Here are a few examples of my latest work. This was based on articles concerning enduring questions in science.
This one was inspired by the question "Will robots ever be considered conscious?". The article considered that robots might one day be able to consider their memories and their consequent feelings on such matters as a measure of their consciousness.
And this one was created with the question "How much nature is enough?", in mind. With the thought that we might be able to gauge how many trees we need to keep in our rainforests etc and still be able to say...breathe...
Following Charles Hiveley's advice(see previous post), I am attempting to find out more about Art directors and what makes them tick. Here is a link to the Art Director's Club, an international organisation based in NYC. A not-for-profit company which contains details for the awards they offer and podcasts about the job they do. They also offer things like portfolio reviews, help regarding scholorships and student competitionsas well as other services. Worth a look.
I was lucky enough to attend Charles Hively’s lecture; ‘The Rise and fall and rise of American Illustration,’ at Sheffield University this week.
Hively is the producer of 3X3 a three times a year publication devoted solely to illustration. The format being that it features three illustrators written about by three of their illustrator friends. The aim of the magazine is probably best put on the magazine website;
“Our mission is to spotlight the best international artists working today and encourage a new focus on the use of illustration by the advertising and design communities.”
Being an ex-illustrator himself Hively started the magazine amongst a lot of negative advice from people telling him the magazine would never be successful, despite this, the magazine has gone from strength to strength since its first edition now reaching issue13.
It must be said that Hively is really all about promoting illustration as a valid method for communication compared to say, photography.
In his lecture he first explained how he got started in illustration, producing an illustration whilst under the influence of a bad cold, as well as the drugs which he had taken to subdue its effects. Producing a, ‘squewy, lined drawing’, of a local scene with a Christmas message, he was convinced that it would never see print. He was wrong of course and this was the launching board for more freelance work.
Launching an advertising agency and then becoming a creative director, he also became more involved in creating the layouts for the magazine he was involved with. This led to critical acclaim.
This gave him the opportunity to hire people that he really admired the work of and enjoy the relationship of working with people coming up with ideas. He really likes concepts and not just decoration.
This career led him to do photography, illustration and art direction, he also worked as an advertising head and this left him with a unique perspective when looking for the next thing and deciding to do 3x3 as a publisher.
Hively, as I have said is a strong believer in illustration going so far as to say that we; ‘have the power to change the cultural environment.’ Pointing out historical examples from American illustration of people wanting their hair lin the style perhaps of how a certain illustrator had drawn it or how everybody at one time could recognise, and know the name of, whoever had done a particular illustration, such was their notoriety.
The next section of the lecture contained what Hively saw as reasons for the ‘death’ of illustration. He named photography as art as one siting people like Steiglitz as art-photographers, suddenly making illustration look very dated. Photography was now capturing the environment in the way that illustration once had.
Another reason was art schools, coming up with abstract ideas representing things like emotions, that were before recognisable as an expression or action that the illustrator would draw now becoming strange shapes and smears of colour for example.
One that you might find surprising was the Apple Mac, whereby he talked aboutus no longer needing scrap files for resource and just googling everything for example.
Of course the lecture was not a bleak eulogy for illustration and Me Hively was of course dutifully bound to tell us of the resurrection of the illustration world and why his magazine is so successful.
He took us back to a day before computers and even photography (at least before it was used widely in print) and showed how art and illustration were almost the same thing. Moving on, he showed us how things moved on and illustration started to be used in advertising, with the obvious advantage that an illustrator can show an idea and not just a piece of art.
One problem he noted was that when he mentioned (recently) the idea that an illustrator could be hired to produce an idea to art directors that this came as a surprise to them. They had become so reliant upon photography that they were not even aware that they could hire somebody to think of and develop an idea for them. He stated that it was a problem amongst the industry that they would merely come up with an idea and then tell a photographer exactly what they wanted to see.
He stressed that this is something that us illustrators really need to take note of and that we should be pushing art directors, creative producers et-all to consider illustration as a practical and perhaps superior alternative to this sort of avenue. He also that they might be saving themselves some money by hiring just one person instead of the army of assistants and so on that the photographer needs. An illustrator will take an idea away and work on it and refine it and come up with new solutions. They have the ability to draw an idea straight from their heads onto the paper and develop it further. Also you would be buying something entirely more original, what with illustration being such a personal thing.
We were shown that a photographic style could be recreated by another photographer and you wouldn’t know who had taken the photo, but with illustration (at least good illustration) you would get that individual’s style. Interesting.
