checklist of like stuff before and stuff after, like things you need to know to do a good job. Yeah. So I've got a form that I send clients and stuff. And also that was interesting, speaking to other live illustrators and graphic recorders about what they ask the clients for, because it is different. But yeah, knowing, for me, like the agenda is really important, knowing the timings, what the name of each section is, and who's speaking and what they're talking about, because then I can look at that, and I'm like, I have no idea what that is, so then I'll Google it, and if I'm still not sure, I can email the client or get on a call and be like, what is that? Please? And then sometimes there'll be, like, some political thing about the company, and they're like, whatever you don't draw. If somebody mentioned Simon, don't draw him. And you'll be like, okay, and you're not be told the story, just like, I can't draw that thing. And, yeah,

13:22  
oh, that's good, if they give you guidelines, but it's like when you go around to someone's mom's house and don't bring up the fact that I don't talk about the war, don't say that to my mom, she'll go nuts. I remember

13:34  
I did a job for Apple once, Apple and EE, and they had a lawyer, and my I had to do the illustration, send it to the lawyer, and they had to approve it before it was displayed at the event. And that was and so I remember I drew, like, a hand holding a gift, because they were being given the gun, an iPhone, which was a, Wow, amazing. Go to get iPhone, and I'd drawn a hand giving a gift. And they were like, No, that looks like bribery. Delete that bit. I was like, does it? Okay?

14:01  
Oh, it's the same as illustrating metaphors and concepts for the financial industry. If you do anything that looks vague, you like gambling. You read the article on funds that basically is basically so you come up with your concepts, and they're all crossed out by the art director who says, now afraid we can't do any of those because they looks like gambling. Wow.

14:21  
Apple is so careful about their image as well, aren't they, because I was listening to the rest is entertainment, a podcast I'm a bit obsessed with. And in there, they were talking about, if a film wants to have a Apple product in the film, Apple will not let a baddy have an Apple phone. So in white lotus, I was looking at who had what phones to try and get a Samsung about what is going to go on you can you? Can I start watching it with different eyes now, thinking, what kind of phone are they got? It's not an apple, right? They're probably a baddie. Does that mean we're goodies?

14:53  
Yeah, that was another thing. I wasn't allowed to draw an iPhone. Wow, on the whole job, even though it was about. Or iPhones, which is very difficult, which is why it was a present on the hand, because I can't draw that you've been given a phone. So, yeah, it was like, what general symbol of a present? Yeah, it's like a gift for you. No, yeah. So sometimes there's really tricky things, and you've got to stretch your brain to kind of get around weird rules. You'll

15:17  
be a shoe in for editorial now, Katie concept ready? It's too hot.

15:24  
Shall I read another question we've been sent in? Yeah, go for it. This one's from Lizzie, who says, How do you make the transition from regular Illustrator to live illustrator

15:33  
goodwill. Just

15:34  
try it. You might hate it, which is true. I think that's what how do you make the transition? Yeah, try it. And if you enjoy it, start talking about it, saying that you do it short on your website. Just

15:47  
tell people that's what you do. Yeah, tell people some examples of what it might look like for your folio

15:52  
in the same way that, how would you become a farmer like you'd just tell people you're a farmer. Wouldn't you start dressing like a farmer?

15:59  
Well, he's but say, if you're an observational illustrator or an illustrator who hadn't dealt with concepts before, you'd really need to hone up your metaphor skills,

16:09  
wouldn't you? Do? You use metaphors a lot, because there's the metaphor King. What are you? Yeah, so

