On a recent project we were asked to complete a fairly large number of illustrations of various items around the British Museum, these were to be accurate drawings with colour and written information included on the page in a aesthetically pleasing way.

To get this all done in half a day was extremely challenging for me as I have never been a artist who can work quickly. I like to take my time and involve a lot of detail on each image I produce, so the feedback I received (which I knew was coming) was that I had not produced enough work in the allotted time. Whilst I can see the benefits of being able to work quickly I just can not see it being a skill that I will ever have or even want to use, that is just the way I am and work. Is it required to work as a professional illustrator??

Recieving conflicting feedback on how to go about a task such as this (we will be at the V&A Museum next) was not particularly useful or in any way helped to change my mind on this matter. However, you could say I have learnt something from this experience as I will be doing page layouts for the next concertina sketch book a day before we attend the museum in order to help me manage my time there better and produce more work……. not sure if this approach is actually aloud but I will soon find out I suppose.