DRAWN-Together: BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD

GETTING NOTICED - the art of self promotion
The week started off pretty much with rain and grey skies, followed by periods of greyness and rain and a light smattering of.... yip.... rain.

Now the weather men will say this is due to atmospheric pressure and iso bars or something. THEY ARE WRONG!. The weather has been a direct result of my mood and I am to blame, not for the wind though... that was noting to do with me as I am far too polite.

Just as I got used to doom and gloom everything picked up again, all in the same day (like things tend to) and now I am back in a reasonable mood, I have found the ability to draw again and apart from the fact this means I hit a drawing mood and stay up till 5am in a frenzy of graphics and strange podcasts blasting through my ears it's a good thing.

Had a nice chat with ED from the newspaper about my illustration of Councillor Colin Davis which was featured on the Council Business E-Mag which resulted in an article about it on their main news website and will be published in the printed newspaper next week which is GREAT. The article didn't mention the fact that the Council and Coucillors are helping me so much with my whole graphics dream so I would like to just acknowledge the work they have done for me so far which involve.

General Business Support and Advice

Networking

Advert and a big article in their business publication

Membership to the SBF (Spelthorne Business Forum)

An advertising area/table with 52" Flat screen display at the next SBF

Travel to the SBF and a fre full English breakfast.. hopefully coffee too

Connections to their Council network

Internal Council word of mouth advertising

Full colour printing of a 100 or so A5 fliers for me

As for the twinning of Spelthorne, it's more that I feel the whole controversy was silly more than the twinning situation itself.... I just loved the idea as it made creating the illustration a breeze.

CARTOONING THE REPORTERS
I was asked by Ed Saunt and Steve Baxter from the paper to consider doing a cartoon illustration of all their reporting team at the paper, which considering the help they are giving me by the means of articles and this little blog I have happily agreed to do. So keep your eyes out for that one VERY soon. I have already done the complicated background and set everything up and now just need the pictures of the victims/reporters to cartoon and add into the illustration. I think you will like it:)

BUSINESS LINKING

On Friday I will be attending the Spelthorne Business Forum meeting at Kempton Park, which I mentioned earlier in this and other entries and it should be interesting. I will feel like a little fish in a big tank, but depending on how I approach that metaphore it could work in my advantage.

I'm probably going to be the youngest person there (35), but hopefully they will all have nice sharp forward thinking minds and won't just disregard me as a person that does cartoon pictures (This is a common misconception).

I have to get my business head on, look nice and smart and still maintain that silly arty look which fortunately comes to me quite easily. The part that I am not looking forward to i the first 5 seconds of the networking. I go one of two ways.

1) I totally close up, go all timid and make little meeping sounds whilst agreeing to everything with a squeeky voice and rather pathetic expression on my chevy chase.

2) I instantly build a rapport with 'whoever' as if I have known them for years and we have just finished a long chat about old TV shows we grew up with and then I settle into a comfortable natter and everything goes well.

There is always the 3rd option where the universe explodes and time and creation are undone, but I think I have to shake hands with someone made of antimatter and corrupt a timeline to do this? (I will check wikipedia for that).

However it goes, it will be a learning curve and I will get to meet people and find out how the recession is effecting them and try and figure out ways I can help them and they can help me. After all thats the name of the game.

NEWS FROM MY AGENT
My new agent ADVOCATE ART sent two emails this week, one asking me for some more graphics, which is great as I thought they forgot me and the other explaining that even though there i a recession on it isn't really effecting the illustration market and they even had a great start to the year with clients, so there is hope. Considering all the news stories about bank and politics atm I will be looking into doing more spot political illustrations for newspapers which reflect the current affairs. I have to work on a totally unique style though as otherwise I will be lost in the quagmire of other political illustrations. There are also a bunch of other design and illustration trends I have to stay in touch with, so I have that as my homework also... I have lots of homework!

WHAT NEXT
This weekend will be the basic job hunting as usual, hopefully not shelf stacking at Tesco's and hopefully carrying on with the cartoon illustration of all the reporters from this newspaper. With luck I will be able to get my business cards done and dusted all ready in time for the SBF meeting. I have all the other important fatherly duties also like playing with the kids, hogging the TV control, watching strange videos online and generally annoying my ever suffering partner Jassie, but should be a good weekend.

I have a meeting with a business advisor on Wednesday at the local job centre and then one with a business bank manager a couple of hours later, I will try not to shake him about and blame him for all the woes in the world... but wouldn't it be FUN:)

Anyhoosle, thats all from me for this entry, now I will finish with the random fact which I tend to put at the end of all these entries for some unknown and less fathomed reason.

::RANDOM FACT::

A couple of years ago (a friday) I brought some 'heelies' to prove to my workfriend 'Dan' that you could still be cool at 34. This worked great... alas on Sunday I had a fractured arm in two places and spent the following month or so being a studio photographer at Thorpe Park trying to dress people in period Western and Victorian outfits and take their photos too. I managed it fine but then I think management expected twice as much work once my arm was out the sling:)

The doctor was almost in tears, as he thought my age was a misprint on the accident report until I walked in.

I currently have a pair of size 7/8 Heelies available if anyone wants to buy them, one careless owner!