Oxford Train Station.

Waiting for the bus at Liverpool Street.

Katie's desk.

Katie showing me some of her work...

Promotional packages Katie sends out to business' acting like a portfolio/business card.

Questions:

These are some of the types of questions I am going to ask Katie when I interview her..

• Where do you get your ideas/inspirations from?
• What's your favourite medium to work in?
• What does an average day entail for you?
• What's your creative process when you get a new idea?
• Do you plan your work or it is more spontaneous?
• How do you promote yourself as an illustrator?
• What do you enjoy most about what you do?
• What are you working on at the moment?
• How do you get yourself out of creative slumps?
• What do you do in your spare time?
• What creative background do you have?
• What's the best thing for you about living & working in London?
• Are there any other artists/illustrators work you like at the moment?
• What plans have you got for the future?
• What was the most valuable thing university taught you?

Things to take to London:

• Wallet - money, train tickets, rail card.
• Cameras - digital SLR, boots 35mm, video Camera.
• One of my screen printed t-shirts - as a thank you gift for Katie.
• Pens, Pencils etc...
• Small can of Hairspray - to fix drawings on the go.
• Phone, Headphones, Book.
• Tube Map.
• Questions to ask in interview.

Plan of Action

Public transport and I have a love hate relationship. More often than not it goes wrong for me, resulting in missed trains & buses. For this reason I was not looking forward to getting to London, especially as I decided to break up my journey by stopping at home on my way which is about halfway between Cardiff and London.

My Plan was:

• Get the train from Cardiff to Swindon on Sunday 12th February.
• Get picked up from Swindon train station by Mum and drive home to Faringdon.
• Get up at 6:30am on 13th February and get the 66 bus from Faringdon to Oxford at 8:00am.
• Get the train from Oxford to London Paddington at 9:30am.
• Arrive at Paddington at about 10:30am.
• Get the tube to Oxford Circus.
• Get the tube from Oxford Circus to Liverpool Street Station.
• Get the 149 bus to Stoke Newington, where Katie lives.

I had only ever got the London underground on my own once before and it was not a fun experience. Luckily the directions Katie sent me were easy enough to follow and I made it to her apartment fine.

The First Stage:

The first stage of this project was to email illustrators who's work I liked to see if they would be interested in being interviewed.

I firstly emailed Claire Scully, who's work was quite an influence on me while I was at college. I knew she had done an interview with a student a few years above me for the same project so thought I could get her just incase I couldn't get anybody else. I emailed her and after a few days she replied but didn't seem to keen and after a few more emails never emailed me back..

The day after I emailed Claire Scully, I emailed Katie Scott who's work was much more relevant to what I am looking at in my practice. She replied and seemed a lot more up for it than Claire Scully was.
I found Katie's work because her illustrations are the album artwork for a band I really like; Bombay Bicycle Club'. Her work is mainly scientific style illustrations of fake human anatomies and other biological objects like plants and creatures. I thought it would be a good idea to interview her too because of the fact she is only a very recent graduate but seems to have made a name for herself already.
I arranged to travel to London in order to meet Katie and interview her as well as do some collaborative drawing and see where she lives and works. I also asked her if she would mind taking me somewhere relevant to her work - somewhere she gets inspired by or just somewhere she likes, to get a better idea of how she gets her ideas outside of the studio.