Getting (and staying) inspired

Here are some of our best tips for finding inspiration and avoiding the comparison trap!

Helen:
One of the places people feel like you should start is looking at other people's work. What do you think about that?

Tania:
It's a bit iffy, isn't it? It's, there's a lot of problems in that. It used to be that pre-internet you look in the libraries and you would look at artists because there weren't really many books about illustrators. There were books about designers, but not really artists and not really illustrators, but now we see illustrators work everywhere. There's a big danger in illustrators, just looking at other illustrators and it starts to drag the whole thing down to sort of lowest common denominator as well as trend fueling. So yeah, I'd say don't look at, try to avoid looking at illustrators.

Katie:
Yeah, we kind of minimized that didn't we? Because we thought if you're listening to this podcast, chances are, you're probably on social media! You're probably already looking at other illustrators work just by default by being online. It's worth going back to your sketchbooks instead and just working on your own stuff and try and as much as you can to kind of have blinkers on for other people's work.

Helen:
Yeah. I find, I mean, it's not the same for everybody. Everybody's motivation and inspiration comes from different places. But for me, going back to my sketchbooks is always the source of it. So it helps me get into that playful mind that I need, if I'm gonna start a new storybook idea, because it's just so relaxing, sitting outside with a sketchbook and drawing, and I'm sitting on my bed and playing with ideas, catching myself off guard. So I've got time to play.

Tania:
It's always, I find going for a walk, especially a walk at night, if it's about ideas and you're not necessarily looking at things, if you're thinking that the brain being freed up from looking at a screen is suddenly a remarkable and surprising place when you've sat working all day. But then other places, if you're, if it's a visual thing walking around the countryside, sitting in cafes in cities or driving around it just really loosens the brain up and you start to make connections between what you see or the desire to draw from life returns. I find those a good places. If you're a bit stuck,

Helen:
I watched that brilliant documentary Alexander McQueen the other day, and it was really refreshing to hear him every time he was interviewed theysaid, 'so why have you decided to work for Gucci or whichever design have seen is working for?' And he would always say 'money. They offered me plenty of money'. And at the end of the program, his good friend or ex partner says that Alexander was always inspired by his, both his childhood traumas and money, which is brilliant. Isn't it? It's such a refreshing answer.

Tania:
Well, illustration is a commercial activity. Obviously it begins with the love of drawing and it, and a love of creativity, but it ends up a commercial activity. And I find, I can say to myself, Oh, it'd be lovely to go and draw the allotments. Why don't you find half an hour or an afternoon to go and sit and do that. But that's not the same as someone saying, I am paying you to do this. And your deadline is Friday. You can guess which one will get done and which one won't. So, you know, it's a brutal truth about money, but it does motivate us. It may not be inspiration, but it forces you to find inspiration because you've got to have it to create good work. So I think it is very pragmatic of him to say that and brutally honest as well.

Katie:
Yeah. I think especially in British culture, we're like, Oh, don't talk about money, but for him to just be like, Oh yeah, I'm motivated by money. It is very refreshing.

Helen:
Before I had my daughter, when I would write picture books, the ideas came from kind of memories and I would there be something I'd just be obsessed with drawing. And so I'd write a book around that thing. I was obsessed with drawing and it was all about the drawings for me. But then I found when she was born, she's been a huge inspiration because all those little conversations you have with toddlers, I'd make notes of those in my sketch books. And they became a source of inspiration, which meant that the books became way more realistic about the experience of a child. And I was observing what she was doing and it made the, the books much, much better after she was born. I wasn't so obsessed with just the drawings being good. It was about the whole package because now I was sitting in bed and reading with her, I'm realizing which books were working and which books weren't and which ones entertained me as well as her. And so then I just wanted to make a book that ticked all of those boxes.

