Book review: Becoming a Successful Illustrator

I recently purchased  ‘Becoming a Successful Illustrator’ having read the review on the OCA website (here's another one).

I’m gradually working my way through it, there’s a lot to take in, and so far the subjects which have resonated with me most are the importance of:

Collaboration

Good drawing skills

The ability to work in a professional manner with clients

Promotion

I really like the way they have divided the subjects into chapters, set out clearly the different fields of illustration and included lots of illustrations and tips from illustrators and potential clients. 

Exercise: Editorial Illustration

Newspaper supplement illustrations

I left these pages whole to help me with the page layout for my editorial illustration.

El Pais 26-5-13

Javier Olivares

I really like the graphic quality and use of colour in these two decorative, representational illustrations, the use of text is minimal and very effective and the narrative really clear and strong, there are metaphorical elements here too which show the characters overcoming ‘Sentiments that harm the soul’.

Marta Cerda

As a fan of chalk and charcoal I find the smoky textures really appealing, they don’t dilute the impact of the image despite the reduction of contrast at the edges of the gun. This conceptual, metaphorical, representational illustration has a really nice hand drawn quality.

Javier Marías

I love this delicate and subtle little illustration made of lines and watercolour but I think it’s lost in the text. It could be that they designed it that way to make the reader look more closely but those big blocks of text look oppressive to me. The illustration is conceptual, metaphorical and representational and sums up exactly the author’s scathing response to an invitation to join the ‘made in Spain’ brand.

Alicia Malesani

Beautiful, elegant and well rendered watercolour style drawings with plenty of space around them although I find the irregularity of the top right text setting a bit distracting. These are decorative and informational, with representational and diagrammatic elements which pick out specific tips for making the ‘Eco Gestures’ listed in the text.

Also in this issue

Alfonso Casas

A decorative illustration, representing and incorporating the narrative of this sweet little tale.

An interview with Melvyn Bragg

I wasn’t expecting to choose this subject at all but having heard the radio interview (Broadcast 1 May 2013 on Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016p5mb/profiles/melvyn-bragg), which I found very interesting and entertaining, I wanted to make an illustration of Melvyn Bragg in the style of the 1658 Rembrandt self portrait he chose to talk about.

I listened to the interview a couple of times, transcribed it and used the photos of Melvyn Bragg and the Rembrandt portrait which appeared on the website to make some thumbnail sketches

before starting on a charcoal drawing and adding acrylic paint in washes

I adjusted the curves and colour balance in photoshop, using a soft light fusion for the duplicated layers.

Then I had the idea to make the image look like a slightly tatty postcard that was lying on the printed page

Using photoshop again I placed my image on a background of a scan of old, stained paper, 

cropped it, used the eraser to make the edges look worn, rotated it on a white background, curled it with the free transform function and then added a shadow with layer fx.

Finally I typed up the transcribed text, also in photoshop, following the format I had seen in other magazines. I used guides to divide the page into columns, even so it was a bit ‘trial and error’.

I think the image works well with the text, in terms of position and also I think it reflects the content well. There is the iconic Rembrandt pose and clothes and I think I have achieved a reasonable likeness of Melvyn Bragg; I’ve painted him with one ‘dead eye’ and one that’s lively to reflect his assessment of Rembrandt’s portrait and I’ve given him a pen to hold instead of a staff.

I think the portrait has a touch of humour without being a parody and in terms of the ‘time it took to make’ rule cited in the article, it should hold up to several viewings. 

Commission: CD cover for Merche Corisco

Brief

Context

            CD cover

Content

Portrait of the artist and hand drawn text: title and name

Role of Image

To decorate the CD cover and represent the artist to her audience, including text.

To convey happiness, optimism and wild-soul freedom

Audience

Music lovers of all ages

Stylistic aspect/ Effects

Pop / vintage / 20’s/ hand drawn / more warmth than purely graphic style/ asymmetrical but balanced / sun burst background / bright, happy colours / images in the hair /liberty/ breaking chains

Themes: happiness, wildness, freedom, soulfulness, nature, amazon jungle, open bird cage, flying birds Trombone, pisces fish, guitar, megaphone, skull and cross bones

Tools and Materials

Charcoal (?)drawing with digital manipulation

Size

Standard CD size12x12cm

Format 

            2xdigital: RGB jpeg for web; CMYK tiff/jpeg for print

A mutual friend showed Merche my website as she was looking for an artist to design the CD cover for her forthcoming release. We met to discuss the brief, she sent me some tracks, which were very impressive and then a week later I saw her in concert in a local bar - she is a phenomenal performer- full on sweaty, rocky, passionate and happy; it is such a privilege to have been commissioned by her....I hope I can live up to the task.

I took lots of photos and made some little videos at the concert and despite their poor quality they capture her presence very well so should be very useful while trying to catch the ‘essence’ in the illustration.

I made a few thumbnails and sent them via email

She liked them but felt that her facial expressions during live performance could come across as a bit contorted and so she sent me some images from her website that she particularly liked, along with some research material.

