AOI Discusses: Maintaining Your Spark

AOI Discusses continues with a session considering what’s beneficial for an ongoing career in illustration.

Whether you’ve been working as an illustrator for a few years, or are now into your mid career, we can all benefit from considering our flexibility as an artist and how we maintain our interest and relevance over time.

We will be in conversation with illustrator and calligrapher, Jill Calder and illustrator and comic artist Alé Mercado, talking about what was successful initially for them when they started illustrating, if they felt they settled into any ruts along the way and where they may have acknowledged a change in focus or expansion of skills would be useful.

We’ll also reserve time for questions from the audience, so do join live to take advantage of this opportunity.

Our Guest Speakers:

Jill Calder is an award winning illustrator and calligrapher who loves drawing, ideas, colour, ink, typography, stories, books, dogs and deadlines.

Jill blends traditional and digital image-making methods creating whimsical illustrations with broad appeal. As a result, her workhas been commissioned for children’s picture books, hospital murals, financial and scientific reports, branding Scottish beer and whisky and global advertising campaigns.

Alé Mercado is an illustrator and comic artist living in Ireland who was recently Highly Commended in the World Illustration Awards. He has created videos for Spanish musician José Ignacio Lapido and designed the poster for his 25th anniversary solo career concerts.

Some of his other clients include Bank of Ireland, Musgrave, TBWA/Dublin, Facebook, Google, Kilkenny County Council and Barnstorm Theatre Company. Ale took part in the AOI’s Mid-Career Residency in 2022.