EP155: Creative Canadian Women: Alexandra Newbould - Illustrator & Courtroom Sketch Artist

Alexandra Newbould is an artist whose work you know. As a Toronto based freelance courtroom sketch artist and fashion and architecture illustrator, her work has appeared all across North America on newscasts, in newspapers and print, online and in brand marketing campaigns. She joins the show this week to talk about the challenges and rewards of being a freelance illustrator, tattoo artist and, her newest venture,  working as an event artist who captures special moments in people's lives.  

We talk about about the pressure of working in the courtroom and its impact on her work, how she has built a very successful business with minimal social media presence, the importance of in person networking and building connections, how delivering good work is its own networking tool and finding the balance between commercial success and artistic integrity.

This is a great episode for creatives who...

• struggle with how to network offline - Alex has done some interesting things to get noticed!
• wonder if it's possible to be successful without social media
• have an inner battle happening between creating art from a place deep inside them and creating art for commercial purposes
• have always wondered about the world of courtroom sketch artists 

This episode is brought to you by our Premium Subscriber Community on Patreon and Buzzsprout

For a summary of this episode and all the links mentioned please visit:
Episode155: Illustrator and Courtroom Sketch Artist Alexandra Newbould

You can find Alexandra at alexandranewbould.com or on Instagram @alexandranewbould or @sketchmelikethis

You can find Melissa at finelimedesigns.com, finelimeillustrations.com or on Instagram @finelimedesigns.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This week's episode of the and she Looked Up podcast is brought to you by our premium subscriber community on Patreon and Buzzsprout. Their ongoing financial support of the show ensures I can continue to bring the podcast to you. Want to help out? Head over to patreoncom. Forward slash, and she looked up. That's patreon p-a-t-r-e-o-n dot com. Forward slash, and she looked up. That's Patreon P-A-T-R-E-O-Ncom. Forward slash and she looked up. There you can join the community for free or you can choose to be a premium supporter for $4.50 a month, and that's in Canadian dollars. Paid supporters get access to a monthly exclusive podcast episode only available to premium subscribers. You can also click the support the show link in the episode notes on your podcast player to support us via Buzzsprout, where you will also get access to each month's exclusive premium supporter episode. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all our monthly supporters. They are the engine that keeps the podcast running and they're a pretty cool bunch too. And now let's get on with the show.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Welcome to the Angie Looked Up Podcast. Each week we sit down with inspiring Canadian women who create for a living. We talk about their creative journeys and their best business tips, as well as the creative and business mindset issues all creative entrepreneurs struggle with. I'm your host, melissa Hartfield, and, after leaving a 20-year career in corporate retail, I've been happily self-employed for 12 years. I'm a graphic designer, an illustrator and a multi-six-figure-a-year entrepreneur in the digital content space. This podcast is for the artists, the makers and the creatives who want to find a way to make a living doing what they love.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the and she Looked Up podcast. As always, I am your host, melissa, and this week, my guest on the show is artist and illustrator Alexandra Newbold. Welcome to the show, alexandra. Thank you. It's very nice to be here. I am so pleased to have you here. This is going to be fun. You are the first illustrator we've had on the show. I am also an illustrator, so it's just to be fun. You're the first illustrator we've had on the show. I am also an illustrator, so it's just going to be fun for me to get to talk to somebody else who does what I do. I'm really looking forward to it. Cool, for those of you listening, this is usually the point in the podcast where I tell you a little bit about our guests in case you're not familiar with them, but in this instance.

Speaker 1: 2:43

I think that most of you have probably seen Alexandra's work because she is also a courtroom sketch artist and so your sketches appear on news media outlets all over North America. So you've probably seen her sketches on the news, on print, on online news sites. I was watching the news last week and saw one of your sketches on the newscast that I was watching, so you have probably seen her work at some point. She is also. She's a classically trained artist.

Speaker 1: 3:18

I believe you did your fine arts degree at UVic, and drawing is her life. I can relate. She's also a happy mom living in the city and a little bit in the country, and I know you're based in Ontario, so is it safe to assume the city is Toronto? That's right, yeah, awesome, okay, so funny little aside, I did not know this when I approached Alexandra about being on the show, but she is actually Heather Travis's cousin. The two of you are cousins and if you listen to the show regularly, you know that Heather is my semi-regular co-host. So that was just a small world moment when we found that out. So the first thing I ask everyone who comes on the show, alexandra, is did you feel like you were creative as a kid when you were growing up um, I did.