I selected three of the images she sent and made some more thumbnails and a line visual for each pose

LV1

LV2

LV3

I had some really positive feedback about the line visuals, she felt that #1 while beautiful was a bit too ‘good girl’ and that #2 and #3 both were stronger images, I tend to agree but #1 is my favourite so I made another version with a direct gaze trying to make it more seductive. I also cropped the image closer to make it more forceful.

In the end she chose LV2 but asked for longer hair.

I made some coloured line visuals in photoshop 

And after a phone discussion I sent a couple more permutations

I made some minor adjustments (made the name thicker, evened up the hair colour), added some texture and colour in Corel Painter using the airbrush tool and this is the finished cover

I then copied the motifs from the hair and pasted them to separate layers in a new document for use on the other pages, like the back cover shown here.

What did I learn from this project?

I jumped the gun at the beginning, before the client had actually sent me the photos, and then I spent a lot of time working on and developing roughs for my favourite idea without checking for specific feedback so the commission took more ‘man’ hours than were necessary.

Added to that I agreed to do the job for a lower fee than my original quote, partly because I am a student and feel lucky to get paid at all and partly because it was an interesting project with a local up and coming musician whose music I really enjoy and there was an opportunity for greater exposure of my work.

The original ‘contract’ was to just design the front cover but I ended up designing the back cover as well, for no extra fee.

Putting visual ideas into words is tricky at the best of times but in a second language it’s even harder. It worked much better when we actually sat down together to talk things through.

In the end this was a really enjoyable project and Merche is delighted with the results, it turned out that she had commissioned a couple of artists before me but wasn’t happy with the results so she was as relieved as I was when we finally hit the mark. 

Museum Visit: Guggenheim Bilboa

I was lucky enough to visit the Guggenheim museum during a recent trip to the Basque country, we only had one day there which wasn’t really enough to take in everything with equal concentration but it was a very inspiring experience.

The building itself is a gorgeous sweep of reflective elegance,

Jeff Koons’ Puppy, jewel bright in the sunshine, made me smile (although I thought it was a kitten) 

Puppy by Jeff Koons

and Louise Bourgeois’ Maman made me nervous (I’d seen it before in the Tate Modern and had similar feelings) for its sheer scale and spidery-ness; tourists couldn’t seem to pass her  without getting their photos taken draping their legs over one hers...I had no desire to touch her and felt creepy standing underneath to take a photo of her egg sack, despite finding her absolutely beautiful.

Maman by Louise Bourgeois

I made a few notes in my guide as I went around the inside galleries, capturing my immediate reactions

In retrospect, a week later, the piece which resonates with me the most is Robert Rauschenberg’s ‘Barge’ because, despite its lack of colour, I was fascinated and excited by the energy encapsulated in the layers of paint, collage, and repetitive screen prints. These are techniques which I would dearly love to bring together in my own artwork.

L’Art en Guerre

I am a bit embarrassed to report that I was little moved by Dali and Picasso ‘in the flesh’, in contrast to the exquisite drawings of Hans Bellmer, as well as his ‘Puppet’ with its erotic deformity.

I was also entranced by Felix Nussbaum’s ‘Self Portrait in a Camp’ which is a fascinating mix of dark luminosity, exquisitely painted detail and naively painted background figures. It really captured for me the horror of the unjust and inhuman treatment experienced by those detained by the Nazis and in particular his own tragic story at their hands.

Riotous Baroque

I thought the juxtaposition of modern art works (sculpture, film and paintings) with 17^th century paintings was a very clever way to show what Baroque is all about: excess, decadence and vitality; although I wasn’t convinced by the execution of some of the modern pieces (they just looked hurried or lazy and unskilled) in comparison to the fine 17^th century paintings. The modern pieces which worked best for me in this context were

Boris Mikhailov’s ‘Tea Coffee Cappuccino’  series of photographs of life in the Ukraine between 2000-2010  for their vibrant, no holds barred urban portraits of dirty melting landscapes and drunken celebratory people.

and

Marilyn Minter’s extraordinary huge works, painted from photographs taken through glass of subjects splashing about in a mixture of Vodka, glycerine and silver cake decorating powder. You’d never know they were painted unless someone told you or got right up close to look and they really convey a sense of flashy decadence and detached joy.

The Matter of Time

This series of towering rusty steel sculptures by Richard Serra was the first exhibit I visited and was a great introduction to the magnificent use of interior space in the museum. Walking around and between the beautifully textured walls was both fun and strangely disorientating; private, in the way that the rest of the space was cut off and uniting, in that you could hear the echoes of the voices and footsteps of the other visitors who you’d sometimes come across unexpectedly in the narrow rusty alleys. 

Kelly Grovier includes works by Louise Bourgeois, Jeff Koons and Richard Serra and Picasso (‘Guernica’ which is too fragile to be moved from its current location in Madrid to its spiritual home in the Basque country; we travelled through Gernica (local spelling) which is a fully recovered, bright bustling town with some excellent street art) in his list of 100 modern art works ‘likely to be remembered and discussed centuries from now’ in this Sunday Times article.

I totally agree.