The Montreal Formula - Artist Survival

I did some live-cartooning over at the POP Montreal Symposium yesterday: one of my tweeps, @ItsLilpeanut told me this is called a "sketchnote".

The topic was "The Montreal Formula: How to survive as an artist in Montreal". Co-hosted by ELAN Quebec and POP Montreal, Albert Nerenberg (The Laughologist) moderated seamlessly, with Murray Lightburn (solo artist and The Dears frontman), Krista Muir (aka Lederhosen Lucil) and myself.

A step beyond toonswag, my drawing was projected in real-time from my iPad to a screen for the audience to watch during the session. One becomes a conduit for ideas and pictures, some of which end up in the image. When it was over, I felt strangely buoyant.

Just another artist surviving in Montreal.

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Live-cartooning: The Montreal Formula.

This Sunday, I'm in a panel at the POP Montreal Symposium along with film-maker and Laughologist Albert Nerenberg, Murray Lightburn, solo artist and frontman from The Dears, and composer/musician Krista Muir a composer/musician who moonlights as Lederhosen Lucil. It's called "The Montreal Formula".

What's the secret to a successful artist's career, in any city? 

We're going to explore some of the out-of-the-box things you have to do to survive as an artist in Montreal. And the amusing irony is that I'm going to be doing one of those out-of-the-box things by live-cartooning the discussion as it happens.

Am I nervous? Not really.

Okay, maybe a smidgen. The drawing will unfold on a large screen in front of the audience as I scribble away. It's a little more demanding than my usual toonswag because I have no idea what I will be drawing. What if I space?

Can they tell that I have no idea what I'm doing?

Mostly I'm wondering which tech I should draw on; iPad toonswag-style, iPad Paper 'book' style, or Adobe Flash, where I can really make the pictures come to life. There's something super-engaging and easy about using the iPad in the moment...but the temptation to turn this into an animated video afterwards is welling up in me! With Flash, I can keep my options open.

Either way, I'm deepening my skills, and sharing my creative process live and in person yet again, and that's always fun.

Hope to see you there.

The Montreal Formula is co-hosted by ELAN and POP Montreal
September 21, 1:45 PM
3450 Saint Urbain, Montreal
FREE.

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Visual Storytelling at #BlogHer14

I'm so over Italy already! Heading out to California tomorrow afternoon where I'll be hanging out with my cousin and her husband at the very cool Ink + Smog in LA. I'm also going to see some animation industry friends because Hollywood, and then I'll be heading up to the BlogHer conference in San Jose. My friend Neil Kramer is driving and someone has to make sure he doesn't fall asleep at the wheel. That someone would be moi. I make an excellent passenger.

This will be my third BlogHer. If we've never met, and you come up to me IRL and say "Hi JC!" I may stare blankly at you. This is because I'm a visual person and I'm used to seeing your avatar and stuff. Also, Internet friendships are contextual, you know? I might know you as the person I talked about magical dog poop with on Twitter. So if I space on you, try saying, "Hi! I'm the magical dog poop person!" And then I'll totally know who you are and we can hug IRL.

Alternately, you can simply whisper the Secret Password:

The Secret Password is "monkey farts".

If you do I'll know that you're MY PEOPLE. You should only whisper the Secret Password if you don't mind being hugged, squeezed and possibly accidentally groped.

There will be Toonswag. Here is a sample (it's Neil. And by the way he will not be taking Instagrams while driving to San Jose...unless he wants to get thwacked.):

This adorkable dude blogs at Citizen of the Month. He hates being called "dude".

Also this is happening:

I'm speaking on Friday afternoon, in a panel on The Visual Web track called "Developing Your Visual Voice". The other speakers on the panel are Jill Krause (Baby Rabies), Melanie Perkins (Canva) and Vanessa Bell (De Su Mama) and you can find out more about it here. My bit will be on visual storytelling, with tips and tricks on how to use simplification techniques to illustrate stories and concepts. Also it will have drawings and animation.

If you're coming to BlogHer I hope that you'll find a way to make it to this session. I can promise you that it will be fun (because cartoons), you'll learn something (because cartoons) and it will likely be somewhat different to what you're used to seeing at social media conferences (...because cartoons). And there will be a free monkey button for everyone who comes.*

*While quantities last.