Speaker 2: 4:15

Yes, I did, I definitely did. I don't even remember not feeling like I was an artist. My family although there's not really a visual artist in the same way that I am in my immediate family my family, my parents were big art lovers, so it was always museums, galleries, talking about art, art in the house, art everywhere, and so I was lucky for that and I just always knew I loved, I just loved to draw. And I just remember being very little and being like, yeah, I'm an artist and I love drawing, so yeah, so at what point did you decide that this was something you wanted to pursue?

Speaker 1: 5:00

education wise, because it's not actually often that we have a classically trained artist or creative on the show. For most, it tends to be people who've picked it up later in life or they've followed a passion, but they went to school to do something sensible.

Speaker 2: 5:19

Yeah, well, yeah, I think it's just because it was so normalized in my family that I was an artist and it was so. Let's see, yeah, it was never a question. I come from like my family's academics, so it was just I was definitely gonna go to university, so that was just what we did in my immediate family. That was like the plan, and then it was just like, well, of course I'm going to study art. Nobody ever, you know, thankfully nobody. That was just, that was okay in my family and completely normal. So, yeah, there was just no question about that, and I'm sure that I'm very lucky for that. I, obviously, and I also.

Speaker 2: 6:00

It's not like I was really excelling in anything else. I mean, I mean, maybe I could have, but you know how school is, it doesn't? I don't know what else I was picking up in school anyway, like high school or anything. It was just art was always my thing. So, luckily, that was just like totally normal. And I will say, though, that I went to University of Victoria and that was like I don't know, 99 or 2000 or something like this, and it was academic art school. So there was no training in any kind of like technical training for like art, like color theory or painting, drawing, um, so I I did actually go to school later in life to go study illustration, because basically art school at that time where I was going, it was conceptual art, it was there was no figurative at all. So I actually ended up going to illustration college later in life.

Speaker 1: 7:00

So I was wondering about that, because when I think of like a school that you would go to to be a practicing artist, I think of like OCAD or Emily Carr. So I was kind of curious, like why you chose you.

Speaker 2: 7:13

Well, yeah, I think it was a lack of knowledge, like I didn't know. No one in my family knew. To be honest, I never had really thought of these two different art worlds. I didn't know much about the academic art world and, um, nobody could have told me that more. I was more just like living in New Brunswick at the time and I wanted to go out to BC and you know, just live the hippie dream while I was in university.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Because I thought it'd be great to go there, which it was, but no, it wasn't.

Speaker 2: 7:40

Uh, it was very awkward and difficult being a figurative artist at that time. It was kind of a.

Speaker 1: 7:51

So I'm guessing you didn't get much in the way of like business training with it. Like I know when I went to BCIT to do graphic design and I know we had to do like a whole semester on like how to actually function in the world as as a freelance graphic designer.

Speaker 2: 8:11

Yeah, that would have been nice. No, I didn't get any of that. No, uh, not at all. Oh, that's in fact it would just.

Speaker 2: 8:20

I think it it set off like actually years of really weird awkwardness around my art practice actually, because I was like the odd one out, because I was a figurative. I wanted to do figurative and everyone was like, oh my God, that's so embarrassing Because you know, it's like video art, installation art, like if I had done installation art I would have been fine, but I didn't. So I was always kind of at odds with what was going on in those studio classes and it was really awkward. And I hate talking in front of people and it was all just critiques and I'm like trying to draw something, that's anyway, if I'm making sense, it does make sense. Yeah, it was kind of left me like, oh, and then I went and did a whole bunch of other stuff with my life and then decided to go back to learn those actual skills. Mind you, I still haven't had a lot of training in business. I kind of have had to figure all of this out the hard way.

Speaker 1: 9:14

I think a lot of artists do. They wind up just learning it as they go, because it's not something that's really focused on in school necessarily, depending on the program that you take. So you just kind of learn from making mistakes usually. So what led you to being a courtroom illustrator? Like this is a. This is a job that has fascinated me since I was a little girl. Like the fact that there are people who sit in courtrooms and draw what's going on, I just thought was the coolest thing, and it's not something you don't run into. A lot of courtroom sketch artists I don't. I don't know a ton about the legal system, but I don't think cameras are allowed in Canadian courtrooms in the way that they are in the US. That's right. So you have to. You have to draw what's happening?

Speaker 2: 10:06

Yeah, yeah, and it's so. Some and some United, some of the states, they go by state. So that's why you'll see, in New York, for example, you see all these school sketch art coming from like these, she's got the all the fun jobs, the one that lives in New York City, like Donald Trump and any star that ends up in court. So they don't have cameras in there. But some states do allow cameras, but in Canada, no cameras. And one thing that people don't realize is it's for the media. So I work as a freelancer for the media outlets, so Canadian Press, global News, ctv News, for example, cbc also, because some people think it's a court, like the court system has to have that, but yeah, actually that's what I thought it was.

