Monday, 10 October 2016

Discussion: Practice

Illustrators each have an individual practice. This defines elements such as the techniques, processes and methods that are used, the thought process, ideology and recurring themes that are respond to (which may be specific or subtle), the type of environment the work exists within, as well as the unique business sense, promotional aspects, clients and presence in the media or on social media.

Expanding knowledge and practical skills is key which can be fulfilled through researching and refining themes and ideas, expanding self-knowledge of a subject as well as the resources. A practice should be informed by research, investigation and experimentation. Looking at other practitioners is also very beneficial to get a sense of what is being created and what already exists. Illustrators need to channel their own thoughts and opinions; creating responses and pushing the boundaries of method and application. In terms of style, each illustrator has their own set of visual devices and individual take on creating pictures - how they translate a subject and choose the media to represent it with, as well as the subject matter that is selected to respond to. At the same time it is not just about style, that isn't the only definition of an illustrator's practice. It involves current and past clients and connections, the landscape that the work lives in, the ability to solve problems, ask questions and tackle the subject matter through their illustration effectively.

Style comes from someone's individual personality, ideology, life experience, influences, interests, mistakes, experiments, personal motifs, consistency and coherency in visual language and devices. There is a problem with the idea of a 'style' - it can be a very limiting and suffocating thing to have in your work but paradoxically it is, indeed, a thing that exists and helps us to identify artists and illustrators by the personal stamp they put on their work. People can be too fixated on having a personal style but it isn't something that should be forced as your portfolio will be derivative. The work of an illustrator should not just be a copy of someone else's because the techniques and visual problem solving were desirable - it is our job to make sense of and interrogate what we like about the style and bring elements of it into what we are doing, recognising there is something authentic being conveyed through improvisation and making that organic and natural to our own image-making.

A style can instead be described as a tone of voice or personal expression - often used when describing the aesthetics of a medium or a piece of work. When we draw we have lots of systems; keep testing, being speculative and trying new ways of solving the problem. Nurture another illustrator's approach but make it your own. Take style and recognise what may be communicated when talking about practice. Sketchbooks are key as they represent the sense of self within the experimentation and clearly describe the process of making marks.

To summarise, defining elements of an illustrator's practice can include their clients, projects / exhibitions, locality / upbringing, knowledge, life experience, heritage / family history, employment and / or additional jobs, time period / era, tools, alternative perceptions, sub-culture or counter-culture and ethical or political views. Illustration as a discipline has sparked discussion that it no longer stands for anything with political or ethical ideology.

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