2. Getting paid to draw - the course + my first paid jobs

Finding balance and bringing home the 🥓

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Hi, I’m Libby, and I’m stepping out into the world of illustration, like a kid in a sweet shop, I want to try everything 🤩 This blog provides me (and perhaps you) with monthly accountability to goals and details all the things that are helping me reach them. I’m so happy you could join me for the bumpy ride…

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illo there friends!

Has Spring sprung where you are? Here in London, the sun is shining but it’s still jacket weather. I’ve been hanging out in the park with pup Reggie, who we looked after last week.

Pup grin from Reggie

As usual, my pet-sit pal became my illustration muse and Reggie made it onto my first-ever zine!

I wanted to leave something special for the children of the family we were sitting for.

I made a little how-to video you can watch here.

Finding balance

In March I gave myself a hand injury. I was drawing too much.

My brain was full of ideas and my drawing flowed until my hand ached.

I took this as my body’s signal to rest and set in place some kind of routine.

I find routine hard as a digital nomad, constantly changing places with no day or place the same. We mostly live in other people’s houses, sitting pets.

We live surrounded by other people’s stuff and the energy they leave behind, along with their pet’s anxieties (which are often a reflection of the pet parents.)

I’m pretty sensitive to this energy and I need to manage my boundaries to keep my cup from overflowing.

Luckily I had booked myself onto a ‘day retreat’ run by

Nahid de Belgeonne

, the author of Soothe: The Book Your Nervous System Has Been Longing For.

The day featured very slow yoga-style movements and rocking alongside deep breathing. A process that aims to bring the body back to neutral, freeing us from our daily fight-and-flight mind-body reactions.

I wanted to cry (with joy) within the first 20 minutes of the workshop.

My body was beginning to release the tension I’d been trying to shake for the last 5 years since I left my corporate job.

Nahid teaches the logic behind each movement which I often find is lacking from a traditional yoga class.

I’m now using the soothe techniques daily and I’d encourage anyone who has the opportunity to experience her workshops to go for it, it has been a great investment in my well-being.

A Ten-minute artist comic I made before heading into my nervous system workshop

Getting paid to draw

Luckily my hand injury began to ease in the first week of ‘Getting paid to draw’ a course run by illustrator Mike Lowery.

The classes, over 8 weeks, prepare you to find work in the illustration industry. Mike is witty and funny and draws great comic-style illustrations which have made their way into over 80 children’s books.

The course felt like a breath of fresh air from what’s on offer online and a great intro course for getting started.

It focuses on developing your illustration portfolio with 3 client-targeted assignments and workshops from industry professionals.

There is a ‘community centre’ where you can share your work, ask advice and champion each other which has been invaluable.

Thinking about real clients, real briefs and reaching out to art directors has made everything much more real.

The course has been exciting but has undoubtedly contributed to my overwhelm, providing more ideas and projects to add to my list of hundreds.

So I’ve also begun using the app Notion to connect my goals to my projects which is helping me build a daily structure.

Would I recommend the course? Yes, especially for industry newbies like me. The benefit of the workshops is that it’s not just a tutorial, it’s Mike asking questions and this provides candid, priceless information about the industry.

What’s included? I’ve listed the workshops I’ve attended so far in my monthly summary below. I’ve got a load more to work through next month too…

Actually getting to draw

Whilst attending ‘getting paid to draw’ I received my first illustration jobs! These came to me via social media rather than me reaching out (which is more what the course is about.)

I’m extremely grateful to these clients as each job provides me with key experience and confidence as I build my portfolio.

1. The first was a repost of a comic I did about cat-sitting. Trusted Housesitters the house-sitting app we use saw my post and asked to re-share it on their profile to their 210k followers with credit. They also gave me 6 months premium membership free on the platform (£100). This was worth it for me and a fun bit of validation of my work. Here’s the full post.

Part of my cat-sit comic

2. My next job was from a Facebook post of a drawing of dogs I did. My friend’s husband liked the drawing so he’s receiving it as a print for his birthday. Getting it printed will help me test the process and understand what my Procreate drawings look like on paper. I’ll be heading to my printer friend Milo at Printer of Dreams next week to see the print come out IRL. I decided on £15 for it. I did a little cost comparison on Etsy and thought about the time I took to make the drawing. It’s a low price and will obviously cost me more this time to go to the printers but once I set up a process I’ll re-cost them for selling online.

