― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
What a week it has been for this full time student of design!
The pressure has been stepped up with assignments due every day this week. Lucky for me one of those assignments has been to draw everyday for 21 days. For this assignment we were asked to choose an illustrator we admire who's style is something that resonates with our own in some way. The first week we were asked to study the artists work and make direct copies (full compositions or sections if we chose). The next seven days we were to combine imagery of two or more of the illustrators pieces. And the last seven (my favourite part) was to draw inspiration from the illustrator and create our own pieces.
After an extensive search and bookmarking dozens of sites and reading through books and editorials and asking friends and fellow art makers for recommendations I found my artist to study. Her name is Sophie Blackall. She is an Australian who now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She has illustrated many children's books (and won awards) and recently had a book published called "Missed Connections". I purchased this book (it became an instant treasure) and truly set the wheels of inspiration in motion. Not only are the pictures delightfully unique, engaging and just so plain beautiful to me, but the subject matter was the stuff of pure idea generation. The illustrations are inspired from an online column called Missed Connections. Here, people leave messages after having a fleeting moment with a stranger that got their heart racing. In posting, they hope this small connection can turn into something else (if indeed the object of their affection reads the column and chooses to respond!) Check out her work here: Sophie Blackall And by all means, purchase her beautiful book!
I decided to run with the theme of this lovely artist's work and turned to my own town for inspiration. Those who live in Melbourne would be familiar with the mX - a free daily publication handed out at peak hour at inner city train stations. There is a column in the paper called "Here's looking at you". On this site commuters post up little notes to state a moment of affection they had with a stranger in the hope the stranger will read and contact the publication so that the two can get together to explore what may be. So I went through my newspaper cupboard (yes, I have a cupboard of newspaper to put under the kitty litter tray) to pour over these little love notes. And the inspiration flowed right from here. I chose to create my own original pieces with water colour (no digital work).
Here are my seven illustrations:
I enjoyed creating these illustrations so much that I decided set up a Facebook page for my illustrations. Please check it out and let me know what you think: Lou Endicott - Illustrator
(I should mention I have an Instagram account now too! Cats Are Baby Dragons (Inspiration and Illustrations by Lou) )
I have a large community on Facebook that I regularly connect with so it made sense to create a page with my illustrations to share for those who check their accounts daily. The response has been very encouraging to say the least! Many kind words have been shared and I am feeling more and more like this path is the path I am meant to be on.
It's such a beautiful feeling to be actively pursuing a dream as an illustrator and sharing this with others. After all, an illustrator is only an illustrator when they can engage an audience and create a response. Until then, I am simply drawing for my own satisfaction. Which is nice and all, but not the full gamut of the power I feel the pencil can wield. I feel in sharing my work and my dream the power of manifestation can only grow...
I hope wherever you are and whatever you are doing, you are honouring your own dreams and sharing them with those who recognise the magic that you have within.
- Lou
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