Recently I was asked to answer some questions about what I loved about illustration. I have never really given this much thought. I knew the benefits but for me it was something I was driven to do.
Here are the questions and answers.
What do you love about illustrating?
Drawing or illustrating (to communicate ideas visually) has been something that I have always done for as long as I can remember; it has been and as essential as breathing. This may have started when I would have to entertain myself while my Mother was working long hours to make a living.
There are many reasons I love to illustrate: it helps to entertain me; create something beautiful from nothing, aside from some art materials; it allows me to create my own worlds filled with colour, light and pattern; to be able to create the illusion of a three dimensional world on a flat surface; it allows me to produce beautiful things that I can share; it is meditative and allows me to forget about time and totally immerse myself in creating something new; it allows me to communicate ideas more effectively than verbal or textual communication can; and it makes me more observant of the details in the world around me so that I might include some of these in my work, and hopefully, make others aware of the beautiful details around us that they might normally overlook.
What inspires you to create?
All of the points I have mentioned above and I have always been a fan of still life and all that it entails: food, flowers, nature and pattern so I love to create my own versions of still life. The works of other artists and architects through history, nature and fashion also inspires me.
How long have you been illustrating and designing why have you continued?
I have been illustrating and designing as a job for just over 30 years. My schoolbooks were always filled with illustrations and carefully rendered headings wherever possible, so the career path I should take was easy to see, although it takes reflecting on the past to realise this.
I trained as a Graphic Designer but I actually really wanted to be an illustrator at a time when illustration courses were not as readily available as they are now. After a period in industry, I ended up teaching Visual Communication at The University of Newcastle for almost 25 years, which included the teaching of drawing and illustration.
After leaving teaching, I decided that I would focus more on my own illustration, as it was still my passion. The only thing that has changed is that I use paint most of the time and my years of constant practice and learning have finally made me feel more confident of my abilities. I now enjoy the process and all that is involved even more.