The return of live illustration – in person!

It’s a rainy day in March 2022 and the room is set: tables, chairs, water jugs and notepads await for participants. I pin the last corner of my paper roll in place, grab my marker pens and mentally prepare myself. It is time to draw live again.

In person events are back! I have just finished my first week of face to face events so here’s my take on being back in a room with people as we enter the post-pandemic era.

To be honest I was nervous to plan workshops and events in person again: it has been hard to balance safety and the things I can control with returning to my craft as things ease off. I had to do a lot of reflection to see where I was comfortable and how to get used to the idea of social interaction for a full day as well. It was a little bit nerve racking to travel on public transport and being often in the masked minority and events being generally unmasked but with people taking care to test before attending.

My first event was a team away day with Nesta helping map out their priorities and principles for the work ahead. It was a lovely way to ease back into a graphic recording mode as working remotely formed almost a buffer space for working with people. The second event was with the Hanging Gardens Project in Llanidloes supporting their open community event imagining a future Llanidloes as a resilient and thriving community. This event took a bot more improvising in the space as most walls were reserved for plants climbing up them! some easels and a sturdy wooden board sorted me out as I illustrated the priorities people came up with around local transport, local food and community owned energy.

I forgot how important it is to have people in the same room, being able to sense the atmosphere in the room: body language, facial expressions, responsiveness to ideas and discussion. You could feel how much people have needed this discussion in physical proximity. From my point of view there’s something special about these connections made that can’t quite be replicated online and it’s much harder to ‘read the room’ remotely. Saying that I hope we can keep a hybrid way of working and be able to invite people to take part remotely in our physical spaces like the people at the Nesta workshop did. This is not just about Covid safety: remote options offer better inclusion and accessibility for those with mobility, health or mental health issues. And let’s be honest – Covid is not going away so we do all still have a responsibility to each other and make informed, careful decisions about what is an appropriate way to organise an event.

Are you thinking about organising an event with live illustration? Get in touch and we can work out what suits you best for in person or remote event needs.

P.S. No, dear reader, I did not get Covid. I tested and wore a mask in crowed places and this seemed to work well enough as case numbers were low.