A few months ago, I booked a last minute trip to Nîmes for a new illustration festival Nimes s’Illustre. Finally a festival for me (!) and an independent escape to the South of France (something I forget you can do in a day thanks to the tgv fast train). The biggest takeaway from my provencial spree was when I presented 10 years of illustrations at a portfolio review, the work that spoke the most was a postcard backdrop I showed at the last minute on my cracked iphone.
Insert: shrug and minor ego bruise. Potential clients and art directors (the people who commission illustrations) prefer seeing personal stuff. It’s more about the ignition of an idea instead of making something formulaic. Think of it as giving them what they didn’t know they wanted yet.
Inspiration for me is like a strike of lightening. An idea will strike me over the head and I have 10 minutes before the electric jolt dies down like nothing ever happened. It’s not just the inspiration but the promise of the potential fun had if it is pursued.
As an art professor, I’ve noticed something in illustration and drawing students. They may know that they love drawing but haven’t yet determined what to draw yet. When you get an illustration commission, you aren’t just thrown to the wolves. An art director chooses you for your style (oftentimes after seeing personal work, wink wink) and will send you the concept of what you will illustrate, a moodboard of reference images and you always have to keep in account the identity of the publication. Nonetheless, you aren’t shooting in the dark. I broke down my process of conceptualizing a visual idea with a formula of three parts: existing imagery (images or icons of things that represent the concept at hand), concept/emotion/idea (what are you trying to say?) and the client (yourself, pretentious indie mag, your bff, mainstream newspaper etc). When you are working for yourself, you are essentially your own art director, making all of these decisions from the get. For me, once I have all these elements identified and have done the background work, I can just wait for inspiration to strike. Try it out for yourself and let me know how you get on.
Questions to ask yourself for this week’s assignment:
-Do you ever feel deeply moved by an idea? How does it make you feel in your body?
-How will you capture an idea before it escapes into the universe ready to strike the next artistic personality-inflicted person? Jot it down in a journal? Leave a voice message? A chicken scratch in a sketchbook? Sleep next to a dream journal?
-If you are creating an illustration by breaking down the idea into the three parts mentioned above: existing imagery, concept/emotion/idea and the client.
-If you’re not an artist in the literal sense, how does seeing beauty inspire you in a deep way? How can you articulate it or save it for a later date?
Keep inspired, dear readers. And don’t drink the watercolor water.
Have any questions for an upcoming newsletter? Please add them in a comment below.
-jkw
I ABSOLUTELY love these "postcards". Why an ego bruise, how did they react?
RE on chicken sketch: two weeks ago I got a commission for a book cover, an incredible feminist book about objects that defined the history of women. I was so excited, then I started drawing and I couldn't wrap my head around all the ideas (and a bit of pressure to represent it well) in my head. I sat and I drew 10 mini sketches, explored the ideas and finally drew only three. So yes, when people ask me about the advice I always say "chicken sketch for the win".