Nicola Slater

Today Nicola Slater, a very successful children's illustrator, came in to talk to us about her career and how she got to where she is today. It was lovely to hear how she is still constantly learning about new materials and methods of working and that she started out with a similar mind set as to what I have now (scared to make mistakes and to actually get started on a brief).

It gave me some confidence, to know that you can have a career in illustration and still be learning. You don't need to have all of the answers straight away!

Indeed it is very believable that famous illustrators have not always been so sure of themselves or have ever made mistakes, after all they are still human beings, but my own head often conjures up a notion that they have always known exactly what they were doing.

She spoke about how she had learnt to stop being so precious and that if you have an idea then you should get it down on paper and just show somebody.

" If it's ruff around the edges it doesn't matter. It's the gem of the idea"

She also mentioned how she likes to plan everything out small, which again is something I tend to do just because my eyes seem to be able to rough everything out within a smaller frame. She said she simply scans in her plans blows them up then works over them on the light box. Why not!

One thing that I have been trying to work on at the moment is making contact with people in the industry. Thankfully Nicola Slater has great experience and it was fantastic to hear how she creates her work, but also how she approached people too.

Me: Did you approach anyone before you entered the competition for the McMillan book award?

Nicola: Yes I had taken my portfolio but nobody looks at it...well they weren't interested in mine.

Me: What do you think is a better way to make contact?

Nicola: It really is important to have something tangible like a postcard then you can just send to people and they can stick it on their pin board. One day they will get a new idea for a book and see that sample of your work and think 'Yeah they'd be good for this'.

A photograph of Nicola's postcard. She sent to people in the industry when she was still studying.

This definitely sounds like a good way to get people to notice what you can do. It is simple and causes no hassle for the person who receives it, if they throw it away it doesn't matter and if they keep it and remember you then that's a huge bonus!