Emmeline Illustration Q&A at the 'Crazy Animal Face Block Party' Manchester

Last month I was invited to spend an hour talking to an audience about my passion for illustration, creative freelancing, and my life behind the scenes of Emmeline Illustration at the second Crazy Animal Face Block Party!

Okay, I always get a little bit nervous before talks and panels no matter how often I do them; but the atmosphere and crowd were so welcoming (and the venue was so chilled out) it ended up being one of the most casual and comfortable events I've ever done! I was interviewed by the lovely Paul from Crazy Animal Face and we chatted about everything from social media success to inspiration from 90's sci-fi videogames.

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The amazing @emmelinedraws (please check out her incredible illustrations/books/narrative/comics) #sketchnotes from the @crazyanimalface event @hatchmcr #mcr with @jamfactory 🥰 both epic-both #podcasting on #crazyanimalface soooooon

A post shared by Tash Willcocks (@tashwillcocks) on Mar 28, 2019 at 1:40pm PDT

Despite the torrential rain, the venue was completely packed and it was brilliant to get to meet and hang out with so many enthusiastic creatives from all over the country. After my talk, we had the awesome Gavin Strange from Aardman Animation onstage to chat about his inspiration and career path, then we both took members of the audience aside for dedicated one-on-one portfolio reviews and advice!

I love talking honestly about the highs and lows of freelancing, and I think it's important to be open about the challenges that can come up for people in terms of mental health, finding a good work balance, and securing fair contracts (and how navigating challenges can often push you forward into becoming a better creative and businessperson!). I got asked some tough, but really interesting, questions from the audience and I'm happy to say I didn't regret mentioning the audience could ask me anything!

Listening to @emmelinedraws talk about her work at today’s @CrazyAnimalFace #BlocParty @HatchMCR ✨ Love the comic about how to find andromeda! Full house despite the rain! ☔️ pic.twitter.com/DCbBO0PeRO

— Sneaky Raccoon 🦝 (@SneakyRaccoon) March 16, 2019

It was such a lovely event, and the venue (a pile-up of beautifully decorated shipping containers off Oxford Road in Manchester) was awesome. If you didn't manage to snag a ticket to the event, you can listen to my past podcast with Crazy Animal Face over here - CAF interviews Emmeline Pidgen Illustration.

If you or a pal are looking for advice on creative freelancing, finding clients, preparing a perfect portfolio etc you can also buy my Creative Freelance Advice Guide via my Etsy shop!

Thanks again to Paul and Ollie for inviting me to speak at such a brilliant event! I'm definitely keeping an eye out for the next event!