Speaker 1: 10:47

You'd be appointed by. There's a roster of you and this is your next case, but it's you're actually media, with media credentials going on on behalf of. So I didn't know that. That's, yeah, it is open to the public.

Speaker 2: 10:58

All courts are open to the public. They have to be. It's part of our legal system. But, um, I work for the media and literally it's just like an illustration to go along with the stories about what's going on in court, just the same way like a photographer. Photographer would sell a photo, for example.

Speaker 1: 11:15

How did you stumble onto that kind of work? Because it's not like I said, it's not common common really when you think about it and yeah, I, yeah, I also had forgotten.

Speaker 2: 11:29

But when I was a kid I mean, when I was a kid I was always like anything drawn, any artwork, I was always, wow, fascinated by it, and definitely I was also fascinated by court sketches, but I had forgotten about it completely. Um, I think what happened was I was living in Toronto, downtown Toronto. I had just finished the college that I had gone to, so that was just four years of technical training and it was all drawing from life. And we had to. We were encouraged to draw every single day from life, right, things that we see. Go out and sketch at the mall, go to the park and draw people, see people and sketch at the mall, go to the park and draw people.

Speaker 2: 12:10

And at that time, um, it was rob ford, was in office in toronto, so it was a big news time for toronto and, oh, and also my sister's, uh, criminal defense lawyer, by the way, working in gray bruce. So I was like, oh, maybe I'll go and practice there one day, just practice drawing people. And then it kind of came together. Oh, yeah, this is like a thing. And then, when Rob Ford was in his in an appeal court, after he got kicked out of office back in the day. Do you remember when he was smoking crack?

Speaker 1: 12:35

I do, he made me like very interesting.

Speaker 2: 12:39

Very exciting time in.

Speaker 2: 12:40

Toronto. May he rest in peace. But so I went there, I went there to and my brother was like, hey, alex, go and go sketch there and draw a picture of Rob Ford. And I just did, I just went to court and I started sketching and, sure enough, I drew Rob Ford. My brother was telling me who the reporters were and so he said, go talk to them and just go tell them. Like that you have a sketch. And I was like okay, and I did, and uh, that was my first published piece.

Speaker 2: 13:07

I got uh, rob Ford's mug right on the Toronto Star, so that's how it all began, yep, and then I just hustled myself out and I kept going to court, going to court, going to court like I, I did it like as a labor of love and I would always just go. And then I just started kind of cold calling the media outlets and doing it that way.

Speaker 1: 13:27

And so how does it happen now they they contact you and say we've got this course. So, knowing now that you're actually doing it from a media, like you're actually hired by the media outlet, did they give you an idea of what they want you to capture? Because court is a pretty dynamic place, I would think right, you don't really.

Speaker 2: 13:50

It's not really. I mean, if I was, if I was doing something that didn't make any sense, maybe somebody would say something about it. But right from the get go I kind of had a little bit of direction. I remember CTV was one of my first clients and they were, like, you know, get this kind of a moment and but you know, I kind of just pieced it together and try to get as much as possible in there. But you know, there's very, there's very little direction. I mean I'm, you know, if I was just focusing on someone's shoes maybe and you couldn't really they might be like oh, but not really, which is nice.

Speaker 1: 14:22

So when you're in there, like, do you churn out multiple sketches in a day or do you kind of pick a person that you're like, how do you? Yeah, how do you.

Speaker 2: 14:31

Well, if sometimes it depends how long I'm going to have. So I've had to draw people who have appeared for five minutes. So I've had to draw extremely quick sketches of just a person who's like a you know big story because he got arrested and something crazy happened, um, or there could be a trial. For example, right now there's going to be a trial for five weeks and it's very intense and they're all day, so then I have more time. Um, you, you know, because I'm following the case, you know what's going on, so obviously you know the accused, um, or if there's a witness that day, um, I mean, I try to put as many people in it as possible, judging, I mean, depending on the time, um, that I have right, but you're definitely reading the room. If something interest is happening, interesting is happening, you want to capture that.

Speaker 1: 15:27

Yeah, um, so kind of feeling a situation and getting as much in as possible, depending on the time you I have and so when you go in, when you, when you get a notice that you're going to be at such and such appearance or trial or whatever's happening, say tomorrow, like, how do you prep for that, do you?

Speaker 2: 15:48

you know you can't take your easel in, I'm imagining yeah, no, I used to do part traditionally, part Photoshop to paint it in when I started was about 15 years ago. So I would actually take pencils and paper and I would go in there, draw everything paper and, uh, I would go in there, draw everything. Then I would go in the hallway, take a photo of my drawing, email it to my computer and then color it in photoshop. That was, um, that was what I did. Now I do everything on my tablet, right, um, which is great. I still use a layer on it that looks like it's a pencil. So I'm like still sort of doing it the same way I did before. The preparation I mean very little, I just make sure I know what time it's starting, make sure I'm going to like be there on time. I can I don't. Sometimes I should do it more. I mean you can look at photo reference, just kind of. You know, see, okay, who am I drawing here.

Speaker 2: 16:40

But I mean, honestly, pretty much mostly it's making sure my technology is powered up and snack because, it's really quiet in the courtroom sometimes and you get a growling stomach sometimes, so just things like that I mean, because you know, you, when the way I draw is, uh, very in the moment and I just get into the moment at that moment and I just go and just just do it, yeah, well, that's another I just go and just do it.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Yeah Well, that's another thing that I kind of wondered about, because I would think you have to be pretty quick and pretty efficient with your pencil work and there's not a lot of time to get precious about your work. Really Right, and I think a lot of I don't know, speaking from personal experience I think a lot of us have trouble with that. You know, we kind of get stuck in that perfectionist loop or this isn't quite right, but you don't have that option when you have to send something in before the end of the day. I would think so do you find that freeing or do you find it challenging?

Speaker 2: 17:46

Yeah, definitely, definitely challenging. Now, lately in my life, I feel that I have a better. Just because of the experience that I have at this point I'm not having as many freak out moments after sending them in. But, believe me, it's happened many times where I, you know, and there's a deadline of like 4 pm, sometimes earlier, and I've sent them in and just been like, oh my god, or I've seen it in the newspaper the next day. I'm like, oh my god, look at that hand like um, especially. Yeah, like there's work out there that I'm just like I cringe when I see it. For sure, yeah, it's just because I've done it so much now that I'm just like I'm a little bit. It doesn't happen as many times now where I'm just like freaking out about the quality of my work, cause, yes, you have to send it out and yes, there's been times where I've been like that person's hand looks like a tree trunk or you know what I mean. So, yeah, that's happened to me a million times, yep.

Speaker 1: 18:59

Yeah, you just have to be good with it. It's yeah, press the button.

Speaker 2: 19:02

Yeah, it probably as an exercise. It probably has been freeing over time because I've had many anxiety attacks about that. But but it's been a lesson in I don't know. Sometimes I just send it and I'm like I can't look, I can't look anymore.

Speaker 1: 19:20

So I mean you don't just do courtroom illustration, you do other, you do other forms of illustration, you do fashion, you do lifestyle, you do brand and advertising work. So does that whole piece of you know not getting too caught up in the perfection of it like does it? Do you find it frees you up when you do other work, or makes you a little looser, or do you overcompensate when you do other types of work?

Speaker 2: 19:47

One thing I've had to learn is that I mean when you're dealing with, like advertising work, for example, and also courtroom sketch art although I think of it so differently for some reason is like you need to know that they need a solution to a problem and they need a deadline, and they're not really interested in your emotional Not that I try to talk to them about it, but it's like you have to leave behind your emotional connection to your artwork. Like they need this in because, like they're just on the clock and they just like want the drawing in or they want the artwork in. You know what I mean, and for you it's like, oh my god, like it's got to be perfect. Um, so that's just something I've been, I've had to learn in all of my works, because if I don't have a deadline, I'll just keep going forever and ever.

Speaker 1: 20:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think not so much on the illustration side of what I do, because I don't do work for clients for illustration, but as a graphic designer, I'm so used to my work being critiqued or just being told, no, you need to change all that or whatever.

Speaker 1: 20:49

And it's not necessarily that they don't like it, it's just it doesn't suit their purpose for whatever they're going to use it for. And you kind of have to develop that thick skin, right, just like, okay, it's not me, it's not a personal attack on me and my life choices, right, totally, it's, yeah, it's, it's very different. So you, you do a lot of fashion and architecture and I actually kind of from, from my perspective, looking at your work, I find the fashion and architecture quite similar to courtroom sketching, like it's very sort of minimalist lines, very loose feeling. And then you do brand work, where you're working with different companies and things like that, like what. I don't know if a lot of people understand what the difference between doing editorial work is and doing a brand or commissioned work, like they are quite different and yet there are some similarities. So maybe you could just talk a little bit about what the two are for you.

Speaker 2: 21:53

So maybe you could just talk a little bit about what the two are for you, right?

Speaker 2: 22:00

I mean, I think for me, maybe, if I have been, because I've been able to do a lot of fun and I've been lucky enough, fortunate enough, to be able to do some a lot of fun and interesting projects where my own thing has been right, where I haven't been like directed to death, like if I did more advertising, I probably would be like, oh my god, uh, it's suffocating, but I haven't had to do a lot of that stuff.

