The Origins of my Live Illustration Practice

Kicking Off with an Origin Story: Comedy roots!

Hello - I'm Peter and I've been running a freelance illustration business for the past 12 years, with a focus on Live Illustration, Graphic Recording, Sketch-noting and Graphic Facilitation. Things have changed a lot in that time, with the landscape of creative agencies, clients and colleagues shifting and morphing continuously. I find myself reflecting on my 'origin story' to find a rock or a root to ground myself with. So, here's a beginning for you and for me:

That’s me drawing on the wall at Stand Up and Slam comedy and poetry night, London/Shoreditch, 2014.

As close to an 'apprenticeship' in the creative industries as you can get:

After a Philosophy degree, a few years teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL/TESOL), and an MA in 'Authorial Illustration', I found myself building a creative practice out in the wild.

The Live Scriber Project.

This was my 'apprenticeship' in the trade I now practice, with the foundations being: 'Drawing engaging picture-stories LIVE in response to what people say.'

It was also my first experiment in branding. Name - check. Visual Identity - emerging. Self-promotion - yep. Client base - let's get my name out there first. Seed funding? - The Job Centre's 'New Enterprise Allowance', thank you very much ( from Streatham Job Centre).

The Weirdo's show at Leicester Comedy Festival 2014 - drawn on a big bit of paper stuck to an old door laid horizontally.

After a couple of initial experiments - 'sketch-noting' at lectures on my MA course (2011-13), drawing in teachers' meetings at a TEFL summer school I worked at (2013), and a couple of appearances at the Comedy Society at Goldsmiths Student Union (2013) - I packed my rolls of paper and my pens, and made my way to Leicester Comedy Festival 2014. Here, I was to be 'scribe-in-residence' at Bob Slayer's Heroes of Fringe venue, covering as many shows as I could.

This was where I learnt to draw publicly in the same way that a speaker learns to speak in public. It was not always very polished, and I revelled in the imperfect fluidity of what I was creating. It fit the world of comedy very well, and got a great reception from audiences and comedians.

Co-doodling with the audience of my work-in-progress show, 'Doodle-a-thon-edy!' - London/Shoreditch 2014

The key factor in this experimental period was PLAYFULNESS, Creativity and FUN! You can see that it was infectious, and it led to the development of my own show for Edinburgh 2014, 'Doodle-a-thon-edy!'

Edinburgh Fringe 2014 and more!

And so, the end of my 'apprenticeship' saw an intense burst of live drawing at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2014. Again, becoming resident at Bob Slayer's Heroes of Fringe venue - this time in an old shop front just down the hill from the Pleasance. I saw myself as some sort of roving visual reporter, gathering live drawings at lots of shows and bringing them back to the venue to stick to the walls.

Me and audience members - feat. John Fleming of 'So It Goes' blog - drawing together on a big bit of paper, EdFringe 2014

I drew at 50+ shows which included lots of underground/comedy circuit regulars, plus a few big names such as Phill Jupitus, Jo Caulfield, Jack Dee, Romesh Ranganathan and Sara Pascoe.

Here is a wonderful group photo from the final show of my 7-show run of 'Doodle-a-thon-edy!' where you can see some of the drawings pasted crudely to the walls. Notice also that the audience all have drawings on their hands. This was a super fun feature of that show, as was the use of a roulette reel of the drawings to select people to join me at the drawing wall (again, an old door with paper stuck to it).

Audience Group photo at a 'Doodle-a-thon-edy' show, Edinburgh Fringe 2014

Audience doodles collected from the last shows of the run - playful drawing is contagious!

So that's a quick trip down memory lane to share some of my raw, surreal, playful roots in this business - not your usual route!

The back of my EdFringe show flyer had a good bit of general info about what I did. 2014

What was missing from this apprenticeship was finding a purpose for the drawing, which had this surreal and automatic, raw quality to it. What I did next was find a route into purposeful drawing, more considered storytelling, and learning to be a type of consultant.

Sign Up to my Newsletter for more.