Brand new look for Jillustration

Whey-hey! I hope you like the brand spanking new make over of my blog? A shiny and cheerful new header and a refresh of the typeface and colour scheme. What's all this in aid of, I hear you ask - well, my website has also been undergoing major cosmetic surgery and is about to be set free on the world wide interweb, so the blog had to scrub up too. It will be my twitter page that is getting a wardrobe overhaul next!

I am very excited about my new look website at www.jillcalder.com - it has been great fun working with Evie at Eskymo, who has designed it for me. I will announce it properly once it is all live and kicking...but it is coming VERY SOON! In the meantime, here is a sneak preview of my colour palette.

Garden Detectives exhibition - grand opening!

After all my hard work creating the illustrative element and all the National Museum of Scotland's design team's hard work bringing the show into 3D, interactive life, Garden Detectives finally opened at a private view on Thursday 25th June!

Go here to see loads more images of the opening night, the exhibition and my illustrations, of course!

It was a great evening - starting with speeches by the museum's director, Gordon Rintoul and by Roseanna Cunningham, who is the Scottish Minister for the Environment. Of course a tasty canapé or two with a glass of bubbly was in order.
The whole design team were there: Maureen Barrie (project manager), Stuart Kerr (3D), Lisa Carrington (graphics) and Cathy Sexton (she who ensured I was paid!).I was also delighted to meet Matt Black who had built a lot of the exhibits and interactive elements.

Also present were lots of children and they simply proved that the show will be a big hit, as they poured into the exhibition space and leapt upon the exhibits with enthusiastic glee! I think the most popular section was the fishing pond, "Pond Dipping" where you got a magnetic fishing rod and tried to catch all the beasties, such as minnows, waterspiders and waterboatmen beetles and then post them back through appropriate slots at the side of the pond according to where they live : in the mud at the bottom, in the pondweed or poddling about near the top.

For me, it was wonderful to see the big illustration of the dreamy garden scenes in all their 8 metre long glory - very nice indeed!

Overall, I really enjoyed the challenge of this project. I love drawing but here I had to be accurate for education purposes but still retain my inky, fairly loose style. Also, working with such detailed technical drawings was at times daunting but the designers needed me to be spot on with where each flowerhead or bit of mint was placed so they could then tell the joiners and set builders what to do with out any mistakes occurring. Also, it was fairly large amount of illustration to do in quite a short amount of time but I do like a bit of deadline pressure to make life interesting!

I'll be honest though, if I never have to draw another adder in my life, I'll be very happy indeed. Snakes are hard to draw!

If you can, please go and support the National Museum of Scotland and enjoy the show.

The Class of 2009

Thought I would promote my new batch of competition in the world of illustration - namely the 19 students that are soon to graduate from the Illustration Deptartment at Edinburgh College of Art.

The Degree Show opens on June 13th (the PV is on the 12th) and it is an excellent, varied, exciting and surprising show indeed.

This group have been great to teach and I think many of them will do well in the tough 'ol business that is Illustration. I just hope they remember the pricing and business advice I gave them back in November!
I have selected an image by Toby Cook from his book "The Upside Down House" and a life drawing by Trine Mangernes as a small taster of the variety in the exhibition.

Go along to their Show, buy something from their shop and support the next generation.

New for The Guardian

This is a sneak preview of an illo about the "Sandwich Generation" that will be published in tomorrow's Guardian (Work section cover, no less)
I got the roughs in on Wednesday evening (after a particularly unpleasant episode of dealing with my non functioning scanner) and the lovely art director, Sarah Habershon said she liked my sofa idea to depict the "Sandwich Generation" where both ageing parents and children have to be cared for - despite the fact the carer also holds down a full time job.
Sarah doesn't like to have an obvious work theme on the Work cover so I made this as domesticated and family-orientated as possible, yet trying to show the pressure that the carer is under to look after family properly yet still get work done.
I like the hamster metaphor, myself (based on Chewbacca who is my nephew's spritely rodent). The bird in the cage is, of course, a MASSIVE homage to Charles Keeping, whose work I love.

And I don't understand why I keep drawing cats when it is dogs that I love.

fantastic biker action in Edinburgh

Big red building? Edinburgh college of Art. I love this film.

Proper Dog Training!

