Friday 19 March 2010

Wise words

A similar mail sent to Steve Mack as that I sent to Hannah Shaw.

Hello,

My name is Sarah Hilton, I came across your work online when searching children's book illustrations, and was fascinated with your unique caricature designs.

I have recently graduated from Liverpool John Moores and attained a First Degree in Illustration. I have always been inspired by children's book Illustrations, yet I am unsure if my work belongs in this design field. I know how busy you must be but I have enclosed a few samples of my work. I would value your opinion, if your have a spare few moments to look over them; to progress myself further in the Design Industry.

Kind Regards from an aspiring Illustrator,

Sarah Hilton.



And his reply..

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for emailing me! I took a look at your pdf and I really like the 
direction you have. There is a strong consistency in your work and I 
like the textural aspects of it.

I think you will find as you go along after graduation that your work 
will take many different turns. You have the talent, that's for sure! 
Find out what comes naturally and doesn't feel like work to you and 
you'll find your place.

Best,
Steve

Steve Mack - children's book Illustration


I have only recently come across Steve Mack's work. It fascinates me! His use of texture and colour within his illustrations is marvelous.. and they are simple! 

His figures are unique and stylistic, again he has used textures to put emphasis within his images..

He has created a number of illustrations for greetings cards, and produced children's picture books. Maybe I'm just seeing it myself but it reminds me quite of the work of Jim Flora. Fantastic!

An inspiring influence


Whilst I have been considering childrens book illustrations, which I must add, I need a lot more developement with, i began researching into various publishers. I came across the work of Hannah Shaw, who woks for Chicken House publishing. Her work is very much a drawing based medium, and oppositly different in style to my own, her work inspired me on a different level. I wanted to know what it takes to become an illustrator like her.

And so..
I mailed her..

Hello,

My name is Sarah Hilton, I came across your work on the 'Chicken House Publishing' website and was fascinated by your book Illustrations.

I have recently graduated from Liverpool John Moores and attained a First Degree in Illustration. I have always been inspired by children's book Illustrations, yet I am unsure if my work belongs in this design field. I know how busy you must be but I have enclosed a few samples of my work. I would value your opinion, if your have a spare few moments to look over them; to progress myself further in the Design Industry.

Kind Regards from an aspiring Illustrator,

Sarah Hilton.



She replied..

Hi Sarah,

Your work is really nice and has a unique style.
It would work really well for editorial/ advertising possibly even in
child based media/ design.

I'm not so sure it holds the particular narrative qualities often looked
for by picture book editors and art directors and if you do want to
progress into picture books I suggest you work more on characterisation.

Appealing characters combined with a different but saleable illustration
technique is what most art directors look for when commissioning new
talent.

I suggest you do think about doing the following if you really want to
work in children's books:

* Get some work experience in children's publishing. Having been on the
publishing side of things will give you greater insight about the industry
as a whole.

* Work on producing a mock-up picture book with an existing story of your
choice.

* Send the mock-up to publishers/ agents and get feedback.

* Read Martin Salisbury's book on illustrating picture books.

Good luck

Hannah x


And so now a mock up picture book will commence.. whether or not it will come out successful is another matter.. but who knows until you try.. I knew I needed to characterise more when completing my degree.. but when i tried I felt it didnt blend so much with my work.. i always relied upon silhouettes for characters.. so much of illustration today is character based but not all illustrations need it, depending on the field.. I know i want characters within my work, now is the time to develop that.

Wednesday 17 March 2010

A smile towards the sun..

As any of you will know, who have onlooked this blog.. it has been a scarcely long time since I even attempted a post. The only answer I have for this has been sheer laziness.. yet.. i have always had the thought in the back of my mind.. to actually do something with myself.. within the art industry, of course! For all present students who read this.. for heavens sake, when you have graduated dont stop there.!. But who am I to give good advice.. 

I suppose what stopped me, if I'm honest is that I know I had developed my own style within Illustration, but I never really felt that my work fitted in a specific field of illustration.. It didn't posses the cliche of an editorial and it wasn't quite suited to childrens book illustration.

I left my head stuck in the clouds from here.. I didn't know where I fitted in.

One thought always stuck in my head.. 

..

..

When I was lucky enough to attend the annual D&AD trip, Matthew Richardson offered me some thoughtful praise upon my recent work - the circus book.. and he mentioned I look into 'Walker books'.
My first thought was book design? Who am I to do book design?
yet the comment has stayed with me, in hope that some miraculous encounter will happen where one day i will infact illustrate books.

Now it may not be my field, but i have always felt my work lacking in characterisation.. so Im going to give it a go..

who knows what will happen..