Throughout the connections module, we were encouraged to reach out to an international illustrator. I decided to do an email correspondence with C.F Payne, his answers were interesting to read and his perspective on illustration in America is quite remarkable. I first contacted him on the March 1st, for which he was very helpful with answering my questions. C.F Payne is an American illustrator and caricaturist, for which his work is commonly found on the Time, Sports illustrated and national geographic magazines. There are many others magazines he has done throughout his illustration career. His caricaturists are remarkably outstanding and create a sense of humour and identity with the characters. The Obama editorial is considered one of my favourites in relation to his work, especially since he exaggerated the proportions to make them seem over the top and quirky. I choose an email correspondence as an easier way to connect, rather than going through a online interview. For which If I decided to follow through with an online interview the different times zones would of needed to be taken into consideration, therefore deciding to take an email correspondence would be easier. I hope you find this interesting to read, here is the following email correspondence.

Here is his website for anyone interested in his illustrations: Work — C.F. Payne Illustration

1. Why did you become an illustrator? 

C.F Payne: “I became an illustrator because I like to draw. As long as I can remember, I liked to draw. I remember the drawings I did before I was in elementary school. That would be when I was 4 and 5 years old. I remember the drawings I did all the way through my early years. I drew so much, I got into trouble at school for not paying attention to the teacher’s lessons because I so focused on my drawings. After high school, I decided to go college to study art. When I arrived at Miami University in the fall of 1972 it seemed all the students were wanting to become abstract expressionists. The only place I found my home was in illustration.”

2. What would you say to someone considering a career in illustration? 

C.F Payne: “Illustration has to be your passion. This means always learning about illustration and illustrators. There is such an amazing history to the art of illustration. There are so many artists to be inspired by and learn from just by studying their art. Get to know other illustrators working in your area, if you can find them. Talk to them. Listen to them. Learn from them. Illustration is a business that is always in a state of flux. Many of the jobs I had available to me in my early years aren’t there. Meanwhile, the idea of selling my art to someone in Spain or Ireland was not possible back then too. Now it is. Young illustrators are finding their own ways of dealing with the new markets, Again, this is why you need to get to know other illustrators.”

3. What is your favourite editorial piece that you have created for the times magazine? 

C.F Payne: “I have two pictures that are memorable. The first is a Time Magazine cover that was about the Baseball Strike that was about to happen. Is it my best work? No. But, that picture had to be created from start to finish and delivered in less than one day. I got the call on a Friday afternoon while I was teaching at Syracuse University. The finished art had to be in New York City by early Saturday afternoon. It was the tightest deadline for a major publication I had to meet.”

C.F Payne: “The other image is the Barack Obama Inauguration cover because of the history of that moment. The deadline was tight as usual, but not as tight as the baseball image.”

4. How do you create your caricatures? How long does it take to plan and create? 

C.F Payne: “I create my caricatures by simply drawing them out. They start as gesture sketches. If I could see the likeness of the person in my sketch, I knew I could get it in the tighter sketch. I find pushing the features in the sketch phase works best. Often it takes multiple sketches to get the one I like. How long does it take? As you would expect, some come fast, others can be a struggle.”

5. What is your least favourite brief that you have been given ? 

C.F Payne: “I think the hardest jobs are the ones I can’t find something interesting to in the job and yet I know will take a great deal of time. Early in my years I had to take on jobs like that because I had bill to pay. It is not so much the case now.”

6. What is your typical working week like? 

C.F Payne: “My work week now is different from what you may imagine. Yes, I am an illustrator. But, I am also the director of the MFA in Illustration Program at the Hartford Art School. The Hartford MFA in Illustration is the only low residency MFA solely dedicated to the art of illustration in the US. During this COVID pandemic, school has been very time consuming.”

C.F Payne: “My day usually starts around 7:30-8AM. I work in the mornings on my school duties, such as answering emails, reading papers or reviewing art. Later in the day, I try to find the time to work ono assignments. There are times, I have to turn down assignments because school now come first. My day usually ends around 9PM as I once again review my email to see if I need to address any student work or concerns. I work most weekends too. I try to keep it to either the Saturday or the Sunday, but not both.”

7. What is your favourite medium you enjoy working with? 

C.F Payne: “I work a lot with mixed media. Acrylics are probably my dominant medium. I create my drawings with colored pencils.”

8. What would you consider your strengths and weaknesses in illustration?

C.F Payne: “My strength is people, my weakness are atmospheric things like complicated interiors or landscapes.”

9. Do you get repeat commissions from people? How are they obtained? 

C.F Payne: “I used to get them when magazine publishing used my work a lot. Again, their deadlines are brutal, so at my age now I take very few, and only for a select few. Usually, getting those jobs starts when you get the first on and prove you can meet their deadline. The early jobs start small with small budgets. But, if you meet the deadline with good work, they usually reward you with more work. The deal is, you have to meet the deadline and they have to like what you have done. More recently I have done a number of children’s books because the deadlines are more reasonable and work better with my school schedule.”

10. Looking back on your life. Is there anything that you would do differently? 

C.F Payne: ” Not really. I do wish I had gone to school at a time when illustration history was taught more. When I was in school, we had very little available to us. To learn about illustration, you really had to search. Most of it was self-initiated. Being self-motivated is still something you must be.”

11. Were there any illustrators you looked up to at the beginning of your career? 

C.F Payne: “Early in my career I looked to Mark English, Bernie Fuchs, Alan E. Cober and Bart Forbes. Before college I liked comic book artists like Jack Kirby, MAD Magazine artists Jack Davis and Mort Drucker, and then in other magazines Norman Rockwell and the National Geographic artists of Tom Lovell and Stanley Meltzoff. After college, I found Maxfield Parrish, J.C. Leyendecker, Austin Briggs, Coby Whitmore, Wilson McLean and so many, many more. Now my lists are endless.”

12. Which caricatures have you enjoyed creating the most? Why? 

C.F Payne: “I really don’t have favorites. I have subjects I like sports, entertainment and history.”

13. What’s it like being a freelance illustrator? Are there any advantages or disadvantages to this as a career?

C.F Payne: “The advantage is, you are your own boss. The disadvantage is, you are your own boss. The successes you own. The failures you own. You want to experiment on something new, you have to make your own time to do so. But, choosing to learn something new is your choice. When you choose to learn something new, is your choice. For me, carving out that time is easy because I like to learn something new.”

14. What is it like being an illustrator in America? (just curious, I’m from the UK) 

C.F Payne: “Being an illustrator is a challenge. It has always been a challenge. The places where illustrators used to make great money have changed. But, it always has changed. Magazines aren’t a big a part of illustration as they were years ago. 30 years ago, the idea for creating art for video games never was something I could have done. The detail and creativity now is remarkable. Markets for illustration come and go.”

C.F Payne: “The key is to find the things you care about, the art you care about. Understand, you are creating art for someone else, a stranger you don’t know. That someone has to want to buy your art. Will it to be hung on their walls or solve a problem for their magazine, ad or package design. Will it be a children’s book? Will it be a poster?”

C.F Payne: “What all illustrators need to understand rule number one. You have to get good. Whatever art you create, it has to be good, really good. It also has to fit into the fashion of the times it lives and works. So work hard, draw well, design well, tell a good story and never stop learning.”

Overall, from learning the different experiences from C.F Payne, has been helpful in directing and shaping my illustration career. It has helped me consider the unique character attributes and the ways the characters are used to portray a message. I love creating new characters, and from delving from his experience of creating them, helped me consider what is deemed essential and interesting in an illustration career. I will certainty take his advice and learn more concerning the prospect of being a freelance illustrator. I can’t thank him enough for replying to my email.

This email correspondence has also helped me connect with illustrators internationally. It would of seemed impossible, if someone told me to talk to someone internationally before. So throughout the illustration course, I have definitely grown in confidence and considering different ways of applying my work.

Australian illustrator Nick Diggory is recognised for his outstanding characterisation and depicting scenes in ordinary day life. I discovered him recently, and needless to say I absolutely love his work. The Brexit illustration is considered one of my favourites from his work. Here is the link to his website. I want to thank Nick Diggory for his time to answer my questions.

1. Why did you become an illustrator?

Nick: “I was working in an ad agency back in the late 70’s and was nominated as ‘the illustrator’ whenever a job came in that needed some character creating. Maybe I was the only one in the studio that could actually draw! I was doing so much freelance work on the side, I thought I’d see what it’d be like to work for myself and whether or not I could actually make a living out of it.”

2. How long does it take for you to create a character?

Nick “From reading a brief to first draft can be anything from half an hour to half a day. Some days it just flows, other days, not. A lot depends on the brief. Some clients know exactly what they want, others give you a free hand which is always more fun.”

3. What do you enjoy most about your illustration career?

Nick: “I can work from anywhere. After going ‘digital’ in the 90’s, I moved to Australia. I left there a couple of years ago and travelled around Europe in a motorhome. Now I live in south west France. I’ve been lucky enough to  keep most of my clients wherever I’ve been residing.”

4. What would you consider your weaknesses and strengths in illustration ?

Nick: “Weaknesses – I get bored easily, so I don’t like projects that last more than a couple of days. Also, the kettle is always tempting me away from the Mac! Strengths – I never miss a deadline. I know the pressures that people working in ad agencies and publishing houses are under, so when they give you a deadline, that’s when they want the job for. My work ethic is, early is on time, on time is late and late is unacceptable.”

5. Looking back on life, is there anything you would do differently?

Nick: “No. Quite happy with the way things have turned out.”

 6. Which books have you enjoyed illustrating the most? Why?

Nick: “It’s nearly always the last one I did. I’ve just finished a promotional book for an insurance company in Canada based on real quotations from the CEO’s mother! Odd but fun.”

7. How long does it usually take to get a book cover ready for completion?

Nick: “Anything from a long day to a week. It’s much quicker now with computers, but ‘back in the day’ it would normally take about a week. Then you’d have to send it by post to the client and keep your fingers crossed that it actually arrived.”

8. What advice do you have for people starting a career in illustration?

Nick: “Be prepared to burn a lot of midnight oil, never, ever miss a deadline and never give up!”

9. Throughout your illustration career, was there a time when you struggled to get commissions?

Nick: “Many. When I started illustrating, there were only a couple of hundred of us doing it in the whole of the U.K., so work was plentiful, fees were higher and word of mouth spread easily. It’s easier to advertise now, but there of literally millions of other illustrators to compete with.”

10.  Is there a particular medium you enjoy working with more than others ?

Nick: “All digital now. I wouldn’t say I enjoy it more than the traditional methods, but it’s a lot cleaner and a hell of a lot more convenient.”

11. Which illustration projects are you most interested in?

Nick: “Characters. That’s really what I do best and that’s been the mainstay of my work for thirty odd years.”

12. How do you start working on a new project?

Nick: “Still a pencil and a sketch pad.”

13. How do you obtain commissions from people?

Nick: “Word of mouth generally, or they may see my work online. I also have a couple of agents that come up with some great work.”

14. What would you do if a client rejected all drafts you presented ?

Nick: “Not much you can do really. Occasionally the client changes the brief half way through a job and the new brief might not be suitable for me. Sometimes they’ll offer a rejection fee. Often not. You just have to suck it up and move on.”

15.  What lessons have you learnt from being an illustrator?

Nick: “You’re only as good as your last job.”

Throughout the Illustration: Connections module we needed to contact an illustrator through an online interview, email correspondence etc. Owen Davey is an award winning illustrator based in the UK, for which he is known for his characters, such as lord of the Hafflings and illustrating children’s books. He was absolutely lovely to talk to and his responses to the questions were quite interesting. I contacted illustrator Owen Davey at the beginning of February and scheduled an online teams interview on the 18th of February. And despite the connection and recording issues, we managed to have an interesting conversation. I can’t thank him enough for scheduling time, so I could interview him. It was incredibly interesting to hear his experiences, through being a freelance illustrator and the different projects he has worked on. Below are sections of the online interview, of course I just put the questions and his answers. I hope you find it interesting to read. Here is the link to his illustration website: Owen Davey Illustration

Me: So Why did you become an illustrator? Who inspired you?

Owen: “So the why is literally because I like drawing, that’s all I have ever really done. Its just, yeah it was always the thing I enjoyed doing, whenever I had a bit of downtime I just draw and so I was like how can I turn this into a job. So that’s all it was really and kind of deviated from that. In terms of inspiration, it’s just loads and loads of things. When I was a really little kid I used to love getting a computer games magazines and copying characters out of that. As I kind of got older, I got exposed to more and more different people and different things. And, if you have a little look through my Instagram, the people I follow that’s often a good place. Then there’s people like Charley Harper and Dahlov Ipcar, good luck spelling that one.”