You should know I am dog daft and that my husband and I have been training our now 7 month old pup, Birdie, pretty successfully. She is very intelligent and biddable and has a lovely soft mouth...AND she comes back to her name!
However, my mum-in-law, Sharon is a bit of an expert dog trainer, as she gets her canine brood to track and to do man work and agility.
She has just got herself a magic wee black lab bitch called Daphne and is training her already. In fact, Daphne is so intelligent she is writing her own blog - Daphne's Diary

Pic of Sharon, Daphne and Chris the trainer.

Dog news over and out.

Incy Wincy Spider...

quite like this spider I did for NMS...
put the leaves in to show it wasn't a massive, big 'ol Aussie man-eater of a thing, but rather a proper little British spider.

Lettering for Carte Blanche

Amongst all this museum work, I have also done a bit of logo work for my super talented friends Cait and Gibson at Carteblanche, who are specialists in distinctive decorative painting techniques. They do murals, graining, gilding, marbling - you name it! They also hold classes in both the UK and USA, which are very popular.
If you happen to be near Auchterarder, then drop into their brand new showroom and shop at 94 High Street!

The Flowerbed

This is a rough of another pretty big wall illo for Garden Detectives - 4.4m long
There will be interactive, scented elements here for the lavender and mint etc. and all sorts of other fun things for children to play with and try out. I have been having a job getting my head round the technical drawings that the 3D designer supplied - hence my scribbles on the rough.
Another wall section in this part of the exhibit will have a honey Bee Journey on it too!
The end is on sight now (it's been a week of working 'til midnight - most unlike me!)
and I just have a few more beasties to colour up and send off.
A few posts back I mentioned that a badger I did had been rejected for looking too "weird" - well, here is the new one. It got an "Aw!" from the designer!

Studio Finds

It's ALL happening this week...

Not only do I have the most epic job on with NMS, but the builders are about to move in to the house to do a mighty bit of renovation work. So, we are moving OUT!
I am currently meant to be boxing things up in my studio ready for the big move, but of course I get distracted when I find wee sketchbooks that have fallen down the back of my desk, or have just been wedged between something bigger.
Here are a couple of pages - one random wee doodle in a lovely Muji notebook and the other a bit of visual notetaking from the Night Safari at Singapore Zoo.
Right, back to boxing, tidying, chucking and dust.

Massive garden illustration for NMS

Now, this is a work in progress and is still being added to, tweaked and bits deleted, so if you come along to the museum for the Garden Detectives opening in June, you probably won't see this version.
This is the big 'ol illustration that will cover up to 8 metres by 2.6 metres (yes, 8 metres) of wall as you enter the Garden Detectives exhibition. I admit it has caused me problems in the making, as I am putting it together on Photoshop CS4 at a smaller scale, but superhigh resoltion (1200dpi). I was saving a version the other day and didn't Photoshop go and tell me that it didn't save files higher than 2GB? I'll not repeat what I said to Photoshop...
I can't wait to see this super-sized, as it is so inky and colourful. The designers at NMS did a test print of another big image and it looks amazing at room height, I have to say.
There are going to be a few other massive illustrations for other zones in the show, aswell as smaller images such as my toad (see previous post)
Deadline-wise I have just over a week to get it all done, so it's time for a mug of tea, a biscuit and on with iTunes (Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto, "the Emperor" to kick me off today then perhaps a bit of Leftfield)

A fine looking Toad

Working very hard on the National Museums of Scotland job - I literally have hundreds of animals, birds, insects, fish and flowers to draw.
As part of one of the interactive exhibits in the show, I have drawn 15 animals that all have to be sorted out (by the visitors)as to where they live (or not) in a hedgerow.
These drawings have to be accurate, as they are educational, but still done in my style.
I am rather fond of this lowly and rather warty common toad. Yes - as part of the same exhibit I have also drawn a badger (currently re-doing the badger, as my first version was deemed a bit "weird, possibly too hairy" by the folk at the museum!) and a weasel so all I need to complete a cast call for Wind in the Willows is a water rat - but there isn't one in this show!
I'll get some of the big showstopper garden scenes up soon - just as soon as they are ready. In the meantime - enjoy the toad.

National Museum of Scotland

Finally! I am able to write a bit about this absolute PEACH of a job!
The last couple of months have seen me to-ing and fro-ing to the wonderful, award winning National Museum of Scotland to meet with their very cheerful design team to discuss doing some work for their big summer exhibition, entitled Garden Detectives, which is part of the Darwin200 series of events celebrating all things Charles Darwin.

It was Stuart Kerr who contacted me - he is a D&AD award winning 3D designer and mad keen cyclist by the way - and asked if I had ever done work for interactive, large scale exhibits. Nope...but I'd like to.

