Live Painting & New Challenges

Posted by Ainsley on Jul 3, 2015 | 4 Comments

I was recently hired through my agency The Drawing Arm to do a spot of live painting for the perfume brand Jo Malone London. It was hands down the nicest smelling job I’ve ever had.

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This was a job where I had to step out of my comfort zone, literally and figuratively. Three days of live painting in a large department store. I’d never done this before, and wasn’t sure what to expect…

The job involved painting London landmarks on Jo Malone perfume boxes which were available for customers to buy over the Mother’s Day weekend. When I arrived I was directed to a cosy little table at one side of the department, covered in a mountain of boxes.

I was actually pretty relieved, as in my mind I had imagined a table set up in the middle of this huge store with all traffic focussed on me like some kind of celebrity book signing! This was a lot more low key, and looking back it’s funny how the mind takes something you’re worried about and creates all these exaggerated images in your head.

CHALLENGES ACCEPTED

JOB JUGGLING

When the call came in for this job I was actually already in the midst of two other commissions for two separate studios abroad. It was the first time I had to juggle two jobs let alone bring another job into the mix.

I thought about it and realised I could make this work with some good planning. The two studio commissions were on 9 hour time zone difference so I scheduled my time effectively and prioritised work by who wanted what when.

It involved me getting up pretty early, doing a few hours of work for the studios, then travelling to the city to do the live painting, then travelling straight back to do more work for the studios for a few more hours. I thought it was best to make the studios aware of the situation and reassured them that I would be working over the weekend to make up time and ensure everything will get completed for them.

NEW OLD MEDIUM

I hadn’t used paints for a while but I agreed to the job in spite of this. I knew that if I could do the designs using a pen then I’d be able to adapt to using a brush to make the same marks.

With that said I felt it was important to not jump in cold, after all people would be looking over my shoulder watching while I paint these landmarks. I took a little time the night before my first day to try out the new ink and brushes I bought. It didn’t take long to get used to working with them and I realised it would just be a matter of getting faster at doing it.

There were 3 specific designs they wanted me to reproduce on the boxes. On the first day I got a few requests from customers asking for bespoke designs (like the gondola and the flower) but for the remaining days I was told by the agency, that the people at Jo Malone wanted me to stick to the 3 main designs. Once I had done a few boxes it became quite simple to just reproduce them. I started to approach each design more methodically and that results in speed.

THEY’RE WATCHING

Working freelance, one of the perks is being able to work in your own space, away from watchful eyes. and to a certain degree, your own schedule (as long as you get the work done by when you agree to.)

I’m not used to having people watch me work but I realised I had to suck it up and reminded myself that I’m a professional godammit. I couldn’t help but get into my groove when everyone was so complimenting about the paintings. It was actually really fun to interact with customers and other members of staff and talk about what I do. I feel it’s made me a better artist for taking on the experience and challenging myself.

How about you? Have you ever had to work on the job under the watchful eye of the public like this? Or have you had to step out of your comfort zone into new waters? Feel free to leave a comment below…

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4 Comments

Bill Murphy
7th July, 2015
I did a job for Campbell’s Soup once and it was kind of similar. A group of eight illustrators were divided into eight groups that included various Campbell’s Soup staff. As the day went on we had to illustrate what they were discussing and at the end of the day asked to submit our work for posting in the office for staff inspiration and reminders. They wanted advanced sketches but not finished art as they understood the time it takes and issues of expressing in this environment. Drawing one idea as they would have moved on to several others, led me to more taking notes and quick simple sketches. In the end they let us take the project home to finish and submit still asking only for advanced sketches. It was great fun. I was nervous and used marker and water-soluble pencil crayons in my work. Love that you shared your experience and stepping outside our comfort zones is how we get even more creative in ways we may never have before. The struggles are what improves are work for the next one and hopefully that one doing the same. Nice article.
Reply
- Ains
  7th July, 2015
  Thank you Bill. That sounds pretty tough. At least with this job it was simply a matter of carefully replicating the designs and the people hiring weren’t breathing down my neck.
  
  I’d find it a bit more pressured to do what you did I think, where I was under pressure to come up with creative ideas.
  Reply
Usha
6th July, 2015
Your blog posts are interesting and make a good read.
Reply
- Ains
  7th July, 2015
  Thank you Usha. Glad you’re enjoying them!
  Reply

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