Jo Davies' Creative Lockdown

Insights into creating Becoming a Successful Illustrator
January 2021

Illustration is the art gallery in our lives: the images we see daily in books, games, animation, greetings cards, murals, on fabrics, gifs in newspapers and adverts.

The book I’m currently writing with Derek Brazell from The Association of Illustrators, in London, provisionally entitled Illustration: Getting Clients, is aimed at early career illustrators who are looking to break into the industry.

It focuses on one of the most challenging aspects of developing a successful career: making connections with the clients who commission illustration.

My work during the last few months has involved a really exciting process, of interviewing professionals from around the world to gain the most up to date understanding of how they find their artists and to establish a clear and current sense of the dynamic process that underpins commissions. Writing and research happen simultaneously because we have to keep on top of our deadline to submit the first chapter by early February. Derek and I skype to discuss content and constantly get progress reports from my research assistant in the UK who is working on a big survey- it’s never far from our minds that a 60,000-word manuscript is due by the end of summer!

Illustration: Getting Clients by Jo Daviesand Derek Brazell will be published by Bloomsbury, September 2022. It is the companion title for: Becoming A Successful Illustrator, published in 2014 in UK, USA, China and Ukraine.

jodaviesillustration.com