In April I went back to my hometown, Paris, to live illustrate for the Festival Ecocotiers at the Cité de l’Economie, the first European museum devoted to economics. The festival’s goal is to make the discipline more accessible to a wider audience, whilst confronting it to cultural and societal issues, such as pension laws, the climate crisis and the cost of living crisis through an exciting program full of workshops, panels, shows and debates.
I recently worked on Live Drawn Stages, a R&D project gratefully supported by Visual Arts South West as well as Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio. Taking from the learnings of previous R&D project Live Illustration Expanded , I partnered with Bristol-based performer Tom Marshman to live illustrate on stage two of his shows. We were given access to the beautiful stages at St Georges’ Bristol and Ashton Court Arts Mansion to test these projected live drawn scenographies. It was fascinating to experiment with symbolic texts and explore how live drawings can extend the metaphor to create a magical atmosphere.
Photograph Khali Ackford joined us to document this project.
Read more about this project on Watershed’s blog here.
I have had the pleasure to work with The Centre for Disaster Protection for a little over 6 months, doing live illustration and producing editorial visuals for their communication effort. The centre finds and shares better ways to prepare for, and respond to disasters. This can significantly limit the effect disasters have on people’s everyday lives, and on countries’ long-term development. They push for reform of an international crisis financing system that is very clearly no longer fit for purpose.
They recently introduced their short policy on debt pause clauses, instruments for climate resilient debt instruments – basically a debt freeze for disaster-hit countries. They explain their findings and thoughts in this article that I had the pleasure to illustrate.
I remember…
“… the taste of ice cream”
“… being wheeled outside in the rain…”
“… a labyrinth of corridors…”
“… the smell of lavender…”
Escaping the clinical for the personal experience…
I have had the pleasure to work with the Sensing Spaces of Healthcare team for a few years now, on a variety of live & editorial illustration projects. This spring I was gratefully invited to create a series of illustrations for their Sensory Memory Bank research, a website designed around people's sensory memories of the hospital. Their experiences and sensations were collected on postcards and these were classified according to the five different senses: hearing, taste, sight, smell, touch. An innovative way to talk about the hospital experience, steering away from its clinical feel.
The postcards acted as prompts for the illustrations and this resulted in a series of small visual metaphors through which the personal data can be classified. I also created a front page illustration (see above).
Find out more about this beautiful project here.
Last month on the 8th March I was commissioned by PwC to live illustrate their Women in Sports gathering to celebrate the 7th edition of their Bouncing Back Sports Survey . This report highlights the growth of women’s sport, highlighting the important role the media must continue to play. Prompted by the inspiring discussions with professional athletes and stakeholders, I created in real time a series of sketchnotes for PwC editorial communication materials. Here is a selection of them.
I recently wrote about how much I enjoyed live illustrating tiata fahodzi’s Black Earth project, that led a discussion on how the creative sector can form an anti-racist response to the climate emergency. I was thrilled to receive this week their Green Care Packages inspired from the conversations that took place during the workshops and featuring beautiful collaborations. It includes an interactive booklet, a calendula skin salve as well as seeds from Community Apothecary and a dream pillow by the afrofuturist apothec∞ry. I never cam across such a delicate harmony of prompts and objects enticing readers to explore creative resistance and self care. The experience is both empowering and humbling and supports the ripple effect of the impactful discussions I had the honour to witness during the live illustration sessions. Some sketchnotes were extracted from those sessions and turned into editorial illustrations for the booklet and here are a few extracts.
Find out more about the Black Earth project here, in the words of its producer Marcus Bernard.
Sketchnote extracted from a live illustration session for StArt
I’ve been thinking about new ways to share my work as the Instagram algorithm has really impacted me in the past year. It has apparently been the case for many illustrators. Furthermore, most of the work that I do is confidential - especially in scribing - which makes it even harder to share what I do. However I need to get my work out there on way or another. In my latest newsletter I came up with #sketchnoteroulette, a selection of visual metaphors extracted from various live illustration sessions. Isolated and presented out of context, free of all client and project names, I am thus able to showcase my work a bit more.
Thank you for following and supporting my work!
Thank you for following and supporting my work. I wish you a beautiful 2023.
The act of selling products seemed a bit contradictory with my eco convictions, and after some trials and errors, I have finally found a happy place at @teemillstore. Every product is printed on demand (made one at a time). That means it doesn’t exist until you order it. All products use natural, organic materials, renewable energy and sustainable packaging.
My designs are simple, fun monochrome cartoons with a drop of humour, inspired from the cartoons I draw in my live illustration projects. They are declined in a range of products, from T-Shirts to art prints.
Visit this link to browse and shop!
Hard Evidence, a theatre production developed in collaboration with University of Bristol and Bristol community theatre acta, shines light on how getting involved with research empowered women who have experienced domestic abuse to support others. I was very pleased to be invited to live illustrate a reflection session on this unique experience.
Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) is a recurrent theme for me in scribing and I am always fascinated to witness the impact of co-creation on research, especially on sensitive subjects.
The UK’s leading British African heritage contemporary theatre company tiata fahodzi invited me to live illustrate one of their workshop as part of their Black Earth project. Developing on the subject of climate justice, the project explores the mental health impacts specific to Black British, African heritage and other Global Majority people as well as the how creative resistance can play part in the response. The illustrations will be published in a forthcoming booklet.
