Sketchathon Technique

On slowly building up material

I thought it was Saturday, so I wasn’t going to write anything today.

But no, It’s Friday, so here I am. The Bologna book fair is coming up, that’s like the comic con of Children’s books I’ve been told. I’d like to attend one day. But for now I’ll be content with submitting a piece of work for my agent to bring along to the fair.

We brainstormed, The agency and I, I’m excited about what we’ve come up with, but I’m not going to spoil the fun. You’ll have to wait for it.

Instead I’ll show you a bit of the process. I’m mostly hard at work at a book deadline, so I can only work on this portfolio piece in the free moments between my scheduled working hours.

In that time I work in my sketchbook, observing, and collecting ideas. So that when it actually comes time to work on this illustration, I’ll be ready. An illustrator who’s observed my approach calls it Adam’s Sketchathon technique.

It’s a super low pressure approach, there’s always 5 minutes here or 15 minutes there, and if you’re patient and plan ahead, it adds up.

ps: As always thanks for reading. I’m thinking of doing a networking post over the weekend, a chance for us to chat over a topic. If you have a topic idea, leave a comment.