Watch Nadine Redlich's brilliantly honest talk about her illustrative process

Nadine Redlich, a German cartoonist and "a very stable genius” joined us at Nicer Tuesdays July to give us an insight behind her comics and her hilarious illustrative process.

Talking us through the publications she’s released so far, Nadine began by reading us some of her Ambient Comics series, through to Paniktotem featuring “all the comics I made that contain an underlying feeling of stress and discomfort into a book,” and finally I Hate You, You Just Don’t Know It Yet, made “just because it’s hard to love somebody, especially over a long period of time”.

Using her latest project as a focal point, the illustrator then gave the Nicer Tuesdays audience an honest description of her working process, particularly when working with publishers. “It always starts with an idea…a little bit vague maybe but just the right amount of vague so you can’t anticipate the struggles and the work that will come with realising the idea,” she begins. “As a result, you pitch this brilliant idea to your publisher and you’re really, really confident that will only take you like, three to four weeks maybe, to finish the whole project. Then the worst thing that can happen happens, and the publisher says yes, and you have a deadline.” Following this backing, Nadine admits that then, your confidence deflates “like a soufflé,” so, “you do nothing”. But, just before the deadline, the fear of disappointing her publisher kicks in, “and you start working night and day like an animal, pretending like you did this all along and deliver the work at the very last minute, to the annoyance of everyone involved.”

A brilliantly revealing talk into one of the most admired illustrators of the moment, you can watch Nadine’s talk above.