My name is Jenny Drew and I completed the Cartooning Diploma Course with John Byrne. I developed enough confidence to begin cartooning stories of the young people I work with, in my job as a Youth Offending Preventions Keyworker.
At first I started drawing the story of a young man who has ADHD, as I needed to find new ways to engage him. The comic approach worked so well, I started to try using comics and cartoons in different ways with other young people I worked with.
Other professionals started to find out about what I was doing, and they encouraged me to approach a publisher. I sent the proposal and some comics to a few, and to my surprise I had more than one offer of a book contract. After the initial shock-induced writers block, I signed a contract with Jessica Kingsley Publishers and spent the rest of the year completing a book.
During this time I also signed up to the Digital Illustration Diploma with Spencer Hill. To be honest, I wish I’d done that before I wrote the book, it would have made life easier and saved a lot of screwed up paper and rubbing out! I did use digital methods for some of the stories, and now I’ve got the hang of it, I plan to write my next project completely using digital techniques. First I need to take some time out to finish the course!
My book was released in January, you can find ‘Cartooning Teen Stories’ at www.jkp.com, and my blogwww.jennydrewsomething.com (I’m also on Facebook and Twitter as jennydrewsomething)
I would love to hear from anyone reading this, please get in touch and let me know how you use your artwork to communicate with others 🙂
Jenny
