Getting your first live illustration clients

The ol' chicken and egg situation

I presented my big slab of plywood proudly.

“Wait, you paid HOW MUCH!? For that? Oh my God, Katie. You’ve been had.”

Cameron was distraught.

I had been ROBBED by the art shop, paying £3.50 for this flimsy piece of wood. But it wasn’t just any ol’ bit of plywood. This thing (and a bulldog clip I stole from my Mum’s stationery drawer) carried me through my first ever live event.

Really, when you think about it, that £3.50 bit of plywood doesn’t owe me a penny.

I’d never ever done this before.

Live illustration (the graphic recording kind) was something I tripped over in the Edinburgh College of Art library while down a deep, deep research rabbit hole.

While drooling over those War Artists’ work, I saw these other books cuddled in nearby. They had names like,

Graphic Facilitation.

Design Thinking.

“Hmm. Never heard of ‘em. Dunno what that even is. Sounds boring.”

I flipped through the books anyway. 1970s people were drawing on big flipcharts in corporate meetings in San Francisco. The drawings were ugly - horrible stick-men and these sickly pastel drawings of trees and symbolic shite. It was gross.

But it looked very doable.

And it seemed a bit safer than being a war artist 😅

That night, in the glow of my laptop in Mum’s spare room, I Googled to check that this graphic recording thing was still happening.

AND IT WAS.

Better still, I saw that actual illustrators were doing it. Not a horrible stick man in sight, not even a chalk pastel! Some of the work out there actually looked amazin’. Like comics! How had people done work that good LIVE on the spot? Woah.

I got this goosebumpy hmmm-maybe-I-could-do-that feeling.

And as if the universe had been spying on me, it gave me a big wink and a nudge and just a week later, an unusual email popped up:

‘Visual note taker required’.

I almost fell off my chair.

Not only was it a visual note-taking job, but it was for a sustainability event. I practically broke my ankle running to reply.

Long story short, I got the job. I cobbled together my drawing-board-with-bulldog-clip (inspired by reportage illustrator George Butler, who goes to actual war zones).

And:

✅ I didn’t die.

✅ Got paid in sandwiches.

✅ There was a photographer there who let me use the photos on my website.

✅ I realised that I really loved doing it! It felt very easy. Those 2 hours flew by. I was ON to something.

That was 9 years ago now and since then I’ve drawn for Adobe, Apple, Meta, Google, Netflix, the NHS, a bijillion universities all over the world, bla bla bla.

THAT’S ALL LOVELY, KATIE. But we’re talking about meeee, remember? How do *I* get my first client?

Ah yes.

---

Nowadays, when people ask me how to get their first live illustration and graphic recording clients, I tell them:

Go to an actual event and try to draw it.

Create your own being-paid-in-sandwiches situation! Be the intrepid George Butler of wherever it is you want to go.

I used to tell people to try to draw a TED talk online, but BLOODY HELL, they are so scripted, rehearsed and difficult to draw, especially when you’re just starting out.

Also, when you’re all snug an’ cosy at home, you are wayyyy more likely to hit that pause button.

And that is NOT ALLOWED.

Nu-uh. You can’t hit the pause button in a real live event.

You’ll answer 2 big questions when you force yourself to go to a live event

1. Whether you even LIKE live illustration & graphic recording…

2. How well-suited are you to live events in general?

Graphic recording is not for everyone. So many of my messages this week (course doors are open) have been along the lines of “do I have what it takes to be a live illustrator?”

I have no idea.

Only you’ll know that!

And you can only find out if you try.

If you go to an event, draw it, and have fun? Maybe this IS for you! The best thing about starting out is sucking at it and getting better. Learning from people who have done all the learning-stuff-the-hard-way, so you don’t have to.

YOU WILL SUCK.

That’s why learning exists. 😅

(Doors close tomorrow - Friday 2nd May.)

p.s. I have three more article titles up my sleeve but there’s no way I will manage to write all of them before tomorrow.

Which one do you want to read?

Please vote in the comments and I will send you my unending gratitude at having saved me from having to choose myself.

Here are your options for tomorrow’s article:

1. You WILL suck

2. Puttin’ the sexy in dyslexia (or something less cheesy about spellings 😆)

3. Fearless vs. fear less

Ta!

x Katie

p.s. The live illustration masterclass replay is also still available in case you missed it. Here you go (Live Illustration Masterclass replay).