Friday Interview: Illustrator Katie Chappell on drawing her way through Coronavirus chaos and making art accessible for all

By Jo Dunbar

Berwick native Katie Chappell is an illustrator specialising in projects with sustainability at their heart. Whether creating a mural, running a workshop, working on a book or providing live illustration, Katie has drawn for some big-name clients including Google and the NHS and has even live-illustrated on London’s bustling Regent Street for Nespresso. Closer to home, Katie studied in Newcastle and Sunderland and has lectured illustration and design at Teesside University.

Tell us about your work in connection with MIMA…

It’s super exciting. I have worked with them before but of course, their workshops can’t take place now. So, I am delivering art for families and people stuck at home. It’s inspired by their Middlesbrough collection. MIMA want to make that really accessible, and every week their head of learning gets in touch with me and asks me to think up some activities, maybe on landscapes or portraits, and make a video to deliver the art. It’s so important how people behave right now and MIMA are fab because they have paid their contributors until September.

You do a lot of your work independently. Do you have any tips for those of us who have found ourselves working alone right now?

Being really nice to yourself is important, not beating yourself up. Have realistic goals for each work session. For example, if I pick three things to do and I get them all done, that’s good. But if I start writing a crazy long list, then I get overwhelmed and I don’t do any of it. Online communities can come in useful too, so you have a space online to tell people that something amazing has happened. I have spaces online where people who are also illustrators are more responsive than they are in real life.

And you run an art club too…

We have started doing a live art club on Friday evenings on Instagram Stories which are so much fun. No matter who you are, or where you are, you can rock up and draw. There’s an instant community which is so nice when everyone is drawing together and sharing their work. Since lockdown, when we come to talk about materials, we now say ‘whatever you’ve got – it’s fine!’ A piece of paper and a highlighter, a napkin and a lipstick – whatever it is, just draw! A lot of our audience seem to have children so we had to think about that and have included printables that they can colour in while you’re drawing.

You run bullet journaling workshops as well. Why do you think people gravitate towards it?

I used to teach workshops at Paper Tiger in Edinburgh and when COVID-19 hit, I still wanted to offer the course. So I have put my in-person workshop online and it’s been so well-received. People are responding to bullet journaling right now and I think it’s a natural response. It doesn’t take up lots of time and with all the time people are spending on screens right now, it feels good to take out a journal and write down what you are going to do the next day or track your habits. I’m a live illustrator, I go to events filled with people and the week before lockdown, my inbox was filled with cancellations, which did make me panicky, but drawing it out did help me process it.

The Good Ship Illustration’s Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag opens for enrolment on 1 May until 8 May and will run for six weeks.

The Good Ship Illustration’s free art club runs on Fridays at 8.00pm, live on Instagram Stories @thegoodshipillustration

To discover more about Katie, visit www.katiechappell.com or follow her on Instagram at @katiedraws