16:14  
I before. So this Dario Paniagua is really good at metaphors and before. So I've worked with him like I did his he does, like, an online training thing. I did that because I was just doing loads of cliches and loads of icons, and I was getting a bit sick of myself, and I was like, I don't want to draw the same things and different events. That's a bit naff. So that really, so really helped working with him, because you can do graphic recording and just do icons, but if you just do icons, and so they're all the same size, and there's too much information on the page. You can't absorb it, and it's not useful. So I think that's it's there's not, like, a right way in a wrong way, but there's a way to make your work useful, make it more exciting, and make it more exciting. Yeah, then we've got metaphors or characters. It's just nicer to look at. And, like, when there's people pointing at stuff, you're like, Oh, what are they pointing at? And you can guide the eyeball around the work, and having white space in helps guide people around. And also being really brave enough, I talk about this a lot, being brave enough to not draw everything, because when you're panicking, you're like, Ah, I need to draw everything. Oh, my God. And you feel like you've got to be an AI transcript robot and get it all down and write loads of words, but less is more, but it's really scary to do that because you're like, the client's relying on me. Yeah? The

17:28  
overcompensating? Is it? Thinking this is well paid. I must give them everything, yeah.

17:33  
But really they're paying because you have the creative brain to be selective and just pull out the really cool bits and make it look really exciting so

17:41  
it communicates properly, and it's not just a big old mess. Yeah,

17:47  
we've got an anonymous question, what happens if you go blank and can't think of a visual to describe what is said?

17:55  
So firstly, you don't have to do everything, so that's an important one, and sometimes it does happen, and if I'll always have, and I always recommend to have a piece of paper with you, or a post it note so you can scribble something down. Because if you're like, I do want to draw that, but nothing's working in my brain right now. You've got it for later, and you might get to the end of the job and be like, Oh, it wasn't important. Actually, they're talking about way more important stuff. But it's a bit like when you can't remember something, and then you the harder you try, the less you can remember. You've got to relax your brain a bit and just be like, that's fine, and it'll come back to you if it's really important.

18:25  
So sometimes, if you can't think, and so you make a note when you're live illustrating is, why would you add it in at the end? Are they using it for something after?

18:37  
Yeah. So they'll usually, they'll share it with attendees, usually, and be like, here's what we talked about. And if what you wrote down, you're like, oh, they do. That would be a really useful thing for them to remember that we talked about. You just add it in afterwards so that it's there. Yeah, we have

18:51  
a question from Tasha, who says, How much if any, preparation can or should you do before a live illustration session.

18:58  
Maybe this is so after my interview yesterday, I think maybe this is really personal. From Illustrator to Illustrator, I would say you need that checklist of, like, you know, you need to know what logos they want on it, what's the title, what are the timings, blah, blah, blah, those essential things. And I am probably way too laid back now in my because I've broken whatever I used to be really, like, crying and scared and shaking, oh my god. I'm working in three weeks time. How am I gonna do this and be really, like, over worried, but now I'm like, Oh sugar, there's a job on. I forgot I work in today, and I'll be drawing the title, like, 10 minutes before. But then, yeah, maybe it depends. Like, if you're really nervous, planning and preparing can help calm you down. So probably when you start out, you're gonna plan way more, and then as you get more and then as you get more comfortable with it, and you trust yourself, and you know you can do it, you'll be like, 10 minutes, and you'd be fine, yeah? The

19:46  
same with any job, I suppose. Yeah, you definitely do need to prepare a lot when something's new, don't you, but once you get in the swing of it, you can, you've got all those things up your sleeve you can pull on. Yeah?

19:56  
Do you don't have a ready made checklist, which seems. A Katie kind of thing to do, like, Questions to Ask Your Client before. But I presume that's in the course, isn't it? Yeah,

20:07  
I've got a form that I send clients. There's a checklist in there. There's a before the event checklist and an after the event checklist, yeah. And then also, when I work with other illustrators, I've got a checklist for them. So I'm like, make sure you charge your iPad, make sure you've got all the links. Make sure you open zoom or teams or whatever, before the event, like way before, so that there's no updates, little things. Oh

20:28  
yeah. Tech check, yes. That would be really important once you if you know you've got that done, that's half the Yeah.

