12th November 2025
Because I draw for a living as a graphic recorder I’ve been struggling a bit to identify where the line is between my commercial client driven work and my self driven illustration work that I would also like to find clients for.
You might wonder if perhaps there isn’t a need to differentiate, but to me the difference in the work is huge and I think it’s worth pondering where those two paths diverge, if for no other reason than my own mental clarity.
My initial thoughts are that there are 4 main areas of difference for me when I have my illustrator head on:
What I’m drawing - subjects I’ve sought out, that I’m curious about or interested in
How i approach it - looser, smaller, pen and ink, colour pencils and I’m going to have a dabble with watercolour and other mediums
Who I’m drawing for to date - self identified projects, myself, community based
What I’m paid - less (than my graphiking work)
These are observations not intentions.
My longer term hopes would be to broaden my illustration client list (point 3) to a wider pool of projects and businesses that interest me, that like my style (point 2), are happy to put trust in me to deliver what is useful to them whilst still letting me self identify what I’m going to draw (point 1), and who have a budget comparable to those I get for graphic recording (point 4)
There’s a lot more pondering to do.
I’ll let you know how that goes.
Hi - I’m Cara, a Graphic Recorder, Illustrator and trainer working in the UK.
As well as The JOTT I write The Visual Edit, & host the graphic recorder club for Graphic Recorders, live illustrators and sketchnoters.
My book, Draw a Better Business is a visual thinking toolkit for creative thinking small business owners.
Thanks for following along x