Speaker 2: 22:24

But just like, as you say, I mean, there's a goal, they have a look, they have a brand. You'd have to do exactly kind of what they want, as opposed to being able to put your own artistic spin on it. And I've never minded that much because I'm just happy to be drawing and I just find it fun to draw. So even if I'm having to make something look a certain way, it hasn't got to the point where it's bothered me, I'm just still happy to do it. Got to the point where it's bothered me, I'm just still happy to do it. But again, if I was doing, all day advertising.

Speaker 2: 22:59

I might be like not you know what I mean, yes, but like because courtroom, for example, even though it is editorial, like I said, I get like almost no direction, which is nice. It's like I'm just a painter in there and I go in there and I make my piece of artwork and nobody you know I just send it off. So but if it was like constantly Coca-Cola and Tim Hortons and they were really nitpicking all day long, I probably would wouldn't be as fun.

Speaker 1: 23:27

I would think also that if they're, if they're approaching you, there must be some aspect of your style that they appreciate, otherwise they would choose to work with a different artist, right? So I mean, we've all had clients who say they are there for your style, but then that's not how they behave. But for the most part, I think a lot of them are genuinely really interested in what it is that we put out. But at the end of the day, they have a marketing goal and what you do has to fit with that. So it can't just be going off and doing like. There has to be a reason behind the concept that you're presenting to them. I guess is what I'm trying to say. So, yeah, very, very different, two very different types of work. Now you are also starting to do some work as a tattoo artist, I have been told.

Speaker 2: 24:23

So yes, I am, but I will say that I'm not. I might also not be. I did do that. I started tattooing. I learned how to tattoo. Very interesting, very cool. I've always wanted to and I said now or never. I began an apprenticeship, I did learn how to tattoo and then I took a hiatus. I'm not sure if I I might do some kitchen kitchen tattoos. You're not supposed to do that, but anyway. But honestly, I loved it, tried it. I don't think I have enough time in my life to do so many things and I think that's something you have to go all in and kind of decided to step back from it for a minute after being in it for a year, even though I think it's really interesting and cool. But you know what? Court's gotten so much busier and I'm working on other projects and I kind of realized that I maybe can't do all of the things, so I might need another lifetime to do that.

Speaker 1: 25:36

I have a cousin who's just finishing up her apprenticeship, but it's a very different type of line work, like doing as a tattoo artist, like it's very different from what you do in court. So was that like appealing to you, or was that something that you had to get used to?

Speaker 2: 25:52

Yeah, I definitely had to get used to yeah, I definitely had to get used to it. I do like to do these little finished kind of illustration-y drawings. It's like little cartoons, like they have to be done. You know, it's like one little thing and I do like the idea of that. It's almost like an editorial, right, like you have to have a little concept and it's all contained into this one thing. Um, but yes, hard for me to, yeah, you have to be so perfect and so exact. I do. I did like the um act of tattooing on the body. It's kind of um, what do you call that? Um, oh, my gosh, meditative, I guess a little bit. The gotta go slow, you gotta really be in the moment. Get kind of this like zen moment, um, but um, yeah, to tighten up all those lines, you know, because I have a very loose style, but I can do that too.

Speaker 1: 26:44

I can do that too, but again, I need another lifetime so many things very little time but yeah, yeah, it's nice to try something that's uh, that is completely different. Sometimes, yeah, especially, yeah, when you feel like maybe you've been and I'm not saying you feel this way, but like if you feel like you've been pigeonholed into a specific type of style or something, it's nice to just get out and do something completely different.

Speaker 2: 27:11

So, yeah, and the world kind of changed in the moment that I decided to do that, till now, all of a sudden too. I mean, this was it was over a year ago when I decided to do that, but like court had really slowed down, I just needed something new in my life, I don't know, and I always wanted to try it and, like you know, I'm 45.

Speaker 1: 27:32

So it was like you know, I got to do it now.

Speaker 2: 27:35

So it was nice. It came at a really nice time in my life. It was fun. It was fun to do for a year. But the thing about tattooing is you need a spot to do it right. You can't just go. I'm going to do this on the side. That's why I'm not doing it right now. I my spot, but it was neat to get out of my routine and try something else. Yeah, yeah, I mean, um, other things have just been building up and so busy lately that, uh, I can't stay in one spot like that so, um, yeah, you said you're doing some other projects, can you?

Speaker 1: 28:07

can you tell us a little bit about them, or are they top?