Wish me luck getting over this beastly jetlag. Who wants toonswag?

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Toonswaggn' the #BConnectedConf.

I went to the BConnected Conference in Ottawa (our nation's capitol!). The people made this event all that it was.

You know how when I go to a conference I like to do toonswag? Well, I was pretty wasted from making my book but when Dino Dogan from Triberr, got on stage my fatigue disappeared and the drawing practically drew itself.

"It's ALL about size!"

He definitely qualifies as animated. Dino's a fountain of information, expression and unbridled friendliness!

This is Julie Elsdon-Height, the woman behind the blog Sober Julie.

She did a session on photography, and though I was busy trying to capture her fantastic 'look' I did glance up to see a couple of amazing photos of Mocktails she'd created (look, she's got a book on Mocktails!). This woman is living sober, but she's so much more than that; she's wonderful. We shared a taxi one morning and I'm grateful for that because even just a few moments with someone away from the conference hubub can mean so much...*waves at Julie!"

I was at the BConnected Conference to hangout with people, but also to speak.

We often hear about blogging sessions on how to do SEO, how to do content marketing, how to work with brands and so on. Everyone says we must engage and be authentic and create community. But few offer tips or a framework on how to effectively reach an audience through emotional storytelling. So I do sessions on empathy and visual storytelling - I gave a talk on using emotional triggers and I used some parenting stories from my blog as examples.

It's a wonderful feeling to be looking out at all the faces and see them watching my animation on the screen and not yawning at all.

More toonswag:

This smiler is Lyne Proulx, founder of the Ottawa Mommy Club online parenting magazine.

She organized the BConnected Conference with a rocking social media team. It was their first big event and I found it to be intimate, focused and classy. Lyne is gracious and polished and (as I found out after the conference was all over) she has an EPIC sense of humour and will go out of her way to make sure you have your swag bag.

One thing I love-love-love about conferences is meeting people I know from the Innerwebs. There were many that I wanted to draw but didn't get a chance, but I did hug Christine-Lee McNaughton in person from Life On Manitoulin.

Christine is warm and real - just like she is online - and she was also one of the conference AmBassadors. This gal lives on Manitoulin Island, which is a unique place in Canada that I want to see. Christine! Can you hear me? Get the guestarium ready. And no more hydroplaning!

Have you ever met someone in a series of coincidences? It's like that for Heather Boyd and me - every time our paths cross, something coincidental happens and this event was no exception.

Heather is a very talented wire jewelry artist: I met her when I won a pair of her camera earrings at an ELAN schmoozer here in Montreal. When she came to meet me in Ottawa, she surprised me with these:

Dayum it feels GOOD to have an alter ego dangling from my ear.

Look familiar?

Go see Heather Boyd Wire - she has totally cool jewelry and cake toppers and she can even do amazing personalized stuff. Obviously.

So Heather offered a pair of her camera earrings to BConnected as a door prize and guess who won them? They picked my name! But since I already have a pair, plus these gorgeous tailor-made earrings, I insisted they draw another name. I am nice!

Heather actually won a prize herself, which was a Wii Fit and a WiiU and a bunch of related gear from Future Shop, one of the BConnected sponsors. She insisted on giving it to me (I did not argue) and that's why this happened:

Don't try this at home.
Photo by my long suffering and loyal BFFF TrashCanRoxanne.

I know you're wondering WTF did you do to the Wii JC??

But that's another story for another day.

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I will BConnected.

Mostly I draw stories but sometimes I do speaking. I tell the stories that I've drawn and show some animation and stuff. Next weekend, I shall sally forth to do just that at the BConnected Conference in Ottawa.

BConnected is Canada's first social media and networking conference targeting mom and dad bloggers. I'll be talking about creating empathy in blogging to make a human connection. Naturally I'll incorporate some of my playful and poignant parenting stories to illustrate. I'm planning on making it a very fun (and also deeply meaningful) session.

For those of you in or near Ottawa, I'd love to see you at the National Arts Centre - there's some wonderful speakers at the event Saturday and Sunday April 12th - 13th, 2014. I'll be doing my thing on Sunday morning at 10:30.

Please share this and I will be your best friend.

