View from my apartment window in Dublin after the retreat - determined to soldier on with drawing without using my pen… or any black.

One of the luckiest things I’ve ever had the chance to do (and one of my best life decisions) was to go to the Orange Beak Studio Children’s Book Illustration Retreat. It was held in some beautiful old barns - Potash Barns - in the UK, where I got to spend a week with a small (about 13) group of other illustrators and three marvellous women from Orange Beak. It was such a treasure for me to spend time with other humans who draw. Illustration (and working for myself) can be such a lonely world, and I have not found many ways to hang out with other illustrators in real life, so this week was incredible. We drew, talked colours and materials, character and strategy, every day from 7 am until 10pm. We ate incredible food cooked by an amazing printmaker (and also food master) Chie Hosaka and had daily tutorials and lectures from the incredibly perfect combination of Maisie Paradise Shearing (an incredible illustrator and hilarious human), Pam Smy (drawing extraordinaire and such a committed and passionate teacher), and the fabulous and stylish Ness Wood (book design guru and general excellent taste maker). I felt like I found a safe place to explore and people that genuinely cared about challenging me in a way to help me get where I want to go.

We had critiques outside under the stars, owls flew by and we had a bonfire. There was screen-printing lessons, and a lecture that made me cry. There were goat drawing sessions, and early morning strolls to draw nearby fields. We drank wine, ate chips with soup, and I just revelled in being able to wonder aloud which ‘blue’ to chose and have a whole group of people all take it super seriously.

One of the my challenges for the week… and one I took with me to Ireland, was to try drawing without my beloved pen (see some pages from my sketchbook, above and below). This was so challenging but very interesting. And one of the things I took away was the need to play more.

I was also challenged to make sure I am making the children’s illustrations that I really want to be known for. This was such a great moment to stop and think for me. I have found my habit to date has been to just just push and push and try and make lots of work and get it out, and try again, and not really think about the bigger things - the things that really deeply drive me and the reasons I want to do this work in the first place. Pam, Maisie and Ness all thought I needed to put more myself into the work - more of the places I have lived and loved, the stories I love, the tiny details unique to me, as it is in here that they think my work will be at its best. I think they are right. Those illustrators I most admire - like the legendary Beatrice Alemagna - really do it their own way and their work could never be anyone else’s, it is truly made of them.

If you draw, and want to draw for children, I can’t recommend Orange Beak Studio enough. Their passion, experience and skills are phenomenal - and they share this in such a generous, hilarious and super intelligent way.

Orange Beak Studio Illustration Retreat 2019