Introduction: A Letter to the Illustration Student from your Professor

Dear Students,

So you want to learn illustration. Congratulations! It’s an exciting field that takes a certain kind of artist with a mind for visual storytelling to do well. You’ll need to harness a lot of skills, work really hard, practice your observational skills, and your drawing/painting/printmaking (etc.!) skills. But most importantly, you’ve discovered that you’re a person who wants to tell stories using art. That’s such a gift.

Illustration vs Fine Art: 

As you prepare to approach the lessons in this course, it may help to delineate the differences and similarities between illustration and what you have learned in your core skills courses in the Fine Arts–painting, drawing, and sculpture.

It might be easiest to think of illustration as the talkative child of fine art and design. Illustration works to communicate some sort of message in a way that Fine Art may not feel the need to. It often works in conjunction with a text, whether unpublished or published, or to advance a narrative. The artist must often consider his artwork as merely the starting point; it is then scanned or transformed into a web or printed object, used in conjunction with text or other elements of design on a page, and must therefore be designed in such a way. The “finished” illustration might be seen in printed form: for example, in a book, a magazine, or a comic or graphic novel. The same principles of design apply to illustration, such as contrast, value, line, composition, and color. Unlike works of fine art, which most often stand on their own, illustrations are also often repetitive in nature, employing repeated characters or places in a series of works meant to be viewed sequentially.

Mediums:

Like fine art, illustrations can be made in any medium–and this class will not limit the student in this manner, either. Each assignment is a problem meant to be solved: medium is only one part of the solution for any given work. More important as a consideration would be: which technique solves the problem the best? Which technique do you feel you have the most mastery in order to create the finished work? Is a mixed-media approach best? There are some typical combinations: children’s books and comics for many years used ink and a variety of color options–watercolor or colored inks, for instance. But illustrators have explored using paints, printmaking, papercutting, collage, digital art, photography, and sculpture–or a mix of these-there is no right answer. So it’s best not to limit yourself with your medium: ask how the problem wants to be solved. The secondary consideration would be to use your chosen medium in the most professional way possible and work to make yourself as good at using that medium as possible.  It doesn’t matter if how you use your chosen medium is different than how other people use it. Whatever medium you choose, work to master that. This will mean that you will need independent time to learn and practice whichever medium you choose to use for each assignment, because, in the end, it only matters how well your illustration communicates, and your technique is a big part of that.

An Art That Speaks: How Do Your Illustrations Communicate? 

As I noted just above, in the end, it only matters how well your illustration communicates. An artwork can look gorgeous–but if it is not conveying what you need it to, it’s not going to function well as an illustration. Is the emotion you want to show accurate and identifiable? What about an action–these can be hard to get right! Have you used a model to make sure the action or gesture is naturalistic (this is ok to do even if your style is not naturalistic). Composition should direct your eye around the picture–are you directing it to show what you want to see in the image in a particular order? Do text and image work together? Is there a logical sense of sequence? Are your characters identifiable in different images (do they look like the same person?) Does your use of space show relative size, scale, location, or even help to convey mood? Does your use of color (or black and white) add to the story that you want told? How does it communicate emotion or mood, time of day, or season?

These are all choices that you must make before you start your finished work. Thumbnail sketches–and lots of them–are the best way to quickly plan before you tackle the hard work of drawing. Indeed, once you’ve got your thumbnail down showing pose, composition, leading lines, and the broad strokes of your color palette, you’ve done the hard work already. You’re much more likely to end with a successful illustration than if you start drawing without this time to make a deliberate plan. So slow down, take this time to think your work through–it will pay off.

Your Voice

Most importantly, you are in the process of finding your voice as an artist or as an illustrator. Many students are nervous about this, thinking they do not yet have a voice or style of their own–and perhaps they never will. It’s ok to feel this way. The finding of your voice is a long process, and, I’d argue, it’s ever-evolving. Many artists shift their styles many times in their lives, while others stick to one. There’s no right answer. Focus instead on what feels good and natural to you, and take the time to observe how other artists do what they do well. You will never be able to draw just like another artist, just as they won’t be able to draw like you. But you can learn skills and techniques from them and incorporate those lessons into your own natural drawing style.

Get used to looking deeply and carefully at the world. Notice the elements of art where you see them: beautiful color combinations, interesting examples of linear or atmospheric perspective, bold lines or forms, beautiful poses, or unique textures. Take photos of them if you don’t have time to sketch it out. Read illustrated books for all ages and ask yourself why the artist made the choices they did and whether and why they work. This mode of looking will help you to develop how you make the art you do.

Allow your imagination to grow by reading and learning as much as you can. Imagination has a hard time flourishing where there is no food to sustain it. Be curious and believe in wonder. Watch for stories as they happen in your life, and cherish them. They are fodder for your work.

Let’s get drawing!

Jessica Boehman

http://www.jessicaboehman.com

Professor, Illustrator, and Art Historian