Careers in Art:
Illustration
As you should remember, illustration is art that tells a story or goes
with words. Illustration is applied art, meaning it is applied to a
product like a book, a magazine, or a greeting card.
Norman Rockwell is probably the most famous American illustrator.
Illustration is similar to graphic design. Being an illustrator
involves doing artwork for companies.
The difference between an illustrator and a graphic designer
is that an illustrator doesn’t create layouts or advertising but
creates pictures that go with
stories or words.
The most common illustrations you see are on books.
A painting on the cover of a book that shows a scene from
the story inside is a good example of illustration
Here are two different covers for the
novel, Sula, by Toni Morrison.
These covers don’t reveal very much
about the story but do show a
character from the book.
But books are just one example!
Illustrations appear in magazines,
comic books, greeting cards, music
albums, games, etc. etc.
This unit is going to look at several
different fields that illustrators work in,
some famous illustrators
and what the career of illustration is
all about.
Book Illustration
Perhaps the most prestigious job in the illustration field is doing the cover
of a book. Usually an artist is chosen by the publisher and asked to create
a cover. (A famous author might be able to choose an illustrator but it’s
usually up to the company.)
First of all, the cover should attract people to the book on the shelf of the
bookstore. But the cover should also tell us something about the story
by showing characters or scenes from the book, or by conveying
a feeling, mood, or theme.
Just like with graphic designthe use of color is important and
will affect how people see the book. Often a graphic designer will also
be involved in creating a book cover
by doing the lettering.
There have been many famous
illustrators known for their
book illustrations.
One of these is N.C. Wyeth.
N.C. Wyeth painted many classics
like Treasure Island and Robin Hood.
N.C. Wyeth was a great painter who
captured the sense
of wonder in the stories he illustrated.
He was also very good at painting
scenes with a strong feeling of light
and shadows.
Another famous or classic illustrator is British artist, Arthur Rackham.
Arthur Rackham often did Illustrations for classics, children’s books, and
fantasy stories.His paintings are usually highly detailed with subtle colors.
Many of the best illustrators do paintings for
science fiction and fantasy books. This is one
of the biggest markets for illustration work. An
illustrator is needed to show the imaginary
settings and characters that the author has
created out of his or her mind.
The Hildebrandt Brothers are two illustrators
named Greg and Tim Hildebrandt. They are
brothers who are famous for their great
fantasy/sci-fi illustration.
They have done
illustrations for
text books, children's
books, calendars,
book covers, posters,
comic books,
advertisements,
movie posters,
production design for films,
collectables and trading card games. They
gained real fame after they created the original
Star Wars movie poster. You will notice that a lot
of their paintings have a strong a strong
contrast between warm and cool colors. In
these two Star Wars illustrations see the way
they have used yellow
and orange to make things stand out against
dark blue colors.
They’ve also done
illustrations of characters
from Lord of the Rings.
They’ve done superheroes
too!
Many other great illustrators work in the field of Children’s Book Illustration.
This is another large market for artwork because children’s books always have lots of pictures.
Notice the wide variety of styles used in Children’s Book illustrations. Sometimes even the same
artist uses a variety of styles depending on what the publisher is looking for.
There have been several famous creators of children’s books. Two of the most well known are
Maurice Sendak and Dr. Seuss.
Maurice Sendak created the popular children’s story,
Where The Wild Things Are. He also created other
characters and books like Really Rosie, and In the
Night Kitchen.
Dr. Seuss is the pen name of Theodore Seuss Geisel, a famous
artist and creator of children’s books. He created the famous Cat in
the Hat and Grinch characters, which have been in books, cartoons,
and even live-action movies.
Illustrations don’t just appear in books though! They appear in
magazines, on video games, greeting cards etc. etc. Illustrators also
do concept sketches for animation and movies.
Most illustrators get a bachelor of fine arts degree and study art
techniques as well as art history.
Many illustrators work as freelance artists, meaning they do not
always keep regular hours or get regular paychecks. Many work at
home or in studios. To succeed under these conditions, you need to
be self-motivated and disciplined. You also need to continually
promote yourself in order to get jobs.