Basically the exhibition is aimed at children and will encourage them to discover what lurks, lives and burrows in their own backyard, through the medium of large, custom built interactive garden sheds, flowerbeds and hedgerows...oh and a garden pond too.
There will be plenty of specimens and things to poke at too.

Where does my work fit in? Well,I get to draw and paint lovely, loose garden scenes and hedge rows with bird's nests,curled up cats and pond-dwellers, which will be supersized and applied to walls and to the interactive exhibits aswell. I am also doing a hefty amount of quite technical illustration of the creatures who inhabit our gardens too too. Now, for those of you who know my work, you would be forgiven for thinking "Jill? technical? Neat and tidy?" I did think the same thing myself. However, after doing some drawings of Dragonfly larvae and ladybirds for the Museum's resident entymologist, my style got the stamp of approval!
The brief was to draw accurately, but still be inky - these illustrations are to be educational afterall.

Needless to say, I am very excited about this job - which does mean scanning everything at 1200dpi, as it is going to be BIG!
There will be plenty more updates about this, so watch this space for any more snippets.

Above illustration is a garden cat and also another of part of a dragonfly life cycle. You knew that though, didn't you?

Sumo Arabic Brochure

Sumo Arabic Brochure, originally uploaded by jimmysumo.

The lovely folk at Sumo asked me to do some illustrations in connection with their project with an amazing new museum in Qatar.
Jim Richardson sent me through these pics of the brochure they designed with one of my illos on the cover.
It was an interesting job to do, as I had to draw a mixture of Arabic and Western people in the gallery setting (which looks like a giant sand dune, by the way) but at the same time, be respectful of Islamic customs and culture. I hope I got it right!
In the process of researching this job, I came across some fantastic Arabic art websites and blogs, such as Fann 3arabi...and discovered a couple of inspiring Arabic calligraphers too, such as Malik Anas, an Iraqi calligrapher based in Baghdad.

Vintage Inspiration from Amy Cartwright

Several deadlines are pressing down upon me and in true fashion I blithely turn my cheek and get "researching" on the web for lots of lovely inspirational things.
Well, this actually came in via the Grain Edit newsfeed and I urge you to check it out.
stickersandstuff.blogspot.com is illustrator Amy Cartwright's fab blog - LOADS of links and lots of excellent vintage illustration to look at and drool.

Consider it an educational tool, all you young 'uns out there. Thankyou Amy!

Max Velthuijs illustration

Max Velthuijs, originally uploaded by normanhathaway.

double page spread heaven...I have been browsing Flickr again and found this wonderful spread.
Beautiful colour, composition, white space and yet is free and expressive too. It makes me want to do children's books!

Kitties

Kitties, originally uploaded by Penguin & Fish.

How adorable are these tweed cats by Penguin and Fish?
I want one...Etsy here I come!

Interview by Anna Violet

Anna Violet is an illustration student at the wonderful Stockport College down in far off England. The course has also published this blog, called Illustration Industry, which helps illustration graduates get their head round all the business of becoming an illustrator - very useful indeed!
Anyway, Anna contacted me recently and asked to interview me about the world of illustration for her college course.
Here is the interview (apologies for the caps - all my fault)
The image of the fox is Anna's - and i love it.

INTERVIEW:


Getting Started

1. I note from your blog that you had your first commission in 1993 after leaving college. How did you persuade the art director to take on an unknown illustrator?
MMM, I DON'T THINK IT WAS A CASE OF ME PERSUADING THEM. I JUST WENT AROUND WITH MY FOLIO AND HOPED SOMEONE WOULD COMMISSION ME! NOT VERY BUSINESS-LIKE , I KNOW.
LUCKILY, I THINK I HAD A STYLE THAT WAS A BIT FLEXIBLE (WITHOUT BEING TOO JACK OF ALL TRADES) SO ART DIRECTOR'S LIKED THAT AND GAVE ME A CHANCE. IT GOT MY FOOT IN THE DOOR ANYWAY.

2. At the start, did you have to juggle being an illustrator with other unrelated paid employment, in order to survive?
OH YES INDEED! I WAS LUCKILY STAYING WITH MY SISTER WHO JUST MADE ME DO ALL THE COOKING WITH NO RENT TO PAY, BUT I HAD 2 PART TIME JOBS ASWELL...IT WAS ALL A BIT LIKE DUCKING AND DIVING TRYING TO MAKE ENDS MEET! I LOVED IT THOUGH AND NEVER REGRETTED BASING MYSELF IN EDINBURGH RATHER THAN HEADING TO LONDON.

