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Champagne and Wax Crayons: Riding the Madness of the Creative Industries
This is the story of illustrator and art director Ben Tallon's journey from his childhood hobby of drawing, to a freelance career working with the world's most glamorous clients in illustration, graphic design, music, film and television. Detailing highs of securing dream client World Wrestling Entertainment and lows of unconventional methods of paying the tax bill, this humorous, brutally honest documentation of navigating the art world alone and breaking into new markets, introduces the real side of the creative industry and what you need to do to make your way to the top.
234 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
11 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
Ben Tallon
12 books32 followershttp://bentallonwriter.com
With searing wit and bare-knuckle prose, Ben Tallon digs deep into the darkest pits of the human psyche and reminds us that we are animals.
His dark fiction explores that which we try to hide in polite society. Human vulnerability, inescapable realities, and the terrifying everyday are the stars in his warped show.
“Ben Tallon really captures a certain ‘did I just see that?’ British griminess. This is the kind of in-the-shadows suburban horror I love. Always in danger of getting out of control.” - Charlie Adlard, The Walking Dead.
"A brilliantly warped mind." - Katy Cowan, Creative Boom
"Proper moody and horrible stuff, this." - Shaun Ryder, Happy Mondays
"Ben writes like he draws: vivid, instinctive, and intense. He lands the reader straight in the story and marches them through a cityscape that is simultaneously humdrum and horrific. All told in big, confident splodges that stick in the mind." - Nick Asbury, author of Perpetual Disappointments Diary.
“Tallon's Notes are written in a spare, pummelling fashion like conkers dropping from big trees onto expensive cars. He's telling us that the world is underpinned by a disturbed hilarity. This is a book that smells like my old socks. But the sort of old socks you like; because they're yours; that smell, that stink, it's yours.” - Austin Collings, author of God’s Fox and The Myth of Brilliant Summers
"Ben's mundane world is our world. His skill is pulling back the veil, and showing us the depravity that lurks closer than we allow ourselves to realise." - Susan Earlam, Author of Earthly Bodies.
With searing wit and bare-knuckle prose, Ben Tallon digs deep into the darkest pits of the human psyche and reminds us that we are animals.
His dark fiction explores that which we try to hide in polite society. Human vulnerability, inescapable realities, and the terrifying everyday are the stars in his warped show.
“Ben Tallon really captures a certain ‘did I just see that?’ British griminess. This is the kind of in-the-shadows suburban horror I love. Always in danger of getting out of control.” - Charlie Adlard, The Walking Dead.
"A brilliantly warped mind." - Katy Cowan, Creative Boom
"Proper moody and horrible stuff, this." - Shaun Ryder, Happy Mondays
"Ben writes like he draws: vivid, instinctive, and intense. He lands the reader straight in the story and marches them through a cityscape that is simultaneously humdrum and horrific. All told in big, confident splodges that stick in the mind." - Nick Asbury, author of Perpetual Disappointments Diary.
“Tallon's Notes are written in a spare, pummelling fashion like conkers dropping from big trees onto expensive cars. He's telling us that the world is underpinned by a disturbed hilarity. This is a book that smells like my old socks. But the sort of old socks you like; because they're yours; that smell, that stink, it's yours.” - Austin Collings, author of God’s Fox and The Myth of Brilliant Summers
"Ben's mundane world is our world. His skill is pulling back the veil, and showing us the depravity that lurks closer than we allow ourselves to realise." - Susan Earlam, Author of Earthly Bodies.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 3, 2020
A book unlike any I've read before! This was required reading for my senior seminar (graphic design) class in college. We had discussion questions for 4 weeks in a row and I enjoyed all of it. Ben Tallon's journey through university and afterwards serves as an inspiration for graphic designers in school right now and brings up fantastic points about process and motivation.
This is a book that I will keep and reread whenever I hit droughts of creativity. I think that not enough creatives take the time to explain their journey thoroughly for others. And I think there is a lot we could learn from them if they would write a book half as good as Tallon's.
Another thing that I loved about reading this is that I love British (is british the correct term now?) people and I love the way they talk/write. So it peaked my interest immediately whenever I saw that my professor had assigned reading from a non-American designer/creative.
Would recommend, even if you're not currently studying or making art/design/illustration. You'll enjoy seeing the inner workings of the freelance profession either way.
This is a book that I will keep and reread whenever I hit droughts of creativity. I think that not enough creatives take the time to explain their journey thoroughly for others. And I think there is a lot we could learn from them if they would write a book half as good as Tallon's.
Another thing that I loved about reading this is that I love British (is british the correct term now?) people and I love the way they talk/write. So it peaked my interest immediately whenever I saw that my professor had assigned reading from a non-American designer/creative.
Would recommend, even if you're not currently studying or making art/design/illustration. You'll enjoy seeing the inner workings of the freelance profession either way.
January 8, 2022
Great inspiration and help
I’m not the person this book was written for. It’s for those just leaving college or just deciding to become a freelance illustrator. I’ve been one for decades. That said, it’s always good to read the insights, challenges, solutions, and stories of other battle-weary veterans of the arts. This is a great book. A book I wish I’d read when I was in college back in the 1980s.
I’m not the person this book was written for. It’s for those just leaving college or just deciding to become a freelance illustrator. I’ve been one for decades. That said, it’s always good to read the insights, challenges, solutions, and stories of other battle-weary veterans of the arts. This is a great book. A book I wish I’d read when I was in college back in the 1980s.
October 2, 2021
Top notch reading for any creative. Real, human, Frank, funny and more. So many wise tips, stages of life from youth, adolescence & adulthood which will all guide a creative including myself through key stages of our careers. A book I'll turn back to as I progress and need a gentle nudge or two!
March 7, 2024
Thank you Ben for sharing your artistic journey, it truly is helpful to know that freelancing illustration is a long game and that we aren't alone in it. I will highly recommend this to other creatives in the same boat.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews