PATRICK ART OF WEIRD HOW TO

Event Report: How To Optimise Your Chances of Publ.Network News: South West Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.Inaugural Illustrators Meet-up, South-East Scotland.The Watcher of the Skies Poetry anthology is out.Proofreading Tips - Common Mistakes Part Two.Network News - North east - more changes in the ne.Conference One-to-One Reviews for Illustrators.A Fabulous First for Fir For Luck and Barbara Hend.Who should be the next Children's Laureate?.Masterclass Event Report: Writing Funny with Mo O'.Small Big Celebration for a young writer.Instagram represented by Davinia at Andlyn See more of Patrick's fantastic work on his Featured Illustrator Gallery page.

Since then I've tried to be creative *and reliable* and, luckily so far, they've all asked me to draw for them again. My first paid commissions all came from the Siberian girl after I put her on Behance. It doesn't take long and it only takes one person to love one image to gain a new client. As Yuko Shimizu says, she can't work on personal projects because she's too busy with commissions that ask her to just be her.Īlso, if it wasn't for the web I wouldn't be a working illustrator, so if you've not yet sorted out a basic website or use Twitter and Instagram a little, start now. When the right people knock on your door it'll be because they want you. Revel in your own art's weird and quirky bad self. It's quite hard, but focus on personal projects. You may start to second-guess what people want or expect and that way lies madness. I feel like I have so much more to learn compared to the knowledge I can impart, but this much I do know:įirstly, if being commissioned by a publisher or signed by an agent is your ultimate goal, don't focus on it. But then again, the process always evolves, and letting the process in is what defines the end product for me. I also love the freedom and versatility of ink with both dip pen and asian brushes and the next commission will be less focused on digital. I decided to try again, and took the redundancy quickly. Nothing like the industry idea of character design, for sure, but all those odd people with odd emotions were rough character sketches, even all of the portraits of people in cafes and riding buses. At that point I realised something about what I'd been filling my sketchbooks with all that time - characters. I started wondering what to do next and thoughts returned to drawing again. In 2013 I got wind that my job in a struggling charity was under threat of redundancy. The sketchbook for that time lasted for about 3 years.

So I stopped altogether, resigning myself to not drawing for a living. The tutor (a highly conceptual fine art illustrator) told me flat-out I couldn't draw. I started at the beginning and took a short course, ' Exploring Illustration' I think it was called, at the old St Martins on Southampton Row and after the final week was utterly despondent. So I decided to focus on Illustration as a platform. But my life between those squared brackets was rarely creative, dominated my time, and I was usually pretty unconvincing at them - I've endured a varied career comprising some quite highs and very lows. In my head I was a creative first and second. For me, I just thought that if I still like drawing when I'm 60 I might also be all right at it.īut about 6 or 7 years ago something started niggling me. I actively dismissed my friends asking why I didn't stop playing playstation and make something.

PATRICK ART OF WEIRD PROFESSIONAL

Heaven forbid doing it for other people, and so I never sought professional rigour or technical improvement. It soon became a daily wordless journal.įor 20 years I thought of my drawing as having no purpose beyond personal enjoyment. I found it immediately relaxing and fascinating, practising every day by sketching people, the Norfolk marshland vistas and by doing blind self-portraits. My art student girlfriend and our mutual besties inspired me and imparted some cool drawing techniques, and I've kept a sketchbook ever since.

I started drawing for myself about 3 years later, at Sixth Form college. I clearly must've shown promise as a forger. Now I think about it, the grade 5 was a good result. Mind you lots of the other kids did okay so maybe I just wasn't listening.įor my exam exhibition I blatantly copied some 2000AD artists. I believe I did that badly because I was never really taught what art was and so didn't know how to do art. See more of his work in the Featured Illustrator Gallery. His artwork is now finding great success in publishing. After a career path in other genres and media, Patrick renewed his foremost interest in illustration and has developed a distinctive worldly style. This month's Featured Illustrator is London-based Patrick Miller.

Patrick art of weird