I’ve noticed people are often curious about illustrators’ workspaces. Illustrationmundo.com asked me to upload a photo of the area I use to create my work, so I figured it was worth sharing here too!
Here’s a general overview of my work area. I have a nice desk from Officeworks with real oak legs. An Ikea Markus chair – the fabric version, not the leather version (it is exactly the same chair but half the price).
Zooming in on my desk, you’ll see a softly-lit, well-organised work area. I have a nice view outside. It’s very important for me that I don’t face a boring wall. So I can just look a bit to the right and see straight across the road. VERY IMPORTANT I TELL YOU!!
As for what’s on top of the desk: I am using an 27″ apple imac with its beautiful retina display; a logitech solar-powered wifi keyboard (if I spill coffee on this, my second one, I’d buy a 3rd in a heart beat); logitech M950T performance mouse (absolutely appalling battery life and terrible wifi interference when a USB flash drive is near it); a steel-backed teflon coated mouse pad (this thing ain’t going anywhere – I put it in the portrait orientation because I often have to push the keyboard back and put the wacom where the keyboard is); a hand made ramie wrist rest that I got from etsy.
There’s also twin octagonal USB3.0 hubs, because these days there are just too many peripherals and I hate fussing about with the back of my mac. The ‘design’ is just sill in that respect. Apple, in case you’re reading this, please note that there are only two spots left. That’s right, I have eight devices connected already. How is the standard four usb slots ever going to be enough?
On the left of the computer, there’s a medium sized wacom tablet (I find the ratio of tablet-to-screen to be spot on with this size), a recent addition is the huion L4S LED lightbox (in case I need to trace something –heaven forbid– or else look at negatives (as yet unused), logitech c920 HD webcam (I will get around to using that some day, possibly to review all the illustration books I have collected). I bought half of these tech accessories from my old job by the way… when I actually had money. Heh.
There’s a copy of “field guide to typography” under the monitor as well as “how to be a successful illustrator” by Darrel Rees. That’s also where my external hard drive hangs out. If I have a chocolate bar, it hides under the monitor (centre aligned).
Moving to the right side, note there are lots of pencils! I am never without a sharp pencil!! If the ideas are flowing fast I don’t want to have to stop and wait while I find a pencil sharpener… speaking of pencil sharpeners, I have several of those lying around just in case. I’m using a KUM magnesium sharpener (for the HB/2B pencils I write with, because it creates a lovely sharp point) and a heavy zinc staedtler one which sharpens the fatter 3B-10B pencils that I use for drawing and sketching.
By far my favourite piece of rubber is the Faber Castell “dust free” eraser. It’s awesome! I also have some Stabilo textas and Copic multi liners and Faber Castell ‘pitt’ artist/manga pens. Everything is stored out in the open so I don’t have to unzip or open anything to get it.
There is a ceramic tile for my tea/coffee. Really surprised there’s no mug present. Several sketch books because I’ve been guilty in the past of not having them close at hand. Here they’re in easy reach. Before that I used to do all my sketches on loose bits of A4 paper, which I’d always throw away.
There’s selection of books on my desk that I actually happening to be reading simultaneously at present. I get too bored reading just one book from start to finish. So if I feel like reading about logo design, I pick up where I left off. If I feel like reading about product design, I pick up where I left off. And if I feel like reading about typography, I pick up where I left off. I don’t have enough bookmarks for all my illustration books, but most of them don’t have many words, so it;s not really counted as ‘reading’ is it?
This is an ultra-wide-angle view of that half of my room. I have an Ikea-hacked stool holding up a pile of illustration books. The bookcase is also overflowing with a stack of illustration books…
And if you’re still reading, here is another view. There’s a dog sprawled out on my bed. Yes I work from my bedroom. Yes I let my dog sleep on my bed. Her name is Ellie. She’s a rescue greyhound and she is fantastic company for me! She gets a walk every single day. As you can see, my bed is very poorly made. Ellie prefers it like this anyway. If it’s totally flat, she scratches at it with her paw until some of the blankets cocoon around her. That’s a small pile of clothes on the floor (luckily it’s hidden a bit in the shadows). The ceiling is quite high in this room. It’s like a big cube. It’s not so great for catching mosquitos at night. Ok, so the real reason I included this view is so that you can see that my room has quite a bit of art on the walls.
All of my possessions could easily fit in this room. As you can see, I don’t own much stuff and I intend to keep it that way. Well I am going to get another wall-mounted bookshelf. :-)
Well, thanks for taking the time to read about my workspace!
L