20:32  
I feel like everything on that checklist has a story behind it. Like I was in a hotel once, and there was a sign on the door saying, Do not boil soup in the kettle. And I'm like, There's a story there, somebody's boiled supernatural. So when I'm like, make sure your iPad is plugged in, that's because one day my iPad just died. And yeah, things that you want to avoid, I've done all the bad things so you don't have to.

20:53  
And we've got a question from Gaynor, who says, I have dyslexia. Can I still be a live illustrator? This is what I would worry about my spelling's atrocious. Yeah, trying to write things live, I would get in a panic, and the spelling would be worse than ever.

21:06  
Yeah, this is I've had a lot of messages this week about that people saying spelling what? And maybe I'm not. I'm like, I'm biassed because I was a total spelling nerd at school. You are really good at spelling, so I'll either just not write the word if I'm not sure, or I'll have a sneaky peek at my phone and do a little spell. Because nowadays, with your phone, you just type it in on anything, and it'll be like, Did you mean this? And you're like, oh yeah. So that's really helpful the modern world, when we did maths at school, they were like, you're not gonna have a calculator in your pocket. Yes, you are. You're not gonna have a encyclopaedia in your pocket that knows how to spell every single word. Yes, you are. Yeah. Don't be shy about using technology like your phone, because it's so portable and everyone's got it. Yeah,

21:53  
there's a question from Pearl. Good name. I love the name Pearl. Is it realistic to do live illustration as a side gig?

22:02  
What do you mean by realistic? You can do it

22:07  
side gig, yeah, definitely. I think because you would just do one a week, couldn't you?

22:11  
Yeah, I'd say one a week. That's like, full time to me. What are we gonna find us? Like, cruise it along.

22:17  
It's exhausting as well, isn't it? You've said before, because of the adrenaline rush, and it's quite intense, and on the spot. You couldn't be doing this every day for five days a week, could you? No,

22:25  
not. It's not sustainable. I don't think to do it every day. And also, when clients have edits, it starts to get tricky to keep up on things. Yeah, realistic. The one thing I would say, if it's a side gig, clients might be less likely to hire you, because if they go on your website, people have got very strong bullshit detectors. And if they go on your website and they're like, they're just trying

22:46  
this out, they don't never done this before. They're not a specialist. Yeah,

22:50  
so there's that thing that might impact you're actually getting hired for it, if it's a side gig, but it's doable, yeah.

22:57  
What about getting to I know we always say no to this, but because they're quite people, like specialists and they're slightly different. Would you have two websites, your graphic recording, recording website and your illustration website? It depends.

23:09  
I think if you've got a really good thing going with your existing illustration career, maybe it's worth having a separate website or just like having a doorway method, where on the home page it's like illustration or graphic recording. People can click what they want, but I saw there was an illustrator, and she has, like, a really developed fine art practice in exhibits and galleries, and does big solo shows, and she's got an agency for graphic recording. And they're completely separate, because I found both. I was like, it's the same lady. This is amazing, but she'd kept them separate. She'd kept completely separate, different brand names, different values.

23:43  
Yeah, because we usually say, put everything together, don't we? I think maybe this is an instance, because graphic recording is such a you're you're really marketing it at businesses, they're not going to really be interested what else you're doing. And they want you to really know this. So I imagine in this circumstances, it's probably a good idea to have a separate website, yeah, or the door at the beginning. It's

24:08  
tricky as well, because that you don't want to, if something's already working, don't just chuck it all in the bin there's that thing isn't there in the hopes of this might work. So I think if you want

24:16  
to keep both going, Yeah, can I before I forget? I've got another question. Jump in the queue in front of all those nice people who've queued up and submitted. This is a bit of a vague question. I'm imagining after three hours. Do they expect loads of work when you're drawing away? Do they expect 20 screens of or a whole IKEA roll of children's paper?