Tania:
But yeah, that's another great place for inspiration - our lives are more interesting than we think they are because we live them. They seem so dull, but other people's observations of the things around them can be completely fascinating. So like you say, having a child and really seeing the inner mind of a child and recording that creates work with integrity and with honesty, I mean, people must be living so many different kinds of experiences, just beginning to draw what goes on around you in your everyday life can be really interesting and it's inspirational for other people. Yeah.

Katie:
That can be the thing that you get from just going from a walk or going to a new place. Isn't it like you see the whole world is a bit exciting and new and your brain gets all woken up because it's looking at the different packaging or the different landscape or whatever it is, where you are.

Helen:
Is this why you are often on your journeys before lockdown, Katie? You usually do lots of travel.

Katie:
Yeah. But even when I was studying in Edinburgh, I used to just get the bus and go on and just do the whole route because it was exciting. I was like, 'Oh, I've never been to this part of Edinburgh before. This is cool'. And then just be going through all these neighborhoods and seeing all the different people get on and off the bus. And that was fabulous. It was like being on holiday without having to spend loads of money and go further afield.

Tania:
I used to get on the tram in Hong Kong because it would only be 25 pence and you could go the whole length of the tramline and it goes quite slowly. So you get more time to draw it. You can actually get photos that don't blur as you travel along. So something, yeah, that's putting yourself in a kind of state of suspension, but also being inspired by what you can see is it, I think that's why travel works every time, whether it's micro travel in times of COVID like, I'd really like to go on a trip, up to Scotland, I've got some ideas about a map. And I thought if I could just go away for two weeks, I know we can't travel abroad for the ultra stimulation, but yeah, just 10 days in a cottage up near whiskey distillery would do me fine. And that's a good way to get some inspiration.

Helen:
What do you do if you don't feel motivated at all, if you see all of the work around by other people, and you wonder if there's room for you in the industry?

Katie:
There's this really fine line between looking at other people's work and be like, wow, that's amazing feeling really inspired and also feeling really demoralized and demotivated. So it's, that's another reason why I would say like, don't look too much at what other people are doing and just look at your own stuff. There are lots of other things to bear in mind.

Tania:
Yeah. That industry thing - we'll say are one point don't look, cause you'll freak yourself out...but actually you need to know how big the industry is to know that there is space for you! There there's all kinds of illustration work out there. As we discovered when we all went to Bologna Book Fair together and came back so exhausted. And so brain boggled and inspired, it's reassuring to know that there's space for lots of different illustrators, what there isn't spaces for a bunch of the same people, but you need to know that your version illustration does have its own space as long as it's got originality.

Katie:
Yeah. So in case somebody, if in case you're to this and you're like, what is Bologna? Yeah. So Bologna is a children's book fair.

Helen:
All the publishers go to sell their children's books, to get coalitions, to sell the rights to foreign publishers. So all of the publishers from all over the world turn up. There's Frankfurt and then Bologna. There's a big book fair in Frankfurt once a year and a big book fair in Bologna once a year.

Katie:
And it's incredible. Like people told me it was big and I was kind of mentally prepared for a big fair, but it honestly took about maybe half an hour to walk from one end and see all the events, all the stalls and everything. It's huge.

Helen:
It's a big mix of feeling overwhelmed because there's so much stuff out there where is the room for you? But at the same time, I find it really inspiring because you can see all of the variety of work out there in the world. So if your work is not fitting here with a British publisher and you can't find one, if you go to belong your book for you will definitely find a publisher in some part of the world who really loves what you do. Absolutely.

Tania:
It's like finding your tribe. Isn't it? When you see, Oh, in South America, they've got these really cool publishers who the work is like mine. And then you find places where you absolutely won't fit. Maybe like certain American publishing is very alien world or because you come from a European tradition of illustration. But I think it's that double edge sword of being overwhelmed by the competition, but also finding you fit in at the same time. You think, hold on, I haven't got a straight answer out of this place. I'm freaked out, but I'm also confident simultaneously.