Speaker 2: 28:09

secret. Yep, I'm, uh, I into, I'm, I'm launching this business now that I am um hustling myself out to events, weddings, um to sketch. So, um, I will go to a wedding and sketch the wedding and sketch the couple and sketch the venue, and then I'm going to have different packages. I do have different packages you can get, you know, your posters made or your thank you cards. Also, all kinds of events like corporate events, yeah, fashion shows, even intimate events like healing retreats, um to go do drawings of the people there so that they uh have a neat experience and have something to like bring home.

Speaker 1: 29:04

Yeah, that's really cool. That's such a different way to remember something special or important. I love that. Yeah, very cool.

Speaker 2: 29:16

Yeah, and it kind of combines what you know, what I do from over the years in court, like the live schedule. So so that, yeah, I'm doing that, yeah, that's that's very cool.

Speaker 1: 29:28

So that's actually a great segue into talking a little bit more about the business side of of doing this, because you are essentially a full-time freelance illustrator artist. I'm assuming that's how you make. Your living is freelancing so, and we don't need to get into the specifics of your income but it's. Where does the bulk of your income come from? Is it the courtroom work or is there other pieces of it that you income come from?

Speaker 2: 29:56

Is it the courtroom work or is? Is there other pieces of it that you Um? It? It's the courtroom, it's, it is all of it. It's the courtroom work, and I do some commercial projects, um, like illustration projects, editorial packaging, illustration. Um, yeah, it's all of those things.

Speaker 1: 30:13

Yeah, you know how did you. You've been doing this for a while now, so you're pretty established at what you do. But how did you initially get the word out? You kind of mentioned at the beginning there that your brother told you to just go up and show a reporter your sketch. But yeah, how did you get to the point where now you are one of the go-to people work for courtroom illustration in Toronto?

Speaker 2: 30:37

um, yeah, good question. I yeah, because I did it for a very long time for very little reward. I mean a long time ago I would just do it for fun, but I always. I actually had a business during the summers which I don't anymore. I used to do. I had a shop in Sobel beach where I did henna tattoos actually fake tattoos and I also had a t-shirt shop that I painted t-shirts at. So I used to do that during the summer and then I'd come here and, um, do the court stuff. But yeah, now, well, it's because there were always only like three or four of us.

Speaker 1: 31:10

And.

Speaker 2: 31:10

I think I just pushed my way in there and um, because it's not like there's a lot of work in Toronto for a courtroom artist. That's why there's like only three, like now there's like two or three of us. Um, I basically pushed my way in there, yeah and uh. I it's just over time, I guess, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 31:31

I don't know, and then like the brand work and and the fashion work. Is that people who saw your work, your courtroom work, that were like, oh, that's kind of cool, or we like her style, or we like we like her, you know, or like, how did you? How did you?

Speaker 2: 31:45

because you worked with brands yes, oh, um, the brand, oh yeah. So, like the, the advertising work came through through networking, through my brother, because he's a, because when I first got out of the college that I went to and I started working in Toronto he's a, he's a copywriter. Okay, he would start and he worked in agencies with an advertising agency, so he would introduce me to people in advertising agencies and that's how I got my start doing that. Yeah, and so I kind of worked in with, yeah, in different projects like in Toronto, basically through networking, I do one job and then they would tell someone else about it, yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:33

I think that's really interesting because because today everybody feels like it has to be social media, like that's how you grow your presence, that's how you get work, that's how you do this, and we kind of forget that old fashioned networking is often the best way. Almost all of my work comes through word of mouth. Just do one good thing for a client and they tell somebody and it's so powerful and we kind of forget that.

Speaker 2: 33:03

I think you're right. I think we do forget that and, um, it like it, it totally works. It's like the old fashioned way I mean anything. I mean, yeah, social media can be important, but I mean maybe LinkedIn is good. I kind of have, I don't like LinkedIn and I need to use it more. It gives me anxiety. But like Instagram, for example, it's great to have your portfolio on there. I don't know, but I've always found it kind of like an energy and time sucker. Unless now I'm much more careful, I don't bother at it, I'll post up and then not. I don't, I just don't like to get lost in it. But I mean you have to.

Speaker 1: 33:41

I think networking, talking to people, word of mouth, I mean that is kind of that's so important, I think important when you're a creative for hire yeah because, because very often those, those bigger brand clients, and then the people, the. But the people who have budgets, they're not necessarily scrolling through instagram, no, looking for someone.

Speaker 2: 34:02

So they want to know that there's someone who can do the job and they're available and someone else can vouch for them and yeah yeah, that they're not wasting their time on somebody who's going to waste their time.

