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Contents

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“Illustration is not the same thing as Art”

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Robert Smauel Hanson

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Mark Smith

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ILOVEDUST

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Bestial

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Twoducksdisco

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Rod Hunt Interview

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Ben O’Brien

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Graham Carter

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Shayman Golden

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Catalina Estrada

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Cody Haltom

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Shaun Lind

char·ac·ter /’kariktOr/ :noun: The aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.

A distinguishing feature or attribute, as of an individual, group, or category.

Often, it’s meant to go beyond just being visually provoking, which is where it approaches the illustrative realm. For instance, Monet’s haystacks were meant to be a visual documentary of light-rays upon hay at different seasons and times of the day; but until that is brought to the forefront, fine art is marked by the fact that the subject tends to be less important than how it looks.

So, is that it, it’s an illustration now? Definitely. Is it the best we can do? Perhaps not, since the painting wasn’t optimized for this particular interpretation when it was being painted, which suggests we can do better.

To reiterate: as an illustrator, your job is not to demonstrate your painting techniques, color mixing, or your mastery of the male nude — only to find the most efficient, clear, and direct way to make the

In fact, if you’ve ever thought that you can never venture into the image-making realm because InDesign and beautiful typography is where you hang out, think again! The better designers — rather than the better artists — tend to make the better illustrators.

“Illustration is not the same thing as Art” Natalie Sklobovskaya

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…So, that’s pretty vague, right? Hmm. Well, let’s first try to place “illustration” in context of the general term of “art” and see if we can’t pull out some of its defining characteristics. After all, something makes that oil still life so much less engaging for our brain.

What we think of as “fine art” tends be focused on the aesthetics of its craft and its visual — tangible paintbrush strokes, interplay of colors and values,

Sometimes you’ll really need context to help, and that’s okay. For instance, what if those circles were to accompany the article on the left? You wouldn’t be able to resist reading psychological meaning into those rings of color, without which the art was silent. In this simple example, we’ve taken the art and put it to work.

Somewhere in there is a good definition; yours may be different still, but they all hover roughly around the same idea. Illustration is making images that have more purpose than merely expressing their aesthetic and expressing you — they have value beyond mere visual expression, whether it’s offering a visual component to text, telling a story, representing a concept, et cetera.

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The type of art we call illustration has a two-fold purpose. The first and foremost is that it speaks to you. It tells you a story, visually represents an idea, conveys a message, delivers information, offers a visual accompaniment to text, etc. — it does something. Second, but certainly not least, it presents that “something” in an interesting and engaging fashion.

And Kenneth Noland’s circles look pretty neat, but, as the painting sits there now, it doesn’t illustrate anything except… well, itself. Nor does it do anything aside from expressing its aesthetic. Illustration, by definition, must always have representation intent that goes beyond merely its looks. It must not express, it must communicate, and it cannot be evoking form alone. That is, “looking pretty” cannot be its only function.

Keep in mind also that “clear” is not the same thing as “simple.” A complicated drawing can communicate an idea very clearly, and a simple drawing can be hard to understand. But the best illustrations, be they simple or detailed, are clear — that is, they have the fewest unnecessary things in them. And what they do have in them is there for a reason, and it all has the function of manipulating your focus, attention, and emotional response to what the illustrator intends you to get out of it. They have been stripped down to the most empirical essential colors, shapes, lines, etc. needed to get their point across in the most efficient manner.

It tells you a story, visually represents an idea, conveys a message, delivers information.

You see art around you all the time. No doubt your attention was once seized by an interesting editorial graphic, which offered an intriguing metaphor to a drab politics-related story you’d never dive into otherwise. You’ve certainly encountered visually compelling band posters, and storybook pictures that are much more rewarding to peruse than the text itself. But yet, comparatively, the idea of looking at an equally visually lush oil still life makes some part of your brain yawn. Why is that?

viewer feel and know what you want them to feel and know. Do nothing extra, because extra stuff (be it extra details, people, trees, colors, lines, etc.) in your illustration could only hamper this process. Just like writing an overly wordy essay or an instruction manual with too many details makes information difficult to digest.

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the juxtaposition of different media, the expression of technique, for instance; the most primitive visual elements of execution that in and of themselves are meant to be appreciated, beautiful, or evocative.

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ROBERT SAMUEL HANSON Hanson is a freelance illustrator who works with simple shapes and bright colours, often including character design as a part of his practice.

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Mark Smith has produced illustrations for countless articles and covers of books and magazines as a freelance illustrative designer.

MARK SMITH

This design company are worlr renowned with a huge client list with a broad range of infamy, often choosing character design as the best solution.

I LOVE DUST

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BESTIAL Bestial are a design and illustration studio that focus on exciting composition and colour, mixing traditional illustration with modern practice.

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TWODUCKSDISCO Twoducksdisco is a self proclaimed illustrator, designer and screenprinter, showing the link between character design and music promotion.

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For me it’s important to keep the hands on feel with my work, despite producing the final artwork on the computer. At the end of the day the computer should just be seen another way of making a mark on a page.

I’m an artist & Illustrator who has built a reputation for retro tinged Illustrations & detailed character filled landscapes with UK & international clients in publishing, design, advertising & new media, for everything from book covers to advertising campaigns, & even the odd large scale installation too!

