Task: Find online social networks that connect with your work or present content that you’re interested in. Find a range that covers commercial opportunities, professional networking, archived work, learning opportunities, or discussions around illustration.

The usual suspects when it comes to artist friendly social media are: ArtStation, Behance, DeviantArt, Tumblr, Instagram, and Behance. ArtStation and Behance are both sites dedicated to helping professional creators showcase their art and get work. They offer artists an account to post their portfolio and resources to help improve and promote their professional careers. Artstation is generally oriented towards game design, concept art, 3d modeling and other similar pursuits, while Behance focuses on design, photography and illustration. DevientArt is perhaps the largest online art community and is open to anyone and everyone, hobbyist or professional. Tumblr is not really an art website, but it is used by many artists very successfully. Where ArtStation and Behance are about showing a portfolio and connecting with other artists and perhaps clients, DevientArt and Tumblr are about creating a close knit community. They encourage interaction between creator and audience. Instagram could also enter this category, though it is even less art-focused as a platform, Pinterest also deserves a honorable mention, because it is almost entirely image-based and creates an easy way to get one’s images to circulate on the web.

Recently, I have been looking into webcomics. There are several sites where webcomics can be read, including Tumblr and DeviantArt, but the two most successful are Webtoon and Tapas. They offer the webcomics entirely for free, though there are certain advantages if one wants to offer money like being able to read the next episode sooner. The app makes revenue from advertising and the funds are divided among the creators. (Though I am not sur the websites are mostly a way for small creators to get their work out there and start forming a fanbase.

Artists can use these websites to build a community around their content. Then, many will become open for commissions and/or set up a Patreon account, where people can go and sponsor an artist in exchange for rewards. Most also set up shops with prints or other types of merchandise such as t-shirts, pins, prints, etc. A larger community creates more opportunities for jobs, whether they come from individuals or companies. Perhaps the best case scenario would be for large companies to start noticing the artist, instead of the artist having to apply to the company.

(A small note on YouTube: A worthy inclusion in terms of content creating, however making video entertainment and making art are two very different disciplines. And it really is an entertainment platform nowadays, requiring much more than simply posting a video of yourself making something in order to be successful on there.)

These have been my general observations, but I am by no means well-educated on the subject. I may very well be wrong about how people on these platforms achieve success. Or if online success then equates with a successful artistic career. However, the importance of this subject in the modern age of technology cannot be overstated and bears not only thinking about, but also acting upon.

The first thing I will do is probably make a Behance account. I was not aware of the site at all before. I was aware of ArtStation, but never used it because their platform does not really suit illustrators. (Edit: Apparently I started signing up ages ago and never finished setting up the account. How typical of me.)

The second thing I will be doing is thinking about my approach to social media in general. Recently, I have been using a more analytical eye when looking at the way artists handle their socials. My approach has been to use social media as a portfolio and little else. Full disclosure: I am rather terrible when it comes to connecting digitally in general, not just with more specialized platforms. I understood that I should connect to the people who seem to enjoy my art, but I didn’t really get how. My approach to what I posted was also very haphazard. I most definitely had no intention of creating any sort of “community”. Quite the opposite. Just thinking about the idea is giving a bad taste in my mouth, frankly. The idea of purposefully making a spectacle of myself is not appealing. Reason why I do not tend to do it much in the first place.

But I do love visual storytelling. And any sort of storytelling. To some extent, that is what my accounts have been about. But I never tried to join or gather any sort of community around the subject. It is basic, really, as far as changes in approach go, but significant. Making and sharing content on the topic of stories sounds so much more appealing than posting work I hope looks good enough to be seen by the light of day and some other fifty sets of eyes that happen upon it.

Link to OCA forum discussion: ILLUSTRATION 2 – Responding to a Brief – Researching Social Networks – General forums – OCA Discuss (oca-student.com)

The beginnings of a Behance account:Sara Voaideș on Behance

Task: Look at the work of William Hogarth, James Gillray, George Cruikshank or other eighteenth century political satirists and pick out examples you think could be successfully re-worked for a contemporary audience. Strip away the layers of eighteenth-century meaning to establish the core symbolism and metaphors that make the satire work. Identify what would you replace with what to make this work for a contemporary setting.

