It is not often that I get to share the outputs of a workshop on my website due to their confidential nature, however I have recently got special permission to share what I got up to with The National Deaf Children’s Society so brace yourself for an exclusive!
The main theme of the day was to discuss a Safer Working Practice for the staff at the NDCS. Rather than trudge through a Power Point the decision was made to bring the training to life through Illustration.
My main objective, (as it is with all the workshops I Illustrate at) was to capture the content of the day in the most vibrant and exciting way possible. On this occasion we incorporated previously prepared Illustrations, which were used as stimuli for some of the exercises alongside the Live Illustration. These drawings were pretty detailed and incredibly fun to create. The exercise was to, “Spot the Risk” This enabled me to be imaginative as well as displaying the more serious aspects of the scenarios.
My technique was to illustrate the ideas onto a large roll of lining paper with Promarkers and sharpies (Great for bold lines and turbo speed colouring)
I also used a flipchart easel that was placed at the front of the room. A large roll of lining paper is great due to its scale, and the fact you can just pull it along the more paper you need, but we did find that the easel worked incredibly well as the participants could see the Illustrations coming to life in real time. Another nice component of the lining paper is at the end you can unravel it for the “Big Reveal.“ This acts as a strong narrative and visual reminder of the day.
The workshop was a great success and I felt that using the Illustrations in this way made the content unique and memorable. I will always take great pride in delivering in this way and the feedback indicated that it was very beneficial.
Testimonial from the day
Beci’s dynamic illustration and excellent response to my brief really brought our training alive. I’d thoroughly recommend using live illustration as an alternative to more conventional recording methods for training or discussion – my staff were really engaged by this experience, evidenced by the clear achievement of learning goals for the day – and the number of people crowded round the drawings at the end of the day!-Nicola Upton- NDCS
At the event I heard lots about the work NDCS does to make a difference to deaf children across the UK – if you’d like to know more about them, or consider supporting this unique charity, please follow this link: http://www.ndcs.org.uk/
