Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
01 March 2021
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In early March, Katie Chappell live illustrated our Emerging Leader: Women and Girls Programme’s transition day event. Last week, we sat down with Katie to talk about her experience of working and learning during the pandemic.
Can you tell us a little bit about live illustration and how COVID has impacted your work?
I work as a live illustrator, which means that I attend meetings or events and draw them in real time. I basically listen carefully and turn what’s being discussed into easily understandable images. Before the pandemic, that meant attending events in person. So, at the beginning of lockdown, all my work was canceled all at once. I also dealt with the normal pandemic stuff like me and my partner being home all the time and living on top of each other.
It took me a couple of months to realise that everybody was having online events, and the pivot since then has been incredible and beyond what I could have imagined. Before the pandemic, I could only work with one person a day because I would have to get the train to London or Glasgow, whereas now I can be in up to three different places in one day. Although, working online also means that I can work all of the time, and sometimes it’s hard to get out of work mode, so I’m still learning to find that balance.
You did some live scribing for our Emerging Leaders: Women and Girls programme transition day! Can you tell us a little bit more about that experience?
It was brilliant! I was there to illustrate the final day of their six month programme, and it was so inspiring to hear people talking about their journey and how they had changed. One thing that stuck with me was all of the women talking about how they felt so much more confident, and I think that comes through in the illustration.

Looking forward, what are you most excited for?
I'm really excited about real life events coming back! I never thought I would say that because I'm not a huge fan of conferences, but I think that it’ll be really exciting to see what the new events world looks like. During COVID, we’ve had the chance to pause and rethink in-person events, and I think that when we come back to them people will have some really exciting ideas. For example, I’m looking forward to hybrid events where there’s an in-person element as well as an online element.
Have you done any learning and development work this year?
Yes! I'm a total nerd about learning! I'm always taking online courses and reading new books. In 2020, I also co-founded The Good Ship Illustration with my two good friends, Helen Stephens and Tania Willis, which is a resource of online courses and content to help illustrators navigate a creative career. It all started because the three of us realised that we were asking the same questions, and that other Illustrators might have them as well. So, we took it online and created a course. We were so nervous at the start because we founded the company literally at the beginning of the pandemic, and we were like, “is the worst timing ever?” But it has actually been so lovely to take people through a course, collaborate, and talk about learning, especially now. Illustrators are quite solitary creatures by nature, but we now have an incredible community where we can chat and ask each other questions.
You can find more details about Katie’s work and how to book her for live illustration and scribing on her website. You can also find her on Twitter @katiedraws and on Instagram at katiedraws.
The Good Ship Illustration runs a free live art club on their Instagram every Friday at 8pm UK time. They also offer a free downloadable drawing guide called The Sketchbooker’s Friend.
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Posted 23 July 2021