Interview on Pikland

There's a little interview with my on Pikaland, where I'm talking about my work, my calendars in particular and the story behind them.
Thanks to Amy!

Sharing the studio with kids - Part 1: Babies

This should be easy, right? Looking back now, it is in some ways but still far from what I've ever imagined it to be. 

So, I had my baby and I started working after 4-5 months when I was actually able to tell day from night again. I delved right into a huge commission which was the children's atlas by Carlton press. I was a bit nervous about it, but it went very well!

Here's how I did it:
J was happy to spend her days in a sling (a Manduca baby carrier), which made things easy. In there, she could feed on demand and doze off whilst I went for a quick walk around the neighbourhood before settling down for a few hours of uninterrupted work.
My studio had already been moved to my home during my first pregnancy, due to constant nausea which wasn't very nice on a 30 minute drive through London traffic.
For us, this worked and saved time and I like to have quick spontaneous sessions of creative work in between house stuff and baby things.
Staying flexible with working hours and getting used to the fact that there simply isn't any time left to reflect endlessly on unnecessary things anymore also helps. 
On the plus side I've gotten better at time management and efficiency whilst at the desk because quiet time is so precious and runs out quickly.

10 things I've learned and found useful:

1. Have a little sketchpad and pen on you at all times because you won't have time to go and sit down and find these things when an idea strikes you.

2. Also get sketch apps for phone and iPad! And notepad apps! (Like Inkpad Notepad)

3. Try to stay productive or at least in touch with the outside world via social and professional networks like fb, LinkedIn.

4. Have your phone on you at all times so in case you get trapped under a sleeping baby on a sunny summer's day you can at least write blog posts and things like that (maybe in airplane mode if you're worried like me) 

5. Get a soft style baby wrap where baby sits up higher and won't wake up when you sit down to work. Learn how to back carry so baby won't be in the way of the keyboard when she's getting bigger!

6. Still visit inspiring places like nature, museums, other countries etc.

Baby groups are an exciting new world full of baby yoga, post natal sling dance, baby swimming, baby massage, baby music, baby book club, messy play, soft play, sensory play and baby signing. We enjoyed those, but balance is important, too. 

7. Baby monitors are not an evil surveillance tool but are actually really helpful. After all, I got most work done when J was sleeping at night.

8. Don't fall into the trap of buying every kind of 'putting down baby' equipment. It's such a misconception that babies would happily sit or lie on a baby gym, baby bean bag recliner or swing next to you for a reasonable amount of time so you can get work done.  

Although I have heard of babies who apparently did just that, but that's the exception.

In my experience, sticking with baby wearing would have saved time and money as we always came back to that.

9. Be brief with unnecessary things.

10. Relax. And enjoy. Don't take on every single project. Because babyhood passes quicker than you can make sense of in your sleep deprived mind anyway, and after that comes toddlerhood!

Did I forget something? Sharing The Studio with Kid/s - Part 2: Toddlers will follow soon!

How I became an illustrator

I get asked this a lot....here's the long version of the answer :)

When I was studying arts in Germany, I tried everything from painting, printing, photography, typography, graphic design, animation and some filming, it was that kind of school were you were left free to explore all mediums and encouraged to find your own voice through creative play rather than by doing exams.

I stuck with illustration and animation and found out I had the most fun when I could tell stories and apply my art to something. 

For example, I created a set of playing cards around a travel theme, and wrote several stories, fairy tale adaptations and started making lift the flap books in my own quirky, not necessarily child-friendly style. I got into animation a bit more and even got government funding to develop one of my stories for animation. 

When I moved to England and continued studying here, I found out that it's all a lot more structured: written work and seminars and presentations, all these things were alien to me. So, not so much creative exploration but presenting and discussing what one had done. 

But what I actually, almost by accident (or actually a spontaneous suggestion), did end up doing is something I still look back on these days! 

I had to write a dissertation (which is about the most boring thing to do if you rather want to spend your time creating) so I wrote a whole book about 'Kids' Art' which is about the influence children's art had in art history throughout the decades and it touches on child development and psychology, art therapy, and I even went on analysing my own childhood drawings. 

I also worked with local pre schools and kindergartens and shared my findings about children's creativity in my dissertation, it actually was fun and I discovered amazing things! 

As part of the practical part of this BA course I created a few books with illustrated stories of mine, but still was a bit unaware that this could lead to an actual profession.... Illustrating!?

So after all that I continued studying for the MA and decided to write a children's book series, because creating something for children seemed the closest thing to my heart. 

I invented two characters, a boy called Louis and his dog Bobo, and wrote and illustrated three books about their adventures (the third book was a bereavement book - Bobo sadly dies!)

All within a year, I completed the MA and found an agent (Goodillustration.com) and a publisher for one of these books! This was Louis + Bobo - We Are Moving, published by Chrysalis. A type based on my children's style handwriting was created for this, too.

More commissions from publishers, advertising agencies and magazines came in and I learned all that I know about illustration on the job whilst I was doing it! 

A fantastic job that I'm so happy doing evolved from those early beginnings...

And although it wasn't a random choice, I never made the big conscious decision to become an illustrator... Just this idea that I wanted to create things for children and see my art applied in the real world.

So far, I've illustrated many kids' books, including an atlas and a bible, puzzles and more recently I got into pattern design and map illustration, which I both love.

How did you get into what you do, and how did you decide, was it a journey? 

I'd love to hear about it!