Speaker 1: 34:13

So that's yeah for sure. One other thing I just wanted to talk to you about because this is something that doesn't get talked about very often in the creative world is the difference between creating on demand for a client and creating because the mood strikes. And there's a lot of people out there who just they just they love to paint, they love to draw, they love to write music, do whatever, but it's on their terms, because they're just doing it, because they love it. But when you have to create on demand for a client, it's a whole different vibe. Right, Like you don't.

Speaker 1: 34:51

You don't get to have a bad day and get up, Like when, when you have to go sit in court and send in your sketches at the end of the day, you don't get to just say I'm not in the mood for this today. Right, Like you've got to turn that work out. And the same when you're doing client work. And I think that a lot of people don't realize how different and how difficult that can be some days. Um, especially if you're not feeling the groove or you're not feeling inspired or whatever. Um, like, how do you, do you have anything when you're having one of those days where you're just like I don't, I don't feel it, I'm not feeling it, Like, how do you get yourself to the end of the?

Speaker 2: 35:30

day I'm trying to think, I mean, it doesn't happen with court and it's because I just love drawing. Like I'm just sitting there drawing and it's just I. I I've never kind of been like, oh, I have to do this with that. I'm trying to think of some client work. It doesn't really happen to me that often. I hate to say it. That's awesome, though I probably. I love like, if I'm I love drawing, I love making art, I maybe I haven't had to do things that are terrible. Somehow I've managed to avoid. It literally never happens with court. I, just because I love drawing and I, I it's like an act that I love to do and it's not hard. I don't want to say it's not, it's not hard for me to make myself do that.

Speaker 1: 36:21

Um gosh, honestly, honestly, god, it doesn't really happen to me that much you did mention, though, that when you do court like you're, you're not given a lot of direction. Do you find that probably helps, like the fact that you're just able to?

Speaker 2: 36:31

I'm sure, of course, of course. Of course I don't often have to deal with like annoying things, so yes, it does.

Speaker 1: 36:41

Yeah, so on that note, like what do you create when there's nobody telling you what to do? Like you don't have a court case, you don't have any client work? Like what do you just do for fun?

Speaker 2: 36:56

Um for artwork, yeah, or any kind of creativity. Yeah, I actually just um, I often go out and draw um, just people in life or buildings or things like that I go to or things like that. I go to life drawing sessions. That's for fun and it's pretty nerdy I go to. Sometimes I'll go out at night to see a band at a bar and I'll just draw there. No problem with that. I draw from life, so and I enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 37:37

Do you? Get a lot of people when you do that, just stopping to, to, yeah yeah, I do, I do, yeah, yeah, I do.

Speaker 2: 37:42

I like to drop people, like playing musical instruments and stuff, and then sometimes I'll send it to them and make them happy and, um, yes, people always come up to me and talk to me that's a great way to to advertise myself also.

Speaker 2: 37:54

It is yeah, people they like that. Um, yeah, lately I I mean, I used to paint a lot when I was in university. I would paint more lately like actual paintings with paint, and sometimes I do that. But I'll do it. I'll do it for a couple weeks and then I won't do it for a while. Um, I don't, I think, because I'm drawing from life and I like to draw things that I'm looking at.

Speaker 2: 38:19

I never get bored of it like I find it fun. I don't know. It's a project that I'm working on, something that I'm doing, so I never have to really force myself to do it that's true.

Speaker 1: 38:29

Life is always changing, so you're never um. And if you go outside, this is another thing, people. If you go outside, this is another thing, people. If you go outside, there's like this whole world happening out there and there's some really cool stuff, and if you can sit down and and take a moment to capture it yeah, do you ever do a lot of this? Is something like one of my bucket list. Things to do is just to just take an entire vacation where I just get to pull out my sketches, plunk myself down wherever I am probably have to do it on my own and pull my sketchbook out and just sketch. Yeah, I want to sketch like that would be a dream vacation for me.

Speaker 2: 39:07

Me too, I do that, I do I do that. I do that on vacation. I am I'm trying not to be, but I'm kind of a loner and I like to just go and draw. So I go to Panama a lot well, not a lot, not as much as I'd like to, but every year I go to Panama because I used to live there and, um, I did my son and I go down there, for example, and I definitely just take days where I go out to the street and just draw. I do, I do do that. Um, I was in Mexico recently and, uh, I had too many things. I was there for a wedding and I had too many. Um, it was wonderful, I was around people, we were doing fun things, but I need to go back to the town I was in and just go by myself and draw, yeah, for the time. So, yes, I agree, I would love to do. I love to do that I could take the whole vacation and just be by myself and draw, and that would be wonderful, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 40:02

So you are also a mom, so like does your son. Uh, is he interested in art and drawing? Is he creative in that way too, or he?