Me: I just got Charley Harper

Owen: “Dahlov Ipcar’s stuff is really cool, its there There’s bunch of people to be honest, I’ll send you a little list if you like. Of some of the people that inspire me. I’ll make a note of that.”

Me: What is your favourite piece of work?

Owen: “What of my own work, or some one else.”

Me: Yeah your own work

Owen: “its usually the most recent thing I have done and then overtime I grow to hate it. Not hate it, but grow to like it less. The about books I have done with flying eye books, there like these non- fiction books about animals, each one is each kind of type of animal. I have just finished doing my seventh one of those, which haven’t been released. But each one of those, I kind of ones I’m very proud of. Yeah the obsessive with octopuses, which is the most recent one I’ve done, which I guess. I don’t know it changes every day. Sorry it is really a rubbish answer.”

Me: It’s fine

Me: How do you overcome a creative block? So I am at university at the moment and it Is kind of hard to come up with new ideas.

Owen: “I found uni quite hard in some ways aswell, because you set your own briefs. But when you start becoming a professional illustrator your getting briefs from other people. So that side is removed from you, which is quite useful. Because when I am just working on my own stuff, it can get quite … I do struggle as well. So usually I just go to the brief for my inspiration. I do get creative blocks. But then basically I usually have a few different projects on at once. So if one of them I am feeling creatively blocked, I’ll try to move on to one of the other ones. If I’m having a day when I’m crap at drawing. I’ll try and do some research instead or there’s all that kind of stuff with running a business as well. I just got to make sure I keep doing stuff basically and yeah sometimes I just need to take a break. That’s all it is. Usually I try a different angle or try something different.”

Me: How do you keep track of your work that it gets done on time?

Owen: “I have a little. I keep it quite simple actually, I know people that do it really organised. I basically just have a little word document that I always have open, whenever I turn on the computer. I turn that on and it has the name of the project, when the drafts are due, the finals are due and just make sure I am keeping on track of that. That’s it really. I know there are some people that do like, they assign specific times to different things, I like to keep it more organic than that. Because sometimes I feel like working on some things, sometimes I don’t.”

Me: What do you think are your greatest weaknesses in illustration? or strengths ?

Owen “So I struggle with hands. Hands are really hard to draw. Not make them sausagy”

Me: I’m glad I’m not the only one

Owen “I think hands are really hard. Feet are difficult as well. Both are tough. So I keep finding ways. I don’t know I’m getting better with hands. I keep working at hands, just to try and get better at them. Strengths I think are colour, people seem to like my colour and use of shape so. I think I am quite good with designing, like designing how something looks. I’ve got a c**p line, actually, my line is awful. It’s not awful, its too confident, which is really annoying because like unconfident lines are interesting and confident lines are. I don’t know other people’s line are better than mine, I don’t like my line. So I try to stay clear of that. But I think I can design a character quite well. I can look for shapes within it and find something more interesting than straight drawing it. That might be one of my strengths.”

Me: What is the weirdest briefs that have ever been set?

Owen “Yeah I have to draw strange things quite regularly that’s one of the things I love about the job. It means that I’m constantly having to research stuff that I’ve never heard about before. Im actually struggling with an answer for this one. I’m just looking through my through my years of work. I am trying to think of something that grabs me. I mean Usually the weirdest things are more like, its usually about how the work is being used that’s kind of weird. I designed an umbrella, which is quite a weird one. That was really fun”

Owen: ” One of my least favourite things I had to do, and is quite weird and annoying. So because I do books which are then published in different countries. These about animal books that I do. One of them, got published in, the first one, the monkey one got published in France and they decided to change the cover themselves. Using my artwork, but didn’t show it to me at all. Just printed it how they wanted it. And I hated it. And I do hate it and I’ve told them I hate it. But the problem is they wanted other books from me as well. And they want them to be in keeping with the first book they printed of mine. So I’ve had to do versions of my covers like their style, which I hate. Which, that’s quite a weird one. That sucks. They pay me for it but I hate doing it because I don’t like the way they approached it. So it’s a bit soul destroying every time I do it.”

