Style research exercise & Mentors
-
I finally got around to composing some of my favorite illustrators into a single view and stepped back asking questions from @Lee-White 's questionnaire. This was a good exercise going beyond just creating a Pinterest board of things I like. I whittled it down to a top 5 that I'd love be like "when I grow up" as an illustrator. I also have a handful that I know influence/inspire me but I'm not trying to look like them...I just feel inspired by their style, I guess.
My degree is in fine art and my full time job is graphic design. Everything I've learned about children's book illustration is through SVSLearn or Storyteller Academy. I am SO excited about the new curriculum coming for children's book illustration. I just started on this journey a couple years ago and I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. But this industry just FEELS like my calling so I'll just have to start at 40
Here are my mentors. I also noted what I liked about each one. I welcome any suggestions of similar illustrators if you think you know of someone I may have missed.
I realized that my style could probably be punched up color-wise. I didn't realize I was avoiding saturated colors when I'm actually really in love with colorful compositions. I also noticed that lighting is not important which was a new discovery for me.
Lastly in regards to theme I found that I liked illustrations that look like a scene from a story - something to make me what to turn the pages and find out what happens next. Not too clever or symbolic...just a snapshot on a journey.
Great assignment for me!
image url)
-
Love it! I'd recommend putting up a collage of some of your pieces here as well, so we can see how they compare.
