5 Golden Rules Of Live Event Illustration
I’ve been doing live events since 2013, I’ve had great events, good events, brilliant events, shite events, events where I’ve even teared up a lil on the way home…
So safe to say I’ve had my fair share of experiences, reactions and even critiques, and I wanted to sum them all up into 5 golden rules for live event illustration.
I might do another golden rules for the business side of things, but we’re focusing on the illustrations today!
So let’s get into it…
Golden Rule 1 - Flatter
So many people are hesitant to get their illustration done because their only point of reference is a caricature, and they don’t want someone pointing out their big nose or dumbo ears.
So rule no.1 is always to flatter your sitter, it’s a vulnerable thing to get drawn, and if you do live events but haven’t been on the other side of the table getting drawn by someone, I’d recommend it. It’s enlightening to experience it and see how it can affect your mood with what someone decides are your key features.
So wrinkles might make for a cooler looking portrait but it’s not going to make the sitter happy. To stop myself doing anything that might be a bit much I always ask myself ‘would I be happy if someone drew those on me?’
So drawing someone’s acne, wonky teeth, double chin, wrinkles or eye bags might be accurate, but no ones gonna be happy to see that pointed out.
Golden Rule 2 - Likeness Anchor
You have to remember that not everyone Is going to understand your work straight away, they don’t have the understanding of your style like you or your followers do.
So after years of turning the drawing round and seeing it take 5 - 10 seconds for the cogs to move and people wrap their head around my abstract drawing, I realised I need to make sure there’s something they can look at for an immediate understanding.
That brush stroke might symbolise their handbag to you, but it won’t to them, so make sure you do at least one thing more recognisably theirs, like their glasses, or get the hair colour as close a match as possible, something they can immediately understand as theirs, so it’s not all creatively interpreted, I call this a likeness anchor.
Golden Rule 3 - Flair
Live events are getting more and more popular, so if you want to make sure you continuing working in this field for years to come then you need to stand out.
Anyone can take a photo and do a quick sketch of what they see, but long term live event illustrators add flair, whether thats your unique style, their poses, your colouring technique, something that says YOU drew it and differentiates your work from just being lost in the crowd of identical styles.
This will also allow you to stay consistent with your pricing as you’re offering a unique service, so if someone wants your work they have to come to you.
Golden Rule 4 - Accuracy
As I said earlier, it’s incredibly vulnerable to allow someone to draw you, and this can make sitters quite self conscious, so any changes you do can make people doubt or second guess how they look.
You can’t change people’s clothes, hair style, or change someones lip colour or something, it’ll make the sitter feel like theirs isn’t nice enough or good enough, so make sure to not deviate from the blueprint.
It will also disconnect the sitter from feeling like it’s a drawing of them, even a little change like if someone’s bag is black, don’t colour it blue, they’ll spot it straight away, trust.
Golden Rule 5 - It’s all in the details
It’s amazing what people fixate on when you show them the drawing, most of the time they see the overall illustration, they’ll actually fixate on the small things like ‘omg you got my necklace in!’ ‘Omg that’s my tattoo’, ‘oh wow you included my wedding ring!’
Always try and analyse the sitter or picture and see if you can spot a couple small things you can include, don’t overlook them for the what you might deem more important, because most of these smaller details things have personal meaning to the sitter and will mean the world to them to know that you’ve noticed it.
So that’s my 5 golden rules for live event illustration!
Don’t ever feel bogged down that you need to know everything straight away, it’s all incorporated little by little over time. But if you’re wanting to fast forward your progress then there’s 2 spaces left on my live event masterclass.
Over 8 week’s we’ll hone and improve your skills, get you prepared for live events and develop your own unique work!
Course starts 13th April and ideally requires around 4 hours a week
Looking forward to meet the next round of illustrators!