As well as this, we looked at the need for illustration to cross into the realms of art as both another source of income but also of course as a means of promotion. Hively tried to convince us that it would be pertinent to get a second job to support ourselves but also to always be looking at fresh ideas and working on our creativity, as the average illustrators career lasts maybe seven years. He suggested tactics such as having an alternate identity, a nom-de-plume, or having two or three recognisably different styles, which we can work in.
He pointed us to people such as Seymour Chwast, at Push Pin studios and animation as helping to once again breathe new life into the illustration industry.
Adding that even through digital manipulation not everyone could match the specific skills of the individual illustrator for producing ideas. ‘Not everyone can draw.’
As I have said he now enjoys promoting talented illustrators through his magazine 3x3. With his assistant Sarah they also now produce other sister magazines and they also now produce an annual for 3x3. This includes a competition contained in a section at the back of the annual.
He concluded by talking about the three things every illustrator needs to know and a list of do’s and don'ts for us all.
The three things we all need to know are;
1.
Illustration is a business.
You work for yourself -you have to be prepared to jump in head first, those that get to the edge and turn back are not going to make it.
This also means that you do your own accounts, you bill and collect (always stating; ‘net due upon receipt’). You do the filing and taxes.
2.
Websites are marketing tools.
Blogs are not, prospective clients need to see the work you are offering, not a long list of text and have to search around for the type of work you offer. You need your best work to be there straight away and not a bunch of flash animations and menus in the way.
3.
Be visible.
Don’t just print off 600 postcards; send them to the people that matter, the ones that you think will hire you. Be everywhere, a client needs to see you at least three times for you to be in their minds.
Enter every show and keep doing it. Put you work in directories (good ones) not just the ones that charge, 3x3 is a good one, people pay attention.
Show work in galleries, this will get your work to a wider audience and rovide alternate income.
Try to get your work in to memorable media, Times magazine or similar, better quality print, more memorable media, wider audience.
Do’s and Don’ts
Do be original-Don’t be a copy
Be professional-Not a prima-donna
Do try to see directors-Don’t dress like a slob
Do be outgoing-Don’t be recluse
Be assertive and positive-Don’t do jobs you can’t handle
Do get the second job and take time to promote yourself, denying work while you promote yourself gives clients the impression that you are busy, they will call again if they want you!
Do publicize-Don’t wait for the phone to ring.
Do join clubs-Don’t just join the AOI
Art directors will give you work, illustrators wont.
Do take AD’s to lunch.- Don’t just take illustrators. This will extend your career.
Support the community-Don’t just support yourself.
Do bid fairly- Don’t undercut a pro. This is just undermining the industry and will bring all commissions down, how will we make a living?
Do be prepared to barter, if a client names a price, ask for more.- Don’t just jump at the first figure out of the bag. Have an idea what the job should be worth beforehand if possible, ask the community.
Do research-Don’t just make something up.
Do lots of sketches-Don’t just use the first idea that you come up with.
Do be ruthless-Don’t show everything you’ve done, only the best or things that you are prepared to do again.
Do subscribe to print-Don’t just rely on the web.
That should give us all something to consider….
For a little more information there's a good interview with Charles here.
Here is one of the illustrators that had all of our attention in class today, James Gulliver Hancock has a strong line-driven style and uses a simple set of colours that work well with his illustration to deliver his mostly black and white work.
His website/blog can be found here where you can see the successes he is enjoying with video producers and various clients but the pieces that grabbed our attention today (pictured) were found in the book Naive, published by gestalten, a book of; "modernism and folklore in modern graphic design".
It seems my research is leading me to look closer into the relationship between Illustrator, publisher and author...and the possibility of combining some or all of these. It seems that the combination of author illustrator can an appealing one to publishers, and this is certainly the angle I've been working along during the last few weeks -Looking at competitions such as The Macmillan Prize. Here is an interesting blog explaining a publishing editor's point of view of matching illustrators and authors, it seems quite negative towards people trying to match the two themselves and very much in favour of the editor being able to match the two with their informed view. But there are some interesting posts. This post in particular has provoked some interesting replies...
Just watching the culture show on BBC2 with Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo and noted that there was such a large amount of children's films coming out recently. What was interesting for me were Kermode's views on The Fantastic Mr Fox, or at least his comments on Rhoald Dahl. He pointed out the dark side of Dahl's stories which made me think back to my current project, the deadline for which was today. I have been trying desperately to manage and balance the light and dark elements of my story into something that kids will find amusing but also be able to gain something from. Thinking back it sems to me that these evil characters always met their end in the most wonderfully inventive and drastic way, but also (usually), by fault of their own hand. Sort of reminds me of an ACME device or something...except I always wanted Wile. E. Coyote to catch the Roadrunner.
