PPP Session Notes

DRAWING / IMAGE MAKING / ILLUSTRATION

Illustration: communication and problem solving.

Trying to communicate something, driven by a problem.

Can anything be illustration?

What can illustration be?

Where is illustration?

Trying to define illustration just brings up more questions.

Focus on the questions and asking more questions, not the answers.

PRODUCTS / CONTEXT / FUNCTION

Illustration is a complex term to define. It can be many different things.

What do I WANT illustration to be? - to fit in with my personal preferences

What do I NEED illustration to be? - to work within the industry

Change and growth - continual investigation and asking questions will direct my practice in a personalised direction.

ILLUSTRATION IS A JOB.

Does that mean that all illustration has to have a price tag?

Commercial illustration - will this impact on creative freedom?

What makes me, me, in this industry?

Publishing and books design

Editorial and reportage (either brief led or documentation with an individual direction)

Character and narrative

Product and packaging

Retail and merchandise (shops, merchandise products)

Object and environment (wall art, community based, etc)

*They all crossover.

Constantly experience as much as you can.

Have a bank of inspiration.

Still learning - developing knowledge, skills, values, preferences.

Behaviours, how am I motivated? Commercially/ethically/both.

Combination of formal and non-formal learning.

How do I know when I've learnt what I have needed to learn?

The link between what I WANT and NEED to learn.

College teaches me what I NEED to learn. I teach myself what I WANT to learn.

Independent research should be continuous.

Creative people answer questions with more questions. Explore and make decisions.

A lot of these cross over into numerous categories but they connect with each category in a different way. For example…

BOOK - in relation to publishing… what makes the book itself, the cover, the inside illustrations, etc.

- in relation to retail… all about selling, what makes a product sell, the promotional products around it, merchandise, etc.

CHARACTER  - in relation to narrative you have to invent a world for the character to exist in. 

- in relation to product it is more about the aesthetics of the character. 

Build up my own catalogue of resources - what is illustration to me?