Creative Playdate

Tom's Portrait by Sharalee Prang

The last episode of 2018 features an interview with the lovely Tom and Amanda Froese. Tom is a commercial artist whose work can be seen in publications like The Walrus and Harvard Business Review. He also creates illustrations for children's books, beer labels and even ceramics. Amanda is a Design Director at Partners & Hawes and is able to work from home alongside Tom.

Tom and Amanda tell the story of how they met, worked in the same office awkwardly, and ultimately got together. We discuss working from home with young kids and why Tom decided to move his studio from an off-site location, back into his home.

I try to get some 4-year-old advice from Tom and Amanda but, as you can hear at the beginning of the episode, 4 is just plain hard.

Tom is also a top teacher at Skillshare and we talk about his new class, Odd Bodies: Illustrating Expressive, Stylized People. If you don't know anything about Skillshare, you will absolutely want to check it out and sign up for this class using the link above. I plan on taking it first thing next year - or maybe even over the holiday break.

Creative Playdate is syndicated at IllustrationAge.com and the theme music was created by Thomas James and Jason Ritz.

I am going to transition away from the show's individual social media accounts, because it's simply too time-consuming to manage both and I think I've mostly got duplicate followers. So please follow me on Twitter and Instagram and you can see my illustration at www.michellekondrich.com.

If you haven't yet, please subscribe, rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts!

Now go play!

I am back from ICON with a great new episode featuring book designer and art director Regina Flath! She gives a nice overview of how Penguin Random House chooses illustrators, what they are looking for and how often they use stock images, illustration or their own photoshoots for book covers. One of her latest, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White is among her favorite recent projects.

Regina is also mom to an adorable toddler. She takes us through an epic year of getting and being pregnant as well as dealing with a host of medical issues that came up for both her and her daughter along the way. Fortunately, everyone is healthy and thriving now. Regina also mentioned that sometimes parents are the best artists to work with because they are GREAT at time management and at keeping their art directors abreast of what's happening as it relates to the timeline of the project. Go parents!

If you haven't heard yet, Creative Playdate now has it's own social media presence. You can follow the show on Instagram @creative_playdate_podcast and on Twitter @PlaydatePodcast. I've also created a Facebook Group where we can talk all things parenting and illustration and design and everything else. In the future I will be putting out a call for questions when I am interviewing a new guest, so I hope you will participate and get in some questions I might not have thought about.

Thank you all for listening and thank you to Thomas James and Jason Ritz for the theme music. Illustration Age is our proud syndicate, so check them out as well.

And of course, subscribe to the show, rate the show, review the show and SHARE the show!

Photo by Lauréne DuCrocq

I can't believe I've done 15 episodes of Creative Playdate! This episode is the last one for Season One and I will be back with Season Two in a couple of months.

This week's episode features the incredibly talented Jessica Abel. Her list of accomplishments is far too long for these show notes but you may know her from her graphic novels, like La Perdida or Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars, her textbook Drawing Words & Writing Pictures (written with husband, Matt Madden) or she may even be your teacher. Somehow she's been able to do all of these things all while raising two children.

We talk about moving her family to Angoulême, France for four years and the adjustments they've had to make when their children started school in the U.S. Parenting is always unexpected in different ways and it has been no different for Jessica. For those of us who find it hard to maintain our creativity while our lives swirl around us, Jessica has a book for that, Growing Gills: How to find creative focus when you're drowning in your daily life.

I suppose I say this every episode (and I don't know how else to say it), but thank you so very much for listening and sharing the show. I love getting to have these conversations and I've already got a great lineup started for Season Two.

You can follow me on Twitter @MissIllustrator and Instagram @mkondrich and you can see my illustration at www.michellekondrich.com.

The show is syndicated on Illustration Age and our theme music was created by Thomas James and Jason Ritz.

Don't forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts!

The penultimate episode of Creative Playdate is an interview with Chris & Jennifer Sickels! You likely know Chris as Red Nose Studio. I was thrilled when Chris suggested his wife, Jennifer, join in the conversation. It's the first time I've had a partner one who is not also working as a creative. It's important that the people behind the scenes who support these crazy careers we've chosen get all the respect and gratitude that they deserve.

Chris and Jennifer have 4 children between the ages of 3 and 13, so we talked a lot about what it's like to have kids at various stages of development. We also talk about the financial aspects of raising 4 kids primarily on the income of a freelance illustrator and whether or not Chris wishes they could live in New York.

As I mention in the episode, I have made the decision to break the show up into seasons. There will be one more episode this season and I will let you know as season 2 approaches.

What would you like to hear about in season 2?

The show is created and hosted by me, Michelle Kondrich and our theme music was created by Thomas James and Jason Ritz. The show is syndicated at Illustration Age (where you can also find a bi-monthly business column by yours truly).

Thank you for listening!

Today I am pleased to bring you Episode 6 of Creative Playdate with the incredible Kyle T. Webster!

As I mention in the episode, you should really go to his site and watch his "Meet Kyle" video. He's come up with a great way to show his personality and interests to the world.

Kyle is an award-winning illustrator, author and illustrator of the children's book Please Say Please!, and creator of an impressive line of Photoshop brushes that mimic hundreds of traditional materials, and then some.

Kyle often uses his Photoshop brush business to raise money for important causes, so be on the lookout for those in the future. He usually announces them on Twitter and I will do my best to signal boost those fundraisers.

In the episode, Kyle and I talk about his work and his experience as a parent of two children. His wife is the primary caregiver to their children which allows him to keep very regular work hours. We talk about how he is able to stick to that schedule without being tempted to work tight deadlines during times when he should be with his family.

Kyle and his wife have also made the decision to keep photos of their children off of social media. We discuss that decision as well as their approach to screen time with their kids.

You can find Kyle's work at www.kyletwebster.com and you can follow him on Twitter @kyleTwebster and Instagram @kyle.t.webster.

The show is created and produced by me, with theme music from Thomas James and Jason Ritz. You can find out more about myself and my illustration at www.michellekondrich.com and you can follow me on Twitter @MissIllustrator and Instagram @mkondrich.

Thank you for listening and please take a second to rate and review on Apple podcasts so that more people can find the show. And, of course, share it with a friend or colleague who could use the support of other parents like us!