Along with fellow illustrator, Katie Chappel, I worked at a Momentum event as part of the Edinburgh Festival programme for international delegates. The event was run in partnership with Creative Scotland and British Council Scotland. We were asked to join visiting cultural professionals and witness and record their round table discussions of current trends and themes in Literature.

[Aug 2023]

Migrant Voice invited me to live illustrate their Multicultural Spring Ceilidh in honour of Kurdish New Year. While dance performers, singers and guests were celebrating, I sat amongst the guests and made quick ink and brush sketches to record the event. I added some colour occasionally with paint sticks - they’re like glue sticks made of paint. MESSY, so I gave up on those quickly! The event featured dancers from Albania (Colours of Life group), Greece, Poland and well as Persian dancers and Scottish Ceilidh callers.

Rather than attempting to make my sketches accurate (because that’s beyond me at speed) I tried to capture the energy and mood of the room in various aspects. I drew the performers, but mostly attendees of the event as they learned new dances, carried their children or who were simply caught up in the moment. Despite barely participating myself (hold me back!) I found myself enjoying the transient, swift nature of the drawing process and it meant I had to move on and let go of each sheet of paper as it was filled.

I enjoyed the event and the outcomes so much more than anticipated and I’d love to do more work like this - in case you fancy it at your events!

March 2023

I was invited by NESCAN (North East Scotland’s Community Climate Action Resource) to provide live illustration at the first of their six Climate Assembly meetings in Aberdeen. There were several speakers with specialist subjects to live illustrate, as well as discussions among local residents in breakout rooms.

It was a treat to be there in person, able to catch every part of the conversation, as well as being able to meet and chat in a non digital environment! I used brush pens corresponding to the NESCAN brand colours with A3 paper - a fresh sheet for each new presentation or chat. 



Jan 2023

Working alongside professional mediators from the Centre for Good Relations, I was tasked with recording discussions at an East Glasgow Women’s Group. The discussions were an exploration of people’s lives, teasing out the similarities and shared experiences of this one group of women throughout their lives.

We worked with the group over three two-hour sessions; the first tackled names, place of birth and early childhood, the next, adolescence and the final session on their adult lives and objects that were special to them. By that session the chat was free-flowing and it was especially hard to keep up with the drawing.

The illustrations are quick and simple in order to keep up with all the action, and at the close of each session I presented the ‘stories’ back to the participants, highlighting the main themes and observations I had made.

Aug - Sep 2022

I worked as a live illustrator for the Scottish Climate Assembly for their final online event; weekend 8. It brought together many of the members for the last time, to discuss and analyse the Scottish Government’s response to the 80+ recommendations put forward by the assembly. During the weekend we heard from various experts, ministers and assembly members as well as the Children’s Parliament.

Listening in to the conversations on Zoom, I documented the discussions and talks using text and image, some conceptual and some representative of the topics. These images (see a selection here) went on to be shared on social media throughout the weekend and during the weeks afterwards.

Adhering to the six SCA brand colours, I used water-soluble brush pens, allowing me to add some depth afterwards with a wet brush. I actually ended up doing much of the real-time drawing in pencil and redrawing in ink because changing pens and re-lidding them was just too time consuming! Lesson learned – next time 1-2 colours per session, or I accept that a draft is required first. Constantly making changes and improvements where I can.

Feb 2022

I was approached by Creative Carbon Scotland in collaboration with Scotland's Climate Assembly to be one of four illustrators live illustrating at an online culture sector event.

The event hosted discussions concerning the culture sector as key to tackling post-Covid recovery and the challenges of climate change. During these talks, myself and the other illustrators produced graphics that were live streamed so participants of the event could watch in real time.

You can see the question posed to each forum and focus group in the top left corner of each full sheet of paper. I used sharpie markers on paper due to the huge amount of drawing required over the two hours. Once one sheet was complete, I moved it to one side to crack on with starting the next one! It was an intense experience, but amazing to be a part of such important and important discussions.

You can see all the illustrations of all four illustrators here at Creative Carbon Scotland.

[Jun 2021]

I was asked to attend an online workshop by Horsecross Arts, based in Perth. They had been running a project with a group of primary age children about artists highlighting and expressing climate change. My job was to listen in to their 90 minute project summary discussion and document the conversation.

For speed, I selected sharpie markers and paper which were visible to everyone on the online call through a camera I had rigged up. These three A2 panels show the flow of their discussions though three topics; who they are and what they care about, their research in the project so far, and then what they will do next.

The atmosphere of panic and apathy around the huge subject of climate emergency is a difficult environment to bring young children into. This common approach was replaced with an atmosphere of hope. The aim was to have fun with creating and developing the children’s imaginative ideas, as well as introducing illustration to the children as a way of expressing complex ideas. Throughout the discussions they were feeding back ideas to me and I was involved in the conversation enough to enjoy their jolly banter as well as get my pens to paper!

[March 2021]

Icecream Architecture asked me to join them for a day of public conversation about what the people of Helensburgh think about their town. The event, ‘Helensburgh Making Places’ was held right by the sea in Helensburgh. On the day there were child-friendly activities, food stands, music, and entertainment. The collected information was developed into an action plan, but on the day they needed an artist to bring the discussion to life.

The live drawing element was pretty large scale, comprising four A0 boards that formed a giant canvas when placed together. People came to visit our gazebo, see the topics on show and even respond to what other community members had asked me to add. I could barely keep up with the flow of ideas, so post it notes were added to the boards and I would draw each new idea as I finished another. It was a very hot, busy day and I could barely hold my pen by the end!

[July 2018]

Solar Bear is an inclusive theatre company working with both deaf and hearing actors. Along with organisers at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, they asked me to cover their ‘Now You See Me’ symposium on deaf theatre at Scottish Youth Theatre.

It was a full afternoon of talks and discussions, from and with hearing and deaf actors and theatre makers. I sat in and was visible scribbling away next to the stage onto three A1 boards using a sharpie marker for speed. The event was fast-paced and covered so much ground, so speed was of the essence!

[Nov 2017]

I worked as a live illustrator for a number of workshops and events around the Madlove Project by the Vacuum Cleaner and Hannah Hull. Visiting various mental health institutions in the UK and occasionally in Europe, we run mental health care workshops with diverse groups of people; those with lived experience, patients, ex patients, staff and other professionals.

In any given workshop, I quickly draw the ideas and elements of the discussions as they happen using coloured markers. The images are usually quite swift, cartoon-like representations of objects and ideas. Afterwards, these images are documented and I redrew some of the more popular and interesting concepts in black ink, in a fairly realistic portrayal of items and ideas described.

These illustrations went on to form part of an exhibition at London's Wellcome Collection in September 2016.

[Jan - Nov 2016]