24:37  
This is another thing you can I ask the client beforehand. I'm like, Do you want a one pager? So it's all on one landscape, a for whatever 16 by nine ratio thing? Or do you want an illustration per section? And then their expectations are managed. You know what you're doing, and it means you can plan in advance. So it's

24:57  
a bit like saying what's the artwork size and how many. Any spot illustrations are you going to give?

25:02  
And it doesn't change the price or anything, because it's still the same amount of time taken. And obviously, if you do a one pager, you can't include as much detail and stuff. You'll be much more restricted on what you record, yeah, but it's easier for them to share at the end, whereas if there's an illustration per section, it'll be more stuff to look at, but it won't you, because you've got to go really fast. You can't really do all loads and loads of

25:25  
things. Yeah, I imagine making one page is just as much work as a few pages, because there's the time thinking what's important to put on the one page, which is actually a lot of thinking time and preparation. And

25:35  
yeah, you've got to do your artistic licence thing and chop it all off. We've

25:41  
got a question from Katia, who says, Are there ways to approach live illustration as a more reflective or semi live practice, allowing a bit more time to respond and process with less pressure to perform in real life? Yeah, definitely.

25:56  
I think a lot of illustrators do that. They'll go to so for me, this sounds like my worst nightmare. I'm like, go to the event and then go home and do more work. But some illustrators all love that, and they'll go to the event and harvest the information and then go home and draw it as a polished thing.

26:15  
No, make me do it on the spot with a gun to my head, and it's the only

26:18  
way I can work. I want to do if I'm crying and screaming and saying I don't want to do it, because if you let me go home,

26:26  
I'll just have a nap, whereas I'd be like, Yeah, okay, I'll just listen and do it all at home afterwards. That sounds like a dream to me. So interesting. What different personalities prefer to do. And then

26:35  
also, in terms of time, you're half in your wage, your earnings, if you're doing it at home, because you're doing the time at the event, which is exhausting in itself, and then you're going home and doing it. And also, if you're at home, you're probably relaxed and slow and

26:47  
you're overthinking,

26:50  
yeah, and oh yeah. I don't like the idea of that at all, but it could work if you're into that,

26:55  
if that floats your boat,

26:57  
and it's a question from a visa advisor, sorry if I've screwed up that name. How do you set up cameras for filming the drawing setup?

27:06  
Oh, I just plug in my iPad so I don't do cameras. But I've seen people do it like with a boom arm, overhead camera thing drawing. They can see the drawing. When I

27:17  
do school visits, virtual school visits, I have a camera that it's got. I've got one with a little tripod thing like you would set up for any kind of live drawing event, a little camera on a tripod that goes over my desk. But also I have a hook in the ceiling above my desk. And sometimes it's easier. If I want the camera to be further away, I hook the wire up over the hook on the ceiling, and it just dangles over my amazing, yeah, that's easy. Isn't it easy? High tech. It's not high tech. Should I do one more? Okay, is there any specialisation within the field? Do illustrators tend to focus on specific topics or industries? Is that considered an advantage, or does it not matter much

28:00  
so it, I would say, is an advantage, and people do specialise. And yeah, the more it's like the freak flag is like, the more yourself you can be, and the more excited you are about the work you're doing, the better. So if you're really into a specific thing, so I spoke to somebody who really wanted to work in, like, heritage events and like for museums and stuff like that. And I'm like, that makes it so clear for Heritage people that you are the illustrator for the job, because they're looking for an illustrator to illustrate their event, and It's you versus Mr. Generic, whoever, obviously you're gonna get preferential things treatment.

28:34  
Good question. I'd never thought of that before. Also, could choose what area you want to illustrate, if

28:41  
you think from the client's point of view as well, you've been tasked with a job to find the best live illustrator for this project. And when you find that specialist is I have just done my job really well, because I've got them the best person. So as an argument for niching and being being very freak flag, it totally wins, doesn't it? Because if you've got, if you're looking at everyone, the job could never end you, but it's three days trying to find the right live illustrator.