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Leaning in with a CLEAR Wish.

I was waiting for my VOTY Award video to be officially posted on the BlogHer site. It was my hope that my live reading of "How To Check For Pinworms" would be so freaking funny that I could use it to propel myself into another realm. And, you know, build on that. I couldn't wait to see it!

But when the videos went live I was crushed to find that most of my performance was replaced by my illustrations. Okay, they're a big part of the story, but who wants to sit and watch a still image with voice-over for four minutes? Big editing faux-pas! You need to cut back to the speaker or it's boring.

Major disappointment!

The questions assaulted me. Why had the editor done this? Did the camera break? Did the footage accidentally get deleted? Was my performance so awful? Perhaps I'd imagined the laughter and applause...?

I couldn't send this link out. Besides my own needs, it failed on entertainment value for my tribe.

I knew I should just reach out to BlogHer and ask them if anything could be done. But I was scared. What if they think I'm ungrateful? What if they think I'm making trouble? What if they think I'm a bitch?

They're probably too busy. They won't remember me. I'm nothing. I hate myself.

I admit that I cried real tears. Man, I felt so sorry for myself. I went through a box of tissues...it was pathetic!

Suddenly Sheryl Sandberg popped into my head.

She gave me the ninja smackdown (in my imagination).

My husband had a friend in London named Basil Saunders (now departed, may he rest in peace) who used to say, "Give me a clear wish." Meaning that one should always state clearly what they want without waffling or hiding. I decided to write to BlogHer and tell them my clear wish. I wrote directly to BlogHer co-founder Elisa Camahort Page. Because if I'm going to lean in like Sheryl Sandberg says I should, I'm going to the top.

And do you know what? They did fix the video - but the voice and image was now noticeably out of synch. Crap! I struggled with my self loathing all over again.

Then it struck me that my whole BlogHer takeaway was one of 'empowerment'. It would be the jugular of irony if I couldn't empower myself to push for this synch error to be fixed. They might roll their eyes, but at the very worst the folks at BlogHer would know that I was a highly professional and totally awesome audio-visual director. Right?

I decided to lean in a little further, and totally blame it on Sheryl Sandberg.

Result!



Thanks Basil. Thanks BlogHer, Elisa, Lori Luna, post production person, the editor ...and Sheryl Sandberg. Please don't beat me up for drawing you beating me up.

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#BlogHer13 - Queen Latifah & my VOTY AWARD.

It's only just sinking in that I was selected as a VOTY winner, for my illustrated story "How To Check For Pinworms". In the educational Humor Category, no less.

You guys know what the Voice of the Year Award is, right? It's only like, the Oscars of the blogosphere. One hundred honorees are selected from 2600 submissions; of those, twelve are awarded the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to read their winning blogposts at the BlogHer Community Keynote. I was one of twelve.

If you blog, this is a Big Deal. It is peer recognition, community celebration, and the chance to wear that fancy dress on a stage all rolled into one. There is no prize money or gifts or even a break on the registration fee; it's just honor, plain and simple.

So there I was, massively hungover and knowing I had to get up on a stage and tell 5000+ fellow bloggers a funny story about bumholes and pinworms, (with drawings). And did I mention that Queen Latifah was emceeing the Awards? 

We were told to meet at 4:30 in "the greenroom" in the backstage area. Although I felt a bit like death, I somehow managed to arrive on time, but the place was deserted. I asked a non-judgmental hotel security guard for guidance.

She took me behind the stage, past a labyrinth of black gear boxes, cables taped to the floor, and a row of five dudes sitting at tables with laptops and fancy tech stuff with blinking lights. It was all very official back there. It would have been intimidating but I was busy concentrating on surviving my hangover, specifically keeping bodily fluids from leaving without permission.

The security guard put me in a curtained off room. It was nice in there; fresh cut flowers and comfy sofas. I gratefully sank into one, thinking, wow, they're really treating us well! I turned inward to try to focus...

I wasn't really nervous about performing my piece; I use it in one of my lectures about Visual Storytelling and I know how to work it. But the timing of the images has to be perfect or the story falls flat. No one had yet communicated to me if I was going to be able to control this myself with a clicky thing.