The artist who truly made satirical cartoons what they are today is James Gillray (1756-1815). Others like Hogarth might have pioneered the craft and artists like Thomas Nast might have continued it, but James Gillray is where things truly take off for the medium. And no wonder, the man was a master at his craft, as can be seen in his clearly recognizable and very dynamic characters, and in his storytelling with composition, shape, facial expressions and text. Modern cartoonists still use many of the tropes and take similar approaches to his today.

The satire of James Gillray tend to come in two categories: political and social. The political cartoons criticise people and events directly related to politics whilst the social ones deal with trends and oftentimes comments on people in relation to social class, economic situation, and nationality. All cartoons dealing with current events are subject to being dated, though some can be relevant even after the events of that time are long passed. An example of a cartoon which gives us a glimpse of that time, but does not apply to the modern day is Elements of Skating which shows a trend people were apparently into at the time: using the wind and umbrellas to ice-skate.

However, it can be seen in Friend of the People that some subjects are relevant for today as well. People were taxed then as they are taxed now.

In Petit Souper — a la Parisiene is an example of satirical illustration which very clearly gives us commentary on the social and political views of that particular time, ones that cannot really translate to the modern day. After the September massacres of 1792, Gillray comments on the bloodthirst of the French revolutionaries by depicting them in a absolutely horrific light.

Steve Bell, a contemporary cartoonist, created a cartoon for the 1989 anniversary of the event. His image comments on James Gillray’s vilification of the French as a satirist by contrasting the heroic “model” with the horror on the man’s canvas.

Relevant Exercise: World Affairs

Task: Find examples of contemporary caricature and identify the elements of the drawing that help with the character recognition and where the caricature takes place. From the information contained in the drawing, how do you know who this person is? How has the illustrator exaggerated or embellished this visual information to provide a caricature? What are the connotations of their exaggerations?

Steve Bell (cartoonist freelancing for The Guardian since 1979) was very active during the Thatcher years, and is well-known for his portrayals of her. In one of his talks, he describes the way he observed hear face (or just faces in general) and exaggerated those features, like her large “staring” eye and one “hooded eye. He also describes on of his very first experiences at a Tory meeting and the way he felt he was among the undead, reason why the background in the first image looks like it came from a horror B movie. The caricature of Reagan is obviously meant to show a relationship rather than strictly just himself. Him and Thatcher are “marrying”, but given the difference in proportions and his devouring of her we can only assume that the agreement they came to was rather uneven. The drawings are gritty and the facial features are exaggerated in such a way as to highlight the worst in the public personas these politicians create on their international podiums.

Tom Richmond (cartoonist at MAD, Marvel, and others; former president of the National Cartoonist Society) is an American cartoonist and humorous illustrator. His work is largely focused on caricature and has been ever since he spent a summer drawing caricatures at a six flags park. Though not exactly flattering, the humorous approach he takes to caricature is much less mocking than Steve Bell’s work. We are meant to mock and laugh at the characters in Bell’s cartoons, Richmond’s have more a sense of laughing with the character. It’s much better natured and not at all cynical, despite the bulbous features and funny expressions. I suppose it matters if one gains a taste for making fun of people at a theme park or at a political conference.

Relevant Exercise: Caricature and Character

Task: Do some research into self-published comics, graphic novels, artist books or fanzines. Visit your local bookstore or find examples online. Find examples of self-publishing you find interesting or entertaining. Think about the form of this work. How has it been produced and what materials are used? Can you find examples of inventive use of paper, binding, folding or printing?

As shown in the first research point, most self-published stuff has moved online on various platforms. I believe most Tumblr and DeviantArt accounts can be considered digital fanzines. Many people on those platforms even end up printing anthologies of their work and selling them to the audience they have cultivated. Sometimes they form collaborations with other artists and create very high quality work which they print out and sell in limited-edition books.