29:07  
Yeah. And if your work all looks the same as other people's, and you haven't got any specialism, or any of you in there, any of your freak flag weirdness people, the clients are just going to go by price, and they're going to look for the cheapest person. And we don't want to be doing that. That is super interesting. Yeah. So be yourself and show off who you actually are. Don't. And I think another thing to say in this course, it's not about here's how I do or is here's how I do live meditation. But it's not copy my work. It's how are you going to do your work and make it look like your stuff? Within this framework of this is how to make it more useful and make it more useful and make the information more absorbable, and how to select what to draw and what to leave out. So it's things to help you, but it is your work at the end of the day, because I don't want to

29:49  
just always talking about that good ship, aren't we about finding your own voice and being 100% you. Yeah. So this is runs right through the live illustration

29:56  
course too. Yeah. I definitely do not want the course to be a Katie factory. We just pumping out loads of Katie's. Like, horrible.

30:04  
What are the main businesses that use live illustration? All of

30:09  
them, like loads of healthcare, companies, government, people, academia, education, like private and public brands, organisations and people selling stuff. It's usually like anybody who wants to say something, so that's all of them. So it's totally right. Because, like, sometimes I'll be, like, helping a university project talk about wrapping up a three year project, or sometimes I'll be helping a drinks company convince people to drink a drink. Yeah. So it's really just so wide ranging. Do

30:45  
you think you'll specialise eventually, or do you love the world? I've specialised

30:48  
a wee bit like I do say I really like sustainability and social justice, those kind of things, yeah. But then the nice thing that happens, even when you niche, and you say, This is what I want to do, other people still come to work with you, because they're like, oh, yeah, great. Do you know what you're doing, and can you come and work for us, please? And then, and you can say no to people as well. I had that question, can you if you don't agree with the ethics or the values of a company, you could totally say no, yeah, 100% that

31:13  
feels good. Yeah, you're not having my drawing because you don't treat the world properly. Yeah, exactly.

31:18  
I'm really excited to interview Tamara Jade Katz, because she is a graphic recorder and a facilitator who is really, she's got really strong values and ethics, and talks about that in our work about, I can't think of it, but yeah, that's going to be because I wanted to show that you don't have to just abandon yourself and sell your soul and just do corporate things, because

31:38  
you do a lot for social services and things like that, there's often kind of bodies, like councils that are talking about ethical values within their councils, or even companies as well, aren't they? Yeah, companies

31:48  
that are like, looking after their staff, and even the charities, nonprofits. Yeah, there's lots of lovely things to work on. Yeah,

31:56  
it sounds so exciting. I'm thinking of changing my career.

32:01  
Join us. I think a lot of people are

32:03  
specialised. Suddenly, I was seeing you, Tanya, doing lots of stuff for heritage or Yeah, or like, activism, nature groups and activism, yeah,

32:11  
that's what, when we were talking about that one to one mentoring. That's what it all seems to come back to again, is who are you? What do you really care about. And if you have this skill to draw, why would you draw any old thing when you could actually further a cause that you love, or even it's just kind of some weird subject that you're totally into. Why would you not want to keep drawing that and do something useful with what you do? So ultimately, flying your freak flag.

32:39  
Be lovely, useful. Lovely to see you. If you do join, I will say the prices go up next time, and it's lifetime

32:45  
access. So even if you're really busy now, the prices are going to go up next time. So you might join now and ignore it until, until you're ready. Yes,

32:52  
it's one of those things. Yeah, you get it's it's dripped to you, like, one week at a time, just so that it's not overwhelming. But there's nothing saying you must do a whole week and then be finished for the next week. It is, really is lifetime access, and there's no panic and allowed. How many sessions are there? There's so it's a four week course, and there's three live calls where you can submit your questions and get them answered and the calls. So those live calls are the only live bit, and they are recorded. So if you're in a different time zone, or you've got a busy life or whatever, then you

33:25  
worry, yeah, got it all sorted. It's all sorted. Okay. Thank you. Katie, you

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