As I sat quietly fretting about this, a scary lady with a headset pulled back the curtain and barked, "Who are YOU?!?"

Turns out they'd accidentally put me in Queen Latifah's greenroom. Scary Lady kicked me out.

I thought that sofa was a bit too comfy anyways.

The Readers' greenroom looked like this:

I sat there by myself for fifteen minutes. The other eleven readers joined me, plus the hardworking BlogHer organizers. We were lined up in order on the chairs (I was second). Apparently Queen Latifah was stuck in traffic eating pizza so there was a delay. The energy backstage was a mix of nerves and serenity; women hugged one another, did yoga stretches, and silently practiced their speeches. I was given the clicky thing whereupon my worries about timing my slides dissipated.

Suddenly a gorgeous tall woman in a black and white dress breezed into the backstage area, followed by a couple of 'handlers' and a video cameraman. Everything about her screamed DEAL WITH IT. The star had arrived.

She smiled a zillion watts and said (sic), "How yall doin? My name is Laaaaaa....!"

And my brain went into full *holeefuuuuqQUEENLATIFAHisstandingrightinfrontofme* reverb. I couldn't speak. All I could think of was that I had to take a picture for my mom. I crept forward with my iPhone and turned around so QL was behind me.

My intention was to just get her in the background with my selfie in the foreground. But she saw me doing it.

And the rest is photobomb history.

This gif was SubWOW's idea. 

Best hangover cure ever! Armed with a couple of Queen Latifah's sparkles I climbed the stage (without tripping - high-five!) and delivered my story with previously untapped panache. I may have been channeling a mix of Eddie Izzard, Louis CK and Captain Underpants....

Hearing so many people laughing in all the right places was extremely gratifying and I'll never, ever forget it. Afterward, someone mentioned that one person actually couldn't handle the wormy bits and had to walk out. It made me realize how far I'd pushed the limits by winning a VOTY for this story. My pinworms and I trolled the entire audience and all but one made it through.

Doesn't that somehow make it more meaningful?

Thank-you BlogHer, thank-you to the selection committee, and thank-you to everyone who laughed in all the right places, at a story about a little boy with an itchy bum.


Tune in to The Queen Latifah Show.

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An Animated Announcement.

Boy was I surprised when my friend Jasmine Banks phoned me up, sweet-talking like a pro...


...and asked me to be the KEYNOTE SPEAKER at the very first, long awaited #SoFabCon.

It's the inaugural conference of Collective Bias to bring their community of bloggers, their Social Fabric, together to learn, hone their skills, connect and party. Obviously.

I'm tremendously honoured.

Who's coming to this? I hope to meet some of you in person in Bentonville Arkansas, during the May 3 - 5 weekend. I may do some toonswag while I'm there, if any attendees hold still long enough for me to draw them. My keynote is on the Saturday afternoon and it'll be animated. Obviously.

And for the record, the video was Jasmine's idea. That girl is spectacular.

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Picture THIS.

FACT: People remember more from images than from text. Do you ever wish you could express an idea by drawing it?

Visual thinking is the key to creating concepts that play out in pictures.

And I've noticed that quite a few people could benefit from it so I developed a workshop to inspire people to see "stories" as "pictures".

I'll also be sharing a few of the little tricks I use to convey my stories and concepts using some of the most straightforward and easily accessible digital tools.

Maybe you have a story, article or PowerPoint presentation that you want to illustrate; or you'd like to promote or teach something with images or video. Whether you draw it yourself or hire someone else to do it, having a clear idea of what you want is invaluable.

My workshop will give you skills to distill your concepts to their most basic forms: lines and dots.

I'm keeping it uncomplicated - there's no hi-tech blathering.

Also it will be funny.

And sweet.

If you're interested in bringing The Art of Visual Storytelling to your event, contact me. I am nice.

If you're in Montreal, you're in luck. The Art Of Visual Storytelling is being hosted by ELAN English Language Arts Network, Tuesday, MARCH 12. It's right downtown in a great space - the Visual Voice Gallery, BELGO building, 7-9PM. Fee for ELAN members is $10 ($15 for non ELAN members or $5 for full-time students). Perfectly do-able prices, amiright? 

This workshop is filling up quickly, so you should totally register now!

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