What's the collective noun for a group of Illustrators?
Um, a Cardboard Crown?
Hello!
Thanks for being here, we are The Cardboard Crowns Collective, a group of Children’s Book Illustrators. We’ve all come from different industries and met via Illustration classes online. Our illustrations span all age groups and we all have different creative practices and processes.
What did / do we do as well as illustration?
You can read our bios and see our work on our brand spanking new website here:
We get so much from the support of other Illustrators and sharing the combined knowledge that we’ve picked up over the years. Now we’re keen to give back and share that with you too. We’ll be posting all about our creative processes, top Illustration tips, our favourite books and lots of other good stuff!
What is a Collective?
For us, at a basic level, it’s a community of other like-minded Illustrators but honestly it’s so much more! We’ve all learnt so much from each other and our work has become elevated as a result.
Should I join one, set one up?
If you’re looking for Illustration buddies you can trust for feedback, accountability, moral support, people to keep you going and inspire you when you’re in a tough spot and cheer you on from the sidelines, then yes an Illustration collective is for you!
Things to consider
How many people? Too many and it’s hard to keep up, too few and you don’t get the wealth of experience and different voices. We think 4-6 people is ideal.
Commit time to the group and chip in/get involved! Obviously, life gets in the way sometimes but it’s important to be present and contribute (we have a WhatsApp group and have recently started weekly zoom meetings)
Different Illustrative Voices but shared goals - it’s great to be in a group with others who have similar aspirations, we are all working in the children’s book market but our styles are very varied, which means we are not competing for the same jobs, and can be inspired by each others work without them becoming similar.
Reach out - most illustrators are like us, working alone in their studios so be brave and make contact with others. Check out their instagram and website to see if they may have a similar outlook to you. Or like us, you may have struck up conversations with other creatives on courses striving for the same goals as you. By making it more formal as a collection we found it was exciting and made things more possible when we were starting out.
Be open to giving and receiving feedback and sharing the tips, tricks, processes and resources you’ve collected over time within your group. Of course it takes a while to get to know each other but, once you build those friendships and that trust, you’ll find all of your work will be elevated because of it!
A wise person once said something along the lines of “If you’re the best Illustrator in the room, get out!” Don’t join a collective to just hear nice things, join one to learn and grow.
Give us more
Ok ok, want to know more or have a question about anything collective or Illustration based? What shall we cover in our future Substacks? Let us know!
What’s coming up?
In January we’ll be looking at our year in review, and have a special freebie for subscribers, a beautiful printable weekly planner page from our wonderful crown Juliana. You will find out more about Juliana, her process and creative insights.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our Substack (it’s totally free!) so you don’t miss any of our post, top tips and freebies. Click on the download button below to get your pack of Christmas activities right now! We’d love to see the finished pieces in the comments below or over on our instagram page…
Please spread the word to anyone else who might enjoy these too!
Looks and sounds great! Looking forward to hearing more! X