Me: Apart from that what would you consider your favourite books you have illustrated ? Apart from the French one

Owen: “The about books are definitely are kind of up there and I also did a pop up book called Prehistomania. It’s a French book but its like a pop up one, insane amount of work because I had to do the front and back of each one of these things. Each page has loads of different pop up bits on it. Also because it was non – fiction, I had to do so much research as well, I didn’t actually write it, but I still had to look up what everything looked like. Things. But I was really proud of the result. People seem to really like it.”

Me: How do you see yourself in five years’ time?

Owen “I don’t. I hope I exist still. Yeah it’s something I’ve never done. A lot of people do it. I don’t bother thinking that far ahead because I don’t think you can plan life. So unexpected to be a f***ing pandemic. Which has messed all our lives up. That’s the kind of prime example. I just go with the flow. I like drawing, as long as I can keep drawing that’s my plan. To still be an illustrator in five years. It’s my plan for also 50 years.”

Me: How do you know when the project is finished.

Owen: “When the client pays me. No I mean working with clients you do, you have them as a fall back for them saying it’s done. But creating the imagery I just keep fiddling until when I make little edits, it makes it worse. That’s kind of my point. Usually it creeps up on me. Oh I have a little bit of work left to do on it. Then I’ll do something ‘oh right yeah it’s done. Then I will send it to a client, we usually have a little bit of feedback that often picks up on things I might not have spotted or something because you get too close to your work when your doing it. So clients are quite useful in that respect. But they can also really f**k it up if they have a different aesthetic thought pattern to you then sometimes they can just, they can make it a direction, you really don’t want it to go. Which is not so fun. But most of them make it better. ” 

Hello, fellow illustrators, here is the second part of the email correspondence between me and John Coulthart. As an illustration student learning different styles and processes, John Coulthart has greatly helped me influence how to apply and consider the ways I could possibly work in. The reason part 2 is included throughout this blog page, is because I was concerned for the word count and thought it would be possibly easier for the reader to continue reading.

John Coulthart’s work has inspired me to look further even into the premise of digital art and even considering graphic novels. Here is some of John Coulthart’s illustrations and comic book art that have greatly influenced my ways of working. I particularly love HP Lovecraft, Graphic explorations of the Cthulhu and the Lord of horror, the nightmare on history. Here are they below.

Here is the second part of the correspondence below.

6) Me: What do you feel are your greatest strengths and weaknesses in illustration?

John: “Figure drawing has always been my weakest area so it’s the area I tend to labour over more than others. I used to think this was because I hadn’t gone to art school but having worked in comics for several years it’s obvious that many artists have a natural aptitude for figure drawing, just as other artists have a natural aptitude for cartooning or drawing caricatures. My natural aptitude is for architecture and the rendering of solid forms, especially through shading. I love Piranesi’s etchings of Roman ruins, and any kind of engraving and textured rendering. I’m also pretty good at imitating or pastiching a variety of
different art styles; I like the challenge of trying to work in a different style. I also have a good sense of composition which is an important thing for cover design.”

7) Me: how do you see yourself in five years?

John: “In five years I’ll be 64, like in the Beatles song, although I certainly don’t feel that old. When you get to this stage of your life you’re usually happy for things to continue as they have been doing, and to
stay healthy and productive. Things are different when you’re younger, changes happen much more frequently. From the age of 20 to 35 I seemed to be changing direction every five years or so: doing album covers and T-shirts for Hawkwind, then adapting Lovecraft stories into comics, then working for UK and US comics companies, then working for US games companies. Soon after that I got a computer and started migrating my working methods from physical media to digital art. For now I’m enjoying
working on books, inside and out, so I hope this continues. I’d also like to be getting more of my private work into the world. I have some plans in this direction.”

8) Me: How do you get approached by people asking for commissions?

John: “I don’t have an agent for my artwork—I’ve tried them a few times but they never seem interested—so I make a point of being easy to find and to contact. I’ve had my own website for almost 20 years now, and I have an uncommon (Scottish) surname so I’m easy to locate when people are searching for things. Having a durable web presence also means that my work turns up even in searches where people aren’t intentionally looking for my art. Consequently, I get many commissions from people who’ve
found my work by accident after they’ve seen a cover on Pinterest or somewhere.”