Helen:
The other thing I think that stops people is this feeling - I've seen it when I've been working with people who want to write picture books - is they feel as if they have to write something completely original. So say they decide, they're going to write a book about a child who doesn't like to use the potty. For example, they'll look in a bookshop and see that there are so many books about potties. And so he completely stops them making any new work. They're just like, well, the stories have all been written before, what am I going to do? But the thing is, there's always a new way of telling those stories. So it's not about the subject. It's about how you tell the story. So yeah, there's always room for a new potty book out there.

Katie:
And that's your magic power is that you are you. So even if you did try and write the same story, you know, that you would try and do that. But if you didn't, it would still be original.

Helen:
This is what we talk about in the course all the time. Isn't it? Because our course is about find, finding your creative voice. And this is what we talk about all the time is that your voice is the thing that's most valuable about you. So it's not necessarily, you need to come up with something completely original, never done before. It's there. You just need to tell it your way. Exactly.

Tania:
Yeah. It's translate. It's translated through your voice. And I think that's why sometimes tricks and kind of creative challenges are a good way to trigger inspiration and motivation. When you feel that your brain is too tired to come up with ideas.

Katie:
20 ideas in 20 minutes!

Tania:
And does that work for you when you're stuck?

Katie:
It does. Yes. Especially if I've got a deadline and somebody wants like some visuals for whatever, I'll just make a grid like five by four, which is 20 spaces in case you're bad at maths like me. And then you set a timer for 20 minutes and you just eliminate all distractions. And for that 20 minutes, you need to come up with 20 visual ideas, like 20 answers to the problem you're trying to solve. So if the brief was like, 'Oh, we need some branding for a deli', we want a logo. And then you're like, 'okay, well, I'm going to think of 20 ideas'. And because you've got that time limit, you, haven't got time to second guess yourself. And because it's 20 minutes, you don't get too precious about how good it looks. And it's amazing. Every time I do that exercise, I get something out of it. Like at least one idea that's okay, but I can develop usually three to five that are like, Oh, they're actually quite good. And I wouldn't have thought of them. If I'd sat there being like, 'Oh God, I need it to be perfect. What can I do?' I don't have time. So that's my top tip for getting stuff done.

Tania:
I like to do it in two ways. So one is the idea and one is the visual. So I'll split it into say, if you've got a bit of a cliched image, like an ice cream draw, 20 different ice creams, so visualize them differently. And how many different ways could they be delivered at the ice cream sandwich or, you know, in a sundae bowl or so. The way you're drawing will change as well. So your style and the way you would visualize an ice cream, then the other one is metaphor or concept. So if you're coming up with something that you've, you've been faced with before, like community or protection or Paris, you know, that they're all well-trodden areas. So you've got to try and come up with a concept or a visual metaphor for those ideas. And again, give yourself 10 or 20 or use Katie's system of 20 minutes and use the grid. You know, it's all going to be over in 20 minutes and you get quite excited and want to extend the time at the end of it. So try one visualization and one as a metaphor, how you could represent something.

Katie:
How do I make time to make my new stuff?

Helen:
I always think that just protecting your time is the most important thing. So I think if you're a freelancer, especially if you're just starting out and people aren't used to the fact that you're a full-time illustrator, yet people can ask for favors during the day, go and pick the dog up from the vet, you know, okay.

Katie:
Give iz a lift somewhere. You're at home all day, aren't you?

Helen:
And so I think protecting your time is really valuable. So if anybody asks you to do anything during wherever you allocate your work hours, you just say, no, I'm working. Then I'll do it when I finished work. And so protecting your time is really important. And then the other thing that I found quite hard was when my daughter was born, I'd learned to protect my time. I was really good at that, but now I wanted to spend time with her and she wanted to spend time with me, but there was work to be done. And so well, I had two kinds of systems. One was I put locks on the studio door so that she literally couldn't let herself in every two minutes, which was really painful. It was really hard, but you know, it just set boundaries and we needed to have them. But on days where that wouldn't work, I would actually pretend I was leaving the house to go to work and say goodbye, give her a case, leave the house and go. And then five minutes later, once I knew she was playing with Gerry and everything was fine, I would sneak back in, go into the workroom, lock the door. And she didn't know I was in there. So she wouldn't even try the doors. So yeah, protecting your time is just, it's vital.

