Finding your community

Illustrating can be a lonely job

This month

illoguild

members discuss the importance of finding a supportive community for our often isolated job of an illustrator.

I only recently became a full time illustrator but I’ve always had some sort of a creative occupation. Back at the university, studying fashion and textile design, I enjoyed my time with fellow students very much, the sense of community was strong in the classroom and outside, we would share our art process, give each other critique, compare techniques and exchange tips where to buy supplies. We were given many assignments of drawing the human figure so we would get together after class, had a friend pose for us for the price of a pizza and we would sketch away.

In my job as one of the editors at a newspaper I appreciated weekly staff meetings where we discussed our next issue, planned projects, brainstormed ideas - all incredibly important parts of a creative process. Keeping a consistent schedule and balancing between the loose, creative part of our work and boring, administrative tasks is very hard for most artists, not having that structured timetable from a boss, a team, a teacher, can leave you a bit lost and falling into loneliness and procrastination.

Lisa, my companion/distractor, she is always checking my process and prompting afternoon naps.

So how does an artist stay in touch with illustration community while working from home or having a “day job” that pays the bills but doesn’t provide creative stimulation?

Online resources

Every illustrator will tell you how crucial it is to join some kind of online community; our

illoguild

was formed after we all met at MATS online drawing courses and Adam Ming from

Adam's Notes

proposed we form a Facebook critique group.

There are many online courses, learning platforms and interest groups you can join to learn new skills, share tips, be motivated and inspired by others. All it takes is a little courage and good will. These focus groups are made of people just like you. Some will be more confident but that’s only because they’ve been drawing for longer - everybody has to start somewhere. Check out if your favourite artist has a Facebook group or a regular drawing challenge you could join, check out Skilshare, Domestika and other creative courses, they might not be live but will often include some sort of community where you can share your work from the class with other students. Give several groups a try and see where you feel most at ease - try to participate as much as you can, share your work and give feedback to other members.

A late night Zoom session with the Illoguild - having members from all continents and time zones means making some adjustments to find a time slot everyone can attend.

My experience

When I met my husband and we started a family, we would move around a lot before settling in a village in French Jura alps - being a foreigner always made it harder for me to settle into normal, everyday activities, let alone find a creative community. My creative outlet with two kids under three was sewing and when a friend introduced me to Etsy, I was blown away - back then, in 2009, Etsy was a much smaller and simpler platform, but to me it was the most marvellous gallery of handmade treasures, a lot of them created by mothers like me, sewing, knitting, making jewellery, an hour here, half an hour there, connecting with each other through curated collections of our favourite items, chatting, giving advice and sharing tips through very active Etsy forums. I had similar experience with Facebook groups, dedicated to drawing - like Daily Creating Group with Terry Runyan with fun, cat filled drawing prompts, or Creative Prompts with Estée MacLeod which focuses on colour and texture.

These groups taught me how important it is to have someone to chat about your art and get relevant feedback from, no matter if they are next door or on the other side of the world.

I joined Instagram in its early years, when it was just this fun app for sharing the love of photography and participating in daily and weekly challenges - like today’s Instagram drawing challenges those prompts pushed me to look for interesting, theme related subjects to photograph and I could see my skills evolve. These challenges had a simple 1-2-3 rule: for each photo you posted in the group you had to comment under two other posts and like three.

This taught me that learning to give critique is as important as receiving it. It also showed me how to find beauty in my daily walks around my sleepy village, be inspired by little things and sketch regularly.

Here are a few images I captured in the last couple of weeks on my daily walks - when I don’t have time to sketch I snap a quick picture with my phone and use the image for later drawing reference:

Clockwise from top left: waiting room at the osteopath, tulips at the local florist, pavement graffiti, one of the many beautiful houses in my neighbourhood, latte macchiato and a little lemon tart 😊, rain enthusiast.

Which brings me to my next point:

Get outside

Working from home means staying indoors a lot, especially now that the whole world is available at the click or a mouse. But don’t forget your local community, the world outside your front door, plan a regular sketching excursion when the weather is fine, grab your sketchbook and a few pencils, have a cup of coffee at the local café and enjoy the fresh air - you might be the only one sketching but at least you’re amongst people. And who knows, somebody might approach you and you’ll discover there is a fellow artist just around the corner!

These are just a few thoughts from my personal experience, for other useful tips check out Illoguild members’s posts on this topic down below.

I hope you found this post interesting and helpful, I’d love to hear how you connect with your illustration community!

Stay connected and have a great day! 🌸

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