Places like Webtoon (all comics), Tapas (comics and serialized novels), and Blurb (e-books, and printed books) are all excellent for more or less “serious” self-publishing endeavors. Though for smaller works almost any social media works just fine as long as one can post images. Most platforms allow multiple images in a single post, if the aim is to create an e-book like experience (though the number limit varies). Most will choose to space out the posts over time and create discussion around them. The artist can work on the comic or illustration series as they go this way, instead of needing to finish everything before “publishing”.

As I have recently started a Behance account, I think I might use the “project” function to post the work in the Self Publishing exercise. It allows for what is  basically a really long post which scrolls down and showcases the project and the process. It might look very similar to what I post on this blog, but much more succinct.

“Can we really say with confidence that the computer will only be a silent partner? Can’t some visionary artist create an illustration form that is unprecedented? Or is illustration an antiquated art that defies change and so will vanish? Film is an integral storytelling medium that bears no relationship to painting. Can the computer be an integral medium that changes the way we perceive and practice illustration?”

Steven Heller 2000

Task: Is there a clear distinction between digital and non-digital illustration? This might be in terms of style, production or the use of interactivity. Picking up on Steven Heller’s quote, what is the future for digital illustration?

The speedy evolution of technology in the past couple of decades has created the differences between digital and non-digital illustration. (1) New mediums always open up the possibility for new sorts of imagery and styles. Digital technologies have many different tools and programs, all of which can be considered a new medium. Style is greatly influenced by medium, and the digital images are readily recognizable in comparison to the traditional/non-digital because of the way the digital medium influences the visual aspects of the artwork. (2) Technology by definition, is a tool which helps a person achieve results in a more efficient, easy and/or high quality manner. Digital tools can be used to edit already existing works or create them from scratch. They allow easy interaction of different media from text to images to videos. (3) Digital tools changed the style of illustration and allow illustrators to create higher quality work with less effort.  Because technology has become so ubiquitous, almost anyone can have the ability to make use of the tools available and create relatively high quality work in printed materials such as flyers or invitations, photo manipulation and even video editing. (4) Because of the internet and social media, now most illustration work is not for print, but for a digital space.

(1) The look of digital artwork is clean more than anything. This can be an asset or something to combat depending on what one is making. Of course, traditional image-making is also “clean” but it has inherent texture, unlike the completely clear white pixels of light on a digital screen. The most common sort of digital illustration is the vectoral type which is composed of simple shapes, colors and gradients, usually with little texture. However, digital illustration is also done in a painterly manner. Concept art for video games usually makes use of this style. Digital painting varies in style as much as regular painting does, but the artist must choose to either work with or against the medium itself. One can create an artwork which “looks like it’s a real painting” or artwork which looks purely digital. This usually comes down to texture, composition and loud colors. If one wants to make a digital image which looks traditional there must be a balance of texture and depth of color which will fool the eye into thinking the work is done traditionally. It will also often employ traditional painting compositional cues, whilst a more modern-leaning illustration will either be inspired by poster art or film.

(2) Digital art is incredibly flexible. Traditional art is set in figurative or literal stone once finished. For example, vector images are easy to resize and can be used for anything from a billboard to a keychain. The sharpness, clear geometry and flexibility of digital artwork is especially desirable in this instance. It far surpasses the usefulness of a traditional illustration, because it would take much longer to create the same result in a traditional medium even for a single instance the image would be used in. Before, if one wanted to use the image in a different instance, it had to be re-done from scratch. Now it is the work of one or two clicks. In a painting scenario, the artist may want to give the client different versions of the same artwork. Traditionally, a painter would have created small versions of the same artwork on paper or canvas. Now the artist may simply duplicate their image multiple times and cut down their time by days if not weeks if they manage to weed out the bad options early.

(3) Easy access to technology means that more people are capable of making things which once would have needed professional assistance. Traditional illustration or typography requires years of training. Free programs can be used to make flyers, business cards, menus, photo albums, etc. Some results may be better than others but, if the maker doesn’t venture into garishness, results can be decent to very well done. Where incorporating text and image would once have been difficult, it is now not a problem. Photo editing and manipulation can also be done fairly easily on one’s telephone or computer.

