Today I attended the “You Show Me Yours and I’ll Show You Mine” event held by the Australian Society of Authors. The event invited illustrators from all fields to share and view samples of each other’s work. We also discussed some of the hot topics that seem to always come up in illustration conferences such as prices, contracts and whether to specialise or diversify. There was a turnout of about 12 people which I thought was a nice number, not too few but few enough to get everyone joining in the conversation.

I had the opportunity to meet some incredibly talented people today some of whose work I was already familiar with.  It was great to see people at different career stages as well; some who were studying, some who were published, others who were unpublished and others who have had success at self publishing. I wish I had more time to talk to everyone individually! I really enjoyed the event and I hope that ASA has another one later in the year or next year. It would be really awesome to see how these illustrators will have progressed by then.

Here are links to the work of some of the attendees:

www.simonswingler.com
www.jillbrailsford.com
www.bettysargeant.com
www.jothompsonillos.crevado.com
www.katzcowley.com (under construction)
www.connyfechner.com.au
http://laurawoodillustration.com/
http://www.illustratorsaustralia.com/portfolios/shane_mcgowan

If you’re an illustrator and you didn’t go, you missed out! Keep an eye out for future meet ups on the ASA website.