and a few changes
I have been practising my live illustration almost to the exclusion of all else, although I have had some non-work related things too which have meant I am a bit distracted, such as my daughter’s upcoming wedding, and wrangling the growing pup. My daughter is extremely organised, and knows exactly how she wants things, so I await instructions and do my best to accommodate the regularly-updated arrangements, but I’m looking forward to seeing her, and visiting her house as I’ve not been there before; they have been there since 2021. The puppy is growing fast, and we are in the process of learning how to behave when on his lead and walking to heel with his big brother…this is taking perseverance and strong shoulders, especially when we meet another dog!
I am using webinars and podcasts for my live illo attempts, and last night I attended another Biological Recording Company event about nature-friendly farming with Martin Lines from the Nature Friendly Farming Network, supported by Curlew Action. I thought there would be a bit more Curlew content but it was mainly about the work of the NFFN; this was a good exercise in not making too many assumptions about an event beforehand. I am still very much in the “hear something; write it down” phase which is where everyone starts but as time goes on and skills and confidence develop, visual metaphors and layout become more natural, and the finished map is more of an artwork and less of a noticeboard. I am also trialling my new pens – they work really well on the thicker (200gsm) paper – but I fell into the trap of using different colours just because I felt like mixing it up rather than focussing on what was legible and contrasty enough. I stuck to dark grey and lilac, with a pale grey for highlights, and I had some [too] dark grey paper for demarcation, creating colour blocks…and covering mistakes. I need something paler though as it’s too dark to see, even with white gel-pen highlights. And yes, I really need to practise drawing hands as I get whatever the drawing version of dyslexic is when it comes to working out where thumbs and fingers go.
Here is my finished illustration:
My plan is to do a practise run every day for as long as I can. I might have the chance to attend an in-person event in London next week as the host is someone I know from ages ago, and one of my friends is on the panel of speakers. It’s part of Climate Action Week so in the sector I’d like to pursue, and the subject matter would definitely be a challenge which would be good, but I’m waiting to hear from Amanda about that. I also want to try working on A1 as that’s similar to flipchart size, which is a common option when working out in the real world.
Other news
I am going to be updating my website over the summer so for August, expect some downtime for this site while I teach myself the delights of WooCommerce and MailPoet. There will continue to be blog provision on the new layout for my human readers and subscribers (thank you) even though apparently unless LLMs can read my work, nobody else is going to find me. Do, please, be patient while I create a better online sales system and sort out a proper newsletter for customers and clients. Blogging seems to be the last place where at least some of the content manages to escape the AI tentacles from accessing every last corner. Rest assured that I write all my posts myself, and will continue to do so.