(4) Perhaps the biggest change to the world of illustration would be the fact that much of it is not even printed anymore. Websites, social media, and other digital platforms use images that would never see ink or paper, which is an unprecedented phenomenon. It changes the way they are created the way we interact with images physically. The image is ephemeral in a way it wasn’t before, made of dots of light and lines of code.

An important point is that the process the artist uses to create artwork can switch back and forth between digital and traditional. They are all tools at our disposal. We must choose the most appropriate tools we have available to create a piece of work whether it is product design, a logo, children’s book illustration, or newspaper comic strips. The requirements of the client must be met, and that will often dictate the medium, but the illustrator may start their work in a traditional manner, then transfer it to a digital program or vice versa. Of course, this means that one must be proficient in both. An illustrator may be dammed for not having one or the other. Theoretically one can get work whilst being proficient in only one area, but probably not for long. A traditional illustrator will need to scan and edit their work eventually and a primarily digital illustrator will plateau in their skill level if they never touch pencil and paper.

It’s safe to say that digital illustration is not just the future, but the present.  It is very different from traditional or non-digital illustration in its visuals, production and interactivity and it seems that it is very much here to stay. Steven Heller was more than correct when he predicted that the computer changes the practice of illustration. Not so long ago, most illustrative work was for print but now most professional illustrative work is for a digital space. A digital space most often requires a digital image. Even when working with print, using a digital medium is inevitable because then the images can be manipulated, resized, and edited into whatever they are meant for (posters, books, etc.). The size and format requirements of the publication can be met with a simple click, but images can now be flexible enough to be used for anything from a billboard or a social media post. The digital and the non-digital are both indispensable mediums for the modern illustrator.

Metamorfoze 2021 – Artă Stradală (Târgu Mureș)

Happily, the city of Târgu Mureș does encourage street art. For some years there have been street art festivals (with small prizes) which have gathered artists from here and from other cities to paint our city in murals. Some of the works are more accomplished than others, but anything is better than the dilapidated vista of concrete with 20th century communist sensibility that we must look upon daily in many parts of the city.  We also do have a bit of a graffiti tagging problem, but so do a lot of other urban areas. As far as I’m concerned the simple difference between street art and tagging buildings is that one is meant to add to the landscape and community and the other is not.

Not all our street art is murals! In this short article about the 2018 festival, one can also see sculptures made out of recyclable materials and a mosaic bench.

I don’t consider myself a street art aficionado, but it makes my day just a little more colorful and bright when I pass these works when walking around in my city.

Task: Look at a range of illustrators and artists who use paper as a medium rather than just a surface within their work. How have they used paper and what processes have they put it through?

Zim and Zou

Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmerman are two former graphic designers who took a 180 and decided they preferred paper art installations. They create their projects entirely by hand in a painstaking and detailed process.

On their website, they say that the  paper gives their “installation the poetry of ephemeral material”.

Their design backgrounds are very apparent when one observes their elaborate installations. Every detail is clean, well thought out and geometrically pleasing. This applies not only to the overall work (most of which tends to be at least a cubic meter in dimensions) but to every element which takes part in the piece, from the floating zeppelins to the little button son the astronaut’s console.

Raya Sader Bujana

Bujana is a paper artist, art director and set designer, though she likes to think of her work as “something between illustration and sculpture, with a strong focus on details and care at the heart of it all.”

She has worked with 7up, Coca-Cola, Swarovski and many others. Her work can best be described as warm. Her background in architecture can best be seeing in her commissioned work. But even the product designs look very charming and homey. In her personal work, she seems to love experimenting with creating paper plant- life. The plants almost do look alive if not necessarily real.

In general, Bujana’s work is much smaller and her “sets” are not imposing. The focus is on the little details.

My favorite pieces are the ones she made for the Olympics. Her work tends to be very colorful, which is a big reason why the first impression I had of it was warmth, but these pieces are all white. She still manages to give them life. Her layered sculptures seem to be moving and they look so human, despite their paper compositions.

