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what's it all about?

© Suzanne Hill

Illustration is an exciting and intensely satisfying field in art and self-expression. It can be difficult to precisely describe as a specific art form - it has vague definitions that cross over into "fine" arts, graphic arts, graphic design, and visual communication. This topic, "Illustration and Illumination," will explore illustration as a unique art form, one where the artist uses drawing skills to make pictures that describe or tell stories, that make obvious the artist's opinion, or act as decorative elements. In short - to describe, to comment, and to decorate. I want to impart to my readers my passion for the art of illustration.

Illustration in its varied forms is found in many disciplines. The first that comes to mind is book publishing. Remember the pleasure of opening up a story of Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat, Sam-I-Am, or Horton who Hears a Who, and how the pictures added so much to the delightfully goofy text? Or the pleasure of reading to your kids Grimm's fairy tales with Maurice Sendak's deliciously wicked renditions and Lisbeth Zwerger's haunting and evocative paintings? Certainly the books would be lacking something vital without those illustrations.

Then there's hand lettering, calligraphy, greeting cards, posters. I would also include in this category the illuminated manuscript from its ancient use in medieval libraries and scriptoriums to a modern application as personalized logos and monograms and renderings of poems. There's the editorial market including illustrations, covers, spots, and cartoons in a myriad of magazines, newspapers, and newsletters. How about the whole marketing and advertising realm involving brilliant and persuasive product packaging, print ads, brochures, T-shirt imagery, and marketing materials like restaurant menus?

While perhaps less heady, there's the field of precise and detailed scientific illustration for biological, botanical, zoological, medical, or archaeological journals, and descriptive cut-away technical drawings for automobile, transportation, and construction industries (for an example see cutaway diagrams). I would add hand-rendered illustrations used in the fashion industry, though impacted by photography and video, and in decorative imagery and patterning used in the textile industry to enhance gift wrap, tiles, carpet, and wallpaper. Finally, there are the charts, symbols, models, graphs, diagrams, and maps used in presentations and journals for informational purposes.

A freelance illustrator's career is well explained in The Complete Guide to Advanced Illustration and Design. Picture an advertisement for a career as an illustrator that begins: "The position of..." As the book explains, here's the first problem-there are no "positions." The few salaried jobs are as medical illustrators for technical fields, or as cartoonists for newspapers. Basically all illustrators are self employed and find work based on their ability, wits, perseverance, and quality of portfolio work. There is plenty of work for illustrators, but huge financial rewards are often elusive because of the limitations of the solitary and hand-created nature of the work.