Welcome to Art As Work. Whether you’re a working creative or cultivating a personal practice, I’m so glad you’re here. This is a space where I share Industry Insights from my work as a Design Director for Brands, and where I share my own work and process as an Artist and Illustrator. It all comes together in a mash up in this space.
Welcome to the Community !
I’d like to welcome to the paid community
and welcome back ! It’s been great to share quality time in the live sessions and I look forward to more!November Live Sessions - Sign up!
If you’re new here and haven’t heard of, or joined one of our Co-Swatch Sessions yet, you can find all the details plus past sessions here.
Lunchtime Free: Co Swatch Sesh
Thursday 14th November 13:00 Central European Time
💻 Sign up here
Evening Free: Co Swatch Sesh
Wednesday 27th November 21:00 Central European Time
💻 Sign up here
Paid: Round Table ‘Inspiration vs Influence’.
We will have a chance to discuss our experiences and challenges of being influenced by other artists, and how we can be inspired and remain true to our own authentic ways of working. We all want our work to look like ‘ours’, but how can we make sure we don’t accidentally imitate the work of those we admire? I’ll prep some posts to help the discussion. Come along and share your perspective.
💻 Paid members Sign up here
Our very first Round Table session was all about Style, and was a great session. Lots of great discussion and sharing. You can find the replay here.
**Please note, there will be no live sessions in December, as I will be healing from a medical procedure. (Nothing scary or serious, but it will require proper rest and recovery)**.
Work in my Studio (a.k.a my desk)
I have fallen in love with working on A5 loose sheets of paper. In the month of October I focussed on working in Ink. I really enjoyed using ink as a base for exploration, looking at mark making, layering and adding pastels and pencils to the mix. Loose sheets really allowed me to work fast, sketch, put the paper to one side and move on quickly to another piece. Sometimes working outside of a sketchbook can feel liberating. Here are a selection of my favourite bits - some of which will hopefully move me closer to defining a set colour palette and style for my ongoing A-Z Animals project, and if time allows, some Folktale Week exploration in November.
This snapshot shows a snippet of the work that came out of Inky month. There will be an in depth video for my paid members showcasing ALL the work I created in October, along with some sketchbook work.
Shout out to the wonderful live sessions I attended this month, hosted by Sarah Dyer,
, , and . Many of these sketches were made in those sessions or created from their replays.October posts you may have missed
We had our first evening Co-Swatch session, but I decided not to send this out as a replay. I don’t want to flood your inboxes, and also I think one main Co-Swatch replay per month feels good. It’s nice to have a second sesh that is just for live attendees, so in future I may keep the evening sessions as unrecorded.
On Substack
Here are some posts I’d love to share - do check them out!
- has written a great series of posts also focussing on inks for October. Her work is so atmospheric and magical - and in this post she goes into how she achieves this.
- recently shared about how her art was stolen online - a really upsetting, but sadly regular occurrence for many visual artists. Jo is also a member of this community and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with her.
- really stayed with me.
October marked the Sub-stackerversay for
brilliant publication. She very generously opened up a Workshop replay ‘How to build a personal brand’ to all free subscribers. Hard recommend - a great taster for what is in her paid community.Congratulations to
for Choosing liberation over fear!
Thanks as always for your attention and your eyeballs! Have a wonderful November and see you in the community. 😀
What a great month! 🙌 I think you and ink were made for each other Raj 🖤 I had such a great time exploring ink too, but need to extend my ink explorations next time as one month just isn't long enough!
Thank you so much for mentioning my post, I feel honoured to have it shared amongst such thoughtful writing. Anna's post in particular, is so moving, I adore her illustrations.
Looks like it was an incredible month judging by your drawings Raj, love the dog and lady with glasses 🤩 so goood!