The image I’ll be having printed

3. I’m also currently being commissioned by a friend who is setting up a neurodiversity-friendly pottery studio in Hackney, London. This will include an illustrated map of how to get to the studio and likely some illustrated instructions on how the studio operates. I’m really excited about this one as it’s the kind of project I’d love to do more of.

All my resources and what I’ve learned

Materials I’ve used

So this month, I’ve been acquiring a few more materials… I can’t walk past a stationary or art store without popping in.

Here’s a few of the newbies:

• Some travel sketchbooks, that fit in my pocket and a small handbag if I’m out and about. These are by Talens, art creation. One is plain and the other is dotted for lettering practice.

• A Blackwing matte pencil - a lovely soft dark line pencil which is great for sketching

• A Speedball 2966 cartooning ink pen set and black ink - I love drawing pen and ink so can’t wait to use this regularly. Note: not all inks are suitable for ink pens so it’s worth checking at the shop to make sure you get the right type.

• Some ‘I love art’ squeeze pens that I can put a water-ink wash into

• A Pentel 120 A3 DX 0.9mm mechanical pencil which is lovely and soft and now my go-to sketching pencil when on the go.

• A watercolour sketchbook with thicker paper for wet work

• An A4 cheap sketchbook for rough sketching and course notes

• The Notion app for organising ideas and project work

Workshops & Tutorials I’ve taken

• As part of Mike Lowery’s ‘Getting paid to draw’ course:

  • Art Licensing - Allison Cole - Allison also has a Domestika course with a lot of the information shared

  • Photoshop for Illustration - Sarah Watts

  • Watercolour sketching - Ohn Mar Win

• On Skillshare:

  • Composition for Illustrators - Tom Froese

  • One pallette illustrator - Tom Froese

  • Drawing toward illustration - Tom Froese - I highly recommend this one for newbie illustrators!

• In-person:

  • The AOI (Association of Illustrators) Meet-up: Blend Illo Sketchy Brekky - Tracey English - such a fun in-person meet-up in Peckham London where we learned from Tracey and all collaged together, passing our pieces around the table to add to.

• Palestine charity draw-along - Sarah Dyer & Yusuf Goolam-Hossen - Hearing about Yusuf’s trips to Palestine and drawing from photos he took there. In aid of Gaza skate team.

Talks I’ve attended

• As part of getting paid to draw:

  • Art Direction at Frankie Magazine - Alice Buda - A very interesting talk about editorial illustration and the challenge of editorial budgets (that aren’t that big!)

  • Finding Illustration Clients through Workbook Creative - Heidi Goverman

  • Illustrating children’s books - Vanessa Brantley-Newton - I can’t describe how amazing Vanessa’s story is. She is such an inspirational illustrator. It’s definitely worth seeking out her work and joining one of her workshops.

• Introduction to Lettering - Martina Flor, live via Youtube

Hard copy books I’ve been reading

• Beyond the Page - Quentin Blake - Free from the library, I did some research on how Quentin approaches drawing people

• The Illustrator's Guide to Procreate - Ruth Burrows - a fantastic book that provides an overview of the app and how to use the tools through various example projects

Clubs I’ve been joining

• Draw Brighton - Online life drawing

• Substack

  • The Introvert Drawing Club & Draw Your World - Drawing dogs

    I recently invested in an annual subscription to The Introvert Drawing Club and I’m loving the open and supportive environment it provides.

  • Ten-minute artist - for daily sketching on a theme

  • The Creative Flock - I attended a free co-working session which was good for accountability and getting some work research done.

What I’ve learned this month

• There are so many resources for illustration out there. As much as I’d like to, I can’t utilise them all. At least not all at once. My course provided lots of workshops this month and although they have been inspiring, I’m looking forward to focusing on my creative process.

• Working to client briefs is hard and I need to exercise that muscle more often.

• Routine is important and setting aside time to spend without my devices.

• Illustrator meet-ups are brilliant - meeting someone else from my course and attending the AOI workshop has brought a new dimension to it all. It’s easy to say you’re an illutrator online but until you get out there and say it in person it all feels a bit detached.

What I’m excited about for the next month

• Finishing all the Getting Paid to Draw workshops

• Getting stuck into my first commission project - the neurodivergent-friendly pottery studio

• Launching Portfolio briefs here on Substack for portfolio accountability on May 1st. Read all about it here.

That’s it for month 2. Thanks for reading and if any of this is remotely helpful to you, let me know by reply or in the Substack comments.

Libby