Friday

Nerida Does Networking

I have a new-found respect for illustrators.

The images they produce for magazine or web articles look deceptively simple — a few strokes of watercolour here or the odd scrap of paper collaged there. It’s as if they couldn’t possibly spend more than an hour on each one.

I’m laughing right now, but it’s not a funny laugh … it’s one of insanity, caused by staying up all night to create what looks likes a few line drawings, a bit of colouring-in and a couple of scanned heads. I might not have “whipped up” this illustration to go with my friend Nerida’s article on networking for Her Business, the blog of the Australian Business Women’s Network. But I learned a lot and am pretty proud of my first-time effort. I especially like that I even included Nerida in the illustration (that’s her head on the left).

I must say that Claudine Hellmuth, a rather nifty mixed-media artist based in Washington DC, is a rather heavy influence behind this piece. In hindsight, I also noticed something a little Matisse about the style and composition of the three background figures, albeit a modern version.

Claudine Hellmuth makes the illustrative
style look so easy ... believe me, it's not!

Rough photocopies of heads are a
hallmark of Claudine Hellmuth's work

Game of Bowls by Henri Matisse (1908)

"The Black Fern" by Henri Matisse (1948)

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