Conference Illustration for a Gala Dinner

Earlier this year I was thrilled to be asked to create some painted boards to celebrate 10 years of the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) in London. It was an exciting illustration commission to start with, but when I learned that DAVID ATTENBOROUGH was going to be at the event where my work was displayed I nearly fell off my studio chair.

David Attenborough received his lifetime achievement award from RSB at this gala dinner evening. There were many sponsors at the event and from the photos, it was a lovely glitzy event. Because my illustrations were there, I now consider myself to be best pals with David. Or Dave, as I now know him. Great lad. Right friendly.

Remote Virtual Notes

Normally I illustrate live at events and conferences like this, and create artwork on the spot; as a live event artist. But this time I was asked to paint in the comfort of my home studio and have the boards couriered to London.

(In the end I decided to treat myself to a mini London holiday and take the boards down with me on the train… but I digress.)

Commissioning a remote conference artist - How it Works

The Royal Society of Biology enquired about my availability and pricing for remote illustration by email.
They confirmed a commission of 2 boards, and a timescale of 1 month.
Once the boards were primed, painted, written on and complete I had the boards neatly packed up and off they went on their way to London.

Part of the commission was to add sponsors’ images to the boards, so RSB provided a big spreadsheet of sponsor names, which image they’d like added, and what words to write alongside.

In this respect, it was very much like good old fashioned graphic recording, or virtual scribing, but with somebody else was deciding what to include for me!

David Attenborough, one of the final illustrated boards, and the Royal Society of Biology’s gala dinner

David Attenborough-KrisHumphreysPhotographyc_-119.jpg

Live Illustration Katie Chappell KrisHumphreysPhotographyc_-9.jpg

Katie was very easy, flexible and efficient to work with and was always available to chat through aspects of the artwork we had commissioned.
She produced beautiful artwork with lots of details and with little instruction. She's a lovely lady to work with and fully embraced our brief including brand colours.
I hope to work with Katie again!
-Shameema Haque, The Royal Society of Biology London

An introduction to virtual scribing

This was my first real taste of virtual graphic scribing, although I didn’t realise it at the time. I’m so thankful for that because now, in the current situation (for future readers, there’s a wee pandemic on the go. Can’t go anywhere) it’s a bit tricky for in-person events to happen.

Now, a few months on I am intimately acquainted with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Facetime, BlueJeans. You name a video-calling software, I’VE ILLUSTRATED ON IT.

Online Meeting Illustration

Remote virtual live illustration has been incredible in these past weeks. The events I’ve illustrated at have varied from virtual wellness weeks, webinars, online conferences, giant mega Zoom calls.

Perhaps I’ll write another blog post of the things that have made for a successful online event.

I’ve spoken to clients and they’ve not been 100% sure what to Google search for. Online meeting artist? Zoom drawings?