ILLUSTRATION NOW
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elcome to our first edition of ILLUSTRATION NOW. Throughout this publication we explore the ever evolving world of illustration both online and offline. It has been quite a journey, and we had no idea what an awesome product we would end up with. It’s amazing what an initial idea by one or two people can turn into. I can never thank our collaborators Gorg, Vince and Annabel enough. We speak to young artist Mina Tolu on page three, about her recent works, and her future dreams in the world of illustration and design. On page five Craig Grannel from Computer Arts talks about ‘Illustration Today and Tomorrow’. If you’re interested in having your work featured as our cover art turn to page twenty for competition rules and guidelines. Finally check out a comphrensive list of Bachelor and Master degrees about Illustration in Europe starting on page ten, along with interviews with professors, and reviews of some of the top universities in the field.
FOCUS ON: MINA TOLU THREE
ILLUSTRATION NOW
Mina Tolu is an upcoming Maltese artist who has mainly done design work for LGBT-Youth organisations in Malta. Her design interests are related to comics and illustrations. While other interests include activism and sport. ILLUSTRATION NOW met up with Mina to catch up on her most recent work, and her participation at a joint-exhibition in Malmö University, in Sweden.
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lthough Mina is busy with university commitments, she does try to fit in some sketching into her weekly routine. She says that the hardest thing to do is to sketch when one doesn’t feel like it, but if one were to wait for inspiration to hit to create anything, then nothing will ever get done. Sometimes although she’s not happy with the way something is turning out, she perseveres and tries to tackle it from different angles. Often asking friends and colleagues for their point of view. Through her work Mina experiments with digital design techniques as well as the concept of genderless expression. She is very interested in queer theory and the representation of gender in art and culture. These works all initially started as personal photos or pencil-drawn sketches, which she then further elaborated and worked on the computer to achieve the desired final image.
“Each work is a new journey for me, I never know where I will end up, I only know where I start” “Juan” and “Reconstruction” are her favourite out of this set of 5. The former because it’s a selfportrait exploring the extremes in feminine and masculine expression, the latter since it surprised her; while making it she absolutely hated it, then she slowly fell in love with it. These works were exhibited both in Sweden and Malta. Mina said: “I am honored to be featured in this premier issue of ILLUSTRATION NOW and especially glad that my work has been chosen for the cover art, this is only a small indication of what the future holds for me.” Mina can be contacted via her portfolio on minatolu. carbonmade.com
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Romina Tolu - June 2013 - Desktop Publishing Final Assignment - Magazine Design