Some of my many clients include Barclays, BBC, Computer Arts Magazine, Dorling Kindersley, The Economist, FHM, Maxim, The Observer, Orange, Random House, Top Gear & Vodafone.

For the last 13 years I’ve been based in Greenwich, London, where I also have my studio by the River Thames. I’m also currently Chairman of the UK Association of Illustrators. The AOI was established in 1973 to advance and protect illustrator’s rights and encourage professional standards. /You have some Amazing Illustrations, have you studied at all? If so where and what did you study?

I studied at the Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University & have a Ba(Hons) in Illustration.

I graduated in 1994 & have been an Illustrator full time since 1996. /You have really composed some amazing work through the years, but a project that catches my attention is the one you did for Top Gear – Where’s Stig? Tell us a bit about it.

Having worked on & off for years for Top Gear magazine in 2008 the Top Gear team asked me to create “an unrealistic cartoon simulation” of the Top Gear studio for the Big Book of Top Gear 2009.

When I completed that, it got them thinking that we could expand the style into a whole book, so the idea of Where’s Stig? was born. It’s essentially a Where’s Wally/Waldo? spoof involving The Stig?

Top Gear’s resident tame racing driver. You have to find him in various scenes based on & inspired by episodes from the show, like the Vietnam & Botswana specials. I was immediately interested in the concept & the challenge of creating such a book as there’s such a wealth of visual material from the show. It’s been a challenging & creatively rewarding project, & was great to solely concentrate on one huge project for so long. Where’s Stig? has done

phenomenally well since it’s launch. It’s pretty crazy to think that I’ve had a UK Top 10 bestseller & sold over a quarter of a million books. /Besides Top Gear you have an amazing Client Database, is there a secret that you use to get hold of these projects?

It’s very important to get out there and get your work seen by as many people as possible & you should never be afraid to show people your work.

You maybe the best designer/illustrator in the world, but if no one sees your work, you won’t get commissioned. So I spend a lot of time & resources on promoting myself though direct mail, the internet, press, etc. Above all, the best advert is doing great work. /Being a Full time Illustrator you draw a lot and with that comes tools, what does your workstation consist of and what are the tools of your trade?

Pencil, biro, sketchbook, paper, iMac, Wacom tablet, scanner & Adobe Illustrator CS4.

All my work is produced digitally, but before I go near the computer I start doodling ideas and compositions in an A5 sketchbook with a pencil or biro. These are very quick and throwaway. Once I worked out the rough idea and composition & gathered any visual reference I might need, I work on a larger finished pencil drawing, which I then use as a guide for drawing the final artwork with a graphics tablet in Adobe Illustrator. For me it’s important to keep the hands on feel with my work, despite producing the final artwork on the computer.

At the end of the day the computer should just be seen another way of making a mark on a page.

It’s also important to give myself enough thinking & doodling time at the beginning of a project before producing a finished rough drawing. That’s where the real hard work is done & is the foundation of a great piece of work. After that, it’s producing the final artwork in Illustrator & usually there’s not a great deal of change compositionally from rough to final artwork. /If something ever happened and you lost the ability to continue illustrating what would you do for a job?

I’ve been quite involved with music on the events, promotion & management side in the past, so I’d might go back to that. Or with my knowledge of the Illustration industry I’d maybe look at becoming an artists agent or consultant. /Is their any big projects you are currently working on that we could look out for?

I’m currently working on another huge book that will be out in the autumn, so the next six months are predominately taken up with that. You’ll have to wait until September to see the results. There’s also a couple of other exciting projects that I’ll be starting once that’s complete.

In July I’ll also be flying out to Los Angeles speak about the European Illustration industry at ICON6 the Illustration Conference. /Thanks for taking the time to be interviewed, any last tips for up and coming artists?

Perseverance. It can take quite some time to get your creative career really established.

Your body of work is your livelihood, and you should be entitled to the financial benefits of your talent and hard work, so maintain control over your Copyright in your Illustrations. There are very few occasions that clients need to own the Copyright in your work.

If you’re an Illustrator I’d recommend joining the AOI. They’re constantly campaigning to protect all illustrators’ rights, and if you need advice on pricing commissions, contracts, promotion, etc, it really pays to get help from the experts.

Rod Hunt interview with Creative Overflow

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/Can you take some time to tell us a bit about yourself and where you are from?

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“Ben the Illustrator” is a freelance designer who works exclusively with illustration across different applications, often with character design included.

BEN O’BRIEN

GRAHAM CARTER Carter is a designer and artist who specialises in different forms of illustration, also dabbling in art direction and contemporary graphic design.

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SHAYMAN GOLDEN Shayman Golden is a female illustrator and designer who often includes illustrative solutins with a bold range of character based outcomes.

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CATALINA ESTRADA Catalina Estrada applies illustraion to a whle range of surfaces and textures, utilising character design to its full potential wherever possiboe.

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Cody Haltom shows how illustration can be used in conjuction with contemporary graphic design practice through identity and branding.

CODY HALTOM

Shaun Lind’s design spans a broad range of skills and styles, illustration being a rarely used but greatly effective design application.

SHAUN LIND

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