3. How long do you think it took you to become established in illustration? What do you think makes the difference between success and failure when trying to establish yourself as an illustrator?
GOOD QUESTION. I REALLY WORKED AT GOING TO SEE DESIGNERS UP HERE IN SCOTLAND, ESTABLISHING RELATIONSHIPS THAT STILL STAND ME IN GOOD STEAD TODAY (16 YEARS LATER!!). I ALSO ENTERED COMPETITIONS LIKE IMAGES AND SUCH. I THINK IT TOOK ME ABOUT A YEAR AND A BIT TO GET KNOWN UP HERE IN SCOTLAND...UK-WISE IT WASN'T UNTIL 1997, BECAUSE I STARTED TO GET EDITORIAL COMMISSIONS FROM THE GUARDIAN, THE TELEGRAPH ETC AND THAT REALLY GOT MY WORK SEEN. I ALSO GOT A UK AGENT IN 1997 TOO AND THAT MADE A BIT OF A DIFFERENCE.

YOUR SECOND QUESTION IS ALSO GOOD - AND I WOULD SAY THAT YOU HAVE TO REALLY LOVE/ADORE/BE CRAZY IN LOVE WITH ILLUSTRATION AND PRINT AND DESIGN - BE REALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT IT, SO NO OTHER JOB WILL TEMPT YOU AWAY! YOU HAVE TO BE DETERMINED TO SUCCEED (WHATEVER YOUR VERSION OF SUCCESS IS) AND BE AWARE THAT BEING A FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR CAN BE  A VERY UP AND DOWN CAREER - AND ACCEPT THAT TO SOME EXTENT. YOU SOON GET USED TO THE INSECURITY OF IT BUT LOVE THE FLEXIBILITY OF BEING FREELANCE TOO.
I THINK YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED TO GET OUT THERE AND MEET PEOPLE AND NETWORK AND MAYE DO SOME JOBS FOR FREEBIES OR WHATEVER. I THINK YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED TO DO SOME CRAPPY, NOT VERY CREATIVE OR INSPIRING WORK SOMETIMES TO GET BREAD AND BUTTER MONEY (AND REMEMBER THAT THE DESIGNER COMMISSIONING YOU IS PROBABLY THINKING THE SAME THING, BUT YOU MIGHT GET A JUICY JOB FROM THEM THE NEXT TIME ROUND!)
I ALSO THINK THAT YOU HAVE TO FOREGT YOUR DEGREE MARK - FIRST OR FAIL - AND JUST START AFRESH. NOBODY BUT NOBODY ASKS YOU WHAT DEGREE YOU GOT - IF THEY LIKE IT AND CAN USE YOUR WORK IN AN AD CAMPAIGN OR EDITORIAL, THEN THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS TO THEM.


4. Do you have any other advice to give a new graduate on how to get started?
JUST GET OUT THERE WITH A FANTASTIC FOLIO, SOME POSTCARDS OR OTHER PROMO MATERIAL WITH YOUR NAME AND CONTACT DETAILS CLEARLY WRITTEN/PRINTED ON THEM. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FREE FOLIO WEBSITES AND NETWORKING EVENTS AND MAKE AS MANY CONTACTS AS POSSIBLE. BE PATIENT, IGNORE YOUR PARENTS ASKING YOU WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO START EARNING PROPER MONEY.
BE PRO-ACTIVE: ORGANISE EXHIBITIONS, STALLS AT FESTIVALS ETC AND INVITE LOADS OF DESIGNERS - JUST DO IT, AS NIKE SAYS! OH AND YOU DO NEED TO SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY TOO - IT TOOK ME A WHILE TO REALISE THAT, BUT SOMETIMES TAKING THE RISK OF HEADING OFF TO NEW YORK TO SEE SOME MUCH ADMIRED DESIGNERS CAN REALLY PAY OFF, WORKWISE - AND CONFIDENCE WISE TOO.

Agents

5. I understand you have been with Friends and Johnson for a few years. Do you think it is vital to have an agent to get into the illustration market abroad?
NOT VITAL BUT MAKES IT EASIER. FRIEND AND JOHNSON GET ME NORTH AMERICAN WORK AND ARE HAPPY TO NEGOTIATE ON MY BEHALF FOR ANY BIG JOBS IN EUROPE, SUCH AS ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS.
THE EUROPEAN ILLUSTRATION COMMUNITY IS VERY EXCITING AT THE MOMENT AND YOU JUST HAVE TO TAP INTO THAT TO GET YOUR WORK SEEN AND TO MEET THE RIGHT PEOPLE - THINGS LIKE FREISTIL, ILLUSTRATIVE BERLIN, EUROPEAN DESIGN AWARDS, BOLOGNA BOOK FAIR ETC ETC.