She seems to use a variety of techniques from simple cutting and layering to using folding, creping, wrapping and weaving. The technique is determined by the texture demanded by the subject., anything to create the effect the sculpture requires. This is best demonstrated in her plant sculptures. I am guessing she does not paint the paper, but purchases the required colors and textures or works with what she has on hand, though I do not think she uses discarded things or ephemera. Her work looks too clean and deliberate for that.

Li Hongbo

Task: Do some research into artists and illustrators who have used ceramics as a surface for their image-making. You might also want to look at ceramicists who have a strong link with image making in their work. Find contemporary examples as well as exploring older ceramic traditions. What sort of motifs feature regularly? Could you say there’s a visual language of ceramics?

Ancient Greek Pottery and Chinese Pottery

Pottery is one of the most ancient forms of art, existing since the Neolithic era. It is at least one of the forms which has managed to survive in more or less intact form to this day, allowing us to study it. Pottery from all over the world and from many different time periods has been unearthed, and many have decoration. Designs differ from region to region and are dependent on the available materials, however there are patterns which emerge regardless of area and material. Designs will often feature repeating geometrical patterns (some which resemble things in nature such as waves or horns and some which do not), stylized objects such as fruit, leaves, or animals and stylized  humans with or without man-made objects.

The decoration on pottery will sometimes be dependent on the use of that particular sort of pot. A Greek amphora (meant for storing wine) would be decorated with images of Dionysus (god of wine), while a funerary vase would be painted with the image of a funeral procession. Kylix cups, which were often used for drinking wine at symposiums, would sometimes depict the image of a man defeating a centaur. This was a reminder for the drinker not to forget themselves to their baser nature because of the alcohol.

In Chinese pottery symbolism is used heavily. A dragon would oftentimes represent wisdom or prosperity (and in special cases, the Emperor), a phoenix would represent high virtue and grace (or the empress) an image of young boys playing would represent being blessed with male heirs. Most symbolism is based in homophones, for example: “bat” means “good fortune” and “crane” sounds like “harmony”. Some symbolism also comes form Chinese mythology such as the popular image of the peach, which was said to grow in the orchard of the gods, and the image of the gods of good fortune (holding a child), prosperity (holding a scepter), and longevity (holding tall staff and peach).

There isn’t really a universal visual language for pottery, but themes can remain the same. Some things are universal such as water, sun, and fruit all of which are popular symbols everywhere. Another common theme is the depiction of stories. The stories themselves differ, obviously, but the simple fact that humans like to decorate their vessels with stories told either to educate or entertain remains fairly ubiquitous.

Don Moyer, Patti Warashina, Grayson Perry

Modern pottery is generally less concerned with telling stories using illustration. At least as far as I can tell, many modern potters prefer to play with form and glaze instead, creating sculptural pieces using a variety of creative techniques. However, there are some who combine illustration with pottery still.

Don Moyer continues the tradition of the Willow Pattern. The Willow Pattern is the English take on the traditional Chinese blue on white ceramic art, created when Europeans still had not quite figured out how the Chinese managed to create porcelain in the first place. The early attempts mostly failed until they managed to create a visually similar effect by covering clay pots with lead. Europe did manage to uncover the process behind porcelain about two hundred years after they first had contact with the mysterious material (the year was 1709). Moyer uses an echo of the traditional style and similar colors, but the subject is often playful, with dinosaurs and robots teeming among the traditional pagodas and trees.

Patti Warashina’s work is generally sculptural, but she also features illustrative elements on occasion. Her “Stacked Pyramids” and “Altars” series both use the form of the clay in order to play with the two dimensional and three dimensional elements of the piece. Different sides of the pyramids show different angles of the image trapped inside and the altars morph between the flat (but 3D looking) portrait to hands which are truly three dimensional.

Grayson Perry, on of Britain’s most loved contemporary artists, enjoys overlapping the classic forms of Greek pottery with artwork depicting difficult subjects such as abuse and abandonment. His work is often auto-biographical and draws much from his early childhood trauma as well as more general social issues. The images are generally very busy, full of overlapping forms, textures and colors, but they are very well-balanced by the simple, classic form of the Greek-style vases.