Illustration Office Meeting

I think I've talked about this here before but I'll say it again. I am a tissue paper worker. What that means is that when I'm working on a project, I use tissue paper to work out my ideas. I'll do a doodle and then trace the parts I like on another piece of tissue over and over again until I have it how I want it. There is always a mound of tissue at the end of any project. It wasn't something anyone told me to do, it was just a really natural way for me to work. It also took me a really long time to admit that this was how I did my work. I tricked myself into thinking that great artists—of any kind—just sit down, bang out a perfect work of genius and then walk away like it was nothing. That was far from the truth with me. I would make mistakes and alterations like they were going out of style and then rework them again and again. I was embarrassed that what I put on paper the first time wasn't a keeper. What a load of garbage. Thank goodness I came to my senses. Great work almost always comes from the question, How can I make this better? What better way to answer that question than by slipping a piece of tissue over top and trying it.

To give you an example of my crazy tissue paper ways, here are my preliminary typography sketches for the monthly Illustration Office Meeting poster for nook. The first image is Julia Breckenreid's awesome illustration without anything on it and the last one is the finished poster.

The next Illustration Office Meeting is Tuesday, November 15. If you are an illustrator in Toronto it's totally worth checking out and if you can't make it this time keep checking their calendar. There's always another one just around the corner.