ITAP 2

(5th October) 

How do illustrators find inspiration/How do illustrators achieve a personal visual vocabulary?

What inspires us?

Well, LJG Partners have already asked this question to some random people in this video (look out for the guy who answers ‘cold beer’, and the more philosophical one ‘waking up every morning…what else is there?’), but inspiration for an artist is taking it one step further. It is not simply what makes us get up every morning, but what encourages us to create, what gives us ideas for a photo, an illustration, a design, a painting. Obviously everyone has different interests and gets their mind tickled by different things, and that is why I find artist’s sketchbooks so incredibly interesting. They are a map of how that artist’s mind works. Inspiration can simply mean looking around while on those long, interminable journeys on the bus or train, while waiting for that friend that’s always late, while walking down the street. It means listening to music, talking to people, reading book, looking up something you’ve heard about, researching artists. Being inspired means constantly being open to so much different information that your mind never stops working. The only way to keep track of it is to always have something at hand where you can write, scribble, doodle your ideas as they come, because they vanish as quickly as they appear. “Notebook after notebook after notebook because I feel sick when I forget potentially good ideas” said illustrator Paul Davies. And I love it when artists have an online sketchbook, a journal of their ideas and projects. Because obviously it is very difficult to sneak a look at the sketchbook of an artist that is, say, in Australia, or simply just someone you don’t know. The first website of the kind that comes to mind is Miranda July’s, an American performance artist, film director, writer, everything really. It is something like a storage place where she has all the information about herself and her work, and a constantly updated blog where she writes about artists, music, ideas, and mood swings. I love the way it feels so personal and open, as if you’re really looking into her life and mind. Of course all her work is like that, very close to home, infused with charm and irony and open to the viewer, often directly addressing them.

from www.noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com

Constantly jotting down your ideas also helps in another way: it broadens your visual vocabulary. That means that the only way to learn to draw, take good photos, paint, think simply comes down to one thing: practice. If I have never drawn a ship, I will not know how to draw a ship. My hand won’t have any memory of it, and the most that my mind will be able to come up with is the vague idea of a ship. Have you ever realized how so many familiar things we have never looked well enough to be able to describe in detail? So constantly practicing is the only way to better as an artist. Someone who took this concept to a whole new level is Jason Polan, American illustrator who has made of his quick sketches a big part of his work. Examples: “The Every Piece of art in the Museum of Modern Art Book” (exactly what the title says it is, you got it) and “100 People I saw Today”.

Jason Polan, from 100 people I saw today and One person I saw today 100 times

Jason Polan, page 3 of The MOMA book

Jason Polan, page 7 of The MOMA book