I secured Arts Council DYCP support to develop my skills in drawing graphic novels for historical storytelling
Time to celebrate!
A few months ago, I was in my kitchen cleaning and listening to an In Our Time podcast episode. It was probably right after I put my daughter to bed. My usual routine is to listen to a podcast while cleaning up after dinner. Anyone else feel like they can’t do any sort of housework without being plugged into something?
Anyway, I decided to take a break from The Rest is Politics or The News Agents or Today in Focus (my top 3 podcasts), and listen to an episode on In Our Time about someone I greatly admire. But it wasn’t until the very end of the episode when the guests on the show mentioned something that truly struck me - a fascinating piece of history that I hadn’t been aware of. It stayed on my mind for the longest time and it got me thinking about many things simultaneously and ultimately led to a few major decisions, including applying for the Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant. All that from 5 minutes of a podcast!
Reflecting on how I learn
What I heard on that podcast episode got me thinking about how I learn about history in general. I’m someone that has always struggled to read non-fiction. I have to read and re-read passages over and over again to try and understand them. It takes me a very long time to get through non-fiction and no time at all to get through fiction because I don’t really see the words, just the images in my head. Biographies are fine as they read like a story and so their flow usually works for me.
History has always been easier for me to digest through documentaries or films, talks or conversations, or through podcasts, and of course museums. Places where it’s brought to life, where I can see it in front of me, and where I can fully immerse myself in it. There’s one other place I’ve enjoyed learning history from and that is from graphic novels.
Graphic novels blend stories with illustrations, making historical events more accessible and exciting. I believe that graphic novels offer a unique way to explore history, combining the written word with visuals that truly resonate with me. One outstanding example of that is Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.
The impact of Persepolis
Persepolis was the first graphic novel I ever read. I knew it had been made into an animation, but I wanted to read the graphic novel first. I remember being blown away by it for so many reasons. It wasn't just the story that captivated me, but the way it was told – the black and white illustrations, the narrative, the composition of the images, the depth of the characters. At the end of it, I realised that although it was visually striking and I had experienced something truly new to me, I had also learned about a vital moment in the history of Iran.
After Persepolis, I was hooked and began reading other graphic novels, discovering a new and engaging way to explore history and stories from around the world. This also led me to collect zines.
Applying for the DYCP Grant
I have known about this grant for many years, but it was only after attending a fundraising workshop through the Creative Business Programme that I thought about applying for it.
I've been a full-time illustrator for almost two years now, and during this time, I haven't had much of a chance to work on personal projects. There are a few pieces of personal work I've created—some life drawing and some work inspired by a book from the 1970s, but not much else. Throughout these two years, I've had loads of ideas for personal projects, but I just haven't had the time or energy to see them through.
I decided it was time to make some vital changes to my work life. It was time to bring those ideas to life, and at the top of my list was developing my skills in drawing graphic novels, particularly those with a historical context.
Photo by: @seamusflanaganphotos (Instagram)
Putting my application together
I spent about two weeks putting my application together. These were the important questions I asked myself:
What specific skills do I want to develop during the funded period and why?
What is the timeframe that I can do this in?
What will the activities involve in the funded period?
What are the costs of these including covering my time and any contingency?
Who can I ask to write my letter of support?
Who can I approach about mentoring?
Are there extracurricular activities that I want to engage in during the funded period?
Who will review the work I’ve developed?
What will the key outputs be from the funded period?
How will these outputs lead to opportunities in the future?
Once I had my notes around all of these questions, I began writing the application and navigating the Arts Council complicated and clunky portal called Grantium. There were many moments where I used the Arts Council online chat service to ask questions and prior to starting my application I attended Cai Burton’s excellent talk on DYCP.
It was two weeks of solid work where everything else project wise had to pause. I sent it off the day before the deadline and then began the long wait.
I’ll be writing a separate post on the most important lessons I learned from putting the DYCP application together over the coming weeks so please do subscribe to my newsletter if you don’t already.
Time to celebrate!
The day before I was due to hear the application’s outcome, I got an email from the Arts Council in the evening asking me to log into Grantium. I logged onto the system and there it was: The DYCP offer letter.
I told my husband and Sophie (my 4-year-old who had no idea what I was saying but was beaming back at me nonetheless!). And then almost immediately, I left Nina Jex a voice note on WhatsApp. Nina wrote my letter of support and has championed me throughout this whole process. I think it’s the most excitable voice note I have ever left anyone!
Next steps
The next steps for me will now involve going a little deeper into my activity plan for the funded period and mapping out all the stages, almost on a weekly basis. Although I’ll be developing my graphic novel skills more broadly, there is someone’s story that I want to explore during the funded period. It’s the story that I heard about on the In Our Time podcast. I’m excited to immerse myself into this person’s life over the next few months. I’m excited to see what having more time and energy translates to across my sketchbook, but most of all, I’m excited to share the work I develop.
Thank you
A massive thank you to the following people who have encouraged and supported me:
Nina Jex, Creative Business Programme at Farnham Maltings, Rachael Ball, Cai Burton, Stuart Ralph, Chanté Timothy, Rumbi, Katie Knowles, Katherine Grayson and of course the Arts Council.