I am very grateful to tiata fahodzi and Watershed for inviting me to witness these exchanges and create a visual legacy around them. The conversations were extremely inspiring and have stayed in my mind since.
Those who know me well also know that I am a keen swimmer. These past couple of years swimming has become an essential part of my weekly routine. I love the liberating feeling of being in contact with water and how beneficial it is for both my physical and mental health. Being a live illustrator means that I put my body through a lot - drawing boards, murals, repetitive movements… And thus (re)discovering swimming was both a relief and a joy. Make Waves and Dive In are two sketchnotes inspired from my love of water. Somehow swimming echoes a lot with my scribing practice, when the event goes live and nothing else matter - exactly how I feel when I hear that first splash in the morning.
Both designs are available on my print-on-demand shop.
In my work as a live illustrator I have the opportunity to deep-dive into some thoughts, ideas or expression through the use of visual metaphors. I love this about my job as it not only allows me to really think about what it means, but also how injecting my own imagination into it can make it more accessible. When encountering the term unlearning, I often choose the image of detangling my brain in order to discard embedded thoughts, taking into account my own privileges, and gather knowledge from unexplored sources. And as we know knowledge is power!
This little carton is now also featured in my print-on-demand shop!
Mobility Camp is an annual unconference that brings together transport planners, modellers, engineers, technologists, social activists, academics and others interested in discussing and coming up with solutions to ongoing challenges in the transport sector. I was very pleased to be invited to live illustrate the 2022 edition, focusing on sustainable transport, from Bristol’s Engine Shed in Brunel’s original station. The atmosphere was both friendly and hard-working, the audience leading very challenging conversations with the purpose of identifying tangible actions for changing the mindsets and the approach to both public and private transport to hit the country's net-zero priority. From rural active travel to consumerism, public consultations to safety, the day was full of exciting ideas and extremely inspiring to draw!
I was very honoured to take part in illustrating a publication project recently launched by Senses and Health/care Environments network (Wellcome Trust) for Sensing Spaces of Healthcare. Exploring the sensory history of healthcare environments, this beautiful series of booklets is the result of an interdisciplinary and collaborative effort takes the reader on a tour across corridors, waiting spaces, operating theatres, thresholds, laundry and wards. The palette is inspired from the 1955’s book on The Use of Colour in Hospitals and correspond to specific areas of the buildings.
The last few weeks were a total treat after two years of remote live illustration jobs only! I am very grateful to my various commissioners including the University of Bristol, Great Ormond Street Hospital, StART Entrepreneurship Project and Barbican who took me on an amazing tour of some of the most exciting venues in England:
People’s Republic of Stokes Croft, Bristol
MShed, Bristol
The Shard, London
Royal Nothern School of Music, Manchester
Barbican, London
The discussions and presentations were all equally powerful, emotional and inspiring. I couldn’t have dreamed of a better welcome-back in the room tour!
Two out of three events were digital live illustration, which still seem to be the trend even for in-person events. I am wondering if this will carry on or if we will observe a shift back to the Posca murals? Whilst I am still very much a markers-lover, I do appreciate the versatility of the digital canvas, its durability and support towards more eco-friendly practices.
How is YOUR journey back in the room?
Photo credits @Ash Knotek
Yesterday evening was a very special sunset seeing. I had the honour to take part in the wonderful Great Ormond Street Hospital’s private launch for their new forthcoming campaign. This time my canvas was a bit different: I got to live draw on five windows of the Shard in London!! The whole series can’t be revealed yet but I am allowed to share these few teasers, a timeline of the history of children’s cancer care at GOSH.
Thank you to the amazing team at GOSH for a truly fantastic experience.
A little insight into my live illustration process with this timeline - this discussion lasted a bit more than an hour. Before a live job, I always prepare a Procreate canvas in advance with various layers: template background, logos, layout, titles, sketching, colours and outline. When the event kicks off I start sketching straight away - I won’t necessarily keep everything in the end, but it helps me getting into the dynamic. At the same time I sketch/write down key thoughts and ideas on my sketchbook in case my Procreate canvas is too busy. At the end of the event, I turn off the layout and sketch layers, and I proceed to potential edits. And… voilà!
Timeline: extract from the Creative Producers Network, a project between Watershed, CSSD, Das Graduate School and the Kibii Foundation
As physical events start to become more regular, I travelled to London last week to the beautiful Wellcome Collection museum. The team at Sensing Spaces of Healthcare organised a workshop with academics from across the country and a range of subject on working with creative industries. Culture& CEO Errol Francis led a session prompting the audience to explore how they could collaborate with creatives in specific situations and spaces of research. I was very honoured to capture their thoughts and ideas with live illustration and sketchnotes.
This March I had the pleasure to collaborate with StART Linking Up: Creative Industries Insights, and scribe a series of talks for students from University of the Arts London, Royal Northern College of Music and The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama to connect with entrepreneurs and leading voices from the creative industries. I was very lucky to live illustrate extremely inspiring sessions led by the wonderful Muchaneta Kapfunde, Cindy Claes and Strange Fruits sharing their experiences and creative journeys.
I recently worked on an illustration series for the new podcast Access and Active Leisure in a Time of Pandemic, a project revealing parallel stories of active leisure during the pandemic in Bristol & in Bordeaux. Led by Professor Martin Hurcombe at the University of Bristol and Josephine Gyasi at Knowle West Media Centre, this project was funded by the Brigstow Institute. Read more about the project here and listen to the episodes here.