9) Me: Do you get repeat commissions from people?

John: “Yes, thankfully. I have a good relationship with a handful of publishers who like what I do and ask for more.”

10) Me: What is your least favourite illustration project? (you don’t have to answer this question)

John: “Many years ago I was asked to illustrate a fantasy book for a small publisher, and was dismayed to find that I didn’t like the book at all. I persevered for a while, and drew a couple of lacklustre pieces but
eventually told the publisher I was abandoning the project. This was bad behaviour on my part, I think now I could have done something with the material. A couple of years later a similar thing happened with a mediocre horror novel which I did illustrate to the satisfaction of author and publisher but I wasn’t very pleased with my work on the book at all.”

11) How do you overcome a creative block ?

John: “I never seem to suffer from a block as such but I can occasionally be stumped for which direction to go in. When this happens I don’t spend too much time worrying about it, what I do instead is start with whatever seems the best option then find out how that goes. This is more of an issue with design work than illustration, since design has different priorities. Illustration is only a problem if, like the
fantasy book that I didn’t like, I don’t feel inspired. Something I often do in either case is think “How would X approach this?”, with “X” being another designer or artist or illustrator whose work I like. This
seems to be effective because the work that you like excites your imagination in a manner that your creative problem may not be doing, so you circle round the problem for a while then come back to it feeling energised by your enthusiasm. It’s not a question of imitating somebody else’s approach in the final work, it’s more to do with stepping into somebody else’s shoes for a moment to see if this makes you see the problem from a different angle.”

12) Me: What inspired you to create the Lovecraft adaptation covers?

John: “All the Lovecraft work I’ve done over the past few years has been a result of having adapted two of Lovecraft’s stories as comics in the 1980s. These eventually formed the core of my first book, The Haunter of the Dark, in 1999. In 1985 I’d decided that I’d done enough artwork for Hawkwind’s album covers, and wanted to do something that was completely different. I’d been reading Lovecraft’s stories for many years, and was surprised that there wasn’t much illustration based on his work apart
from the covers of the book themselves. I chose the comics medium because you could essentially illustrate an entire story this way, rather than one or two scenes. I dislike superhero comics but I used to
read Heavy Metal, the US comics magazine, where the strips were much more interesting and art-oriented than the superhero comics. In the late 70s Heavy Metal also published a Lovecraft special which once again made me wish there was more work like this around.”

“Lovecraft is an important writer because he hauled the horror genre into the 20th century by throwing out the Christian background of the supernatural, and blending horror with science fiction, littering his
stories with references to Einsteinian physics, Futurist art and so on. He also had a great enthusiasm for architecture which appealed to me, and which you still don’t see reflected so often in illustrations of his
work. People tend to focus much more on the monstrous elements, especially Cthulhu, which is one of the few Lovecraftian deities with a defined appearance. There’s something very attractive about the phrase “cosmic horror” although it’s a sub-genre which can be difficult to illustrate. This creates challenges you don’t get with other forms of horror. How do you represent para-dimensional gods or alien creatures and the millennial time-spans they inhabit? How do you represent the
truly alien and unhuman? These kinds of questions keep me coming back to Lovecraft’s stories.”

Illustrator Alex Foster is based in Margate and works with children’s book illustrations and maps. Alex Foster’s work is celebrated for being a prominent figure in children’s book illustrations and magazine editorials. His editorial and magazine illustrations have become popular with adults and children alike. One of my favourite Alex Foster’s editorials is the River Road and national park map for the Texas highway magazine.

As part of the illustration module, we needed to contact illustrators either via email correspondence or an online interview. I contacted Alex Foster via email correspondence and he was very helpful in answering all the questions I had. Below is the email correspondence with Alex Foster. Here is Alex Foster’s website: Alex Foster (alex-foster.com)

1. Me: Who inspired you to become an illustrator?

Alex: “My first inspirations I guess were artists making gig posters, that being the first time I’d really experienced illustration. I looked at them and thought I’d love to make stuff like that, and wanted to know how to get there. Dan Mumford and others I can’t remember the names of!”