Speaker 2: 40:13

is, yes, he is. He's. Actually it's fun because he has totally turned out to be an artist. Um, he's 18 now, so he's a man, but, um, his father is very good at drawing and, um, I'm an artist and my son is, yeah, totally, totally a mix of the two of us. He's, um, he's actually going to the college that I went to after I did the university and came back here and went to college, and so he is, in fact, following in my footsteps and it's quite fun because I'd never had, um, definitely creative people in my family.

Speaker 2: 40:51

Like it was just another time. You know what I mean. The women in my women in my family, like my mom and my, uh, her mother, were amazing at sewing and making dresses and clothing, so they were artists. They are artists in that way, but anyway, I never had anybody to to talk about, like visual arts, and so it is fun that doing that and we have that in common and I can kind of give him some direction. Uh, that's a little bit. Yeah, he's totally into it. He draws all the time. He's amazing. Yeah, he's a far head from where I was at his age.

Speaker 1: 41:24

That is very cool. Yeah Well, this has been great. It's been great to chat with you. You have, so you've got your new business that you are in the process of setting up. So is that website live yet, or?

Speaker 2: 41:41

it's going to be my same website and I'm building it behind the scenes. So my website is there and you can see that and contact me, and by the time this comes out, it'll have my information on my new little parties Awesome.

Speaker 1: 41:55

Big parties. Yes, we will put a link to Alexandra's website in the show notes, but it's alexandranewboldcom or ca? Com, and Newbold is N-E-W-B-O-U-L-D, but there will be a link to it in the show notes. And is there anywhere else? People can find you online if they want to see your work.

Speaker 2: 42:18

Yep, so I have Instagram as well, which is also my name, alexandra Newbold, and A-L-E-X-A-N-D-R-A-N-E-W-O-U-L-D, as you said, and then my other one for the new business is sketch me like this the handle is at sketch me like this.

Speaker 1: 42:41

Sketch me like this. We will put links to both of those in the show notes so people can go check out your work and see what you're doing with this new business which sounds really fun, by the way like it's great, what a great job to just go out. Great, I've done a wedding already. Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 2: 42:55

What a great job to just go out. Great, I've done a wedding already. Yeah, it's great, I've done a wedding already and it's fun. I'm putting a little package. We're gonna do like five little vignettes and then they're going to go back to the guests as like on the thank you cards. So that's gonna be like a full service. I'll provide things like that. That's lovely.

Speaker 1: 43:11

Yeah, yeah, then there's so many ways you could grow that as well. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to do everything.

Speaker 2: 43:18

I'm saying weddings are a popular thing, but like literally everything, I'm even going to be doing like I could attend. I'm going to attend births again, like healing circles, like fun parties, you know anything.

Speaker 1: 43:33

So, yeah, want alexander to come draw your life right. Hit me up, hmu. Well, thank you so much for being on the show today. It was such a pleasure to have you and um satisfy all my nerdiness about courtroom yeah, totally I'll always be posting that stuff too, so you can always.

Speaker 2: 43:55

I should post more. It's very. It's just always so dark every time I start to write about what was going on.

Speaker 1: 44:01

Yeah, I know, I would think that like some of those trials have to be pretty heavy because you can't help but absorb what's being talked about while you're sitting there a lot of darkness.

Speaker 1: 44:13

Yeah, I know, for me, drawing is actually how I focus on conversations. So I, if I was sitting there, a lot of darkness, yeah, I know, for me, drawing is actually how I focus on conversations, so I, if I was sitting there drawing this, I would be so in tune to what was being said. I, I think, a lot. So, um, yeah, wow, very cool. And for those of you listening, um, yeah, keep an eye out on your local news or um, on the newspapers or online, and you will probably see alexandra's sketches pop up, yeah, pretty frequently, and they always have the artist credit, so you'll know it's hers, um, and we will have all the links to everything in the show notes. Thank you so much for being here. It was such a pleasure to have you and um appreciate your. It was really great. It was a lot Awesome. That is it for this week, everyone.

Speaker 1: 45:00

We will be back in another two weeks with another brand new episode and we will talk to you all then. Thank you so much for joining us for the and she Looked Up Creative Hour. If you're looking for links or resources mentioned in this episode, you can find detailed show notes on our website at andshelookedupcom. While you're there, be sure to sign up for our newsletter for more business tips, profiles of inspiring Canadian creative women and so much more. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe to the show via your podcast app of choice so you never miss an episode. We always love to hear from you, so we'd love it If you'd leave us a review through iTunes or Apple podcasts. Drop us a note via our website at and she looked upcom. Or come say hi on Instagram at and she looked up. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.