Looking at past winners of the Macmillan prize this morning.
Emily Gravett's site is here. She won in 2004 and uses a traditional painting and ink style combined with the computer for compositing images. There are some nice vids and things to check and you can see her working method, which is not too dissimilar to my own. In an interview for Macmillan here, she talks about about what winning Macmillan meant to her and how she came to children's book creation. There is lots for students, -especially the older, new parent variety, such as myself- to relate to. Great stuff!
Some of this guys ideas can be pretty interesting, especially, but certainly not exclusively aimed at those with learning difficulties, his ideas on visual thinking could be employed perhaps to help us understand and push ourselves to improve. http://www.oliverwest.net/ He, incidentally is an artist, print-maker and university lecturer but you can see that stuff on the site. I came across him by looking at some of his YouTube videos. I should mention that he himself is chronically dyslexic (why did they make that word so hard to spell?!?!).And here is something a little more nostalgic featuring Kermit the frog to show you that visual thinking is not necessarily a new idea.
Just found this at aiga.org. It's an interview with H. Nichols B. Clark, concerning the opening of the "first first full-scale U.S. museum devoted to national and international picture book art." Co-founded with author Eric C Carle ( he created The Hungry Catterpillar) the museum also bears his name. Definate food for thought for anyone interested in this area.
I've been looking at various things this week in the realms of children's publishing.
The first is an author Rob Scotton who's book Splat the cat I have been using as part of my investigations.
The story is delightful, but the comic nature of the characters especially Scotton's choice of awkward, spindly limbs and bent tales are little devices that give them so much life on the page. Just going to the page for Russel the Sheep and looking at the role of awards for this title should show you how widely appreciated he is as an illustrator and creator in general.
There seemed to be a shortage of material on the author as an individual in my search, perhaps this is fitting of a children's illustrator. He does live on an island so he must be a little reclusive. I did manage to find a short light-hearted interview here. The title was also mentioned in a top ten children's books of 2008 rundown at the Newe York Times taht can be seen here (it's at number 4). Noting that is style appears to be heavily dependant on digital media gives me a little hope as I approach graduation.
Following on from this I began to look at his publisher, Harper Collins. Also home to people like Oliver Jeffers, it seems like a nice place for modern illustrated children's books. All I need to do now is win multiple international prizes in consideration of my work !
Here is someone Ian Whadcock pointed out to me this week. I have been reading her interview with Illustration Friday and looking at her page at Illustrationweb.com.
If you can't tell she does a lot of children's illustration. I like her strong colours and sense of shape, something that's a bonus when you have to work together type and pictures so much as when working with children's stories. She also really enjoys putting a lot of texture into her work through mainly the use of collage, which is very popular in these circles also.
Someone that enjoys having an agent do their networking for them and also copes with a new baby at the same time, something I'm getting used to. She spends some time talking about making time for both family and work. She talks about her new studio at the bottom of her garden- which gives her the opportunity to focus more. She also has just finished a masters in illustration and says this; "was great as I was able to fully dedicate my thoughts to some personal work for a while". She answers all the usual questions Illustration Friday points at its chosen interviewees and I suppose you can just follow the link at the top if you want to know more.
Here's another Illustrator working in the same field as my current project (children's illustration/picture books) that I have been looking at recently. Stian Hole is a Dutch graphic designer and illustrator, with national accolades behind him in his home country. His style it seems has been picked up on perhaps by the people that have been doing the recent British Gas adverts on TV. His use of photoshop to give the chracters in his work an ethereal and cartoony quality. The illustrations in his books still retain the hand crafted and human quality that we so love in these publications and have a little sense of 70's cartoon in there too.
The stories his books contain are also worth a note as they tend to be of quite a personal nature. Difficult issues such as the loss of a grandparent and first days at school form the backbone of the tales involved.
Despite (still) having a cold we went to visit the Cornerhouse http://www.cornerhouse.org/ on Saturday in an attempt to culture ourselves. The current exhibition features work from Bloomberg gradutes and students. Going to look at a fine art exhibition is always a challenge and as I was hoping for a little inspiration for my current project it was kind of nice to seperate ourselves from everyday activities and immerse ourselves in this sort of work. The exhibition itself covers three floors of the building and contains a wide variety of work. From video installations to free standing sculpture and the usual paintings and things. I guess it did the trick because I came away with new ideas and thoughts for my project. Funny how something so out of the ordinary can be so thought provoking.