6. Have you found there are any other particular advantages to having an agent? Have you ever been represented by any other agents in the UK?
AGENTS CAN GET YOU MORE MONEY FOR A JOB, IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT ONE! THEY ARE A STEP REMOVED FROM YOUR ARTWORK SO CAN BE VERY GOOD AT TELLING YOU WHERE AND WHEN YOU NEED TO MARKET YOUR WORK.
SAYING THAT, THERE ARE SOME LESS ABLE AGENTS, WHO NEVER COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR ARTISTS AND JUST DON'T BRING THE WORK IN - JUST LOOK AT THE AOI DISCUSSION BOARD FOR EVIDENCE OF CONFUSED AND GRUMPY ILLUSTRATORS!
I WAS REPPED BY EASTWING IN THE UK FOR A WHILE, AND GOT SOME GOOD WORK FROM THEM BUT I WANTED TO DO MY OWN THING IN THE UK IN THE END. THEY ARE STILL A GOOD AGENT THOUGH.

Marketing

7. Have you found The ispot, Flickr, 741 Illustration Collective, your website and your blog to all be very important for marketing your illustrations?
ALL MARKETING IS GOOD! IT IS EXTREMELY VITAL TO HAVE A GOOD WEBSITE THOUGH - EASY TO NAVIGATE AND EASY TO UPDATE YOURSELF (MINE NEEDS RE-DOING AGAIN - THAT SIDE OF THINGS NEVER ENDS)
I AM ON SEVERAL OTHER WEBSITES TOO AND AM LINKED TO BY OTHER BLOGS AND WEBSITES.
HAVING A STRONG WEB PRESENCE IS VERY IMPORTANT NOW - MAKE YOURSELF EASY TO FIND - GOOGLE YOUR OWN NAME AND SEE WHERE IT COMES IN THE LISTINGS - IT SHOULD BE TOP. YOU MIGHT SURPRISE YOURSELF TO SEE WHO ELSE IS TALKING ABOUT YOUR WORK ONLINE TOO! SO FAR MY WORK HAS BEEN BLOGGED IN ITALY, AUSTRALIA, FRANCE, USA, CANADA AND CZECH REPUBLIC!

8. What other marketing do you find particularly effective? Do you send out regular mailings too and who do you target?
EMAIL MARKETING - QUICK, EFFECTIVE AND CHEAPER THAN POST. YOU CAN TRACK WHO CLICKS THROUGH TO YOUR WEBSITE AND SEE WHERE THEY GO AND WHAT THEY LOOK AT TOO.
I DO SEND OUT POSTCARDS OR WEE HANDMADE THINGS OCCASSIONALLY - SHOULD DO IT MORE AND AM PLANNING ON IT THIS YEAR.
NOTHING BEATS A VISIT WITH THE FOLIO THOUGH AND WORD OF MOUTH - SO NETWORKING IS STILL IMPORTANT.

Lovely Pikaland

Very delighted that Amy Ng at the wondrous Pikaland has featured my work on the site!
Pikaland loves all things illustrated and is a very very readable blog.
Subscribe to their excellent newsletter here.

Paternity Leave for The Guardian

The Guardian always give me juicy subject matter to illustrate and this article was no different.
Sarah Habershon, art director at the Guardian, contacted me last Tuesday to see if I could do this piece, entitled No Father Forward by Elin Darby about the issues surrounding paternity leave in the UK. Of course I could! I love an adrenalin pumping deadline me! - which was Thursday.
The article discussed how many companies seemed not to take the idea seriously of a father taking time off to help care for a new baby, or even help out with childcare if his partner were returning to work after her maternity leave. Some men were even made redundant on the point of returning to work after taking paternity leave - with plenty of other reasons being given for the redundancy other than "you seem to be unreliable and /or uncommitted because you take time off to care for your children", which of course is illegal to claim.
After some doodling about with themes of a "flexible parenting/working environment" theme, I suddenly remembered all the images of Lehmann Bros. employees who had been made redundant a few months ago, and them walking out the office with all their possessions in a lowly cardboard box. It seemed cleaner and simpler to me to make that statement visually, but replacing the box with a good old-fashioned pram.