2. Me: How do you overcome a creative block ?

Alex: “Sometimes with deadlines creative block isn’t available to have as weird as it sounds – if there’s no time you just have to get on with it. Usually though for me I don’t get much creative block because my illustration is usually for a specific purpose/brief so there isn’t too much creative freedom anyway. But if I do get it I’d try different ideas, if they aren’t coming I’d go for a walk or do something unrelated, hoover, read or something.”

3. Me: What is your favourite work in your portfolio? Why was it made?

Alex: “One of my favourites is the Art Rebels project, because it was for my local gallery that’s been hugely important for the area (Turner Contemporary in Margate), and it’s got an element of learning and fun – the cards give prompts to inspire kids or whoever is using them to make artwork in various ways.”

4. Me: What’s the weirdest briefs you’ve ever been given?

Alex: “I wish I had more weird briefs! A lot of the time everything has to be very safe and unoffensive (makes a lot of sense with children’s work) but sometimes it’d be fun to draw some silly stuff.”

5. Me: What do you think makes a good illustrator?

Alex: ” I think skill comes easier to some than others, but my work doesn’t come easy to me and I think a good illustrator needs tonnes of perseverance, with something like drawing you don’t get good in a few days, it takes constant practise.”

6. Me: What is your least favourite commission?

Alex: “Least favourite commission is anything where the client takes too much control and doesn’t let you do your job. Most of the time feedback is good and helpful and can make the piece better, but too much interfering or too many rounds of changes will just ruin any good work.”

7. Me: what are your strengths and weaknesses in your illustrations?

Alex: ” This is a tough one, it’s something you need to evaluate constantly I think. Maybe a weakness is that due to me not wanting to turn down jobs I’ve got loads of different work in different areas in my portfolio, this isn’t necessarily bad but who knows I might be a master of one subject if I stuck to one thing (editorial or children’s books for example). A strength is that I always schedule out my time well and don’t stay up late working even with crazy deadlines.”

8. Me: How do you see yourself in five years time?

Alex: “Five years hopefully I’m more picky with projects to take on, ones that are good for my future and not just because I need the money.”

9. Me: how do people come to you for commissions?

Alex: “I think at this point it comes from everywhere, some from Google ads and searches, some from Instagram, some from recommendations or graphic designers knowing/finding me to work with. Knowing this in more detail is very important vecause then you can push those areas”

10. Me: What interests do you have besides illustration?

Alex: “I like playing Pc games (sometimes Minecraft, a new one called Valheim, enjoyed Cyberpunk for the main story), I like reading – just started ‘Status Anxiety’, read loads of Stephen King. I love films and good Tv Series. Lots of walking. Cooking. Watching UFC. I watch Limmy on Twitch a lot. Youtube. Did love the pub with mates when that was the real world!”

The aspect of choosing a digital correspondence has been important with connecting with other illustrators. Asking the question on how to overcome a creative block, is a new question I have decided to ask, the premise is that I have always struggled to find inspiration and developing new ideas. However, using what he suggested within the method of distraction, if struggling with a creative block. Would definitely be something I would take on board in the future. In future email correspondences and interviews, I will ask more questions regarding other illustrators work in practice, and gathering information on how these illustrators became, who they were today.

As part of the illustration module, we needed to contact different illustrators for the blog page. British graphic artist, illustrator and author John Coulthart, as created the most phenomenal pieces of illustration and art. Through his imagination, colour and obsession with the unknown. I first contacted John Coulthart in early February, thoroughly concerned that I might not get a response. However he did respond, and answered my questions, for which I can’t thank him enough. Here is his website: { john coulthart }

Hi Jessica,

Here are my answers to your questions. I hope you find them worthwhile.
If you have any follow-up questions then that’s okay. I’m still busy
with things but some of the panics of the past two weeks are now under
control.

