Update: A few years have passed since I wrote this blog! I’m now running ‘Illustrated Live’, where I’ve gathered a world-class team of event illustrator pals and live scribes and we LOVE capturing and visualising your important information at events all over the world.

I’m also in the process of developing a…

Live Illustration Course!

So if you’d like to learn the ropes from me, you can register your interest here.

I’ll be creating this course over on The Good Ship Illustration, and if you’re keen, i’d love to see you over there!

This course has been a long time coming.

Register your interest in The Live Illustration Course

Anyways, back to the blog post!

I’m Katie, and I am a live event illustrator in the UK working for companies all over the world. I live in a little cottage in Northumberland and thanks to the wonders of the internet I’ve been able to illustrate for Google, Facebook Workplace, The NHS, Nespresso, Dove, Virgin Money, Stella Artois…

Ok enough name dropping. CLANG CLANG CLANG. I’ve put them all on this page of my website if you really want to know all the people who’ve asked me to draw pictures for them.

Sometimes I’m creating digital illustrated notes on my iPad Pro in meetings and conferences, sometimes I’m painting giant live art onto windows in London:

window painting mural glass art live drawing.jpg

Something I’m asked quite a lot is how on earth I became a live illustrator.

The short story is that it was kind of an accidental side-effect of just following what I loved to do.

The long story:

Digital live illustration at Border’s Art Fair

I got my MA in illustration from Edinburgh College of Art, and during that time I became completely obsessed with reportage illustration. I wrote my dissertation on it. I studied it. I read all the books I could get my hands on. I LOVED the idea that artists could capture what was going on, while it was happening. It seemed like magic. It also felt like something I could do. All these artists were in the middle of wars, refugee camps, conflicts and drawing what was going on around them. They talked about how people were much more accepting of somebody drawing them while chatting, rather than sticking a giant camera lens in their face.

Reportage illustration was magic - I knew it.

As part of my masters degree at Edinburgh College of Art I did a series of interviews with people about their collections, and during these interviews I illustrated the answers to their questions around the drawing of them. I didn’t realise it at the time, but I had started live illustrating.

It’s also known as graphic recording, scribing or sketchnoting.

Edinburgh university’s sustainability department put a call out for a live illustrator - somebody to draw the meeting as it was happening and MY EYES LIT UP. I could be a reportage artist in meetings!? IS THIS A THING?

I drew pictures at that first meeting, and loved it. I shared the work on my website. I posted about it on my social media platforms.

Then a friend asked me to paint her ceremony as it happened.

An Instagram post later, and Glamour magazine added me to their ‘hot wedding trends of 2017.’

It still makes me laugh that I was a hot trend. Ha. Anyway, the rest is history. #trendyAF You can read the article here.

hot wedding trend 2017 live illustrator portraits uk.png

Since then I’ve illustrated all over the world for all kinds of companies and it’s my favourite thing ever.

Virtual event illustration for Quadmark, May 2020

COVID19 In-person Event Illustration, to virtual meeting illustration Pivot

In January and February 2020 I was travelling all over the UK and Europe for live illustration. Then the pandemic hit and the UK went into lockdown in March and pretty much all of my live illustration work was cancelled overnight.

Once I’d stopped panicking, I realised the joy of being able to draw visual notes for virtual events and illustrate online conferences from home! It’s the dream. I get to work with exciting clients, attend online events and conferences and make notes... and I don’t need to put on a bra, get on a train or book a hotel.

I may never leave the house again.

We also started The Good Ship Illustration which has been the loveliest thing ever during the past few months. Every Friday we run art club, and our paid course ‘Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag’ is opening its doors again very soon. You can click here to learn more.

The course is designed for illustrators and image-makers at all levels navigating a creative career.

Tips for illustrators who’d like to enter the world of live illustration. ‘How do I become a live illustrator/scribe?’

graphic-recording-museum-live-illustration-katiedraws-MIMA-modern-art-mobile-garden-the-barrow.jpg

Draw from life as much as you can. The more time you spend developing your skills and going to art-gym, the better.
Build up a visual library. A lot of the time, information will be flying at you very quickly and it’s beneficial to have a stock library of icons and images that you can quickly pull out of your brain.
Get used to drawing in front of people. The bigger the crowd, the better. You cannot be shy about your work if you’re live illustrating!
Keep an eye out for opportunities for live illustrators. People often need notes taken at meetings, why not offer your visual note-taking service?
Tell people what you do! Nobody can hire you if they don’t know you exist.

If you’re an illustrator looking to boost your creative career and find your creative voice, you’ll love all the stuff we’re doing over on The Good Ship Illustration.

How to Book Live Illustration for Your Online Virtual Event and/or Meeting

And if you are looking for somebody to draw pictures at your meetings, events and virtual conferences you can click here to learn more about live illustration and see more examples of my work.

Here’s my contact page to get in touch for a quote.