Last week I did two live illustrated canvases. The first was with Change Grow Live, who provide help and support to adults, children, young people and families, with services for health and well-being, substance use, mental health, criminal justice, domestic abuse and homelessness. The event was held in central London for their service users to feedback on their experiences, how they can deal with challenges and create positive outcomes for the future. My canvas illustrated and captured key themes and ideas and will be hung at their head office with copies of it sent out to satellite offices and hubs to remind staff and service users of their mission and focus.

Here’s what one of the Directors Gaby Price said:

We commissioned Jen for a piece of live illustration at our recent service user involvement event in London. The purpose of the event was to learn and understand how we can better involve our service users in anything that affects them. I was amazed how accurately Jen was able to capture the mood and themes that emerged throughout the day, which she beautifully illustrated on a canvas for us. This master piece now provides a focal point for us to ensure that we are hearing and acting on the service user voices within our services. I highly recommend Jen. She has been an absolute pleasure to work with and I am looking forward to working with her on other projects in the future.

Next I went up to Birmingham to work for Enzen at Utility week. This was an excellent insight for me into customer services and how water utility companies are shaping the future with AI and customer profiling. Illustrating here using water as the imagery was an interesting way to theme the canvas and collect quotes, data and best practice from a range of speakers throughout the day.

As always live sketching for me is a passport into rooms and conferences I’d never otherwise get access to. My job is around 90% listening and 10% being able to draw fast! I always start the day not really knowing what I’m walking into or who I’ll meet, with a blank canvas in a box and an easel under my arm. By the end of the day I will have learnt something new about the world and left behind a canvas full of words and colour. I often wonder where these canvases end up and who sees them. In the end it’s my way of digesting a vast amount of information and putting it down into pictorial form as a visual reminder for the client of the day. It is an art form that serves a purpose and holds tangible information that people can relate to. So far it’s been a great way for people to see live drawing live throughout the day as I scribble out lines at the event or conference.

Here’s what my client Christopher Brooks from Enzen wrote on Linkedin:

Wow – what an impact! Jenny’s creative talent produced a brilliant piece of work reflecting key themes from a water conference on customer experience I was involved with. Considering it’s a specialist topic, she captured the key themes in a really engaging and visual way. From the positive comments we got on the artwork it was clearly a successful thing for us to do. Also, Jenny’s professionalism in preparation for the event made her a delight to work with. I’m sure we will be calling on her talents again!

For more information contact me and see some more examples of my live illustration work here! I’m based in London but will travel far and wide for projects and blank walls or canvases.