Well that was drawing, now to look at a selection of my book illustrations.
Illustrations usually involve the interpretation of texts, responses to commissions or briefs, or the clarification of something.
They may comment pithily on the world we live in.
They may make us stop to think, they may move us, and they may make us laugh.
The illustrator interprets the text, or the brief, and the viewer interprets the illustration.
The interpretation often involves a marriage between words and image.
The text can illuminate the image in the same way that the image can enlighten the text.
In picture books I think you have to do much more than merely supplementing what the text has to say.
You may want to be more evocative of a text rather than be specific.
When we look at an illustration divorced from its text, such as what is happening now, during a talk with slides – a different kind of interpretation can take place.
I’d like to mention at this point that illustrations are far better seen within the context they were originally designed for.
Conceptually they essentially relate to the text that they connect with. And physically the images belong to the paper pages, the kindle or iPad, sitting alongside the words, within the actual book or magazine for which they were initially intended.