Maggie Lucas wrote: Hello Faith, I work with Scarlet at NACAB and he suggested that I send a drawing idea for the NACAB Xmas card as I know you were working on one previously. Here goes - A Xmas Turkey seeks asylum at a CAB - ('cos Bureaux have a lot of dealings with asylum seekers at present and Turkeys get a raw deal at Xmas) Thanks and good luck - It will give me a valid excuse to visit the Drawing Room. Maggie
Lara Yude wrote: Im after a modern Christmas card for Citizens Advice Bureau. Nothing religious, more of a greetings card but bright and cheerful to appeal to all ages/beliefs. Needs to have the CAB logo in there somewhere...Scarlett recommended you.
Between 2000-2006 I ran a website, www.thedrawingroom.biz, where I drew pictures from ideas submitted by the public. It was a fun way to generate the motivation to draw, taking inspiration from a huge variety of visitors. Word of mouth soon led to hundreds of requests per week and after a while I went from drawing every suggestion I received to selecting only a few.
I found some success in selling A4 prints and temporary tattoos of the designs I had created, and eventually began to charge for each request, on the basis that the buyer would receive their choice of product once the drawing had been completed. The site grew larger and larger, holding a massive archive of illustrations, with reliable hosting from Net2. Then Namesco took over the company, bringing with this change a sudden implementation of charges for the high amount of traffic my site was experiencing. Their lack of technical support (relating in particular to suspected bandwidth piracy), coupled with the distraction of pregnancy, led to the decision to cut my losses and cancel my contract.
Now, with my time devoted mostly to my son, I don't want to maintain the same level of commitment to The Drawing Room. However, I do want a record of all that work to remain on the internet, instead of letting it sit forgotten on a back-up disk. So I will grab a few moments here and there to upload the 'best bits', probably working chronologically through the back catalogue. You never know, I may reach the most recent effort and find it in myself to start taking requests again ...