Thanks,

John

—

1. Me: Why did you become an illustrator?

John: “It was something I was always gravitating towards in my teen years. I was interested in fine art from an early age thanks to my mother who had been to art school, and still had a few books and art magazines around the house. But the idea of being a fine artist, making art solely for galleries and the people who frequent them, was never very attractive. I was reading adult fiction—mostly horror and science fiction—from the age of 12 on, and the covers of the books stimulated my imagination. Image
plus text: that was always an exciting thing. Chris Foss ruled the science fiction covers at this time, you’d go into W.H. Smiths and see a whole wall of his art on display; book shops were like miniature art
galleries in this respect. I was about 13 or 14 when I drew a couple of pictures of spaceships that were poor imitations of the Foss style. Despite the shortcomings of these drawings my friends at school were
impressed, a reaction that in turn impressed me, and made me want to do more of the same. Soon after this I got my parents to buy me Views, the first book of Roger Dean’s work as an illustrator and designer of record covers. I immediately forgot about Chris Foss and started drawing many poor imitations of Roger Dean’s art. The success of Views had prompted Dean to publish more books of imaginative art under his Dragon’s Dream imprint so I started collecting these when I could afford them. Several were by artists whose work I knew from the covers of books I’d been reading, people like Bruce Pennington and Ian Miller. Around the same time (the late 1970s), New English Library published Visions of the
Future, a book that recycled cover paintings and artist profiles from NEL’s large-format magazine, Science Fiction Monthly. Each profile contained details about the artist’s education and work to date,
together with a few quotes. The most important thing for me about all these publications was that they confirmed that illustration was a viable career, and one connected to the kinds of fiction I enjoyed reading.”

2) Me: What kind of illustration projects are you most interested in?

John: “Anything to do with horror and fantasy on the whole. I still do science fiction work now and then—I’ve just done the cover and interior illustrations for a collection of stories by Bruce Sterling—but my
imagination seems to work better in other areas. I also like subjectsthat are a little offbeat in some way. I’m not one of what I call “the dragon painters”, people who do very typical fantasy art in oils or
acrylics. I can do straightforward genre themes if necessary (and I used to paint with acrylics) but I prefer it if the subject isn’t so typical.”

3) Me: What are the weirdest Briefs you have ever been given?

John “Probably the books edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Jeff has a very quirky sense of humour that often generates unlikely book ideas which he somehow persuades people to publish. In 2003 we collaborated on a big story collection, The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric
and Discredited Diseases, for which I had to find (or create) many old and unusual medical illustrations, as well as design the book to imitate many different print styles. Ann and Jeff followed this in 2010 with The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, a book that required more unusual illustrations and graphics. Then there’s their short KosherGuide to Imaginary Animals which tells you which fantastic creatures are okay to eat if you’re Jewish and happen to find any edible fantastic animals. This was a humorous book that wasn’t intended to be insulting. Ann is Jewish, and helps run her local synagogue so she knows her subject.”

4)Me: What interests do you have outside of illustration?

John: “Reading, obviously, but I also listen to music almost all day, every day. I’m something of a music obsessive, I have several thousand CDs, and love to listen to music while I’m working. I’ve also collected films for years, first on tape, then DVD, now on blu-ray. I have rather eclectic and often obscure tastes when it comes to cinema so even though many films are available today via streaming a larger proportion of them aren’t at all. I don’t watch much new Hollywood fare, I’m usually watching old or new foreign films, or older films in general, going back to the silent era. Blu-rays for me are a dream come true, giving you the ability to see previously scarce films in high definition any time you want.”

“I also chip away at private projects when I have the time. I’ve written two novels which publishers have found “uncommercial” so they’re still unseen. These are part of a larger project based around an invented city which I created to be a setting for work in different media.”

5) Me: What is the work you are most proud of? why?

John: “I don’t know if I feel proud of anything as such since I can often point to flaws in almost anything I’ve done, minor things I wish I might have done better which I’m sure most viewers wouldn’t really bother about or even notice. But if you’re creating art of any kind then you’re usually
aiming at a goal of some sort, even if the goal isn’t very well-defined or is only recognised as such after you’ve reached a certain point. I’m pleased to have two books of my work out in the world, and I’m pleased that some of my covers led to my being given a World Fantasy Award for best artist. I’ve often been dismissive of awards in general, but I changed my tune about the World Fantasy Award when I saw that some of the previous winners included artists who inspired me when I was younger.”

Overall, from this interview, I have learnt about the premise of being a freelance illustrator and how to overcome different challenges within the illustration agency. The interests outside illustration was also an important feature throughout the conversation. As we can spend too long focusing all energy on illustration itself, when in reality taking breaks is quite important. The questions I asked was quite simple, but overall I am interested on how the illustrator has developed a sense of style, and discuss later the application within my own work.