Interview with Jamie Lenman

We get tips from Guardian illustrator, Jamie Lenman, on how to build a career as an illustrator.

Jamie Lenman now has his 'dream job' working for the Guardian as an illustrator but from 2000 - 2009 Jamie was lead singer of British alternative rock / post hardcore band, Reuben. The band recently announced an indefinite hiatus with the release of "We Should Have Gone To University." Being Reuben's lead singer was a 'full time job' but Jamie managed to build a career as an illustrator, direct music videos for other artists (including Frank Turner) and make guest appearances as drummer, vocalist and guitarist during this time.

1) Jamie, could you begin by telling us how your career as an illustrator has developed?

I started drawing cartoons when I was very young and I read Peanuts, Garfield and later Calvin and Hobbes. It was always my ambition to draw a strip cartoon for a newspaper. I did Graphics at A level but then the band became 'full time.' It was the band that demanded I learnt to use programs like Photoshop - as we never had enough money to get adverts or album artwork designed professionally.

I got talking to Rocksound editor Darren Taylor at one of our gigs and he said they didn't have a cartoon like Kerrang's 'Pandora' because they couldn't afford one. I draw a little cartoon called 'Rockbot' for free every month.

I was still mostly working with pen and paper and adding a little color in Photoshop, until a couple of years ago. Then I got a job at the Guardian, drawing illustrations for children's educational websites and I had to start to learn to draw with vector programmes like Flash and Illustrator. My style and skills have developed a lot since then.

2) Like many creative people you have adopted a 'portfolio' career structure, combining different roles and projects - what have been the benefits and challenges of living/working in this way?

I ended up doing lots of different things as a member of Reuben, purely because they needed to be done!

The advantage was retaining creative control of the visual representations of the band's image across different mediums - sleeves matched videos and so forth.

The big disadvantage was exhaustion!

3) Are there particular tools or resources you would suggest students and graduates with creative career aspirations familiarize themselves with?

Other illustrators advise me to get hold of a copy of the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook but I find it a bit daunting. Of course, you need an online portfolio and it's good to familiarize yourself with the Adobe suite - Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash etc.

I find a graphics tablet very handy, you can get little ones quite cheap and it's a much more organic way of working. And a light box! A light box is absolutely essential for pencil drawing... you can get a big one for about £30.

I've also made a point of getting in touch with illustrators I admire as far as possible. Simply ask them how they achieve various affects and what techniques they employ, and then try to assimilate. Most people are very generous with their time.

4) Describe a 'day in the working life' of Jamie Lenman...

I get up at seven thirty and gobble down some breakfast before nipping across to the train station and just about catching the train to Waterloo. I disgust everyone on the train by falling asleep and snoring for the entire forty minute journey, and then I groggily walk to Farringdon, where my bit of the Guardian is.

From that point, my day can include almost anything. I can be in a meeting discussing ideas for a new game or website, working on an interactive online comic or drawing a boy watering flowers if someone needs the image right away. On really fun days I get to nip off to a small studio to record voices (or work at home to come up with music) for an animation.

It's the first 'real' job I've had but I do realize how lucky I am. The office is great, we all admire each other's work and we learn a lot from each other.

After work I catch the train home by which time it's quite late. I say hallo to my wife and she tells me about her day. If I've got some freelance work to do like the Doctor Who cartoon, I'll start drawing in the study and she'll work on one of her burlesque costumes or framing some portraits of old Victorian gentlemen.

5) If you won the lottery what (if anything) would you change about your working life?

I would work part time at the Guardian, to make time for other projects. But I wouldn't leave because I enjoy it so much. I'd probably get my guitar amp fixed too.

6) Who are your key creative influences?

If we're talking about drawing, Peanuts, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes and the Farside by Gary Larson.

There was a feller who did the Doctor Who Magazine cartoon when I was about twelve who influenced me a lot - Leighton Noyes - his drawings were very weird and I loved them - we're good pals now.

Other influences are Jamie Hewlett of Tank Girl fame and Mike Mignola, who invented and used to draw Hellboy. His stuff is absolutely beautiful, minimal and yet incredibly detailed, so stylized, lots of black, lots of weird steampunk contraptions everywhere. Brilliant.

7) Many of our readers will envy your experiences in the music industry - were there practical as well as personal reasons behind the decision to take a break?

We weren't making any money - we had a small record advance when we signed to Xtra Mile but it would have been impossible to live on, so we all had other jobs.

I eked out my record advance to pay the rent but I knew I had to get a full time job sooner or later. When I did, it eased the finances but coincided with starting our own record label! I managed it for about a year but it was too much. It had to stop before one of us died or killed everyone else.

8) You have already created cartoons for Rock Sound and Dr. Who magazine, are there any dream briefs you would love a shot at?

I'd absolutely love to have a cartoon strip in a daily newspaper. And I'd like to do my own graphic novel some day, but I have to find a story first...

9) 'Networking' has negative connotations for some people, yet it is a key part of creative industry sourcing. How do you find and secure new freelance projects?

In the illustration business it's not 'networking' so much as 'nagging'. You have to nag a hell of a lot. I nagged Doctor Who Magazine for a year before they published my cartoon, without really telling me. I thought they still wanted me to bugger off, and there it was in the shops!

When I do get freelance projects, it's usually from people I've worked with on other projects, they'll come back and say, 'I'm doing something else for these new people, can you do some drawings' etc. It's quite haphazard, I'm not sure I'm organized enough to be a full time freelancer.

10) Finally, do you know any good jokes about illustrators?

Yes! How do you....err...actually no, that's about Dostoyevsky. Sorry.