Tania:
Sometimes the studio's handy, isn't it? Cause when you, when you have a work from home studio, people will say, 'are you free for coffee?' Or, or they'll say, 'well, I'll pop round if you're free on Friday morning' and you think, 'well, it's a home. So I suppose that seems a normal question'. But if you're working from a studio there's a greater boundary and people know that you're at work. And it seems to represent that you're working more than a home studio does because it's an externalized symbol of it. I'm desperate to get a studio two to work away from home just to divide the time between home and work, which is always an issue because people say, you go downstairs for coffee and then an hour later, you're almost ironing stuff. You've put the washing in, you've hung it up and thought 'I'll fold up. But that could do with a quick iron'. You can lose an hour just like that.

Katie:
Yeah. I think a lot of the time it is other people think, and it's okay to be like, 'excuse me, do this'. And they don't even know they're doing it. So it's part of you having to be a little bit tough and you might feel really mean being like, 'Oh, I'm busy', but usually people are just like, 'okay'. And then go on living their life. (Nobody dies.)

Helen:
Yeah, the minute I just started telling people I'm busy at work during the day, then it all just stopped.

Tania:
Maybe that's the script. 'Oh, I can't. I work during the day' as simple as that. Because we're always taught to try and be flexible and work around other people's needs, but that's time for that to stop. Just say, yeah I'm in the studio or I'm at work.

Katie:
Yeah. And I think even when you have your studio time blocked out, there are the other distractions of like emails and social media and all those bells and whistles and pings that come out of your computer. And my favorite way to get stuff done. That's for me, that's before work, like before work is to get up really early and then you've got the, the glory of the early morning quiet. Nobody's emailing you yet. Or you don't even look at your emails because nobody expects you to reply to things at six in the morning. And it's just the best time for me because I get up early anyway. So it feels easy. And I think it's so easy to be like, 'Oh, I should get up early'. But I would also say if you're naturally a night owl, there's no need to beat yourself up and force yourself to get up early. In that case I would harness your night time work energy!

Helen:
That makes so much sense. I'm definitely a lot like you, Katie, I wake up naturally really early. I like it when the house is quiet, I get a few jobs done. It's brilliant. Really love it. Whereas Gerry, my partner is also an illustrator, but he's a night owl like Tania and he doesn't like to work first thing in the morning, he'll do all sorts of other stuff. And then he'll get to his desk in the afternoon and he'll work late into the night.

Tania:
Yeah. I'm so glad I'm not alone in that because I feel like Richmond from the IT crowd. Blunder out of the cupboard or my bedroom at 11 in the morning cause I've worked till two and then couldn't sleep because of the screen glare. What an idiot?! I mean, and I know these things exist, but I've just, I can only do functional things in the morning. So when you said Katie, you get up at six and you don't answer the emails. What, that's the first thing I do. I get up, have my breakfast, get rid of all the emails, then think I can do all my other jobs. And I would save the creativity till they're all out of the way. And inevitably that's lunchtime and then I have lunch. So it's still two o'clock till I start work and I can easily work through to two in the morning. I try not to do that very often, but you know, on certain projects it will happen. If it's a regular day, then I'd finish at seven in the evening because I always worked until sunset in Hong Kong. For some reason that was my timing. So I worked from 10 till 6:30 or seven. And I can't really get out of that habit here except that the light changes.

Tania:
So yeah, I'm a night owl. Like I say, work with your strengths.

Katie:
Yeah. There's a lot to be said for working to your strengths.

Tania:
So, um, I think we've covered our, our inspiration haven't we? Yeah.

Katie:
Hopefully that helps you with your inspiration gathering and getting started.

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