IGI features
Book Review: Pen and Mouse
Jul, 27, 2001
This is one of a recent crop of books to hit the marketplace showcasing work by the ‘new wave’ of illustrators. Illustration, it seems, is enjoying increasing popularity with the discerning stylists of our visual culture, and the work covered in this book certainly bears that out. The illustrators included here are producing work for leading brands, whose advertising and design consistently aim to embrace the ‘new thing’ in order to lead the trend. (Paul Smith, Levi’s, etc.)
Most of the illustrators featured have absorbed digital media into their methodology with a high degree of success, resulting in a wide variety of techniques. On occasion, the line between ‘drawing’ and ‘tracing’ is indistinct (as in the vector work of QuickHoney), but the images which impress most are those where composition and rendering are highly informed by drawing ability.
Michael Gillette is an obvious talent, his crisp, elegant renderings combine with lo-fi digital elements in immaculately organic compositions. Another stand-out artist is Ian Bilbey, whose style, although created in the digital domain, harks back to screenprint techniques of a different era. Thankfully, this book isn’t choked with OTT3D (the airbrush art of the naughties?) but there are many cases where 3D renders have been used in very distinctive, individual styles. Faiyaz Jafri, for example, marries humour and skill to create very memorable images.
More good news is that expressive painting is still alive and well, as in the work of Miles Donovan and Alan Baker, although quite often it is efficiently deconstructed, in a digital environment, to create a whole new style of image.
It’s interesting to note that many of the artists featured have chosen titles other than illustrator, to qualify their working methods. Graphic Artist, Artist/Illustrator, Illustrator/Designer are chosen, perhaps reflecting a re-invention of the field to more accurately capture the collaborative nature of today’s creative industries.
One of the strengths of the book is the email questionnaire format of artists responses, offering insights to the imagemaker behind the image. As with any compendium format, the quality of the work varies from predictable to genuinely exciting. Subjectivity will always come into play when the merit of individual creative work is valued. So, while not everything on show may rock your world, the overall impression of a rich and diverse body of work will definitely stay with you, and repeat viewings are consistently rewarding. A mesmerising snapshot, then, of a genuinely exciting period in the field of illustration, where diversity and evolution are always key ingredients.
Pen and Mouse
Edited by Angus Hyland / Pentagram Design
Laurence King Publishing
